[A] Walking the edge of the sword... Lessons. (Caspian, if he dares.)

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[Character of the Month]

Character of the Month
Prince Caspian

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Played by Cara

"Cara has managed to...create a character that is both mythical and life-like. Impulsive, moody, and yet kind and good-hearted, Caspian is just beginning to show the makings of a true leader."
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[Arina Penley Carison]

Just inside the forest, where they'd agreed, Choni had been angrily pacing for a good hour before dawn finally broke, which meant if the stupid boy remembered, Caspian would be meeting her any moment. Once again she donned her hand-made pantaloons, the short sword she'd stolen from home slung at her hip and her bow leaning against a tree in case she perchance needed it for any reason. Like killing the prince, for instance. Unlike her specially hand-crafted bow and quiver, the short sword was plain and unadorned with a simple wood and steel hilt. The blade was dull and used, probably useless in a fight. It had been for practice at home.

However, Choni wasn't sure that the morning would yield a good practice as she intended to thoroughly tear the glorified Prince Caspian to shreds with her words alone. Hopefully, she would be the first to do so before anyone else got to him. Then again, she wasn't sure many of the Narnians would have the nerve to stand up the man they were trying to put on the throne. One thing she'd said the night before was ever clear- Choni was not Narnian. She was not one of the prince's subjects. She was barely a recognized soldier in what was barely an army. She had no qualms about standing up and yelling very loudly into the boy's over-sized face. Just when she'd started to get an inkling of respect for him. Just when she thought that maybe, maybe he could pull this off. And maybe she could stop lying. And maybe things would be alright soon... He fumbled it all with one sentence. She wondered if he'd even stopped to think about what he was saying before he blurted it.

Still fuming, she almost didn't notice the approach of someone. As soon as she did hear it, she instinctively reached for her bow. That was leaning against the side of a tree on the other end of her pacing space. Not that it mattered, for the intruder was in sight and was in fact the very boy Choni had been waiting to see. "You inconsiderate, no-good, sorry excuse for a pathetic little boy!" And that was just to let him know she meant business.

[Prince Caspian]

He yawned to himself, wondering what had possessed him to suggest such an early meeting. A lesson. Then he wondered what had possessed him to agree to teach Choni – of all people! – to use a sword. Her dislike for him was nearly palpable; he wondered if he was only succeeding in putting his own life in danger. Running his fingers through his hair, Caspian took a deep breath and felt the sword at his side. He felt a good deal better with it hanging at his side; consider the state of turmoil Narnia was in at the moment. Nowhere was safe; he had to be wary even in his own camp. The thought gave him pause. He knew that things were dangerous, for him in particular. And while the thought of traitors in his camp had been something he’d considered briefly, he’d pushed the thoughts aside. Yet, after the assembly yesterday and Drinian’s defence of himself and his men, Caspian had to wonder. How had the poison been secured? Who had taken it, or given it? What precisely had gone wrong? Where had he gone wrong? Surely there was some fault of his own in this somewhere; though he wasn’t completely certain where.

Regardless, he was looking into it. Many of the Narnians probably assumed that the subject had been dropped. That the matter had been dismissed. But it bothered the young prince deeply, and he was determined to figure out just what had happened. He knew the situation had been dealt with poorly, but he had been so utterly at a loss... his intentions had been good. His first instinct had been to draw Drinian into private conversation, to figure out what had gone wrong. But he had figured that another private conversation with Drin would only rouse suspicion against himself. Which he really, really didn’t need. So he’d wanted to handle the matter as publicly as possible, so it didn’t look as though he was trying to hide anything. However, that had turned into a dismal failure.

The lesson learned? He needed an assembly with whom such conferences could be held. A small group of leaders, trusted both among the camp and by himself. The accountability was important, the mass confusion was not. He’d certainly call Glenstorm and Reepicheep into his counsel, though the latter of the two was sometimes a tad too aggressive and often far too impulsive. Nevertheless, he was smart, and he was brave, and he was good. And who else? He wasn’t sure; he would decide soon. Because he really was doing a royally good job of messing things up. At least he was making a tiny bit of progress – he was quite proud of himself for the way he ended that “meeting” the day before. It was probably one of the first bouts of strength of leadership he’d had in a while. But it didn’t mean much, considering how much of a failure he’d been for everything but the end of the assembly. Yes, he really needed to work on that. It was a shame Drinian was heading back; he could have used his friend’s guidance. Drinian had always paid more attention to lessons than Caspian had.

“ You inconsiderate, no-good, sorry excuse for a pathetic little boy!”

Caspian paused as he reached the pre-agreed upon meeting place, Choni’s anger evident on her face. He only briefly faltered in his step before he continued towards her, doing a half decent job of keeping his expression blank. Even though her words had roused anger in him; what nerve the foolish girl had.

“I take it you are displeased with me?” He asked dryly, stopping when he stood a mere two feet or so away from her. He crossed his arms, an eyebrow raised. “Is that any way to speak to the one who has promised to teach you how to use a sword? If you would like to cancel the lesson until you can keep your tongue in check, I will happily go back to sleep.” With that said, he turned and started to walk as though he had every intention of returning to the camp.

