By the time Natasha came out of the water, she gasped, filling in her lungs with the healing air of Narnia for the first time. A warm sun shone bright above her head, momentarily blinding her. The red haired woman blinked the salt water out of her eyes, and when she finally could adjust with so much light after the initial darkness that she knew, she was met with the sight of a towering medieval-style ship sailing towards her with golden dragon's head as its castle of the prow. Without further ado, her survival instinct kicked in, so she began to quickly swam away out of the ship's path.

Rhince jumped into the water with another crew and swam fast towards the woman. “My lady! My lady! You’re safe now!” he yelled at her, having trouble catching up with such an avid swimmer. The reassurance and the lack of hostility from that voice got Natasha to a stop. She looked at him as both men got to her, both mustered this comforting smile on their faces for her sake. Realizing that there was nowhere to go in the middle of the sea anyway, she followed them with much wariness.

She was much astounded with the ancient technology that the Narnian still used as she was being hoisted back up to the ship–that until she saw how everybody dressed.

In fact, she was not only astounded by their ancient garments and tech. Standing before her were a dizzying variety of race and specimen: humans, fauns, something like half bull half man and dwarves. While her mind was still trying to process all of it, a woman with a warm smile had put a blanket over her soaked form, which she found conveniently had also been dressed in a medieval garb.

“How in the world did you end up here?” a bald man with obvious authority looked at her, almost scrutinizing. He turned his questioning gaze towards the half man half bull man who to her looked a bit like minotaur from children’s tale, “I thought we rescued everyone from the Dark Island.”

A deep humph came out of the minotaur before he cast his black, beady eyes back to her. “And usually they come in boats.”

Natasha was able to gather what she could from the short conversation: this fleet was carrying refugees that was somewhat being detained at the sea. Probably by sea pirates.

She feigned a frown and held the side of her head as if being in pain to escape having to answer the question–and the crew of the ship swallowed her acting whole.

“Are you alright, my lady?” asked a handsome man with neat beard around his face, his dark eyes studying her with no little amount of concern but wariness as well.

She had to watch out for that one.

Natasha let out a weak laugh, shaking her head and on purposely cast her eyes down. “I remember hitting my head somewhere. But with everything that has happened… I-I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. F-forgive me,” she said with her silky voice, playing her damsel in distress role well.

“There is nothing to forgive,” the bald man that spoke earlier came forward, handing her an orange with a small smile which she took gratefully. “Welcome aboard the Dawn Treader. Now rest, for you must be exhausted from your toil.”

As the man turned his back on her, Natasha called out to him. “I’d like to earn my place on the ship,” she told him specifically, thinking the bald man as someone in command.

The bald man nodded. “I’m sure you will. There is much to do on the ship.”

Everyone went on their way, eyes no longer scrutinizing her anymore. The man who rescued her, namely Rhince, gave her a brief tour around the ship and helped her name every key member of the crew. Unbeknownst to him, she also extracted more information about this new world and what had transpired lately. What she couldn’t undo was telling him her real name first thing of all–god knows that the name was way too strange for this world.

But the damage was done. She could blend in with other ways.

Days were spent, unfortunately, sewing clothes to earn her place like a few other women who were also rescued by the ship. They wouldn’t let her anywhere around the ship or even do harder tasks.

Men, she rolled her eyes.

Having to sew clothes was like a boring, past time activity for her. So during her boring job, she had enough time to ponder who the young man Aslan was sending her to. Sure, the race diversity on the ship kind of narrowed it down, but there were also probably a dozen of young men on the ship. There was also that possibility that the young man she was looking for was not aboard this ship.

Damn. She should’ve asked for her target's name when she had the chance with Aslan.

Come on, fluffy lion, she murmured inwardly, Give me a sign or something.

When she was done–at a much faster pace than other ladies–she went her way to help cleaning the deck, making sure it was squeaky clean. Not Natasha’s favorite job in the world, but she figured it was much better than having to mop the blood of her victims off of the floor.

Blood sticks like a bitch.

Soon enough, the crew member began to warm up to her. And in their own way, Natasha realized, they tried to take care of her. By giving her water when she worked, even slipping more protein in her ration meal. Like that day when Drinian dropped a slice of beef jerky to her plate, winked at her and went away without saying a word.

She smiled at the memory. In a way, despite being worlds apart from her home and her teammates, she felt as if someone out there was looking out for her.

As she stood against the side of the rail of ship, enjoying the hour of her break, a rather cute seagull landed on one of the barrels near her. Natasha studied the bird who looked at her rather dumbly, and she knew right away that this one couldn’t talk, unlike some of the talking beasts of Narnia.

