Inheritance: Scales of Change

Chapter Three - Expectations

Your ankle throbbing kept waking you up throughout the night. It didn't matter which way you lay. It was sore to the touch and felt swollen. You tried to get up a few times to read through your mother's journal for something to reduce swelling but you couldn't even put weight on it. Frustrated, you lay in bed awake and in pain, waiting for morning for someone to come knock on your door.
You replayed the events of the evening in your head to keep your mind off the pain. "Caspian missed you..." That meant nothing. Of course you missed each other, you spent almost every day of the last couple months together, only to stop spending time together suddenly. Friends miss each other when they don't see each other. They also enjoy spending time together. That is totally normal. It means nothing.... Caspian also mentioned a pirate ship from Terebinthia attacking the Dawn Treader a while back...as Captain that is something you need to take note of. Focus on that. Would they attack you? Not if they see the Reina with you. "We are pirates after all..." Sevas' words echoed in your head. "We" meaning you and he...you're a pirate captain, who doesn't attack other ships, doesn't plunder, and is under the command of the King of Narnia... what the hell kind of pirate are you? If Caspian weren't with you... would you act like a pirate? Would you attack other passing ships? "No. That's wrong." Ugh.
You tried to get comfortable, "ow..." you said out loud as your ankle protested. "It's just a title..." a means to an end. Once this is all over, you'll give it up to someone who actually wants it, to sit in the inn... day after day... doing the same thing every day... You don't want that either. "Shut up," you said out loud to the voice in your head. What if you kept the title? Stayed Lord of the Scale... but changed the job description... what if the Lords of the Scales were respectable sailors, what if you were all under the command of the King of Narnia? Narnian Privateers... Would they agree to that? You thought a few of them, namely Cale and Lalin might... and even Sevas now knowing how Caspian has treated Telmar... Rictor might enjoy piracy a little too much and who knows about the sixth... it's a nice dream anyway... you thought as you finally drifted into sleep.