[Arina Penley Carison]

If humor or pleasure were in any way present inside Choni at that moment, the emotions might have been betrayed by her countenance when she saw his brief falter in step, her reaction to seeing him seemingly taking him off guard. But only anger flooded through her, giving way to nothing else. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as she tried to reel in her temper. She should know by now that it was a futile attempt.

"I take it you are displeased with me?"

"Oh, aren't you the bright one, Your Highness." Her nostrils flared as he made his way to her, not even an arms' length away when he stopped. She had half a mind to reach out and slap him and the other half to test just how dull her blade seemed to be. He continued on with a 'is that any way to speak' speech that reminded her of getting lectured at home. Making no attempt to hide her annoyance, she rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. How dare he! And he still didn't seem to realize that he'd done anything wrong! One would think with time to reflect that the error would cross his mind, but no. Pompous, outrageous, and idiotic!

When he began to walk away, her anger flared anew and she stomped after him, trying to pull the weapon at her side from it's sheath, but fumbling with it. It was not a tool she was accustom to using. "Don't you dare walk away from me you dishonorable knave! And I should care less if you teach me anything as learning anything from someone like you would most likely cause me to become as apathetic! I would rather ask the mouse! You will stop your retreat, sir!" she ordered in her most commanding voice, finally having freed the sword and holding it before her with both hands. It took a strain trying to remember every small thing she'd ever learned with the tool so that she could at least look somewhat intimidating. She hadn't actually told the prince how much she knew. Should she play this right, he would never know that the extent of her knowledge reached to stance, hand placement, and footing. And quite little else.

[Prince Caspian]

Her words were infuriating and Caspian struggled to keep his cool. The current situation was pressing enough as it was; she was certainly trying her luck. She continued to insult him, she demanded that he stop walking away from her and Caspian turned, raising his eyebrows at the sight of her, holding her sword out, pointed at him. “Put that away,” he commanded coldly. “You act with foolishness; foolishness that has the potential to cause you a good deal of trouble.” Lifting his chin, he met her gaze and –not completely sure why she was so enraged – he crossed his arms. What had come over her? She had certainly been disagreeable before, but this was the first time she had gone so far as to pull a weapon on him. He hoped it would be the only time; he wasn’t in the mood for this. He hadn’t even been in the mood for sword training, but he was determined to keep his word. Look how that had turned out for him!

He thought back to what could have upset her. Likely it was the assembly from the day before; they had been on decent enough terms that morning. But what about it had caused her such great frustrations? Was she simply an avaid supporter of Drinian and his men? Was she actually on the side of the Telmarines? Was she merely here to provide them with information? Whatever it was, he was determined to get to the bottom of it. “Whatever angers you so is not my concern; I do not answer to you. As you’ve made perfectly clear, you are not Narnian.” When she did not move to immediately set her weapon aside, Caspian pulled his from its sheath and looked at her pointedly. “Disarm yourself, Choni; else I will have to do it for you. I’m of no mind to tolerate such open opposition among any who stay in my camp.”

It was not an empty threat. He knew enough – and she knew little enough, he was quite sure – to disarm her if need be. Caspian moved slowly towards her, though he was still far enough away that neither of their blades touched. “This is your last warning,” he added them, scowling, “put the sword down and state your reason for this childishness. Or, better yet, put the sword away and return to the camp where you can calm yourself.”

[Arina Penley Carison]

Her eyes narrowed, but only to hide the waver in her resolve. She hadn't expected this to go swimmingly -when in fact, she didn't know what she expected aside from a lot of yelling- but the cold look he cast her both frightened and angered. True that he was right. This was foolish of her. Unfortunately, her bow was not within reach. Then, she decided, this would be quite less foolish. If she hadn't been fighting to take the sword from it's sheath, she might have thought to pick up her rightful weapon as she passed it. Foolish indeed. But she didn't quite think that was what Caspian meant when he called her foolish.

"What angers me most indeed concerns you, whether I'm Narnian, Archenlander, royalty, or peasant. And not being Narnian is most likely the reason I'm the first to confront you because I haven't any loyalties to you, though you were close to earning them." And he had been. After yesterday's run-in and how he'd started to handle the assembly had gone far to make her believe he was a leader. Perhaps she still thought that- and like most leaders, he was becoming coarse and unfeeling.

The drawing of his sword gave her pause as she glanced at it. Was he going to call her bluff? It would most certainly end in her death. Or at least, severely wounding her. He ordered her once again to put her own blade down after taking steps towards her. At least this time he more or less requested to know what she was on about. Giving him a hard stare and very carefully hiding her fear, she swung the short sword high and drove it into the soft ground between them. Pursing her lips, she wondered momentarily if he could hear her racing heart as it thundered in her ears. "You, sir, have an apology to make to your entire camp regarding the awful way you dealt with that assembly last night," she told him very plainly. Were he any good at reading faces, he could tell that hers held nothing but contempt and disgust for him, with a little fear of his sword underneath.