Living Through You || Caspian X

Chapter 23- The Sea Battle

The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
- Winds of Change • Scorpions

When James and Caspian finally build up the courage to leave the navigation room, very little had changed. The crew was still nervously up on deck, Gael having been hidden down below, they were as strong a body as they could possibly be. After all, they were the best that Narnia had to offer, not to mention that they had Eustace and Reepicheep aiding them from the skies.

      Caspian had kissed his lover's forehead before ascending to the top part of the deck where the wheel resided, leaving James to grip his axe by his brothers side. The blonde Pevensie could tell that he was nervous just by the way his  eyes shimmered in the darkness.

     He took a deep breath, and he began.

     "No matter what happens here, every soul who stands before me has earned their place on the crew of the Dawn Treader. Together we have travelled far. Together we have faced adversity. Together we can do it again. So now is not the time to fall to fear's temptations. Be strong. Never give in. Our world- our Narnian lives- depend on it. Think of the lost souls we're here to save."

      For a moment, James forgot why they had entered the mist. He'd forgotten that they'd needed a sword, and that they were saving the innocent Narnian's thrust into the fog. As soon as Caspian mentioned a lost soul, he thought of his once best friend.

     One that he maybe didn't think of as much as he should have. One who was long gone, but could never be forgotten.

     It was Tumnus.

     "Think of Aslan." Caspian continued, passionately. "Think of Narnia."

  As the Telmarine moved towards the steps, taking them in strides of three, he suddenly halted at the sound of one of the crew mates hollering. "For Narnia!"

     It broke into a series of cries, all of them stating their mission. This was for Narnia. This was for Aslan. This was for everything that anyone had ever lost.

    James knew this was for the years he'd lost. The time with Caspian, the years as a king. Every soldier he'd fought beside and failed to save. This was for them.

     As the blackness seeped closer and surrounded them fully.

  "Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of death."

  "Oh god," Harvey groaned, nudging James' side. "Stop quoting Tennyson. You only ever quote Tennyson I'm awful situations- and he's an awful poet!"

  "Don't be rude about Tennyson." The blonde huffed, under his breath.

  "You don't even like Tennyson!" Harvey exclaimed. 

  "Oh, sod off." James rolled his eyes, clutching his axe tighter with every second that passed. "This is not the time to argue about poetry."

     Then the Dawn Treader was engulfed. The crash of water had drawn silent, the only sound creeping from the creeks of the boat with every sway.

     Fog drifted through the air, gliding through the endless space, entangling itself around the crew. Though, it wasn't black like the air around them, but a sickly sort of green. Eery voices began to whisper, crawling inside of their minds, and scratching their brains.