꧁ Intense moments ꧂

The battle ended quite quickly, with the unconditional surrender of the slave traders. All the crew members were then greeted warmly by the inhabitants of the city, who gathered at the port to watch them sail.

Before leaving, the royals, along with Elizabeth and Eustace, who had finally reunited with the group, were stopped by two very different people.

Their first encounter was with a man, who desperately begged them to let him join the crew to find his wife. It was, in fact, the same man that Lucy, her cousin and the woman had seen running behind the wagon with the prisoners that morning. The three later learned, thanks to what Caspian and Edmund had been able to see from a small window in the wall of their cell, that the kidnapped people were a sacrifice to evil. They were put on boats and sent into the open sea, where they disappeared surrounded by a green mist. The seven Lords of Telmar had promised to find the source of that mist and destroy it, but they had never been able to complete the task. It was therefore now up to the crew of the Dawn Trader to find not only the Lords, but also the missing people.

The second person to draw their attention was the Lord whom the two Kings had found imprisoned. The man gave Caspian an old sword of Narnia, all now covered in corals. He explained to him that there were seven such swords, they were a gift made by Aslan to the Lords to defeat evil.

By accepting the gift, Caspian promised to accomplish what they had begun. He then gave the sword to Edmund, as a sign of friendship and equality, before embarking on a longboat and helping Elizabeth do the same.

Being exhausted and eager only to return to the ship to rest, the woman gratefully accepted the king's hand and, in doing so, her watchful eye did not miss the cut on his shoulder. It didn't seem to be an excessively serious wound, but it had not even to be underestimated.
Noticing the her attention to his injury, Caspian gave her a reassuring look, making her understand that everything was fine and putting the matter immediately aside.

Once the crew was back on board, the ship resumed its course to the east and, at sunset, the port of Narrowheaven was already far away.

✵✵✵✵

Despite the late hour and fatigue, Elizabeth decided not to retire with Lucy, but instead to go looking for Caspian: she had, in fact, a bad feeling about his shoulder. She therefore went to the captain's cabin, where she knew she would have found him still standing to check the maps.

She knocked lightly on the wooden doors, before she opened it just enough to get her head in. Just as she expected, the King was there, bent over his desk studying old charts.

"Do you have a moment?" she gently asked him.

He raised his head surprised upon hearing the sound of her voice, "Of course, come in," he told her with a soft smile, "What is it?".

"Why do I have the feeling that you didn't do anything about that shoulder wound?" she continued, letting herself in and closing the door behind her.

"I had more important things to do, Liz, than worry about my shoulder." he honestly replied.

She nodded, "Very well then, take off your shirt," she said. Caspian froze on the spot. He had surely heard it wrong, he must have heard it wrong. "Cas," she called him, seeing the shocked look on his face, "I can't work on the wound while you have your shirt on," she explained him quietly.

"Really Liz, you don't have to worry about it, I can..." he tried to respond, after recovering from his trance state.

"Take it off, Caspian." she immediately cut him off.

Without saying anything else, she began to look for something that looked like a first aid kit and bandages. Every ship had one, even in that world she was sure she would find it. And so it was: in a door below the bookcase, there was a box with everything needed to treat wounds, including medical herbs, pastries and concoctions that the woman had never seen before.

Meanwhile, Caspian decided it was probably best to do as he was told. The ease of the woman in that situation surprised him, but again, he often tended to forget the fact that she came from another world, where perhaps such a request was not so strange.

Having found what she needed, Elizabeth approached the King and focused on the wound, trying not to pay the slightest attention to the perfect shape of his uncovered torso. His well-defined musculature was probably the result of years spent training as a warrior, the woman thought, because there could certainly not exist gyms in Narnia...right?
Sending those thoughts away from her mind, she began to gently clean the cut from the clotted blood. Her intuition that morning was correct: it was not a deep wound, but it would still need stitches and a bandage. Taking a needle and thread in her hand, the woman hoped that she had not lost her ability as a nurse and began to sew the skin, receiving only a few sighs of sting in return.

"Where did you learn how to treat a wound?" he suddenly asked her, partly because he was curious and partly because he had to be distracted.

"I took a first aid course when I was younger," she told him, putting down the needle and taking a bandage. "For a short, crazy time in my life, I thought about becoming a nurse, or even a doctor," she continued, a sad note in her voice.

"Why crazy?" he softly demanded, sensing that something was wrong.

"Because I wanted to...," she started, but something inside her stopped her from going on, "it doesn't matter anymore." she stated, finishing her job on his shoulder.

He turned his face to give her a worried look. There was something about her past that haunted her, something she didn't want to talk about. He wouldn't have forced her, but he would have been ready to listen to her at any time: he wanted to help her, but he could not do much without knowing.

"I'm done," she said, smiling again as if nothing had happened, "it wasn't too deep so it shouldn't take long to heal," she then explained, handing him his shirt, "but you have to keep it clean and change the bandage, is that clear?" she eventually added.

Caspian smiled and nodded, "Crystal," he replied, dressing. "And thank you, I mean it," he then told her, approaching her a few steps.

"You're welcome," she replied, looking up at his face and giving him another sweet smile. "Now forgive me, but I am dead tired," she joked, before the tension between them could become unbearable.

"Of course, go and rest, it wasn't exactly two easy days," he said, nodding.

She softly chuckled, "No day is easy at sea," she murmured, quoting his own words, resting a hand on his arm for a moment. She then turned and walked to the door, "Good night, Cas, see you tomorrow," she told him.

