Narnian Princess - Caspian

Chapter 3

To say Diana was confused would be an understatement. She was absolutely confounded. However, and maybe for the first time in her life, she was extremely grateful her brother had thrown her in the water and taught her to swim. And so that's what she did. Diana kicked her feet hard until she broke the surface where she began greedily taking gulps of air. Her lungs burned, her mind was a fumbled mess, and she seemed to have suddenly appeared in the middle of the ocean.

Rubbing her eyes, Diana hoped that when she opened them again she'd be back at the Scrubb's in front of that peculiar painting. Instead, she was met with a gigantic ship coming straight at her.

"Swim! Eustace, swim!" Lucy called from somewhere behind Diana.

Diana did not need to be told twice. She made her way as fast as she could out of the ship's path. Whatever crazy situation she'd gotten herself tangled up in, she still rather valued her life. So Diana swam, only stopping when she felt a warm hand on her arm. Edmund.

"What the hell?" Diana whispered to him. But the teenage boy only looked at her with the biggest smile on his face. And then men fell from the sky. Wait. Not from the sky, the ship.

"Edmund, it's Caspian!" Diana turned to see Lucy being held by a handsome young man. Her face sported a grin that matched her brother's.

Turning back to Edmund, who was looking in awe at everything around him, Diana shook his shoulder. "Ed. Ed where are- How did we-"

Edmund realized she was genuinely concerned. He had never heard her voice so small or seen her face without a hint of mischief. And that's when he remembered Diana had never been in Narnia before, she didn't even know what it was. If he put himself in her shoes, he would probably have been even more freaked out than she was. Gently he held her hand and swam with her towards the ship.

"How about we get up here and dry ourselves first? I promise to explain everything to you once we're out of the water." Diana could only manage to nod.

Impossibly, being on the ship was even worse for Diana's already jumbled mind than being in the water. There was no denying the beauty of the ship, every part of it seemed to have come right out of a fairy tale. And that included its crew. Around Diana stood many men, who were quite intimidating might she add, but that wasn't what startled her. Diana could handle a bunch of mean looking sailors. What she was not ready for was the strange creature who she could not even begin to describe and the- was that a mouse with a sword?

Diana felt as though she might faint at any moment. She was certain her brain could not take too much more and that it was due to shutdown. Suddenly feeling lightheaded, Diana leaned against the wood just as Edmund came up to wrap a blanket around her shoulders. That made her feel a little better, however, she was ready to jump back into the water and find her own way home if someone didn't start explaining things. And soon.

Just as she looked up at Edmund and opened her mouth to ask every single question she had, a very unmanly scream interrupted her. Eustace wasn't acting like any of this was normal and he was expressing with words and screeches exactly what Diana was feeling. That comforted her. That someone else also seemed to have a problem to randomly being thrown to ocean in the middle of nowhere. Around her, Eustace was screaming at a talking rodent, but everyone seemed like what was wrong with that picture was Eustace, not the mouse. Where had Diana ended up?

"I demand to know, just where in the blazes I am?" You and me both, buddy. 

"You're on the Dawn Treader, the finest ship in Narnia's navy." At that Eustace fainted. Diana would have probably had a worse reaction to hearing the minotaur-looking creature respond, but she had heard a familiar word and she would hold on to any familiarity very tightly right now or she would end up losing her mind.

"Narnia? So you are vikings!" The young man standing by Lucy looked taken aback.

"We're what?" Oh, so not vikings then.

"Then you are Hungarian!" Diana smiled then, she knew Narnia sounded like it belonged in Hungary. "But, wait. Lu?"

"Yes?"

"Isn't Hungary a landlocked country?"

"Yes."

"Then how are we at sea?" That upset Diana. She had thought she knew a little more about her surroundings. Her world was rapidly unraveling and she could do nothing to stop it or slow it down.

"Narnia isn't in Hungary, Dee. And Narnians are not vikings." Diana turned to Edmund's voice and frowned. She was very, very lost. "Narnia is very far from home. Think of it as a different place altogether."

Diana turned to look at the waves behind her. It was beautiful, but as much as she tried, she couldn't appreciate it. Not now, not yet. She brought her hands up and gently massaged her temples, trying to chase away the coming headache. As she looked over her shoulder, Diana saw the young man from before announcing her best friends as a queen and king. What surprised her even more than hearing those titles, was the reaction of the crew who all got down on one knee and bowed their heads in respect. That was the moment when Diana decided she couldn't take it anymore. As soon as the men had stood back up, Diana walked up to her friends, grabbed one Pevensie with each hand and demanded an explanation.

"Talk. Now. Or I swear to everything I find good and holy that you are going to wish I was only as bad as Eustace." One of her eyebrows was raised and her arms were crossed over her chest. No matter how unnerved she was, her posture spoke to how serious she was being. Which was a little terrifying to the Pevensie siblings seeing as Diana was always either joking or teasing. She had been completely terrified earlier but that had gotten her nowhere so now she was angry, really angry.

Edmund and Lucy looked at each other. Neither of them had any idea of how to explain something that was logically impossible. Both siblings opened their mouths, closed them, and opened them again multiple times. Seemingly at a loss for words.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Caspian." Diana turned her attention to him then. He looked a little older than she was. Caspian, as he called himself, had warm brown eyes and a kind smile. He was definitely good looking and, to Diana, seemed friendly enough.

Diana gave him a small smile and held out her hand, "Diana."

And while she had been expecting a handshake, Caspian brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. "Welcome aboard."