The Duel (Lennia)

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len watched. "Hunter and Sparks really like each other. He knows their pups as well" She said. It was nice to see two parents take good care of their kids even if they weren't human. Things were different at the palace.

[Damian]

Damian nodded. "Hunter's a good papa, aren'tcha boy?" he asked the dog, who rested his head on Sparks' shoulder and licked his black nose.

"Kids! Dinner!" Mary called them.

Damian stood up and licked his lips, excited to get a meal from home after so long. His mother was a good cook. He offered Len a hand. "Hungry?" he asked her.

"C'mon upstairs, Damian!" that was Frank. "And bring your girlfriend with you!"

Dami's face went red again. "Here we go again." he said, and laughed. "I'm really sorry about that. You'll have to forgive Papa, he thinks he's funny."

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len accepted Damian's hand and stood. She also flushed red. "It's alright, really. I think your parents are alright" She smiled and followed Damian up the stairs.

[Damian]

Damian stepped into the kitchen and sniffed the air happily. "What's for dinner?" he asked aloud.

"Pasta." said his mother. "And meatballs and cheese bread and salad."

"Food." said Frank, laughing a little at his own stupid joke. "Come and sit down, please." he said, patting a seat next to him for Damian to sit. "Your girlfriend can sit next to you."

Dami had had enough, and leaned forward after sitting down to speak with his father. "Dad can you please stop with the girlfriend thing? Len and I are just friends and that's really starting to get embarrassing."

"Just friends. If you say so." Frank said skeptically. "And it's my job to embarrass you, son. When you have kids, you can embarrass them."

"I mean it." Damian said. "She's just my friend. Leave it alone."

"I said the same thing about your mother when I first met her." Frank sighed as if he was going to tell a long story.

Damian clapped a hand to his forehead and let it slide down his face. "Not another story, Papa." he complained. "Please. Just stop with the girlfriend jokes."

"Fine." Frank laughed, and looked up as Mary placed the bowl of pasta down on the table. She took a seat next to her husband.

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len smiled as she sat next to Damian. She liked pasta and hadn't had real homemade food in a while. She looked over to Frank. "Actuly I wouldn't mind hearing the story, if it isn't too much trouble" She said with a warm smile. She knew Damian would be mad at her for a bit but she knew he wouldn't stay angry for a while, it would be nice to hear a story.

[Damian]

"During dinner I'll tell it." said Frank, smiling slyly.

Damian's head fell in defeat, and he looked at Len. "Why?" he mouthed. The story would of course be reflected to Len's visit in some way or another, and Frank would say something embarrassing again.

Mary held our her hands, taking Frank's hand in one and Len's hand in the other. Frank took Damian's hand, and Damian took Len's hand. Then Mary bowed her head and prayed to Aslan, thanking him for the food and visit from Damian and Lennia.

Damian bowed his head too and closed his eyes, listening to his mother's prayer. When it was finished, he said, "Amen." and picked up his fork and knife.

Frank clapped his hands together. "Now, for the story." he said with enthusiasm.

Damian put a fork full of spaghetti to his lips, chewing it slowly and trying to distract himself from his father's words. Though it was no use. Frank was loud.

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len bowed her head in the prayer. She looked up and whispered Amen afterwords. She took her fork and started eating her pasta, enjoying the flavor. She listened intently to the story.

[Damian]

"When I was young," Frank began, sitting back in his chair and making himself comfortable. "About your age, you two," he said with a wink, mentioning Damian and Len, "I met a girl named Mary." His wife smiled at him and listened as she ate, dipping her bread into the sauce and biting it. "Now, it started out as just a simple friendship. Nothing more than a how-do-you-do, and a nice-to-see you-again. And we laughed and played, and I let her hang out with my group of friends and myself, and she fit right in. Then one day, she asked if I could help her with something. I, of course, said that I would. Turns out that her window had broken, and she didn't know how to fix it. So, I rode my horse over to her house and burned the glass back together. She said thank you, I said your welcome, and that was it. Little did I know, or she, for that matter, that the window hadn't broken from old age. A robber had been trying to brake into her home." Mary nodded, smiling as if she knew what was to come next, because she did. "Now, mind you," said Frank, "Her and I have gotten to become real good friends. Best buddies, as a matter of fact. And I went home, climbed in bed and went to sleep. A few days passed by, nothing out of the ordinary. We play, we talk, same old same old. But that night, I heard her screaming. The robber had come back. We each had our own houses now, and there weren't any parents there to protect her. The perfect setting for a criminal. So I leaped from my bed in my pajamas, grabbed my sword, and rode out to her home. When I got there, he had her pinned to the wall and a knife to her throat, demanding that she give him money that she didn't have." Frank paused, waiting for their reactions.

