Royal Protector [Narnia]

Chapter XVII: Alive?

"We didn't have a choice, do you think we would willingly leave the people we loved?! If I had had the choice I would have stayed with my wife in the country that I was fated to protect."

Enzo grunted slowly coughed as the copped taste of blood lingered upon his lips.
"Welcome Enzo, Son of Adam."

The soldier chuckled at the deep tone of his old friends, "You know my titles evolved since then, old friend."

The lion nodded with a prideful stare, gazing at the soldier with an intense grin, "It's good to see you again, Captain Enzo."

The man sympathised, echoing the idea, "Likewise Kallias, but what exactly am in doing here?"

The lion chuckled at the man's brazen tone, "Your here because you haven't yet fulfilled your purpose."

Enzo scoffed knowingly, his hand he stirred aggressive as he spoke, "Well if you and Aslan hadn't abandoned Narnia, we wouldn't be in this position and I'd still be alive with my wife."

Kallias listened intently, silently digestion the man's frustration, "I understand Enzo, but I cannot interfere with what is bound to happen. I am only permitted to aid you in your journey."

Enzo scoffed his hand combing through the wild locks of dark untamed hair that graced his head, "Well then aid me Kallias, send me back to my fucking wife, and while your at it give me back the lives of all the soldier I lost as you watched!"

Kallias sighed eyes trailing Enzo, "I am permitted to return you to Narnia on the condition that your life be intertwined with another. If they die you die, and if you die you also take their life." Enzo nodded slowly, the guilt clawing at his throat as he considered the price of his life,

"And the others, what of the other Narnians that you condemned to die?!" Kallias' eyes grazed the floor, seemingly guilty, at Enzo's volatile words.

"You'll wake in the woods not far from Aslan's How, of whom will accompany you, is Aslan's decision." Enzo scoffed glaring at the lion he had once regarded so highly,

"Perhaps this will mean you finally migrate from his shadow, because the lion I see now is not the same lion I fought alongside during the battle of Beruna."

Oxygen rushed through his lungs, coaxing a coughing fit from the soldier. "Fucking hell." His eyes grazed the sky,

"Some fucking warning would be nice!" The deep echo of laughter from a Minotaur startled Enzo, as he was alerted to the presence of injured soldiers limping toward his command.
A centaur voicing the collectives internal, conflict.

"Where are we?" Enzo recovered from his own injuries, groaning at the throbbing pain they emitted,

"The woods near, Aslan's How, I think it's time we rejoin our families." The large group of soldiers limped at a consistently slow speed toward the tombs entrance, seemingly arriving prior to the surviving troops impending evacuation back to their barracks. Lucy rushing to heal all of whom was nearing death, as she so often had in the years following the first battle that rid Narnia of the White Witches presence.

Enzo collapsed amongst he and Susan's shared space a hand grazing the sword he had been gifted a decade previous, his hands falling into the same routine, of cleaning and polishing the blade with spare rags discarded amongst the armoury.

He sat contented until a disturbance above ground, prompted him to limp from the tomb and reveal himself amongst the harsh rays of Narnian sun.

"Hey! I am not the one who abandoned Narnia!" Enzo scoffed in a rage as he shouted, startling all spectators as he did so.

"You have no right to judge us, when it was your people who invaded our land, slaughtered our people and condemned the rest of them to die. We didn't have a choice, do you think we would have willingly left the people we loved?! If I had had the choice I would have stayed with my wife in the country that I was fated to protect. I would have protected them against your kind, and I would have slaughtered every last Telmarine that I got my hands on. You do not get to judge us, when it's your people who created this problem in the first place."

Susan's eyes widened at the sight of her husband as she bolted to embrace him, collapsing into his chest exhausted from sobbing at his death. "H-How?"

Enzo smiled softly at his wife, calloused hands cupping her cheek, "It doesn't matter, all that matters is that I'm here and I'm never leaving you again, not from this day until our last."

The eldest Pevensie daughter nodded, kissing him passionately as both Peter and Caspian recovered from their shock at Enzo's presence.
"He's right, you have no more right to be here the Miraz. Your all the same, you, him, your father."

Caspian yelled livid, his sword drawn at Peter until Enzo intercepted, his sword bared at Caspian's vulnerable throat. "Stop it!"

Edmund revealed the battered and bruised figure of Trumpkin, Lucy rushing to aid him as Enzo and Caspian remained fixed in their positions.

"If it's a dual you want Caspian, I'm more than willing." The soldier smirked, despite his pronounced limp, he maintained the idea he could easily pommel the young Prince.

"Careful, cripple, you might get hurt." Enzo chuckled deeply, circling the man with a predatory grin,

"It's not me who's going to get hurt." The pair circles one another, much to the dismay of the onlookers. Susan loudly voicing her disgruntlement,

"Enzo." The man shook his head,

"No, it's time our Prince learned his place." They engaged in violent combat, neither demonstrating restraint as their blades crossed spark spitting from the steel.

Enzo continued his assault, unrelenting as his disarmed the Prince, swiftly, Caspian finding solace in the dirt as Enzo hovered above him with both sword pointed at his throat.

"Disrespect them again, and I'll deliver your bloodied and bruised body to your Uncle myself, am I understood?" The Prince nodded stalking away from Enzo huffing as Enzo embraced his wife, smirking at the solace he discovered, being reunited with her.