Flatline ⤞ Peter Pevensie [2]

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"Well, it's good you have troops, but we need some fortification. Somewhere to train."

Peter and Caspian had been talking the entire time during the walk, but all the High King could do was give a few suggestions whilst Caspian explained what had been happening. The blond kept getting distracted, his eyes constantly wondering towards the brunette at the front, who was talking to Felix about some sort of air training for the griffins. He couldn't help it. The way she had acted, the way she'd looked at him without so much as a flicker of . . . well, anything. He knew it was an act, he knew it was what she did, to show authority and power and frighten anyone that dared go near her. Yet all he could think about was the way he'd just stood there, staring at her and saying her name like a child. He'd wanted to reach forward and touch her just to make sure she was real.
Ever since they'd come to Narnia, the Pevensies had all been wondering the same thing, though none of them dared say it out loud after their talk with Trumpkin. And when they'd seen her, it almost hadn't felt real.

Felix turned for a moment, only to find the High King staring at the back of his friend's head for about the fifth time since they'd started walking. The blond turned towards the brunet, who was saying something about Ayron needing to work on his dives, and that Felix's own griffin should be trained for tree flying.

"Fall," the boy said, turning back around, "you do realize you're doing it again, right?"

Fallon stopped her sentence short and looked at him before saying, "I'm not doing anything."

Felix almost groaned at that. "Fallon, I have known you for a few centuries. You can't expect me not to know your tells."

The girl said nothing as Felix continued. "You're strategizing and making a training plan in way too much detail. You do that when you're either bored, or when you're stressed out. And, in full honesty, this situation could be defined as anything but boring. Also," he stopped, knowing he didn't have to say anything when he pointed a finger directly at Fallon's chest, where her fingers were aggressively fidgeting with the locket around her neck, as well as the object that had been added to the chain a couple hundred years prior.

Noticing the look on the girl's face, Felix turned around again, making sure no one was looking. Luckily, Peter had gone back to speaking with Caspian, and, being Hunters, Felix and Fallon were a little farther ahead from the Narnians.

"You know," the blond said, leaning a little towards Fallon, "you never actually told me the entire story of what happened that night."

The Huntress sent a sharp look his way.

"Why are you glaring at me?"

"I'm hoping that if I look hard enough you'll spontaneously explode."

Felix feigned hurt and went back to being quiet, something awfully rare for him.

Fallon took a moment before speaking. "I know I've changed, Felix."

The blond turned to her with a questioning look. She kept going.

"Not just because of the war. The things I was told when I first came here, my history . . . I think the war was sort of like a trigger. Something that made everything snap into place. Ever since I stepped through that wardrobe, held these knives for the first time. I was a monster without knowing it. A different kind, maybe, but a monster is still a monster."

"You're not a monster, Fall," Felix said softly. This had always been a touchy subject for the girl. "To be a monster, you need to have done something . . . well, monstrous. All you ever did was good, Fall."

"How is killing and spilling blood good, Felix?" Fallon said with a sigh.

Felix chose his next words carefully. "Good isn't always what people think it is. Sometimes to do something good, you have to do something bad. Good doesn't mean being nice and apologetic and soft all the time. Sometimes it means that you need to be peaceful, even though you're capable of great violence. Sometimes it's taking a life to save hundreds. Sometimes . . . sometimes good is going at war against yourself because you don't want to let yourself take it out on on anyone else. Being good, at times, just means you have to do things that are only a little better than completely horrible and having people call it 'bad' just because it doesn't match their definition of it."