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len had her eyes closed as she listened. She envisioned ever moment as his words formed their story. She opened her eyes when he stopped. "So what happened next?" She asked before taking another bite of her pasta.

[Damian]

"Let me guess," said Damian. "You slayed the thief and swept Mom off her feet, just like in faerie tales?" he asked, half sarcastically.

Frank laughed. "Let me continue." he said, settling back into his seat. "I shouted to get his attention, and he turned to look at me. I had my sword raised, and one foot half-way in the air, ready to jump at him and cut his throat. But that didn't happen. That bastard had me on the ground before I could blink, and the next thing I knew I was knocked out. When I woke up, the robber was in a pool of blood, and I was lying on the couch by the fire. When my vision came back, I saw Mary stroking my head and wiping away blood from my forehead." At this, his wife leaned against Frank and wrapped both of her arms around his left arm, and kissed the scar on his forehead. Frank paused to rest an arm over her shoulders and peck the top of her head before continueing. "You see," he said, "The man had struck me with the butt of the knife, and the girl Mary, she bashed his head in with her father's hammer." Frank said. "And when I looked up at her, there was something different. The way the fire reflected off of her face, or the worry in her eyes. . . there was surely something that had changed. I opened my mouth to ask her what had happened, but she placed a finger to my lips and kissed me. We both looked at each other, dumbfound, and then we smiled at one another. After that, we bother knew what had changed. We fell in love. Then we started dating, one thing lead to another, and here we are." Frank finished. Then he sat up straight again. "And you know what?" Damian swallowed, knowing that this was the relate-it-to-the-present part of the story. "The whole time that Mary and I were simply friends, my Father called her my girlfriend. And we denied it, just as you both do."

Damian's face went red again. "That doesn't mean anything." he grumbled. "Why can't we just be friends? What you're doing is just embarrassing. We've only met twice, too."

Frank laughed. "I like your girlfriend." he whispered to Damian, loud enough so that everyone could hear them, and ignored his son's embarrassment. "She' cute, and she likes to hear my stories."

"Dad, she's not my girlfriend." Damian said, his voice half-full with agitation.

"Look at her, Damian." Frank continued to whisper, and grabbed his Dami's head and turned it sharply so that his son was forced to look at Lennia. "You look at her and tell me she isn't pretty."

"Yes, Dad, Len is beautiful. But we're just friends. And what' the point of whispering? You do know that she can hear every word that you're saying. She has ears."

"It adds effect." said Frank with a smile on his face, forking in a few noodles of pasta.

Damian just stared at him with his mouth hanging open. This was such a stupid arguement.

Mary thought that she might try and lighten the situation. She took a sip of water and spoke. "Maybe your friend might like to see your baby pictures?"

Damian's head hit the table in frustration. "No, Len doesn't want to see those." he said, and then grumbled, "God, why?" His face turned to Frank, pleading for assistance.

"Mary, maybe Damian's right. Lennia wouldn't want to see those." said his father. Damian sat up again and murmured a quick thanks to Aslan. But it didn't last as Frank spoke again, "You wouldn't want to scare the poor girl on her first visit."

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len liked the end of the story. She enjoyed the twist on the hero. When Frank started to talk to Damian she tried to block it out but her face was beet red. She tried to hold it back but it wasn't much use. "I think I will save the pictures for another time" She said hoping to save Damian the embarrassment. She smiled hoping her face was back to normal. "That was a very good story" She said, "And thank you for the dinner"

[Damian]

"You're welcome." said Mary.

Damian looked at Len thankfully. Thank God she didn't want to see the pictures.

"Thank you." said Frank, proud that at least someone had liked his stories.

Damian ate his salad, wondering what topics could possibly come up next.

"So, tell us about yourself, Len." said Frank, taking a bite of bread.

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len shook her head. "There really isn't much to say" She stated not knowing what to tell them.

[Damian]

Damian kept quiet, not knowing if Len felt comfortable sharing the information with Frank and Mary or not, or if she simply couldn't think of anything. He moved his finger, and the flame in the lantern jumped. He tried to tell her that she could tell them how she could use so many different types of magic if she wanted to, but he didn't want to say it out loud unless she was keeping quiet for a reason.

"Come come now." said Frank. "There must be something you could tell us. What's your favorite color? Anything."

Damian looked at his father, thinking that his statement was a bit nosy.

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len smiled. "Okay, my favorite color would be silver and my favorite elements are Wind and Fire" She said. She still wasn't sure about telling them much about herself.