Moonshine

Chapter 10- Anóitos

ανόητος: anóitos
Greek
fool
-

"Edmund, are you alright?" Susan asked, as she saw, for the fourth time, Edmund sit up on his bedroll and look around. He'd been tossing and turning the entire night- she had not expected him to sleep for long, but he hadn't managed to sleep for even ten minutes at a time. "Do you need to relieve yourself?"

"What?" Edmund blanched- he loved Susan, but the woman could be such a coddling presence, sometimes. Peter, too, but at least he was usually focused on Lucy and he didn't ask embarrassing stuff. He was so stupid- he should've just pretended to be asleep. "Er, no. I just can't sleep. Why are you awake?"

Susan rolled her eyes, and gestured to the sleeping Lucy next to her- the two Queens had been given a single cot to sleep on, and they'd decided it wouldn't be too difficult to share it.

"Little Lucy keeps kicking me, and pushing me out of the cot. I've given up on sleep for the night."

"Kicking- yes, Selene used to do that." He said slowly, struggling to remember. But he had to remember. If he forgot, he would never forgive himself. "Jem was an angel, but Selene kicked us like mad whenever she slept in our bed."

Susan cast a glance at her sister, before turning to her brother again, "How'd you make her stop?"

"We didn't." He shrugged, the thin blanket wrapped around him like a shawl. "She was a little baby, Su, her kicks didn't hurt. At some point in the night, she would latch onto one of us like plaster, and that was that. She just wanted to be held, have some contact. It's common in babies and toddlers, apparently."

"Had you finally found baby books in the Cair Library?"

"No- Sanya's mum. She was a treasure trove of knowledge-" He spoke with a frown, "which was a surprise, to be honest. I didn't expect a Queen- and a High Queen, at that- to be so hands-on with raising children."

"Her family was nice." Susan mused, sighing. "It's a pity we didn't spend much time with them- but our royal lives were rather busy."

"At least you three-" He pointed to Peter, too, who was slumped against a wall and snoring slightly, "didn't have mountains of paperwork to deal with. I'd rather battles over paperwork."

"Oh, don't lie." She replied, a grin stretching over her face. "You enjoyed the paperwork. All the ability of approving new regulations- of chatting on matters of diplomacy and the state- and sending passive-aggressive letters to arsehole nobles- they were all up your alley."

"Perhaps," It was rather satisfying to finish drafting out new laws, Edmund had to admit, and it had been fun being politely rude to certain dignitaries, "but my hand would hurt a lot, and I'd be covered with ink by the end of the day."

"And it's such a pain to have a bath, after all." Susan spoke with a laugh- but a quiet laugh, so as to not wake up her siblings. The four had been given an alcove to themselves- it smelled like fish and eggs and meat, and she was rather sure it had been used for storage before it'd been offered as their sleeping quarters. "I wish we could have a bath."

"We're too old to have baths together, Susan."

"No, you ass." She laughed again. "I just mean- a warm bath, in a large tub, or a bathing pool, like we had in Cair. We'd be cleansed- and warm and at peace."

"I don't think wishing for anything- or anyone- we had in Cair is a worthwhile activity, Su." Edmund said heavily, biting his lip. "We should- we should just- we should simply be glad we're in Narnia again. That we're back home."