The Depth of Love

Chapter Four

As we approached Beruna it was clear that this was the worst possible path we could have taken. Telmarine soldiers littered the shores of the river, each one armed to the teeth. "Even if you guys could cross here, there is no way I would be able to make it with you" I whispered to the others. We had crouched down behind a wagon to watch the army as they moved about.

"Perhaps this wasn't even the best way to go after all" Susan whispered back with a sigh and I nodded vehemently.

"What are they even doing here?" Lucy asked and I shook my head at her with a half "it's best not to know" look and a half "not here" one. She pulled a face in clear annoyance at the rejection of an answer but accepted it all the same as the six of us backed away from the ford and returned to the half safety of the forests.

As we reached the sport where we had once come from Peter broke the silence that had fallen amongst us. "So..." he began "where do you think you saw Aslan?"

"I wish you would all stop acting like grown-ups, I didn't think I saw him, I did see him" Lucy almost snapped back at him and began to wander the edge of the gorge. "I am a grown-up" Trumpkin muttered under his breath causing Edmund and I to snort a muffled laugh between us. I was glad that we had been able to at least broach the topic of being friends over anything else, he was a good company and a laugh more so than his other siblings who were alright and decent enough people. Edmund just seemed more down to earth they were. Although, I did feel a little sorry for him. Even in the stories of the golden age, Edmund had always seemed to be pushed to one side and least preferred over his other siblings all because he had been drawn in by the Witch. I had often almost pitied him, the Witch was known for her ability to draw in, to lure, he was just yet another poor soul tricked by her. That didn't make him a bad person. But I was enamored with the idea of being friends with him.

"It was right about-" Lucy began as she examined the ledges but before she could say anything else she screamed and vanished. Fearing the worst that she had fallen down the gorge, we rushed to the edge to peer down the cliff face. But instead of seeing a bloody mess of what remained of Lucy, she was instead sat on a ledge just below the fallen earth, on a sloping path that led down to the base of the gorge safely. "here!" she exclaimed in delight and I grinned at her. Maybe she was right after all. "Told you" Edmund muttered to me and I glanced over my shoulder to grin at him "she makes us look like idiots" he added but it was easy to hear the affection in his voice and the joking tone that covered his words.

We managed to make it down the path but I quickly saw that we faced yet another issue. For the others, the path was simple, stepping stone across the river and down the path along the other side to walk back up and reach the other side of the gorge. Fine in principle, but the stones were wet and held the promise of one quick slip leading to a nice dunking in the river. I grimaced and braced myself as the others began their walk. Holding up the rear of the group I took each step slowly. I kept my eyes on my boots and the stones I stood on not looking up even when I heard a squeak from Lucy as she slipped a little herself. A muffled thanks told me that someone had managed to stop her from falling in entirely but I couldn't focus on that myself. I tentatively took my next step but in my concentration, I had failed to spot that Peter hadn't moved on from the stone in front of me and I ended up slipping and a scream escaped my mouth as my arms flailed about trying to regain my balance. I tried to grab a hold of Peter but I ended up catching him by just as much surprise and the two of us ended up falling back into the water with a heavy splash, water flying up to soak the others just as much as we were. I could feel the water surround me but before I realised anything more that was happening my head hit something hard at the bottom of the river and everything turned black.

"Ow" I groaned and I could feel the throbbing pain in the back of my head, my hand flying up to instinctively check for blood or anything broken. "Heidi!" cried a female voice and I thought I could recognise it as Lucy's but I couldn't be sure. "Heidi are you alright?" the same voice asked. I groaned again and opened my eyes to meet five faces starring down at me with concern. "What-?" I began

"You slipped and fell, but you hit your head on the river bed, you idiot" Trumpkin informed me and I sat up slowly to shoot him as a sarcastic laden look. "My head hurts, but I think I'll live" I huffed and my eyes scrunched up again as I touched the back of my head, most likely going to be a nasty bruise under my hair now. "Heidi, your tail is beautiful," Lucy said and with a squinted look at her I realised I was half lying, half sat on the edge of the river, my tail trailing about in the water. I smiled at her and thanked her. The three others gawped a little bit and I quickly realised that my hair, long as it was, was typically able to cover my chest had fallen to the side a little exposing a fair bit of myself and I quickly turned a deep shade of red and hurried to readjust my hair. "Sorry" I whispered quietly and I could see the boys almost shake their heads to come to their senses. Susan looked more offended than anything else.

See, I rarely need to wear a shirt in mer form. Purely because I was so often alone that no one ever saw me, at is saved myself a lot of hassle trying to find a top like that when my hair provided me a decent covering when needed. Trumpkin had seen my mer form before as hand many of my Narnian friend and so it didn't phase me to be like this, but I suppose that the kings and queens weren't used to someone like me being around and so exposure of this nature was something that they were uncomfortable with. I was decently impressed with queen Lucy who barely seemed to notice.

"Sorry" I muttered again as I pulled myself backwards across the path to completely remove my tail out of the water and winced in pain as my scales faded away. Lucy and Trumpkin helped me to my feet and after a quick check over I established myself to be in working order and set off up the path leaving the still stunned others behind me.

The next few hours of walking left us in a muted silence with everyone avoiding each other's eye contact in awkward embarrassment. We soon reached a small clearing and it was there that we decided to set up camp for the night.