A Narnia Tale: For King, Queen and Country

Cair Paravel

A castle is strength, a palace is power

What stood before them baffled everyone. Cair Paravel wasn't a castle. Erik had wondered at first if it was a palace but even that didn't come close to it, in the end, he could only conclude that Cair Paravel was art. The walls were all white and detailed with small golden lines that were almost invisible to the naked eye from a distance. The slated roofs gave a beautiful contrast against the white of the buildings. Unlike most castles and palaces Cair Paravel wasn't build almost exclusively horizontal or vertical. The majority of the buildings didn't have more than four floors. The verticality wasn't forgotten however, there was an abundance of towers ranging form small once to giants of more than fifty meters high. All of that wasn't what gave Cair Paravel its majestic look and feeling. The beacon of art was enormous. Its peninsula was more an extension of a cliff that was almost separated from the mainland due to erosion. The cliff was at least a hundred meters high on its lowest point, this gave the palace the feeling of being much larger than it really was. Erik however couldn't help but notice the real lack of defensive structures. This could make the whole "protecting Cair Paravel" way more difficult than expected. 'This is beautiful,' said a soldier next to him. 'Yes, it's the first time I see it upclose,' responded another. Erik looked at the soldier in question, a dwarf wielding a battle axe. 'How haven't you ever been this close to the castle?' he asked. The dwarf smiled a little, although Erik thought it was more a painful grin than something else. 'The Witch hates this place, there were constant patrols in this area. If you came close, you wouldn't be arrested but when you'd come back home your family would be invited for a visit at the castle of the Witch. And you know what they say about that place, once you go in, you don't come out,' the Dwarf replied. After a couple minute of awe they started walking towards the palace. When they reached the outer walls it became clear that they would never get inside. The large gates were closed and the mote was filled with water. After a short talk between him, Lune and Kyrus, they decided to make camp on the plains before the palace. Right now, there was nothing to do but wait.

It took a full day for Erik to feel something was off. The feeling of being watched crept up on him. It was like a draughty window, at first you don't notice and when you figure it out it is already too late. Erik's experience had taught him to not ignore his sixth sense. As soon as he realized it he went looking for Kyrus. Luckily the Satyr had started to notice the same thing. The second signal that something was off came from the soldiers. They started to become nervous, were you'd hear jokes first they were silent now. The food seemed to be of worse quality as well, like the cooks had put in less effort. Still, since there was no hard evidence that the enemy was close Erik didn't take immediate actions. He didn't sleep well that night.

The wake up next morning was an abrupt one. Alarms went off and guard ran from one place to the next. One of King Lune's officers, Lord Peridan, had been officer of the watch. He ran towards his King, losing his helmet in the process. 'They are coming! They are here!' he screamed. Erik was on his feet in mere seconds. He had slept in his mail tunic and had all his weapons in hands reach. It took him a minute to gear up. In that time Erik saw that a large force had appeared from the treeline. They were with a thousand men, he guessed. Weirdly, he felt calm while everyone seemed to lose their heads. Kyrus came to him and looked just as calm as him: 'I'll take a hundred men and go to the left flank. You take the rest of our force and go right. Lune can take centre.' 'Okay, seems good. Stay safe,' he answered. Erik ran forward and grabbed a dozen sergeants until he knew he had a hundred men. He saw the panic in their eyes. 'Everyone gather around!' he yelled. The treeline was a good three kilometres from their position, they had time. 'Alright, we knew this was going to happen. We all have experience and we all know our job. If everyone takes care for the men next to them we'll be alright,' he said with a raised voice. His words had the right effect, they seemed to calm down. 'Now someone raise that bloody banner, we are not here for tea. We are here to kick some arse and I know some people that want to volunteer for the position of victim,' Erik yelled. They cheered, someone raised the red lion and they ran to their positions.

The small army of five hundred men had positioned themselves on the smallest point of the peninsula, barely sixty meters wide. That meant they could form a battle line of seven men deep. The enemy started running at a distance of half a kilometre. They didn't seem to have a solid plan and simply rushed forward. Erik saw a large amount of minotaurs, minoboars and dwarfs. This was about to get spicy. 'Hold the line! Protect the castle! For the Empire!' he yelled, too late Erik realised he wasn't fighting for the British Empire. It didn't matter, his men started chanting "For Narnia!" and "For Aslan". As the enemy came closer, Erik started smiling. A warm feeling flew through his body and he realised something weird: he was going to enjoy this.

I know this is a small one but i couldn't really get more stuff in this without it making boring and repetitive. I hope you enjoyed it, if you did then please leave a comment, if you didn't, then please also leave a comment and say why you didn't like it! The next chapter is going to be awesome, i'm having a lot of fun writing it.