𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘, s. pevensie

v. the deal

JAMES HAD BEEN ALONE ONCE AGAIN ever since Yuni Amlosh had passed away. Apart from Cypauck, the young girl had no other social connections, no friends. At most times, it didn't bother her, considering she lived separated from the people of the town.
But sometimes, when she remembered the fun times she had with Yuni, she missed having friends.

One day, when James had decided to go to the town to buy some food that they didn't already have on the farm.
And, as Aslan wanted it, she had no other choice but to walk right by a group of centaur kids fooling around with a ball.
The leader of their group, Grayd was one of the most popular but also mean zentaurs to ever exist (in James' opinion).

Sighing, James kept her head down and hid her face under hood, still heading directly for the shop.
Out of nowhere, the ball that the zentaurs played with, appeared in front of her feet and made her stumble and fall to the ground in surprise. James yelped as she tripped over the ball and made it fly right back into the face of Grayd.

The centaur cried out as well and immediately grabbed his nose, where blood was leaking from. It looked like it wasn't broken though, which made Grayd calm down a bit.

"Shit!", the girl swore as she noticed the damage she had done. James pulled herself up again and ran to the centaur. Even if she didn't like him, she was still kind enough to help him if he needed it.

Unbeknownst to her, unfortunately, Grayd was well aware of the power he held in this situation and decided to use it.
Faking the pain, that was actually long gone, he cried out: "Ow! Are you crazy? You broke my nose! I am bleeding, you cunt!"
Panicking, James didn't know what to say, so she just stuttered some words.
"I, I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

People had started to turn around and follow the conversation that went down but not a single individual wanted to do anything.

"Can I, can I well, make it up to you again... somehow?"
Grayd's facial expressions instantly changed and he smirked. "Yes, yes there is."
The zentaur grabbed James' hand and lead her, not so gently, into a dark alleyway.

The girl kept her hand down. She knew, she shouldn't have said that. Every little child had been told the lesson to keep away from dark alleyways, bad things happened there and no one, except the assaulter, ever returned satisfied and happy. James didn't know why she didn't try to protect herself, maybe it was because she herself had asked if she could make it up to him again. She should've know that it would end like this.

Grayd stopped abruptly and let go of James' wrist. He turned around and lifted up her chin. "James, look me in the eyes."
Resisting made matters only worse, that's what she was taught, so she gave in and lifted her face to stare back into Grayd's brown eyes.
"I have a deal for you," he smirked.

A shiver ran down, James' skin. She was frozen in place.

Grayd continued talking and proposing his deal.
"If you sneak into Cair Paravel and steal ten silver spoons, ten gold forks, ten gold knives, a glass made out of pure crystal and a golden pin from the High Kings's cloak until full moon, I won't tell anyone about this... incident."

James' eyes became big and a horrified "What?" escaped her mouth.
"You heard me right, whore. If you don't do it, I'll tell my father about you hurting me and then you can say goodbye to your little farm, poor little adoptive father and your own miserable life. Understood?"

With every word he had scooted a little closer, so much, it made James extremely uncomfortable because their lips were only millimeters apart. The girl had backed away everytime but now she pressed herself against one a dirty brick wall, just so the zentaur wouldn't be able to kiss her.
"Understood?", Grayd repeated more aggressive this time and James had to process his words once again.

This was the worst deal ever offered to her and it could either end up with her being caught and in prison, dead or free. She hoped for the third, since she had no other choice but to accept this deal or her only family left would be gone.

"Understood?"

James snapped out of her thoughts and slowly nodded. "Yes."
Grayd backed up to reach out his hand towards the girl to make this deal official. She breathed out, before she reached for his hand and shook it.
"You will steal those things and nothing happens to your little farm and so called father. Deal?", the zentaur made sure.
James nodded. "Deal."

As the tradition wanted it, they both spit on their handshake, so it was actually a real deal.

This was by far the worst decision, James had ever made in her life. Everything thing possible wrong would go wrong with her amount of luck.

Before walking away, Grayd leaned in and gave James a quick peck on the lips. She immediately slapped him for this and wipes of his spit and saliva.
The zentaur only smirked again and walked back to his friends.

James slid down the brick wall and cuddled up into a ball and let the tears flow. This was disgusting, she endangered her father by making the dumbest decision of her life and got kissed by a fifteen year old, money obsessed zentaur.

Sobbing, the girl sat in the alleyway for hours. Full moon was in three days and it was a two day walk to Cair Paravel and two days back again, as well. James, nor Cypauck, had a horse or cow or anything similar to that, that could've been used as a faster transportation.

"Shit!"

The shout echoed off of the walls and her sobs became louder, as she burried her face in her hands and gripped her hair ao tightly, she almost ripped it all out.

As the stars shone high on the sky, James finally decided to leave the alleyway before the drunken men would start appearing.
With no message left behind, James started heading towards the castle, she didn't exactly have any other choice since she had already wasted too much time.

The girl could only hope, that her father wouldn't worry too much.

So, she began her way towards the palace in dirty leather boots, outworn trousers, a cloak, a dagger, a sack of coins and her bow and arrows that she kept with her ever since she once got attacked by one of the Witch's wolf packs.

The stars were her guardians of the night and would show her the right way to the residence of the Kings and Queens of Narnia, Cair Paravel.