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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 0:24:51 GMT -4
With his arms around her she rested her head against one of his bicepts and used it as her pillow. She liked the feeling of his warm skin against her face. Then, all at once, she felt all her weriness of the day, the waking early, the excitement, and the children, all fall on her at once. She closed her eyes willing sleep to come. Think only of Caspian, she told her mind, think only of him and your children and maybe you'll have a peaceful night.
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 0:51:44 GMT -4
He tried and tried to stay awake. Opening and closing his eyes, neither one seemed to help. Eventually it came to the point that he couldn't tell if he was staring at the wall or the back of his eyelids, and the monster that he had been trying to avoid for what seemed to him an eternity, sleep, finally bit him. His eyes, if they weren't already, snapped shut. His mind and soul drifted far from his body, to a not-so-far, familiar land.
The sky was sunny, and not one cloud dotted the sky. A deep deception to everything. His shaking fingers traced the name on a gravestone lovingly, as if by some unknown magic the person would come back to life. Would appear from behind some unseen tree, laughing, and telling him it was just some sick joke that they had played on him. Some kind of tradition that he was a stranger to. But that never happened. The person lay beneath the soil in eternal rest. When Caspian realized that nothing could be done, that never again would he enjoy a conversation, share a meal, play a game, tell stories to, or embrace the person in his arms, his legs betrayed him beneath the weight of his heavy heart. His arms wrapped around the headstone, and his tears fell into the planted flowers that tickled his face. It was his fault. All of it was his fault. He couldn't protect her. He couldn't look up at the name. He knew who it was already, but never could he bare to see it on the stone of a grave. But somehow, his eyes, like everything else, deceived him. They looked up at the name, which was blurred from the tears. After staring, they were able to read the letters. Susan Miraz. Caspian couldn't be here, couldn't be anywhere. Anywhere else that he went made him feel as if he should be here, at the cemetary. He removed a knife from his boot and held it to his own throat, crying. He pressed down. But just before he could draw even a drop of blood, he threw the blade aside as if it burned him. Susan would have never wanted him to end his life that way. It was dishonorable. Caspian couldn't stand, couldn't walk, couldn't move. He was paralyzed by sorrow. The sadness seeped into his very bones and shocked them with an evil electricity. Somehow, he managed to put his hands infront of him. Inch by inch, the King crawled on the ground like a cripple. He made his way to their special tree, their secret place. Caspian gripped the solid wood as if his life depended on it, before grabbing the hilt of his sword and pulling out from the sheath at his belt. He had no life. Or at least he wouldn't after this. She wouldn't come running back to him through the forests of England. Wouldn't call his name through the heavy air that smothered him. He began to chop at the tree. Little by little, woodchips flew from the great oak. NO! a voice screamed at him. DON'T! ARE YOU STUPID? THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE LEFT! But still he chopped. Then Caspian himself was within the tree, watching the other him chipping away at the wood. When the tree fell, his life would end. Caspian would be dead. He would lie there on the ground, and no one would ever find him. . .
The King screamed in his sleep.
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Post by Lamont on Sept 21, 2008 1:08:25 GMT -4
The young deity smiled. Behind him the wolf came padding in and the demons trailing behind. They stood upright and seemed very much like humans, but their skin was like stone and their eyes were red as fire. They too smiled as they heard the prince's cry. Good, the fight's half done. He is afraid, he thought. "Balstone," the biggest of them bowed as he pointed his perfect sword to the window that his cousin had screamed from. "There, in that room, is where my captured bride and child lies. I want her unharmed and him beaten to the edge of death and both brought to me. I doubt either would be able to put up too much of a challenge, even for the weakest of all hell's children."
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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 1:13:55 GMT -4
She lie at the base of their tree, counting the leaves. Each time she said a number a small voice echoed from in her arms. She smiled and kissed the child's head, he learned quickly.
But her dream would not last much more than a few moments. The sound of his screaming woke her and she instantly was closer to him than when she was asleep. She held his shoulders gently and kissed him tenderly trying to calm him before she asked anything. She could have guessed it was a nightmare, they seem to come more and more often these days, but then again it could have been any number of things. "It's alright," She said holding him for what may have been the first time, "It's over."
