The Scrubb family had been hosting the likes of two Pevensies for the last few fortnights. Harold and Alberta, the heads of the family, had been nothing but apathetic to the presence of their niece and nephew, and their time was consumed with the impending situation of the war. Their children, (Name) and Eustace, were their pride and joy. For the most part.
Their eldest, (Name), worked tirelessly for her father's company. The majority of her hours were spent holed up in her bedroom as she worked on the details of the next contract or in her father's office where she hoped to gather the praise of his attentions.
(Name)'s younger brother Eustace was much more engaged in irritating her than she would have liked. She loved him, as any sister would, but his presence tended to be more annoying than she'd cared to admit.
The arrival of (Name) and Eustace's cousins brought mixed reactions: (Name) was quite pleased to have some of her extended family staying, whereas her younger brother was everything but.
Lucy and (Name), as expected of Edmund, got on like a bumblebee in a flower-shop. As busy as (Name) was, Lucy was intent on helping her, even if the only help she could provide was company.
Unlike the two girls, the boys clashed terribly. Eustace's personality brought frustration, due to his uptight nature and pretentious diction. To put it lightly, Edmund thought he was a snob.
This afternoon, for example, after the Pevensie siblings came back from town, the two boys got into a bit of a spat upstairs.
(Name) and Lucy, who had been in the midst of prepping soup for supper and gossiping about Susan's potential love-life, had been brought into the girls' room to read Susan's most recent letter.
The siblings talked amongst themselves, and (Name) found herself gazing idly at the painting hanging on the wall across from her position sitting on the bed. Edmund had taken notice of the artwork as well, asking his sister to come take a look at it closely.
"It's very Narnian-looking, isn't it?" Lucy asked her brother.
"Yeah. Just another reminder we're here and not there," Edmund commented, failing to pull their cousin out of her thoughts. (Name)'s brother, however, did.
"There once were two orphans who wasted their time believing in Narnian nursery rhymes."
"Oh, shut up, Eustace. Don't be rude." (Name) gave her brother a stiff look. He ignored her.
"Please let me hit him..." Edmund grumbled to his sister. Lucy told him off immediately, and (Name) chuckled, used to the bickering of siblings by now. Eustace came to sit next to his sister, hiding behind her larger frame slightly.
(Name) turned her attentions back to the painting, bathing in the calm feeling that washed over her as she basked in the intricate details of the surf. Her family spoke amongst each other around her, but she got lost in the colours. She could've sworn those waves weren't as rolling before. And was the ship bigger than before?
The voices grew louder around her, but all (Name) did was stand from her place on the bed and make her way over to the painting. Lucy came and joined (Name). She had noticed something strange about it, as well, and now she began calling to her older brother. "Edmund, it looks like the water is actually moving."
Eustace cringed. "What rubbish! See? That's what happens when you read all those fanciful novels and fairy tales of yours." The elder boy squared his shoulders, a sneer stretching across his features. He countered with a rhyme that riled up his cousin even more. Their sisters were no longer bothered by their quarrelling, more-so by the ever moving water on the canvas. A dribble of water fell out of the frame.
"Edmund? The painting!" Lucy called. Neither of the girls could tear their eyes away from the ship that came nearer and nearer. Water sprayed out, coating both of their faces with a sheen of salt water.
(Name) pulled the painting from its spot and held it in her grasp. Eustace glanced at her and it quizzically.
"(Name), what's going on here—" At his words, water spilled out of the edges of the painting, pooling rapidly at the girl's feet. Eustace jumped back, frantically calling for his mother and pulling at the handle of the bedroom door. His efforts were fruitless, and he set his eyes on the painting. "I'll just smash the rotten thing!"
"You will not! This was grandfather's!" (Name) wrenched it out of his reach and brought it high above her head. The water began pouring out onto her shoulders, effectively drenching her blouse and curled hair. She dropped the painting to the ground.
As the water level grew in the room rapidly, the inhabitants grew more frantic, desperately trying to cover the painting and cease the flow of water. It grew deeper and deeper, until the room was filled and he Pevensies and Scrubbs were swimming to the surface.
They breached the water and were greeted not by the peeling flower wallpaper, but by the open ocean. The ship, once only a few strokes of paint on canvas, was looming towards them ominously.
"Eustace? Eustace! Come on!" (Name) called out for her brother, trying to locate him in the salty water. Hands grabbed onto her waist, and thinking it her brother, (Name) turns to grasp their form. However, the eyes that meet hers are not the familiar blue, rather a deep brown. "Who in the bleeding hell are you? Let go of me you prat!" (Name) struggled in their grip.
