Return to Narnia (Edmund Pevensie) (FINISHED)

Prince Caspian

(hours earlier, Narnia time)

Prince Caspian was running. His school teacher had waken him early in the morning and pulled him out of bed, into a secret tunnel - just in time for the guards to bust into the room and fill his sheets and pillows with arrows. He watched with wide eyes as they came slowly to the bed and huffed, annoyed, as they realized he was not there.

   Caspian turned and with Cornelius, his tutor, began to flee. "Your uncle had a son," Cornelius explains when they finally get out of the castle and to the stables. So close to escape and needing time to get the horse ready anyway, they had room enough to catch their breath, but the tutor still struggled to breathe. Caspian's eyes go wide as he realizes what's going on and suddenly, everything comes into it's place and the picture is clear. Cornelius doesn't need to say anymore for a while. He does help Cornelius prepare the horse though, and they get it done a lot faster. Caspian goes to grab a second, but Cornelius stops him. There's only a moment for a look - no time for mourning. Caspian doesn't have time to argue - he steps onto the saddle and swings himself onto the horse. Cornelius passes Caspian a material-wrapped horn and whispers to him quickly. "Go to the woods. There, you will find help. There, you will find sanctuary. I'm sure of it." The old man nodded, noting to only blow the horn if he was in dire need of help. Caspian then took off, worried for his tutor, but knowing he had to get out. Now.

    Barely making it pass the gates, he pushed the poor horse as hard as it could go, racing for the woods, the palace guards right on his tail. As he broke pass the line of trees, he hoped against all hope that the guards wouldn't follow. There were stories about these woods. Stories of vicious monsters and mythical beasts. He wasn't so lucky for stories and superstition to save him though. As he heard the hoofbeats behind him, he worried. Where would he go? How would he hide? How long would it be until they inevitably caught and killed him?

   Suddenly his horse reared, knocking Caspian off the saddle as he fell back, slamming into the ground and getting the breath knocked out of him. His foot is still locked in the horse's saddle though and the creature finally lands and begins to take off again, trying to flee whatever spooked it in the first place, Caspian struggles to free himself. Finally he gets his finger where it needs to be and pulls his boot out of the hole. On the ground, already growing sore, he falls still. He takes in deep breaths and sits for a second, trying to get collected. His moment is shattered as a door busts open and out comes a short, blond dwarf wielding a weapon. His eyes fall on Caspian and suddenly he's running, but not to where Caspian is. He runs to where Caspian can hear the other Telmarines charging to find the young prince. Another dwarf with grey hair and an unpleasant sneer passed through the door too, but he does come straight at Caspian. The Prince hastily searches for the horn, needing help now more than ever. The dwarf sees it the same time Caspian does, but Caspian is closer. He puts the horn to his lips and blow with all his might. The dwarf comes behind him and hits him over the head, knocking him out cold.

The last thing he thinks is that, whatever this horn is supposed to do, he hopes above everything that it's enough to keep him alive.

Caspian wakes up in a small bed. He sits up quickly and looks around, gripping the sides of the horribly undersized bed as he tries to dispel the dizziness that threatens to overcome him as he moves his neck. He raises his hand to his head and feels a bandage. He remembers what happened before all at once right then, realizing that someone must have saved him. Maybe the horn had called someone that had saved him from the Telmarines and dwarves both. Dwarves, his brain shouts in surprise. Not the time, he snaps back at it. He needs to figure out where he is and what's going on.

Slowly, he takes the bandage from his head and examines it. It doesn't look special... but it does look different than the ones that had been used on him at home. He set the material down on a tiny side table that matches the tiny bed he lays on, and stands, having to crouch just a bit in the tiny hut. Perhaps someone small had saved him. It seems unlikely as he remembers the two dwarfs... though the dwarves were small too, weren't they? Perhaps it hadn't taken someone bigger to defeat them. His head spins as he tries to accept everything that he saw, an finally gets out of the bed. He needs to know more about where he is.