She reached inside her pocket and pulled out some nuts, offering it to the bird. As it ate from her hand, Natasha gently began to sneakily touch its fur and patted it. It was by no means a proper pet kind of thing, but it was still pretty nice to make an acquaintance to a cute animal. She remembered her first pet was a husky puppy–one that she had to shoot to death herself for the sake of her training–the choices were either him or her, and coming to think about it, maybe she should have let the puppy live instead of saving her own skin…

She shivered at the memory. That alone was enough trauma for her to decide to not have any pets ever again for the rest of her past lives.

But in this world… maybe that can change.

“You do know that that is your last ration of snacks for at least another month, right?”

Natasha gently put the rest of the assorted nuts on the barrel for the seagull to enjoy before turning to King Caspian. She smiled at the tall, young king courteously. “Your majesty,” she greeted.

Caspian rested his arms on the rails with an inaudible sigh despite his smile at her. Sensing the young king's disappointment at being addressed by his title, Natasha offered something else.

“Or I can call you Caspian, if you want,” she suggested. “Only during casual occasion, of course.”

Caspian studied the red haired woman next to him in a new light. “Yes, please,” he smiled more genuinely at her this time. “Am I such an open book?”

“No. I’m just very observant,” she replied airily, copying Caspian's movement to rest her own arms on the railing next to him. “You seem bored with the formalities.”

“I am.” Caspian noticed how Natasha was not uneasy being around him, despite his title. In fact, she regarded him just as she would to the rest of them on the ship. That alone allowed him to relax–a luxury that he rarely have with his subjects. “We will reach the Lonely mountains in a month. We’ll restock, then set sail to new Cair Paravel. It will take another 6 months, give or take,” he informed her and was replied with a nod from the red haired woman, “So have you decided on what you’d like to do or where to go?”

“With your permission, if there’s still a place for me on the ship, I would serve with your party for as long as I can,” she answered with a smile, her eyes subtly hopeful.

“Don’t you have family to go back to?”

“I did,” she replied, not meeting his eyes. Instead, Natasha looked out at the sea, thinking about her teammates.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your doing,” she replied with a grin, finally turning her eyes at the dark eyed king. Caspian smiled in sympathy at her ability to be able to find humor in the topic, not saying anything. “Besides, they’re in a better place. I hope.”

God, I hope you guys win the Earth back from Thanos, she thought to herself.

“I lost my parents too when I was young,” said Caspian in an attempt to show his sympathy, assuming that her family that they talked about were her parents. “Who knows, your family are there too at the better place, meeting up together with mine and talk about us there like we about them now,” Caspian said smiling at her with a hint of playfulness in it.

Natasha never knew her parents. But if they were not a jerk like her, they could probably be somewhere in Narnia's version of heaven–and she was okay with the thought.

“Maybe,” she shrugged.

“You will always have a place onboard this ship.”

“Thank you. I will do my best to earn that place,” she promised.

“You already do,” Caspian commented, knowing that she worked just as hard as the men in his core crew member. “The deck and the galley has never been this clean thanks to you.”

The avenger smiled rather smugly at herself. “Just doing my job.”

Caspian chuckled. “Right. Rhince almost complained that at this rate you’re about to take his job from him,” he joked, and Natasha gave out a chuckle.

“Nah. He is a fine sailor. I’m not. He knows.”

“I can find you a place at my castle instead, if you want,” offered Caspian, “Tavros told me that you read.”

Everything seems to be falling into place for her in this world. But she couldn’t forget her mission. She still had to find the mystery young man she was supposed to meet. And hell, she still had to find him. She couldn’t get sidetracked now despite the chance that the king offered; her mystery man was probably in danger and would need her assistance somehow to stay alive.

“It’s a very gracious offer,” she worded her response carefully, after all, she might as well rejecting a king's offer and she wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, “But I’m afraid I don’t know if I can accept it right away.”

Caspian, thankfully, didn’t seem to mind it much. “Don’t worry. You’ll have time to think about it, at least until we reach home.”

Relieved, Natasha beamed at him. “Thankyou.”

***

The week after and the rest of the journey to Lonely Island was not quite always as peaceful as that day they had. In fact, tonight was one of those ‘work to death or drown to death' kind of situation. Even Caspian himself came and worked just as hard as his own subjects, soaked and cold from the rainstorm, but nonetheless determined to save the ship. It was all-hands-on-deck.