"Good night, Liz," he replied, watching her leave the room with a smile printed on his face.

✵✵✵✵

The next morning, Elizabeth and Lucy woke up long after sunrise: they both needed a good night's sleep. After a breakfast of fruit and carefree chatter, the girl decided to sew. Apparently it was one of her favorite pastimes, as was reading, which she had in common with the woman. It was also true that the clothes of the crew were quite large for them, and Lucy's talent with needle and thread would have made them much more suitable.

Elizabeth then left her friend sitting on a crate on the deck and climbed the stairs to the quarterdeck, where she found Caspian holding the helm firmly in his hands. A few steps behind him, Captain Drinian conversed with a sailor but, seeing her coming, they chose to take their leave, greeting her with a smile.
The woman leaned to the edge of the ship, looking at the absorbed expression on the King's face as he maneuvered the rudder. As a good fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean as she was, she had always wanted to sail the seas, try the thrill of the wind in her hair while pointing the horizon, waiting for the next adventure. Of course, now she couldn't complain about not having had intense moments, she thought, smiling.

"Is it heavy?" she decided to ask, approaching him. "The helm," she was quick to add, seeing his questioning look as he turned his face towards her.

"Not that much," he replied, smiling, "come here, take it," he then said, holding out his hand. She looked at him shocked, as if he had totally lost his mind: she had no idea how to sail a ship. "Take it." he repeated, giving her a reassuring smile.

Elizabeth nodded and, although still a little uncertain, took the wheel. She smirked, feeling like a female version of Jack Sparrow.

"Here," Caspian said, circling her with his arms, so that he could put his hands on hers, "hold it steady, stay on course" he told her.

"Am I any good?" she asked, lightly turning her face towards him.

"Very good indeed," he said, doing the same.

In that moment, the warm brown of his eyes met the intense green of her and they both realised how close they were to each other. Only a few inches separated their faces, a space that seemed more and more annoying as the seconds passed. Before anything could happen, however, a shrill scream called their attention, immediately followed by a sound of heavy footsteps and falling things.

"Trying to run away? We are on a boat, you know?" they heard Reepicheep exclaimed, while pointing his sword to a frightened Eustace, who had to be the source of all the noise.

The boy held a large kitchen knife and now stared at the mouse with a mixed expression between confused and frightened.

"Look, can't we just discuss this?" he tried to reason with it, in vain.

Reeepicheep sliced his shirt, "That was for stealing!" it explained, then stabbed the orange that he had tried to hide, "That was for lying!" said again, just before hitting him in the face with the fruit on the tip of his blade, "And that was for good measure!" concluded satisfied.

The gesture quite troubled Eustace, whose hand tight around the handle of the knife began to tremble with rage.

"That's the spirit! We have ourselves a duel." exclaimed the rodent, before dodging a blow and jumping on the edge of the ship. "Catch," he then told Captain Drinian, throwing the orange and preparing for the match.

"I can't believe it," murmured Caspian, who, from the helm, was watching the scene with Elizabeth, "it's really happening." he said, chuckling.

"Yeah," said the woman with a big, bright smile.

Eustace seemed to be blind with rage, he continued to fight against the mouse in the desperate attempt to hit it but with very little results.

"Stop flapping your wings like a drunken pelican! Poise." Reepicheep rebuked him.

Elizabeth burst out laughing at those words, and Caspian soon followed. Just before their eyes, a mouse was really trying to teach a boy how to fight, with a kitchen knife. The animal descended from the edge and began to move his opponent's legs to the correct position, then returned to its spot and explained him how to strike.

"Be nimble! Be nimble!" it told him, easily dodging every blow, "It's a dance, boy, a dance." it sighed, exasperated at his clumsiness. "Come on now, again and again. That's right, that's right," it encouraged him.

Eustace continued to throw forward the hand that held the knife, now with more rhythm and precision, getting with each blow closer to the mouse. The boy almost seemed to start enjoying it when something happened that made his blood freeze in his veins.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed the rodent before falling backwards.

Eustace ran to the edge of the ship and looked down at the water, scared of having just committed a murder. Even Elizabeth tightened her fingers around the helm, while the smile left her lips.

"Don't worry," Caspian said, noting her sudden change of attitude, "Reepicheep knows what it's doing," he reassured her, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

The King was right. The mouse, in fact, had never fallen into the sea, but had climbed a rope and was now over the head of his opponent. With a flick of its tail on his shoulder, it turned him over, and then gave him a push and dropped him in the midst of baskets, causing a general laughter among the crew members and a sigh of relief from Elizabeth.

"Look." Lucy called everyone attention and, putting down the shirt she was working on, approached one of the fallen crates, from which a little girl was coming out.

"Gael? What are you doing here?" a voice called to her among the crew. The man who had joined them on the island made his way towards her and held her in her arms.

There was a lot of tension on the bridge, but before anyone had the chance to say or do anything, Captain Drinian handed the child the orange he had held since the beginning of the duel, smiling and welcoming her aboard. The little girl thanked him, then accepted the hand of Lucy, who led her to the King's quarters, away from the confusion.

Elizabeth watched the scene with a sweet smile on her face, relaxed under Caspian's arm. The child could not be more than six years old, brought to her mind the image of her sister, a blurry image but still present. She sighed, quickly getting rid of those thoughts.

"Are you all right?" Caspian asked, hearing her.

"Of course," she answered immediately, smiling again, "but now I'd better be going, I want to see if Lucy needs a hand with the girl," she told him.

He nodded, freeing her from the embrace with a bit of embarrassment, and then watching her move away quickly.