Chapter 5: ‘High King Peter the Overprotective’

Tanned hands flung Caspian back as a furious Peter stepped in between them. “Get away from my brother!”

Caspian staggered back, surprise written all over his face as he stared at the fuming king. Normally a composed, regal man, Peter’s eyes wild with fury, his teeth bared in an animalistic snarl.

“Peter-” Edmund choked out, eyes wide with shock.

“Shut up! You filthy Telmarine vermin, go back to where you came from!” Peter roared.

“You were not even raised in Narnia!” Caspian screamed back, anger flaring.

“Some Narnia you were raised in! A Narnia where true Narnians were treated like filth and your kind lorded over it all. Traitorous, murderous bunch, the whole pack of you!”

“I was the one who brought Narnia to peace!”

“Only with my help! You were useless on your own. I was the one who fought Miraz while you cowered in the background like the dog you are!”

“I wanted to fight him, and I would have won!”

“Only if you could have actually lifted your sword.”

“Just get out of my way!”

“Stay away from my little brother, scum!”

“You did not mind when I wanted Susan, but now I want Edmund you change your mind?”

Peter’s fists balled as his anger rolled off him in waves. Horrified, Edmund stood behind him, watching as the scene unfolded. The newly appointed librarian hovered in the background, her hands over her mouth as her goat-like tail swished anxiously behind her.

“Susan is used to suitors! Don’t even consider putting your dirty hands anywhere near Edmund! How dare you think that you can use him and then throw him away like a cheap harlot?”

“I never said that! And I will not stay away from him, no matter what you say!”

“I’m ordering you to!”

“Why would I follow your orders? You come in here and take over everything, as though it is your right! I am the king of Narnia now!”

“This isn’t about who’s king! As his older brother, I forbid you from even looking at him!”

“Try and stop me!”

Before Edmund could so much as move a muscle, Peter had given an incoherent scream of rage and flung himself at Caspian, sword long forgotten. His fist pounded into Caspian’s face before Caspian managed to kick him off, violently striking Peter as he leapt at him.

“Your majesties!” the elderly librarian cried in horror as they crashed past her and into a shelf of books, sending heavy volumes tumbling down, quickly followed by the shelf itself. Peter dodged a punch as both kings leapt to their feet, kneeing Caspian in the stomach then swinging the side of his arm into the Telmarine’s head. Lip split and growling, Caspian elbowed him in the stomach and forced him down, driving his fist into his leg.

The table was overturned as Peter was flung into it, smashing into a shelf and sending the contents flying. The shelf creaked and fell, uncomfortably close to where Edmund was standing, frozen in shock. He gaped at the two supposedly regal kings who were brawling like animals on the ground, wrestling and clawing and striking one another.

The door to the library burst open and Trumpkin raced in, halting in his tracks when he saw what all the commotion was. Shaking himself, the dwarf ran over to the elderly librarian, dodging flying books and furniture as he spoke to her urgently. They both began cautiously approaching the fighting men, leaping out of the way as Peter finally got a hold of Caspian and flung him to the ground.

In all his days as King Edmund the Just, Edmund had never seen something so ludicrous. High King Peter the Magnificent and the newly crowned King Caspian were brawling in the middle of the library, while a dwarf and an elderly faun attempted to break it up. And all because their petty dislike of one another got in the way of their relationships with him.

Caspian had forced Peter onto the ground and received a kick in the chest, sending him flying back. In a split second, Trumpkin was seated on top of Peter, holding him down, and the faun had grabbed Caspian, somehow managing to contain him.

A crash echoed through the room as a teetering book shelf fell, giving a sense of finality to the situation. Ragged breaths escaped both kings as they glared at one another. Caspian’s lip was split and bleeding and his cheek was blossoming with bruises from where Peter had punched him. He was hunched in pain from where Peter had hit him repeatedly in the chest and stomach, his sweaty hair falling into his eyes.

Peter was no better off, it seemed. He was sporting the beginnings of a black eye and his head was bleeding from when he had hit the table. His knuckles were bruised and he struggled for breath, not helped by the aggravated dwarf sitting on him. He still looked irate, snarling even through his injuries.

“If I let you up, do you promise not to fight?” Trumpkin asked.

“I’m not promising anything,” Peter snapped.

“I’m not getting off until you do.”

“Well… fine, I promise,” Peter said, visibly deflating. After a long look from Trumpkin, the dwarf clambered off and he stood awkwardly, surveying the damage to the area. The library looked as though a tornado had passed through it, with books everywhere, ripped pages strewn across the ground and furniture of all kinds overturned.

The librarian released her hold on Caspian too, and he dusted himself off, wiping the blood off his chin and glancing around nervously. He refused to make eye contact with anyone, ignoring Trumpkin’s pointed glare.

Edmund forced his limbs to move and walked over to the table that was on its side. He carefully placed it back into its upright position before moving on to the chairs that were normally around it, placing each one in its correct place. Turning back around, he saw both Peter and Caspian staring at him anxiously, as though waiting for a response. He stared blankly back, his face betraying no emotion as he walked past them both. As the shock subsided, an overwhelming fury built in him and he felt like he was suffocating. Without even glancing back at the wreckage, Edmund left the library, closing the door behind him with a firm thud.