❉━━━━━━❈✾❈━━━━━━❉

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 clashing swords echoed throughout Aslan's How, accompanied by a shallow thud every few moments as the arrows embedded themselves into the practice targets. The torches lit the spacious area with a flickering light, causing the shadows of the practising people to dance over the reddish brown coloured ground as well. The circumstances weren't ideal to train in, but it beat standing outside in the middle of the still raging snowstorm.

The Pevensies, Caspian, Reepicheep and Darkan walked between the others, giving directions here and there as the sparring partners tried to master the beginner's moves shown to them by Peter.

Caspian stopped by Phoenix' side, uttering a chuckle before slightly shaking his head. The red-haired young man still tried to lift his sword in just one hand.

'Phoenix,' Caspian said, pushing against the broad blade with two fingers and the tip of the sword dropped in an uncontrollable movement to the ground.

Phoenix groaned in irritation, the muscles in his arm burning painfully. 'What?'

'Your sword has a two-handed hilt for a reason. Use both hands, as I have told you before.'

Phoenix pouted. 'But no one else uses two hands.'

'I do,' Darkan spoke up as he stood next to Giulia who picked up fighting with a tetela lance scarily fast.

Giulia snorted, stabbing an imaginary opponent right through its chest and her dark braided hair danced around her shoulders in sync with the movements of her arms. 'Guess which boys use longswords to compensate?'

'I do not,' Phoenix protested indignantly while giggles traveled through the air now as well.

'Interesting theory,' Darkan simply said, before pulling the lance out of her hands with an unexpected jolt.

'Ey!' Giulia exclaimed, taking a few uncontrolled steps to keep in balance.

Darkan silenced her by gracefully twirling the weapon a few times around, the lance whooshing through the air in a deadly speed. Then, almost as fast as a flash of lightning, he hooked the blunt end behind her ankles and swiped her feet.

Giulia fell towards the ground with a scream but Darkan grabbed her hand just before she could actually collide with the hard surface. He pulled her back up and with a wink, he handed her back the lance.

'I don't need to compensate,' he said. 'I just know how to use all sorts of weapons, but the longsword is my favourite.'

Giulia huffed. 'Show-off.'

However, as Darkan turned his back on her, she tried twirling the lance between her hands as well. A broad smile appeared on her face when the lance started to whistle; she didn't know the tetela could sing that beautifully.

Darkan unsheathed his own sword and walked over to Phoenix while Caspian took a few steps back.

'One hand at the top of the grip, one hand at the bottom,' Darkan instructed and Phoenix followed a bit reluctantly his example.

'Use your top hand to push and the bottom one to pull. This creates an extra leverage, making it easier to swing with the weight.'

Darkan's sword cleaved through the air and even from a distance, Phoenix could feel the strong gust of wind striking past him. His jaw dropped as he watched Darkan slash up and down, right and left while the sword appeared to be an extension of himself instead of just a weapon. He ended his fighting combo by pointing the sword at Phoenix throat, a cocky smile on his face.

'Better than a simple short sword, don't you think?' he asked, withdrawing the sword, and Phoenix nodded excitedly.

'Good. Now you try.'

Noelle had watched the whole interaction with a slight roll of her eyes, but she couldn't contain the half-smile playing around her lips. Darkan's attitude hadn't changed one bit during the four years they hadn't seen each other, but she had to admit he did know a lot about weaponry.

In their early teenage years, Darkan had tried to teach Noelle some swordfighting but her father, Lord Orchraid, had been furious when he had found out. It wasn't a lady-like thing to do, and she never had held another sword until a few days ago.

Peter stopped at her side and gave her an encouraging nod.

Noelle took a deep breath as she flipped the sword in the palm of her hand a few times to get used to the balance of the sword and then imitated the movements. She made sure to step out with her foot as well when she trusted the sword forward since she had seen some around her forgetting it, and Peter smiled.

'Very good,' he said. 'I couldn't have done it any better myself.'

Noelle beamed proudly but before she could thank him, everyone's attention was drawn to Elodie when she unrolled the bullwhip with a flick of her wrist and the leathered rope broke through the sound barrier with a loud and sharp crack.

Elodie rolled up the ten foot long whip again, a look of concentration on her face, but her movements faltered when she realized the clattering of swords and thudding of arrows no longer drifted through the area. She averted her eyes from the bullwhip, looking around instead, and not even the faint light of the dancing flames could hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

'Sorry,' Elodie said while clearing her throat. 'But I do think I start to get the hang of it again.'

