Chapter Three: Dear Little Friend

//Cause I'm down on my knees
don’t you feel anything//

They had been on the move for what appeared like forever - in actuality it had most likely been only a couple of hours. However since those couple of hours had incorporated a trip back down the cliff (this time in a long dress) and walking across miles of sand following Peter’s so-called directions (from how many hundreds of years ago?), Buffy was not a cheerful girl. In fact she could feel her inner brat rising to the surface and when showed its face it was never an attractive sight.

She knew that she shouldn’t be feeling this way, she was used to physical exhaustion – it was part of her everyday life as The Slayer. If she had chosen to look a little deeper into her reactions, she might have found that her appalling disposition stemmed from the fact that she was feeling out of place. So far the Pevensie siblings didn’t seem to require her help or her protection; in fact they seemed more than capable of doing it for themselves.

As they came over a sandy rise the group spotted a row boat in the distance with what appeared to be two figures aboard. Buffy was to some extent reassured; this meant that they had found somebody – someone who’d give an explanation as to what the hell was going on with this place. That was until the figures in the boat stood up and had what appeared to be a package in the arms, until it moved that is. Realising that what they were about to drown was a living being, the five of them raced to the apex of the sand, where Susan aimed her trusty bow and arrow at them.

“Drop him,” she commanded forcefully.

Regrettably for the diminutive individual those on the boat did as she told them to do and dropped their hostage into the bitter water, where he without delay sank. Both Peter and Edmund threw down their weapons and dove into the water focussed on rescuing the poor personage.

In the meantime on the boat one of the people took aim at the left behind group and Susan had no alternative but to shoot him, leaving the other one to jump overboard and swim away unscathed. Within minutes both Peter and Edmund had returned to them on the shore, one with the row boat in tow and the other carrying what looked to Buffy to be a height-challenged person. After Peter placed him on the sand, Lucy knelt down next to him and by means of her small dagger she cut away his bindings. When she was done she scurried back to the security of Susan’s reach.

“Drop him!” the dwarf said coughing from the forced swallowing of water. “That’s the best you could come up with?”

“A simple thank you would suffice,” Susan replied slightly affronted that her help had not been appreciated.

“They were doing fine drowning me without your help.”

Peter glared at the rude little man, “Maybe we should’ve let them.”

“Maybe we should kill him now,” Buffy added supportively. At the group’s and the dwarf’s glare she sighed, “It was a joke. Like I would ever kill anything.”

“Why were they trying to kill you anyway?” Lucy asked their guest.

“They’re Telmarines – that’s what they do.”

“Telmarines? In Narnia?” Peter questioned vehemently.

The dwarf just stared at them like they were senseless, “Where have you been for the past few hundred years...”

“It’s a bit of a story actually,” Lucy told him.

He looked at them each in turn, together with Buffy – if you consider a malevolent defiant stare as a look. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. You’re it? You’re the Kings and Queens of old?”

Peter stepped forward extending his right hand for a handshake, “High King Peter, the Magnificent.”

“Magnificent?” Buffy asked trying not to laugh. She simply couldn’t help it, it just sounded so tasteless to introduce yourself that way.

“You probably could’ve left off the last bit,” Susan told him in much the same predicament as Buffy.

Their guest did not bother to restrain himself and chuckled out loud, “Probably.”

Peter was as expected affronted and to some extent discomfited by the reactions of those around him, but chose to take the high road and take no notice of them. “You might be surprised.”

As Peter unsheathed his sword, the group stared at him apprehensive at what he might possibly be planning to do with it. Wasn’t he going to go too far? Buffy was a little panicky, sure she had recommended slaughtering the dwarf, but she’d only meant it a little.

“Oh... you don’t want to do that, boy.”

Peter smirked, “Not me – him.”

Peter handed his sword to the dwarf – much to the relief of the girls – as Edmund unsheathed his own blade and settled into his recognizable battle stance. His diminutive adversary seemed to be taking a minute to work out the weight and balance of the untried weapon, which was until he attacked Edmund with a swiftness and ferociousness that surprised the onlookers.

“Edmund,” Lucy cried in astonishment.

“Aw, are you all right?” the dwarf asked facetiously.

Edmund’s face turned bright red with a combination of physical exertion and mortification, but he continued on without missing a single beat. The clashing of swords in an instantly recognizable dance of combat had everybody absolutely mesmerised, with the exception of Buffy who was speaking faintly to herself about what moves and counter moves she would make if she was one of the combatants.

Of course it did not make it any easier that the longer and more vigorous the sword fight became the more the necessity to kick ass rose within her being. It had simply been way too long since she’d had a thoroughly good quality slay – as of late the worth of vampires and demons in Sunnydale had been slipping. She considered that the anxiety of the circumstances must have been getting to her for quite a while if she felt the inclination to wrestle a dwarf.

Edmund won in the end, he used his proficiency to drive his adversary to his knees and knock the blade from his grasp and out of reach, and then pointing the sharp edge to his throat. The younger boy was breathing vigorously, but had the triumphant victory radiance that all warriors get when they have won the battle.

“Maybe,” he wheezed out painfully. “That horn worked after all.”

“What horn?” Susan questioned.

“Susan, there is no need to be rude,” Peter chastised his sister.

“If I were you...” Susan shot back. “I wouldn’t be casting any stones.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Buffy deposited herself between the furious siblings and then turned towards Peter. “She means that handing someone a sword and having them fight your own brother, isn’t exactly well-mannered behaviour.”

“You’re taking *her* side?”

“I’m on no one’s side,” Buffy replied with tremendous exasperation. “I just think that we’d be better off listening to the short guy-“

“The name’s Trumpkin,” he told them. “Now do you want to know what’s going on or not?”

The assemblage stopped what they were doing and looked at the most recent edition to their diverse gang, to a certain extent astonished at just how authoritative the dwarf could in reality be. Devoid of disagreement they - each and every one - turned their complete concentration to him.

“Okay,” said Peter, speaking for them all. “Go ahead.”

Trumpkin paced up and down in front of the group, hesitant of where to commence. After an internal deliberation he determined precisely where he should start and how much they should know. “There is a prophecy; I suppose that is what you would call it. The whisperings of it started just after you went away and the Telmarines started to invade. The essentials of it were that in the time of Narnia’s utmost need, the worthy one would blow the horn and summon the Kings and Queens of old.”

“Well, here we are,” Lucy said smiling at him.

“Although I thought that there were only four of you...”

Buffy shrugged her shoulders in a ‘who me’ gesture. “I’m no Queen, simply an undemanding by-stander drawn into this wacky world.”

Peter endeavoured to get the discussion back on track, “So somebody *worthy* blew Susan’s horn and called us here?”

“Yes.”

“Who?” Buffy asked.

“That Telmarine Prince,” Trumpkin answered. “Caspian’s his name.”

Peter shook his head in incredulity, “The *worthy* one is a Telmarine?”

“Well if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think he’s remarkably well-liked with the other Telmarines – since they were trying to kill him the last time I saw him.”

“So what do we do now?” Lucy asked the dwarf.

“We find Caspian.”

End Part

Lyrics:

Katie Arminger – Make Me Believe