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 1:30:47 GMT -4
Light sweat coated his skin when he awoke. Susan's face was so close to his that he jumped. A moment ago she had been dead, never to look at him with those wonderful eyes again. Immediately she had embraced him, and he let her hold him. He let her kiss him, and his mind worked wildley in his skull. It's alright, it's over. her sweet voice had said in his ears. So that was what had happend. He had only been dreaming. Caspian breathed in deeply attempting to calm himself. He would not be frightend at the dreadful hand of his worryful thoughts that corrupted his sleep. He kissed her, and was about to lay his head back down on the pillow, when an odor entered his nose. His hair stood on end. His heart stopped beating. His entire body shook. Demons. Their stench was powerful, as was their strength and everything else about them. They could stare you down, freeze you with fear. Caspian leapt up from the bed and strapped his sword to his waist. He grabbed his sheild and handed Susan her bow and arrows. "We have to hide, now!" he said urgently. The beasts of Hell were directly under his window, but they would have to come in through the front door if they wanted to enter the castle, and that meant coming across the bridge. Caspian and his lover had time, but little of it. "Raise the bridge!" he shouted out his bedroom door. "Secure the Castle!" He turned back to Susan and grabbed her hand.
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Post by Lamont on Sept 21, 2008 1:44:09 GMT -4
Go ahead, he said as his cousin tried to block his demons, try and stop me He watched as the bridge was raised and crossbowmen lined the castle walls. Fools. The balstone skin was too hard for any earthly weapon to penitrate. That was why he chose them. The crossbowmen fired and wound up more ammunition. The arrows clinked against their skin and did nothing more. Balstone, the leader, roared at the human's defiance of his power. He growled at his warriors and they lined against the castle wall. Again the arrows pelted them, but they took no notice. Balstone roared again and they all threw themselves at the stone wall. A small crack appeared close to the leader. It would not be long before they broke through.
"Just for fun . . ." Lamont thought over his desicion before looking back to his servant, "Morgrim, go and fetch the Elite Lansa." And the wolf obeyed.
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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 1:58:20 GMT -4
A few of the arrows were dropped as he pulled her. The smell was strong enough it could have knocked her over. It reacted with her mind, sending fear into her simply because she did not know what they were or how to stop them. The fear, in turn, reacted inside her sending her children in a panic. They swam and kicked and fought with eachother, all bringing pain to her. She fought to keep the pain from her pain and her eyes. She pulled from his grip and ran to the window and aimed an arrow at the biggest, the one she hoped was leader. But when she fired it only bounced off his shoulder as if it were nothing but a pebble. The monster roared and the castle shook. She stumbled for a moment, barely catching herself, before going back to Caspian. "What do we do?" She asked almost begging. She didn't want this. She had caused it and it was likely that someone was going to die.
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 2:05:58 GMT -4
Caspian racked his brains, thinking. "Blind them." he said. They were nothing without their eyes. True, they were very strong with tough skin and heavy muscles, but their eyes told them what to smash. Their sence of smell was low, and they couldn't really separate one scent from the other. Their ears were small, and it would take ten demons to hear what one human could. Perhaps, Caspian thought, if they were blind, they might wound each other. He shouted up to the archers, his voice carrying through the echoeing walls and through the ceiling. "Take their eyes!" Caspian took her by the hand again. "We have to hide!" he repeated. The archers would take care of most of the demons, but it was definate that some of them would get inside.
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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 8:32:18 GMT -4
She wanted to pull away from his grip. She wasn't one to hide, but one to fight. But as the castle shook once more and her children paniced with fear again she only nodded and accepted it. "Hoe do you expect us to blind them. We used to pour pitch over the edge of the castle walls and set fire to it. But you told them to stop making pitch, said it was a cruel way to die. No one's going to be able to get close enough to them to do anything before they're dead." She nearly collapsed against him. This was her fault for letting him hurt her in the first place. If anyone were to be hurt or die their blood would be on her hands, just like Swordtail.