Well–all hands but the women's and children’s. However, after she convinced Rhince to let her help, she was quick to slip into her work autonomously. She tirelessly helped get water out of the deck with a bucket as the mighty storm tried to swallow the ship whole. Normal people who never had the experience would most likely get tired in no time, but she wasn’t just some people. She endured more. This was nothing for her but an intense workout.

Or at least that was what she kept chanting inside her head, and she believed it and turned it into her reality.

Just the way she was trained to do.

Thunder boomed overhead. Men's shouts were muffled by the chaos inside the storm. From the information that she secretly gathered during her time on board, she concluded that the Dawn Treader was not at its best. With the past damages that the ship had sustained during its journey, Natasha began to worry that the ship might break if the storm didn’t end soon enough.

Sometimes she hated it when she was right.

A violent thunder struck one of the mast of the ship. The wooden mast was broken in half and was on its way falling right above Rynelf, one of the core crew of the Dawn Trader. Natasha heard the shouts of warning to Rynelf from behind her, but she was faster.

She tackled the poor, unknowing sailor to the ground, away from the falling broken mast. Both Natasha and Rynelf were shaking at the broken mast that fell just before their eyes and exchanged a bewildered look at each other. Now understanding what had just happened, or what would’ve had happened if the woman didn’t tackle him with such force, Rynelf opened his mouth to say something, but before Natasha could hear it, a particular big wave rocked the ship, tossing them both across the deck.

Another hit from a monstrous wave tilted the ship sideways and this time tossed Natasha off the board.

With much trepidation, the rest of the crew watched as Rynelf hung for dear life on the railing against the mass of the water that hit him, but after the wave receded, they saw no sign of the woman who was supposed to be with the poor man.

“Oh no,” Rhince muttered in disbelief and dread.

Drinian grabbed the binoculars and looked out to the raging sea, searching for the woman, refusing to declare her case helpless. As Caspian and other crew member rushed to Rynelf's rescue, the young king felt his heart dropped.

There is no way a person can survive that kind of a fall– unless by the grace of Aslan.

Call it grace, call it her lifetime training– against all odds, Natasha managed to hold on to the side of the ship, hanging solely by the thread of a rope. With much toil she climbed back up the ship, and was met first with the face of a giant minotaur who had his mouth hung wide open at her.

“Are you going to help me or not?” she smirked, positively drench, cold and beaten up from the incident, but not quite losing her fire. To her, the whole thing was such a rush.

A brush with death and the sensation it gave her had become somewhat a guilty pleasure to her.

The crew member of the Dawn Treader let out collective cheer the moment she climbed back into the ship, much to Caspian and Drinian's astonishment.

***

King Caspian sat in his chamber in the Dawn Treader the next day, shaking his head at the memory.

“And that is the proof that females can bring about difference as well. We must consider recruiting willing females into our army,” said King Caspian to Drinian.

“That is wise, your majesty. But the council and their old ways, is going to need more reassurances than the story of bravery of an unknown woman we found at the sea,” answered the Captain.

“I agree. We will find a way, Drinian. The council will eventually come around and soon we would be able to change the old ways of our ancestors. Fix things and bring equality not just to the diverse races of the people of Narnia, but to the genders as well.”

“Fine words, your majesty.”

A knock at the door halted Drinian from his speech. He smiled at his king and gave a nod. “It shall be my cue. Enjoy your lunch, King Caspian.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

As Drinian made his exit, he opened the door and let Natasha, who was bringing the king's meal to his chamber for the first time. When Caspian saw her, he looked up from the documents on his table and gave her a benevolent smile.

“So you’re working at the galley now?” he asked with amusement as she set his food on the table.

“I should be cleaning off the deck upstairs, but after last night, Rhince and his wife made it their mission to forbid me from doing any hard work. So today I am a substitute to your galley crew who had a nasty seasickness after the storm.”

Caspian stood and made his way to the dining table, smiling, but upon seeing the forming bruise on the woman’s head, he frowned.

“Maybe you should listen to them,” Caspian said with concern on his expression. “You are allowed to have a day off, especially after the stunt you pulled last night.”

Natasha smirked at him. “If you really are determined to chase equality of gender for your people, then maybe you should not fuss the moment a woman shows up with a little bruise.”

Caspian actually laughed at that. “Have you been eavesdropping on your king, Natasha?”

“No. I overheard just a few moments before I knock. Apologies.”

“Just a few moments before, huh. Why not knocked the door right away?” Caspian on purposely teased her this time.

“Only because I didn’t want to interrupt your speech. It was good,” she said with a knowing smile at the king that she now called friend.

