Accidentally Falling | Narnia

20 | treasure

"And that's all for archery, Your Majesty. There's nothing else to teach you." Trumpkin looked at the way Susan shoot a pinecone fifty feet in the air. He followed the pinecone with his beaded eyes as it fell to the ground, the eldest Pevensie's arrows lodged in the middle. "I think." he added.

Susan squinted her eyes to get a glimpse of the fallen pinecone, half worried that the dryad of the pine tree the pinecone came from would suddenly jump out of her tree and curse her forever (of course, she had already asked the said dryad's permission before she decided to start decapitating pinecones but still...) and half proud of what she had done.

She just shot a freaking pinecone fifty feet in the air from a pine tree fifty freaking feet from her.

"I just did that!" she grinned happily at her her dwarf companion.

"Yes, you did, Your Majesty," Trumpkin nodded, smiling along with the daughter of Eve. "I believe my work here is done."

Susan stared at the Red Dwarf.

"What?" she asked disbelievingly. "But I only learned so little!"

"I believe that that is not true, Lady Susan," Trumpkin said. "You have already learned so much. That pinecone alone..." the Dwarf gestured to its direction on the ground. "I couldn't have managed to hit that."

"I'm sure that is just luck, Trumpkin," Susan couldn't help but blush.

"Personally, I don't believe in luck, Majesty." Trumpkin said gently.

Susan didn't respond to that. She went to a nearby bench and took off the quiver from her back, laying it beside her. She unstrung her bow and placed it across her lap.

Susan had to admit that she really had learned so much from Trumpkin for the past few days she had been practicing her archery skills. She wanted to say that it was because she was a fast-learner (although it was a contributing factor) but she knew it was because of her determination to learn a lot of things as soon as possible. Because she didn't knew when the prophecy would unfold, when the war would come (and she knew there would be), when she'd be given the choice... she wanted to be prepared. And now that Caspian left for who knows how long, who would know that the Witch wouldn't attack knowing Narnia was one King short?

She had to be good enough to fight. There was no way she would cower on her bedchambers and just let the Narnians fight for a prophecy that was about her.

No. She would be out there. On the front lines.

The daughter of Eve turned to Trumpkin. "Am I really not that bad anymore, Trumpkin?"

Trumpkin couldn't help but laugh. "You are excellent, Your Majesty."

"No thanks to you," Susan smiled at the Dwarf.

"Your Majesty is ever so kind," Trumpkin inclined his head slightly to a bow. "Now that our archery lessons has come to an earlier end, may I ask My Lady's permission to leave? My kin are planning to go hunting this afternoon and I wish to join them."

Hunting.

The word brightened up Susan's mind.

What would be a more better way to really test her archery skills? Sure, she'd proven all right at practice but a real battle is a lot different than just standing resolute, shooting an unmoving target, and praying that a gust of wind wouldn't steer the arrow away from it.

"I wish to join, too," Susan said, standing up.

The Dwarf, with obvious surprise etched on his face, stared up at her. "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?"