Flatline ⤞ Peter Pevensie [2]

viii

As it turns out, teaching a King how to fly a griffin was the least of Fallon's worries.
She'd left Edmund with Felix a couple hours earlier, giving her second a warning look before walking off, hoping to find Glenstorm. Instead, she found a High King sitting on the cliff above the ruins, looking out at the woods. She hesitated for a moment before quietly walking towards him, carefully stepping away from the leaves and sticks. Once she was close enough, she reached out, ready to grab him. But just as she touched his shoulders, a sudden force slammed into her chest, sending her flying to the ground with a weight pushing her down.

A deep laugh made its way to her ears as the girl rolled her eyes, Peter still hovering over her, pinning her wrists to the ground.

"Honestly Gray, I thought you were a better fighter than this," Peter chuckled, still not moving from his position on top of her.

Fallon looked at him for a moment, the corners of her lips slowly pulling upwards.

Noticing this, the High King, still grinning, asked, "What?"

Fallon shook her head. "It's been a while since you've called me that, that's all."

Peter's playful grin soon turned into a soft smile. He took the girl's expression in. One of the rare moments during which she wasn't a soldier, or a Huntress, or a war leader. He knew she'd let him win that first round. She could have easily dodged him, but sometimes, around him, she let herself be vulnerable from time to time.
He didn't realize he was leaning in until his lips brushed against hers, a ghost of a kiss between them–

And then he had his back against the ground, his sword out of his sheathe, and a smirking Huntress holding him down.

Peter gave Fallon a blunt look. "Seriously?"

Fallon's smirk grew as she leaned the blade a little closer to his neck. "What was the first thing Oreius taught you during your training?"

The boy sighed, letting his head hit the ground. "Never let your opponent distract you."

Fallon nodded, satisfied. Finally, she moved to get off of him, but Peter reached forward, grabbing her wrist. The girl looked at him, noticing the expression growing on his face.

"I'd know that look anywhere," she said, unmoving.

"But in my defense," Peter started, "you are  pretty distracting."

Once Peter had received a punch in the arm, Fallon was already walking away, the King's laughter dying in the background.

§

"Edmund, Felix, move out," Fallon called.

The three of them had been waiting for dusk to get ready, waiting for the least amount of light before night struck to climb onto their griffins and fly out towards the Telmarine castle.

Caspian had gone over the structure of it with the two Hunters, and Fallon had memorized every escape path. And to her discomfort, there weren't many.

"Felix," she said, climbing onto Ayron's back, "stay clear of the main gate. All we have to do is get Edmund to that tower safely. After that, we just wait for the signal."

The blond sighed, his griffin kneeling slightly to let him on. "Fall, I know. We've been over this a thousand times today. Ed will be fine."

Fallon gave him a hard look. That wasn't all she was worried about, and he knew it. "If this goes wrong–"

"It won't," Felix cut her off, already knowing how the sentence would have ended. "If things go downhill, he'll call it off."

But Fallon lowered her head, speaking quietly while she sheathed a dagger. "And if he doesn't?"

Felix reached out, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "He will." There was a moment of silence before he added, "Besides, we got this. Don't we, Crya?"

The Hunter's griffin almost seemed to let out a sigh at this. Griffins were loyal creatures, but they could easily feel negative emotions towards their rider. In Crya's case, all she could feel was annoyance, strung with a little bit of affection. However, that didn't change the fact that she'd been found by the boy when she young and scared, and she was tied to him no matter what.

The two only had to wait a few minutes for Edmund to show up, a third griffin at his side. Caspian and the others followed behind him.

The Prince made his way towards the Huntress almost immediately, blue eyes following his every movement from a distance.

Caspian stopped next to Ayron, the griffin managing to stay still though he was clearly bothered by the Telmarine's close presence.
He looked up at Fallon, who was strapping the last knife into her sleeve before she turned her attention to the Prince.

"Be careful," Caspian told her, his voice slightly lowered, "my people will be ruthless if you get caught."

"And so will we," was all the Huntress said before spurring Ayron into the air.

§

The air was silent as Fallon glided towards the Telmarine castle. Edmund and Felix weren't too far from her, and she sometimes caught glimpses of their griffins' wings through the clouds.

The girl turned towards the raven, leaning lightly towards him, Ayron following her movements until they were nearly next to each other. Once she was sure Edmund could see her, Fallon gave him his signal, and the King disappeared below the clouds a few moments later.

Felix was by her side a minute later, the two mirroring each other's flight patterns as they gripped onto their griffins, slowly sliding from their backs towards their bellies.
When she reached Ayron's side, just behind his wing, the girl released once hand from the creature's back, bringing her fingers to her lips and letting out a quick whistle.

And then she was free falling into the night sky, the world so quiet around her it felt as though she was floating rather than plummeting towards the ground.
One, two, three . . .
She turned her head to the left, her eyes catching a figure not too far from her following her exact trail.
–Six, seven, eight, nine . . .
Twisting in the air, Fallon spread her arms out, her front now facing the impending stone of the castle borders.
–Twelve, thirteen, fourteen . . .
Another whistle escaped her lips, and she felt a pair of talons gently digging into her leathers, and she was gliding a few hundred feet from the ground, the walls of the castle shielding her from sight. Glancing upwards, Edmund's signal shone its way through the dark, and Fallon shot Felix a nod, which he returned before they both leaned downwards, Ayron and Crya following their commands as Peter, Caspian, and Susan appeared next to them.

The five of them were flying just above the towers now, keeping an eye out for any guard that could spot them or Edmund as they flew over the castle walls.

Caspian was the first to make a kill.

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hi hello i'm a horrible person because i haven't
been uPDATING THIS AND THIS CHAPTER IS SO
SHORT UGH

it also started out with some fLUFF which
i have no idea how to write so you'll have to
excuse me lmao