Caspian actually blushed at her compliment and she had to look away from his gaze to hide her smile. “Well,” Natasha slightly bowed her head in farewell. “Enjoy your meal, Caspian.”

“Wait.”

She froze in her track and looked at him, waiting.

“Have you had your lunch?”

“I’m about to.”

“Would you like to accompany me?” he asked. “These are enough for two. We can share.”

Seeing the hopeful look in the kind eyes of the young king, Natasha simply didn’t want to disappoint him. “Of course,” beamed Natasha. Caspian gestured to the seat in front of him before letting himself sit as well.

As they began to eat, Natasha found herself being lost in a pleasant conversation with Caspian. She decided that she liked him enough, and that Narnia was lucky to have him as king.

“So how are you liking your meal while at seas? Surely the real meal back home is much preferable to you, despite how well the cook does his job out here.”

“Well, I can’t complain. It’s more than I deserve,” Caspian answered humbly with a small smile. “I know the crew are trying to feed me the best just because I’m their king.”

“As they should be. Your subjects need you.”

“True enough,” Caspian murmured just before he took a sip of his water, “And I hope I’ve met their expectations.”

“From what I heard, you have so far.”

“Winning the people aboard the ship is one thing. Back home, it’s much more complicated than that. Now that we’ve reunited our people, and while there is peace across Narnia, there’s still so much left to do. The building that would take years. Gaining the united people’s trust. Keeping the peace.”

Natasha shrugged. “I think Narnia is ready for the multicultural assimilation.”

Caspian brought a hand up his face and stroke his beard thoughtfully. “It is time. But not everyone willingly accept the differences like you and I do.”

“That’s because people are afraid of things they don’t know.”

Caspian let that sink in. He folded his arms in front of his broad chest and leaned back in his chair; a picture of a wise, kind man who clearly didn’t know that he was, in fact, handsome.

“So what do you suggest I do?” he asked interestedly, willing to hear her ideas.

“Education.”

“Go on.”

“If it’s the mankind you’re worried about then you should begin teaching them about the unknown. The Talking Beasts, where they’re coming from. Their history,” suggested Natasha as she lightly chewed on her baked beans, “I’m sure that despite the color, or our physical differences, our people must have some things in common. And education is one of the greatest tool to assimilate new cultures into people.”

“You’re too smart to for a nobody,” observed Caspian pointedly, his dark eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her.

That comment caught Natasha off guard–she talked too much. She began to embarrassingly choke on her beans. While she was busy coughing, Caspian stood up and made his way to take a pitcher of water sitting at his study for her. She glanced towards him as he moved away and caught something that she had missed earlier.

A golden engraving of a giant, majestic lion sat behind Caspian’s table–one ornament that she overlooked earlier because he was sitting behind his desk, blocking the view. Seeing the image of the lion somehow brought another feeling back to her.

A presence; one that spoke authority, power, and above all–compassion.

Of Aslan.

When she came out of it, Caspian was already next to her, on one knee to get slightly closer to her eye level as she accepted the glass of water from him. She drank and finished the water, and Caspian was there to take her glass after she was done. Their fingers touched, and at that moment, she felt as if she just saw the king in a new light.

“Are you feeling better?”

Right there, kneeling on one knee before her, she found her mystery man.

Her mission.

She nodded, unable to even murmur a simple thank you for his trouble.

“Are you sure? You look a little green around the gills there, Natasha,” he said with concern in his kind, obsidian eyes.

“Maybe…maybe Rhince was right. I ought to rest today.”

“Do you need to see the healer? We can have that bruise checked on–“

“No, thankyou,” Natasha stopped him gently. “That won’t be necessary. I just need rest.”

“If you say so. Of course.”

Caspian got back on his feet and like the gentleman that he was, he offered a hand to her as he helped her stand. He even walked her to his door.

“Before I forget,” Natasha suddenly said, halting their walk. With a renewed sense of purpose, she beamed at him. “I just want to tell you that I’ve had enough time thinking about your offer. And I think it would be my absolute honor to serve such a fine king–if the offer still stands.”

Caspian’s face lit up at her sudden proclamation. A genuinely happy expression graced his chiseled, handsome face. “That is great news. I intend on keeping you and your brilliant brain,” he joked, breaking the ice between them and making the avenger chuckle. “The honor is mine, Natasha.”

***

[Author's Note: I know this chapter is not short, but after a thought, I’m gonna make this whole book far far shorter than my other books. And hopefully, I get to finish this book quickly. Thoughts?]