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 8:46:27 GMT -4
"They don't even burn in the fires of Hell, how is pitch going to do anything to them?" Caspian asked. He racked he brains again. Demons... demons... how to get away from demons... He pounded on his head, trying to think faster. He would have stayed and fought against the unfightable, and he knew that Susan would have too. But that wasn't an option anymore, no matter how wrong it seemed. She was pregnant, she was his wife, she was his only family. Caspian's job now was to protect her with his life first and foremost, and then go back for the others. Any husband would see it as such. The church! "We have to get down to Aslan's Temple." he said. The church was built after the battle against Telmar, for any that felt the need to pray. "The demons can't touch us there."
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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 8:54:59 GMT -4
She couldnt think of anything better herself. The temple might actualy be their only hope. It had always been said that a beast of hell cannot stand to be in a holy place "Alright, we'll go there," She gave him her hand again and the castle shook. Now the archers above had run out of arrows and not a beast had a scratch on him. Seein this most of them paniced running from the castle screaming. If they ran too near a remon they would roar but do nothing more, they wern't here for the random people.
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 9:07:10 GMT -4
As soon as her aproval left her lips, Caspian started running. He lead her quickly down to the church of Aslan. The doors were golden, and the great figure of his head was engraved upon them. Windows on the doors were just inches above his mane, colored glass in their frames. The King opened the door and let them both inside, along with whomever else would like to come in, besides the demons of course. A sense of peace rushed over him. This would be their sanctuary. Caspian closed and bolted the door after he was sure that there were no more stray Narnians in the halls that were seeking refude in the the Temple. He ran around to the other side of the room and locked the corresponding door, twin to the one that they had entered. A bird flew high above them and locked the windows in the ceiling. Because the church was indoors, its windows did not lead outside. They simply either lead into the attic or some other forgotten and unused room of the Keep. Caspian drew his sword and stared, expecting the demons to find them right away and attempt to knock down the door. But they must not have seen them, because they didn't even glance in the church's direction. Caspian sighed. Had his plan worked? Probably. All that was left now was to test it.
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Post by Lamont on Sept 21, 2008 9:19:35 GMT -4
The pathway into the keep was beginning to open just as the wolf returned. "They come my lord," he said. The Elite Lansa were not ones to follow orders instantly, but they would come. He did not see or hear Susan or Caspian in the room any more. They had to have fleed, but they can't hide forever. A portion of the stone wall fell apart, the siege could begin. And the timeing was perfect, the Lansa were here. The Elite Lansa were unlike the Belstone. They did not stand or run like men, but like lions. Their bodies looked much like one, powerful and lean as it ran on all fours. It even had a lion's mane, but this mane was of fire. Many nights a Lansa would invade a village or city, burning it down with its firemane. These creatures were much smarter, much more cunning than the Belstone. Susan would not hide from him much longer.
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Post by Queen Susan the Gentle on Sept 21, 2008 9:27:14 GMT -4
Susan took a hiding place far in the back of the church. Some of the Narnians, like Reepicheep and his men, went to stand beside Caspian. But most of them went to her and stood in her hiding place. A minotaur calf wrapped his arms around Susan's looking as though he would cry. She did not see a mother for him and his father stood beside Caspian. Then there was silence, the castle did not shake, the demons did not roar. Tention and fear built among the Narnians so thick it could've been cut with a knife. It was the silence before battle, fear before death.
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Post by King Caspian X on Sept 21, 2008 9:37:50 GMT -4
Caspian watched as they Narnians outside of the church finally realized that the demons weren't here for them. Not the Balstone or the Elite Lansa. They stood there in fear, but a Narnian would not be frightened forever. Some of them went into the storage rooms and grabbed more arrows and swords for their unarmed friends. Brave Narnians stood, ready to shoot. Some of them struck the Elite Lansas, their arrows piercing through the soft, but muscular bodies. The Lansa didn't seem to care much for their falling comerads. Without love, without emotions, the fallen beasts were nothing more than worthless corpses to them. But the demons kept coming. Not even Lamont could touch the church anymore. He had been human, once. But no longer. He had surrendered that with the curse of the island. He had given it up when he had become the son of Tash. As with all 'blessings' from the Devil, there comes a price with it. Caspian stood, sword and sheild ready. Again, he was preparing for what could be.
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