Love, It's An Interesting Thing

Chapter 13

The cordial didn't work...

I hear Ed speak up, bringing me out of my fearful and sad thoughts.

"Is there any way to change him back?" Ed asks, referring to Eustace.

"Not that I know of..." Cas says looking to see if Drinian knew. But everyone was silent.

"Mom will not be pleased..." I say.

Eustace gruffs in annoyance.

"Sorry about the hand, old boy. I can be a little overzealous at times." Reep apologizes.

I cock my head not knowing what Reep meant but I am brought out of that when I hear Tavros shout to Cas.

"The boats are ready, Sire!" Tavros shouts.

I look to Cas with Eustace on my mind.

"We can't leave him alone." Lucy says. I agree with her.

"Well, we can't bring him on board, Your Majesty..." Drinian says.

Cas looks back at me and then looks forward. "Drinian, you and the others take all but one boat back. The rest of us will stay here till morning and work out what to do." He says while handing Drinian the Lord's sword.

"But you've no provisions and no means of staying warm, Your Majesty..." Rhince reasons.

Suddenly, Eustace breathes fire onto a nearby log.

"You were saying?" Reep says and we all chuckle. I look at Eustace and smile, proud of him.

-----

We are all laying down under the stars. The boys are on the other side of the fire that Eustace made while I'm sleeping next to Lucy and Gael. I can't sleep so I look up and admire the sky, you never see stars like this back home.

Home.

The funniest feeling I have is that Narnia has been more of a home than England ever was. In England, there was war and parents who don't care about your opinion and only care about marrying you off to an abusive man twice your age so they can get money. But here in Narnia, the people are so caring and lovely, I don't have to worry about anything... well... aside from my hand. But overall, Narnia has Caspian... I don't know how but somehow over the span of the two months I've been here... I've fallen for the King. And he loves me back. He loves me for me, not for my looks, money, or anything else. I look over to see him and Ed talking.

I smile at them once again, happy that they are once again friends, well, more like brothers.

I look back up to the stars and a few stars start to shine more brightly than the others. I focus on those stars and I see something that makes me feel... amazing. I see the constellation of a lion shining, I smile at them and the stars fade back to their normal selves.

"I miss my mummy." Gael says, grabbing both mine and Lucy's attention.

"I miss mine too." Lucy says, trying to comfort her.

I think to myself and I feel guilty. I don't miss mine. I stay silent about that because I know saying that I didn't wouldn't help the situation. But I do decide to say something else, for both Lucy and Gael.

"Don't worry, you'll see her again." I say.

"How do you know?" Gael asks.

"You just have to have faith about these things." Lucy states. I smile at her.

"Aslan will help us." I say, looking back up to the stars where I saw the constellation before.

"But Aslan couldn't stop her from being taken." Gael says, sadness in her voice.

"We'll find her. I promise. Somehow..." Lucy gently says to her.

"Think about it this way, if she hadn't been taken, you and your father wouldn't be on this journey with us. We would've never met you or your father. 'Extraordinary things only happen to extraordinary people.'" I say to her, quoting Reep.

The girls smile at me and Gael yawns. "Goodnight, Your Majesties." She says. I wanted to correct her but she was already asleep. Lucy smiles at me and gets back under her blanket. I look back up to the stars and before I know it, my eyes have shut and dreams fill my mind.

-----

"Wake up, Jess! Come on you sleepy head!" I feel someone shaking me and trying to wake up.

"Nooo, five more minutes please..." I say, turning my body away from them. The voice starts to chuckle at me.

"Wake up, we see the Blue Star!" After hearing those words, I shoot up and look into the sky for it.

"I'm up! I'm up! Where is it?" I frantically say, looking for it.

I hear everyone laugh at my sudden outburst but I soon see Ed, who was the one waking me up, pointing to the star. I suddenly see it and it's so beautiful and well... blue.

I quickly celebrate and hug Cas good morning and give him a quick kiss. I see the blush come on his face and I chuckle at him. We all board the long boat and make our way to the ship. We eventually make it onto the ship and I head into the cabin to change into new clothes as I am still wearing the clothes that were ripped up and bloodied.

I take off my gloves to change and I then realize how heavy my arm is. I look down and my heart breaks. The gold has spread to the middle of my forearm, a few inches before my elbow... my fingers and wrist are completely non-functional...

I quickly change into a long sleeve shirt and put the gloves back on, I take a needle and thread and loosely sew my left sleeve to my left glove. I take a few minutes to do this as I am still scared of needles and don't know how to sew. But I don't want to risk the sleeve coming up so I do it anyways.

Just as finish getting ready, Lucy and Gael come into the room. "Good morning, girls." I greet, putting on a fake smile. Lucy gets ready rather fast and leaves saying she needs to talk with Ed about the Eustace situation.

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?" Gael asks me. I look at her in confusion.

"Nothings the matter, and I'm no royal, Gael, you know that." I chuckle at her.

"You might as well be since you're courting the King." She jokes to me as I continue brushing my hair. "But I can tell you're sad about something. Is it because you're going to have to leave eventually?" She asks.

I stop brushing my hair and I realize that she's right... I will have to leave eventually...

"Yeah, I am. I really love it here and I love the people here, especially you." I tell her.

'Aslan forgive me for how much lying I am doing.' I say to myself. Even though I was telling the truth in that second, I really didn't want to leave but that's not why I was originally sad.

She starts to change and I continue to get ready, it's taking longer than normal as I am only using one hand.

"Why are you wearing gloves, it's really hot out?" Gael inquires.

Think of another lie!

"Uhh, well ever since I got hurt from falling on that rock I figured that I should protect my hands since they're so easily hurt." I tell her, lying through my teeth.

"Oh, that's what my Aunt does too, well, I'm going to go find Daddy! I'll see you later!" She waves and leaves the room leaving me to think about all of the things that just happened and are happening.

1) The gold spread is getting worse. I don't know how long I can hide this. And I don't know how long I have until it consumes me entirely...

2) Caspian and I can't be together forever as I will eventually have to return to my normal, horrible life.

3) Our rations on the ship are low and the crew is starving.

And 4) Eustace is a freaking dragon.

I reach up and fiddle with my necklace, hoping it will give me some comfort.