Lucy swam over, intending to help rid her cousin of this unfamiliar person, only to recognise them near instantly. "Caspian!" 'Caspian' nodded at her in greeting. "Edmund, it's Caspian!"
Eustace was the final person to board the ship, and (Name) pulled the towel from around her shoulders and placed it upon his own. She fussed with keeping him warm, and then (Name) turned to her female cousin, making sure that her hair wasn't drying matted.
"Are you alright, Lucy?" The young girl nodded, teeth chattering. (Name) glanced to her other cousin, seeing him conversing with Caspian. "Who is that?" (Name) asked.
Lucy looked in the direction (Name) was. "That's King Caspian. We know him from the last time we came to Narnia." (Name) paled, swivelling her attention back to her cousin.
"King? Narnia? You've got to be joking!" (Name)'s panic was forcefully interjected by a shrill shriek — a shriek (Name) all too easily recognised from when her brother didn't get his weekly dose of chocolate.
"Get that thing off of me!" He cried, a large rodent hopping around his feet.
Lucy's eyes lit up, and a word similar to the sound one makes when they sneeze left her lips: "Reepicheep!" Edmund came to stand by his sister's side.
The rat, whose name must've been called, turned to her and her brother. "Oh. Your Majesties." He bowed, a glint in his dark eyes. Eustace cried out, trying to bring the attention back to his hysteria.
"That giant rat thing—" (Name) sighed at his dramatics, bringing pair of fingers to her temple, "just tried to claw my face off!" Eustace gesticulated harshly, and (Name) was quite sure that if he wasn't careful, he would dislocate his shoulder.
"I was merely trying to expel the water from your lungs, sir," Reepicheep defended. The young boy's face dropped in shock, and he danced on the tips of his feet as he pointed at the rat.
"It talked! Did you see?" Eustace's eyes met his sister's, and (Name), though she was as equally new to the situation as he, rolled her eyes, smiling fondly. She turned and waved off her brother, more interested in figuring out if this was in fact a dream, and if she had fallen and bumped her head in the boys' room. "(Name)? (Name)! Don't ignore me!" Her brother called out, his voice getting progressively more frantic with every syllable.
(Name) reached the other side of the ship, away from the crew crowding around her dramatic younger sibling. After some manic yelling, she heard a thud and peered over her shoulder to see Eustace flat on the deck of the ship with a confused minotaur watching him in shock.
Her attentions were pulled away by Caspian, standing on the first few steps leading up above what she could only guess as the captain's quarters. "Men! Behold our castaways!" He gestured to (Name)'s cousins. "Edmund the Just, and Lucy the Valiant, High King and Queen of Narnia."
"High what?" (Name) mumbled to herself. "Oh, I've got to be dreaming." The crew around her got down on one knee, bowing at the two teenagers.
(Name) stared out on the open water for what felt like hours, and eventually the vocal roar behind her quietened, and the only roar that met her ears was the waves underneath the hull of the ship.
The sea rolled and crashed on itself below her. A humid and sticky breeze blew through her wet hair. The sting of the salty air bit at her eyes.
Someone came to stand next to her, and she elected to refrain from turning to them, believing that her thoughts were more important: "This is actually Narnia, isn't it?" (Name) asked them. They chuckled in response.
"What gave it away?" The voice rumbled. (Name) turned her face to them, being greeted by the scruff face of Caspian.
"I don't read nearly enough books to get a good enough idea of what the ocean looks and feels like. If I were dreaming, I don't think I would've thought it was like this." (Name) paused. "I'm (Name), by the way. I'm that melodramatic twit's elder sister. You know Lucy and Edmund already, yes?" Caspian nodded, a dark brow rising slightly. "They're our cousins, Eustace and I. They were staying with us until... whatever that just was happened. Hope that clears up any confusion of why we are with them."
Caspian released a breathy laugh. "I guess it does."
Sighing, (Name) turned to him full-on, her body facing his. "I apologise for interrupting your voyage. And I also apologise for my brother's dramatics." She curtsied slightly, her etiquette classes shining through her poised exterior. (Name)'s eyes dared not look him directly. "I would also like to say I am sorry for calling you a prat. I wasn't in a correct mindset to—"
"You don't need to apologise," Caspian chuckled. "Your brother was quite entertaining and your stress was understandable. Also, you don't need to be so formal. I may be a king, but you must be no younger than I." (Name)'s eyes searched Caspian's for any malevolence, only to come up empty and with a warmth of kindness instead. "It's a pleasure to meet you, (Name). I hope you enjoy your stay here on the Dawn Treader."
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