* * *

You had just closed your eyes... "Captain?" you heard from the other side of the door.
"Yes?"
"May I bring your breakfast?"
"Yes. But before you do, please get Cas...err.. Raxe for me." You almost fell into old habits asking for Caspian. What was the King of Narnia supposed to do about your swollen ankle? It's not his job to take care of you...
"Yes, My Lady."
You sat up, and in the daylight examined your foot. It looked really bad... There was clearly a large bruise on the outside of your ankle where you probably landed on it when you fell, but the whole thing was swollen and red. Perfect.
"Bun?" Raxe knocked.
"I need your help." You sighed.
He opened the door, "what... OH JEEZ." He saw your injury. "What happened?!"
"I think it was from when I fell last night."
"Does it hurt?"
"I mean...yea..."
"Was it like that last night?"
"Not until after we went to bed. Can you just grab my moms journal for me?" You pointed to it on the desk.
"I should go get Caspian..."
"No. I don't want to bother him."
"You're not going to be able to hide that from him... I mean... can you even walk?"
"Raxe... the journal?"
He sighed and handed it to you. You began to flip through the pages.
"Can you move it at all?" He continued to question you.
"Yea. It's not broken. I think it's just sprained or bruised."
Another knock saved you from further questioning as you waved him off to answer the door for you. He placed your breakfast tray on the table.
"Here." He poured you a cup of coffee and brought it to you. "What does your mom say?"
"She says peppermint...and lavender, and something called copaiba if we can get it...but she says it's hard to come by. Also to keep it elevated or soak it in cold water."
"Alright then, up you get." He motioned for you to lay back in bed. Then took a few pillows and put them under your foot. You winced as it came to rest on the pillows.
"I'll go ask Ryebiter for the herbs. Don't get up." He scolded you in advance.
He had left you for only a few minutes when your father knocked on the door.
"Raxe told me what happened, Bug are you ok?"
"Big mouth..." You murmured.
"He's worried. I am too." He looked at your ankle. "That looks really bad..."
"I think it looks worse than it is."
"Well either way, I'm glad he told me. You need to stay off that leg for at least the rest of the day."
"Ugh. How am I supposed to get anything done?"
"You're not. That's why you have a first mate." He smiled and kissed your forehead. "I'll come check on you in a bit."
You flipped through your mother's journal a bit more. She really had an answer for everything. The common cold, warts, headaches...you wondered if she had found a cure for this mysterious plague...
Another knock. "It's me." Raxe announced as he opened the door "and..."
"I told you not to." You sighed as Caspian entered behind him.
"I commanded him to tell me what was going on." Caspian rushed over to the bedside. "He's terrible at hiding his panic..."
You gave Raxe an annoyed look, he shrugged.
"Why didn't you want me to know?" Caspian asked.
"I didn't want you to worry...it's not your job to worry about me."
"It is. It will always be." He shook his head at you. "That looks really painful..."
"It's not too bad." You lied.
"What do I do with these?" Raxe held up the herbs.
"Mom says to make a compress with them, here I can..." You tried to sit up, and Caspian pressed his hand on your shoulder, keeping you down.
"You cannot. We will handle it. Just tell us what to do."
You explained to them how to crush up the herbs, and how it would need to be wrapped into a bandage around your ankle.
"I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you more..." Raxe hesitated as he was ready to wrap it.
"I'll do it..." Caspian took it from him, then hesitated as well.
"Seriously... I can do it..." You again tried to sit up.
"No, no.." Caspian sighed. "Ok...please just tell me if I'm hurting you.."
He sat at the foot of the bed, and gently lifted your leg onto his lap. You tried to suppress a groan as the pain shot up your leg. He stopped, and looked as if afraid he was going to break you.
"I'm fine... it's just pain..." You gritted your teeth.
"You're astounding." He chuckled.
"I feel useless." Raxe stood there, just watching.
"You are." You laughed. "Go do something." You shooed him out of the room.
"Ok but... if you need anything."
"I will call you. Thanks Fox." You smiled at him assuredly.
"Alright, let's try this again..." Caspian lifted your leg, just slightly to get the wrap underneath.
You hissed through gritted teeth. "Fuck..."
"I'm sorry.. I'm sorry..." He continued to wrap your ankle as you clenched your fists in pain.
"Brave girl, good girl... almost done..." He spoke softly to you, and strangely enough the praise helped. "There we go..." He lay your foot back down on the raised pillows.
"I would thank you, but I hate you right now..." You groaned.
He laughed. "I know, that's ok." He placed his hand on your uninjured bare leg, sending a warm sensation up your body, flushing your cheeks.
"Sorry..." He moved his hand away.
"It's ok." You smiled. "I...don't mind..."
"Ok." He responded, almost shyly, and put his hand back. "You know...I wasn't sure if you'd want me in here... I thought maybe that's why you didn't want Raxe to tell me."
"Oh..." You blushed. "No, that's not it..."
"You know that no matter what our...relationship... is, I will always care if you're hurt."
"I know. That's kind of why I didn't want you to know. I was worried that you would feel... I don't know... responsible for me or something..."
"Again, that's regardless of our situation. The promise I made you back at the inn, to keep you safe at the cost of my own comfort, I still intend to keep that."
"I forgot about that." You smiled.
"You make it very difficult at times, you know that?"
"I know..." You chuckled. "Sorry."
"Don't be." He gently rubbed his fingers back and forth over your leg. "If you made it easy, I might get bored." He teased.
A tingle ran up your inner thigh. "Oh? You like when I make things hard?"
He choked a little on his laugh, "You...do make things...very hard..."
"Sorry..." You blushed. "My sense of humor..."
"I know." He chuckled warmly. "It's one of the reasons I fell in love with you in the first place."
You must have been the same shade as Sevas' ring. Your mind raced for a distraction, anything that could change the subject. Take your attention off his gentle touch rubbing your leg, or his strong hands wrapping your ankle...calling you a "good girl..."
"OH! I thought of something last night." You suddenly remembered your racing thoughts about privateering the Six, and recounted them to Caspian.
"Oh wow. That's an idea alright..." He sat in thought.
"Is it that crazy?"
"Well no, not really but, I'm not sure a countryless rogue group of pirate captains would agree to fall in under a country's rule. Doesn't that defeat the exact point of becoming a pirate in the first place?"
"I mean yea, maybe, but I think most of them would agree to it, especially if it was you they'd be serving under."
"Well they'd all have to agree to it. Isn't that the point of the Six?"
"I think I could talk them into it. Cale and Lalin wouldn't take much convincing, and Sevas already holds a loyalty to Telmar, which by extension is to Narnia as well..."
"Ok, ok. We'll table this, you need to get better first. Before you hold any world changing discussions My Lady." He gave you a playful pinch on the leg.
"Ow!" You laughed.
"Now the other one doesn't hurt as bad." He chuckled.
He didn't leave your side, even when you tried to insist you would be fine for a few hours he would plant himself firmly wherever he was and tell you to make him leave. Which of course you didn't want to. He was in the middle of recalling an adventure of his with a funny group of people called dufflepuds, when Nightfeather fluttered gracefully into the room and landed on his cage.
"Oh!" You exclaimed "Caspian..."
"I see, I see." He chuckled and stood to retrieve the letter.
"There's only one, addressed to both of us." He unrolled it and began to read aloud: