☆

THE MAN stood silently in the corner, refusing to answer Catalina's question. "I mean no harm..." the girl whispered, stepping closer to the smaller creature, "You're a Narnian- a dwarf, aren't you?"

"I suppose 'am." The dwarf mumbled almost indistinguishably. Catalina nodded slowly appreciating that she had actually gotten an answer.

"This may seen ever so, horribly rude, but what is your name?" Catalina asked curiously, sinking back into the straw floor.

"You don't need to know that." The dwarf answered grumpily, folding his small arms.

"It would be nicer to know your name so that when I refer to you in my head, I could stop calling you 'dwarf' as if you are merely your entire race." Catalina said briefly.

Trumpkin looked over at the girl in surprise, "The names Trumpkin..." he grumbled, making a small smile grace the girls lips.

"-and I am Catalina." She greeted, before letting the silence over come the two prisoners.

An hour or so passed before a guard unlocked the cell door. Miraz strutted into the cell followed by two Telmarine soldiers. One of the soldiers rushed forward and grabbed a hold of Trumpkin, pushing him forward while Miraz looked at his niece in disgust and shame.

"-Take her with you. Just beyond the bay, a man will take her off your hands. He has already payed a sufficient amount of money for her." Miraz order the soldier who stormed towards her, lifting her off her feet.

"UNCLE, I'm innocent- you know I'm innocent! Please..." Catalina pleaded as she was once again, dragged out of the castle of Telmar. The soldiers didn't relent as they roughly dragged her down the steps, as she cried out in pain.

Both Trumpkin and Catalina had been loaded onto a cart, their hands binded behind their backs. News seemed to have spread fast, villagers gathered around the cart, screaming at Catalina, throwing various mouldy, sticky foods at the princess as she kept a composed posture on the wooden cart.

Catalina stifled a cry of dismay, but kept her head up bravely, letting herself be hit with foods of all sorts, as more and more of the villagers joined in, chanting words of viciousness and vindictiveness as the cart departed Telmar. As soon as they passed the gates of Telmar, the villagers stopped following and continued on with their day to day tasks.

☆

THE CART JOURNEY was far too long for Catalina's liking, wherever they were going, it was far out of reach from Telmar. The girls thoughts were a jumbled mess, a mess so big that she had almost forgotten that she was soon to be sold. The cart soon pulled up beside the sea, and the two soldiers jumped out of the front, pushing Trumpkin and Catalina onto the rocky, sandy surface.

"Get up!" One of them demanded gruffly. Catalina struggled to pull herself to her feet. She scanned her surroundings taking them in. In any other circumstances, this view would be spectacular, the crystal blue sea shone and glittered like a thousand diamonds. It was so beautiful.

A soldier- whom Catalina didn't realise to have returned, dragged a small wooden rowboat towards the water front. The girl forcefully stumbled forward alongside Trumpkin as a soldier held his sword to the back of her neck, urging her forward and into the boat.

The two soldiers secured their weapons before clambering into the small boat, and beginning to row the two prisoners upstream. Catalina blinked and tears involuntarily cascaded down her tear stained cheeks.

"Where the north wind meets the sea." Catalina murmured, as she squeezed her eyes shut, and began to sing the exact, soft lullaby she'd been humming that same morning. They rowed forward. her heart racing as the wind blew her hair out of her red face. "There's a mother full of memory...Come, my darling, homeward bound"

The soldier had now heard her words, turning around in anger, glaring at the princess, Catalina looked the man dead in the eyes, her teary eyes steady, "Where all is lost, then all is found."  She finished lowly.

"GAG HER!" The guard rowing ordered, causing the other to shove a cloth into her mouth, securing it with a longer strip of fabric.

The girl swallowed her fear as they continued their journey to their ends. "He won't stop staring" the soldier spoke up, gesturing to Trumpkin who was bound and gagged also.

"So don't look." The other soldier replied as the dwarf continued to stare intimidating the two men.

The soldier rowing stood up, "Here's fine." He said, as they both lifted Trumpkin. Catalina realised what their plan was, they were going to drown him like the cowards they were, but just as they were about to drop the dwarf into the river, an arrow lodged itself into the side of the boat. Catalina whipped her head around to face the direction in which the arrow had been shot from, she was met with the sight of four figures on the beach to the left, all of them armed.

A woman drew another arrow from her sheath, "Drop him!" She yelled out, making Catalina sigh at the absolute idiocy of her chosen words. She could hear Trumpkin argue but his words were muffled by the gag before being dropped into the depths.

One of the soldiers picked up a crossbow, and the unknown woman shot him. The other rocked the boat wildly, jumping overboard causing the boat to capsize. Taken completely by surprise, Catalina was plunged into the water. She tried to kick her way to the surface but her bound feet forbade her from doing so. Catalina panicked, struggling for air as she sunk deeper.

She could feel the remainder of her breath, escape her lips. Catalina closed her eyes, accepting her faith when suddenly an arm wrapped itself tightly around her waist, lifting her to the surface of the water, Catalina took in a big breath in through her mouth, inhaling the salty water.

The girl looked behind her, taking in the appearance of her saviour. His blonde hair was plastered to his forehead as he propelled himself and girl whom he was holding, forward. She was swiftly lifted onto shore where one of the unknown figure cut her binds and undid her gag. The girl immediately turned onto her side, spewing and coughing up all the water she'd consumed.

From beside her she could hear Trumpkins angered voice, but the ringing in her ears drowned the majority of his words out. She felt lightheaded, as she slowly sat up in the sand, still coughing into her elbow.

"Why were they trying to kill you both anyway?" A little girl's voice resounded, Catalina squinted up at the rest of her saviours, who had now formed a semicircle around her and the dwarf.

"They're Telmarines." Trumpkin hugged, glancing at Catalina in repugnance, "That's what they do."

"Telmarines?" A boy questioned, "In Narnia?" The girl on the sand looked around in utter confusion, She looked up at the four children in curiosity.

"Narnia...?" She spoke up, scrunching her eyebrows together in thought. "This is Narnia?"

All four of the supposedly siblings turned to her in bewilderment, "Of course it's Narnia." The younger boy snickered, "What else would it be?"

Catalina closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, "I'm guessing she's not Narnian." The younger girl speculated, looking up at her older brother.

The older boy pointed the sword at her throat, "Who are you?" He asked firmly, making the girl fearfully push herself further back into the sand.

"My name is Princess Catalina of Telmar." She whispered, making the boy frown, "... please, lower your sword- I promise you, I'm no threat."

"Why were you out on the boat if you're one of them?" The older girl asked, making Catalina bite her lip and look down in sadness.

"They think I killed my brother..."

☆

Oofles we love a little Disney singalong midway through a scene of crisis.

Anyway, this was very sloppy but meh, happy holidays!

Love y'all!