Against the Tide - King Caspian X

~Chapter Five~ | Hey Munchkin

Trigger Warning: Mild panic attack

Alyn made her way towards the stern of the ship, where Drinian commandeered the ship. She walked up the stairs, her fingertips tracing lightly over the intricately carved handrail. 

She raised her hand in a quick greeting to a passing sailor, her eyes scanning for the captain. Soon enough, her eyes landed on the man, who was barking orders left and right.

Earlier that morning, one of the crew members had called a "land ho," and sure enough, there it was. Alyn had rushed out of her quarters with Lucy to see the mounds of land peeking up over the horizon, and she was sparked with a new level of excitement. 

Ever since the call, the main deck had been frantic with sailors bustling about, and the loud, commandeering shouts of Drinian mixed unusually well with the satisfied murmurs of the crew at the promise of rest and sustenance.

"Mind your helm, steady on the port!" Drinian roared as the main sail billowed overhead. Alyn repressed an excited grin. Her soft footsteps were not so quiet as to go unheard by the stoic captain, and he turned on his heel.

"Up early, are ya lass?" Drinian rasped, his voice rough from the constant shouting. 

Alyn shrugged, "Suppose I slept in a bit compared to the rest of the crew. I guess I just wanted to see where we would be docking. It's the first land I've seen in Narnia."

"Aye," Drinian nodded. "That's true. Just a warning to you, Miss Woods- the land we'll be porting on is unfamiliar. To all of us. We are prepared for nearly any outcome, but the likelihood of danger grows the further East we travel."

Drinian's warning did not fall upon deaf ears, and Alyn nodded. "I'm always up for an adventure."

The captain clapped her on the shoulder. "That's the spirit. Now, His Majesty is in the mapping room, and I need to prepare a landing party. You wouldn't mind going to fetch him for me, would you?"

"Right away, sir," Alyn didn't miss how he smirked proudly at her determination to carry on with their voyage, even at risk of a potentially dangerous encounter. 

She shuffled down the stairs and wove in an out between the masses of sailors on the top deck. She reached the double doors that separated her from the map room, and she knocked sharply.

"Yes? Who is it?" A tired voice spoke from the other end.

Alyn was taken aback. The man she spoke to only hours before had not sounded so rugged. She hesitated, but spoke quickly as soon as she realized her pause. "Erm- it's Alyn."

Immediately, she heard slight commotion behind the door, a gentle thud, and finally, the latch opened. Caspian pushed the door ajar, and he smiled at her softly. "Good morning, Miss Woods." His voice was gravelly, and she shuddered a bit.

"Good morning, Caspian. I wasn't disturbing you, I hope?"

Caspian shook his head rapidly. "No, no. Not at all. Your company is always welcome."

Alyn chuckled. "I wish I could say I was only here for the company, but Drinian sent me to come get you. He wants to start preparing a landing party."

Alyn thought she heard a light groan escape his lips as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. The dark circles under his eyes and the light scruff appearing on his chin suddenly became noticeable as his smile dropped ever-so-slightly.

"Very well. Is he up on the command deck?"

Alyn hummed distractedly in response. Caspian looked at her questioningly.

"Alyn?"

"Sorry, I just- is everything alright?" She pressed tentatively.

At her query, Caspian immediately straightened up. A gust of salty air brushed past them, and Alyn could already taste the salt sticking to her lips. Caspian's gaze fell downwards, but immediately raised.

"Yes, I'm quite fine," his tone was clipped, and Alyn knew not to push further. "Alyn," he nodded politely.

"Caspian," she dipped her head in acknowledgement as he walked away.

As she watched his retreating figure, she couldn't help but feel slightly dejected. 

'But why should you?' her inner voice chided. 'He's only a king that you met merely days ago.'

Alyn scoffed to herself. Only a king. That, among also being the most perplexingly placid, calm, yet somehow intimidating man she had ever met. Even on top of his gentle nature, she felt uneasy around him? Was it even unease? Maybe apprehension. Confusion? No. Intrigue, perhaps?

'Yes,' she thought. She would settle with intrigue. Her thoughts spun as the past few days slowly began crashing down on her. 

Her best friends were royalty. They were the kings and queens of a world nobody knew, and on top of that, they were on a boat- a remarkable vessel, by the way, on an adventure to lands that none of them, not even the sea-hardened Captain Drinian had seen before. And to top it all off, she was in the company of a bipolar king who seemed to have no regard for his own health.

She grasped the railing as her legs began to feel unsteady under her. She was so caught up in trying to not lose consciousness that she failed to hear Edmund approaching behind her.

"Alyn? Alyn!" Edmund called for her once, but his voice turned to worry when she didn't respond. His eyes flicked to her hands that were white-knuckling the railing, and he rushed to her side. He wrapped a steady arm around her shoulders and they sunk to the floor.

Her breaths were stuttering, and her hands were trembling. She's panicking, he thought. Edmund had had his fair share of panic attacks ever since the defeat of the White Witch. Her death may have freed the land of her reign of terror, but she remained vigilant in terrorizing Edmund's mind.

"Hey, easy there Alyn," he whispered to her, catching her attention. "You're going to be alright. I need to you find my breaths, and I need you to copy them. Count them. Ready?"

"Ed, I'm fine," she mustered out breathily.

Edmund scowled. "You're not. You're paler than a ghost and you're shaking. Breathe with me."

Slowly but surely, her stuttering breaths had begun to slow, and the rosy tint returned to her cheeks with each increasingly large inhale and exhale she took.

By the time she had stopped shaking, Edmund had removed his arm from around her shoulders, and they were both sitting upright against the railing.

Alyn smiled at Edmund with more energy than she had before, and Edmund could tell. He grinned.

"Hey, Munchkin. You okay?" he teased.

Alyn socked him in the shoulder, and he let out an affronted grunt.

"Don't call me a Munchkin, Princey," she shot back. Edmund stood up, and pulled Alyn up with him

"Stop being short, and then maybe I will."

"Oh, piss off."

A.N.:

That was such a shitty chapter, ngl.

Holy cow, okay so this is totally just a filler chapter, but it's the first thing I've written in over a year. I'll try to update more frequently, but I've got a lot going on, especially with my moving across the country. The next chapter is gonna be a super long one as consolation for the MASSIVE hiatus I took, and it's going to be the whole slave island fiasco.

Thanks for the continuous support and sticking by me, you guys <3 

Let me know if there is anything you want to see in this story.