School boy | Prince Caspian

14

The guards had taken him to the main courtyard and chained him to a iron ring set in the wall. They had left him there on full display and unsheltered to the elements all day as they moved the dead bodies. Otto was forced to watch as they threw the dead bodies of the narnians off of the cliff and into the cavern below the castle. He stayed silent as the telmarine soldiers jeered and hurled taunts at him. A few would kick him as they passed. Boots to his abdomen and legs. But he refused to give them the satisfaction of noise. His headache was lessening with time but watching the careless treatment of his dead comrades, only increased his nausea. When night fell, a servant gave him some bread and water. She was a young woman in ragged clothes who didn't look at him, or say anything. When she left, the captain of the guard turned up. He regarded Otto with a unreadable look before walking away. Otto was forced to stay in the courtyard until dawn. Curling up for warmth under the stars until he fell into a fitful sleep. He dreamed.

In his dream, he was running through the city streets. The dawn was rising in a golden red glow, painting the houses with a soft light. Joy was pulsing in his chest as Otto pushed himself further. It all felt so real. The pounding of his heart, the exertion in his lungs, the solid street beneath his feet. He rounded a corner, not taking any notice of his surroundings. "Caspian!" He called. "Peter! Edmund! Lucy! Susan! Wait for me!" He rounded another corner and he could see them. The five youths standing on the edge of the city, where the cobbles met the grass. The forest was vast in the distance and Otto knew that the narnians were watching from the trees.

Otto ran faster. But when he reached them, Caspian and the Pevensie children disappeared in a burst of scattered leaves and petals. Otto stopped and watched them blow away on the wind in confusion, anxiety pounding in his chest. "Where are you?" His voice was quiet. "I'm right here". The soft light faded and a gloom seemed to fall over the city. The shapes of the houses bled away and Otto was standing in the forest. The trees looming like skeletons over him.

"Hello?" Otto yelled, voice rising in panic. His heart was beating faster, throbbing along his veins. "I'm here! I'm here, please!" There was no echo. The sound becoming muted and muffled.

"I told you that I don't like that word". Another voice sounded. It was deep in a cold drawl that raised goosebumps along Otto's skin. He knew that voice. Could picture how the mouth would move, a slight sneer curling one corner of wrinkled lips. The tapping of a cane as the man stood over him. Polished Oxford shoes and suit trousers standing on polished floorboards.

"Stand up straight Otto! I did not teach my son to slouch. You're a Birch. Act like one".

Otto curled up on the forest floor, instinctively curling over his hands. He could feel the phantom pain of  a cane against his knuckles. "You're not real. You're back in London. You can't hurt me here", it was whispered mantra.

A harsh barking laugh. A cane striking wood with a snap that had Otto flinching and recoiling. "Such a useless boy. I can't believe I sired a pathetic degenerate like you. Nothing but a stupid dreamer like his mother. A family of mutts. Now get up and stop pleading. It's pathetic".

"I am not pathetic!" Otto roared. A wave of anger washing over him. He was done with letting his demons control him. He was powerful and no longer his Father's victim. Since Peter had befriended him, Otto had been growing in confidence. Narnia was a world out of a fairytale and Otto was a knight. Knights defeated the evil. And Otto was no longer letting the evil of his father's words control him.

"You are not here. This is Narnia!" He stood up, screaming loudly into the trees. "And it is beautiful and I am done listening to you!"

"That is some repressed anger child", a kind, deep soothing voice interrupted. Otto turned, posture defensive. In between the trees stood lion. His golden fur seemed to glow against the gloom. He was watching Otto with a piercing gaze, kind but knowledgeable.