Mina whistled in a low tone. 'Don't apologize for that, El. That was really cool. Do you know how to do that, Darkan?' she asked the raven-haired Archerlander in a teasing tone, but Darkan shook his head, a bit perplexed.

'I can't say I do,' he answered, and Mina laughed.

'At last, something the almighty Darkan cannot do.'

Darkan raised an eyebrow as he turned towards her, a smirk lifting up one of the corners of his lips. 'How did you call me?'

Mina avoided his eyes, her cheeks heating up and she focussed on Ella and Vittoria she tried to teach archery.

Darkan chuckled but then gave Phoenix another few instructions while Peter walked over to Elodie ─ who pretended she didn't see Ella wiggling her eyebrows behind his back.

Peter watched Elodie at a safe distance when she cracked the whip again, the weaved leather ripping the air apart, but he closed the distance between them when the far end of the whip rolled around one of the stone columns.

Elodie looked slightly up to meet his gaze.

'What do you mean: again?' Peter wondered, but Elodie got caught off guard when she noticed how close he was standing next to her.

'What?'

Peter tried to contain his smile while Elodie awkwardly sent a wave through the bullwhip and the cord lost its grip around the column.

'You said you're getting the hang of it again,' he explained, and Elodie's blue eyes lit up in understanding, almost twinkling like stars.

'Oh, that,' she answered. 'I grew up on a horse ranch back in France, but we also had cows and I used to help out a lot before I went to Hog─, the boarding school in Great Britain,' she quickly corrected herself.

Another thought swam through her mind and she frowned, the twinkle disappearing out of her eyes.

'What's wrong?' Peter asked worriedly.

'I just have never used it before with the intention to hurt others,' Elodie admitted. She didn't understand why it felt different than shooting paralyzing spells out of her wand, but it did and she took a shaky breath.

Elodie's heart skipped a few beats, though, when Peter suddenly pulled her into a hug. She froze for a moment but then she wrapped her arms around his middle, savouring the comforting feeling as the scent of oranges and cinnamon clouded her mind.

'Well, maybe it won't come to any fighting at all,' Peter said, drawing small circles with his fingertips on her back, and Elodie smiled against his chest.

They broke off their embrace, however, when Edmund cleared his throat, and both of their faces turned a deep red colour as Edmund shot his brother a knowing look.

'A bullwhip has a long range,' Edmund said to Elodie, 'but what if the enemy gets too close?'

'Ehm. . .' Elodie stammered, crossing eyes with Peter even though she tried really hard not to.

'Then you're screwed,' Edmund answered his own question.

'Ed,' Peter warned him, but Edmund shrugged in indifference.

'You should carry a dagger as well,' Edmund continued. 'In that way you can also protect yourself on a short range.' He handed her a dagger and Elodie took it.

'Thank you, I think?' she said and Peter grinned.

'I can teach you some tricks,' Lucy spoke up, standing next to Caolán who surprisingly graceful threw his dagger from one hand to the other.

At the other end of the area, Ella groaned in frustration. 'I can't believe the King of Bad Timing just ruined the moment between Elodie and Peter like that,' she complained to Oliver. The yellow-feathered arrow sat untouched on her bowstring and though she loved learning archery, watching the scene unfold itself in the distance had been far more interesting.

Oliver hummed absentmindedly, but he had to hold back a string of curse-words when his arrow flew right past the practice target, hitting and bouncing off the wall next to it instead.

Ella giggled by seeing his annoyed face. 'I told you, you should have chosen a spear. Your talent lies with broomsticks and a spear looks more like one than a bow.'

Oliver hung his head in defeat, but both of them startled when Darkan walked past behind them.

'A broomstick?' he repeated, utterly confused.

Mina heard it as well. 'Just an inside joke,' she tried again, and Darkan gave her a funny look.

'You and your friends have some strange inside jokes,' he said. 'First a wand, now a broomstick.' Darkan shook his head but till their relief, he dropped the subject as he walked towards Caspian and Vittoria.

Vittoria pulled the bowstring towards her chin but stopped in curiosity when Caspian frowned by seeing her stance.

'Am I doing it wrong?' Vittoria asked worriedly as she thought she did it exactly like Mina had shown her.

'Well,' Caspian began. 'May I?' he asked, and Vittoria shrugged, holding out the bow for him to take it but he shook his head.

'Do it again,' he instructed as he walked around her, stopping behind her back.

Vittoria could sense his body heat radiating off him and as she strung the bow again, she could see George in the corner of her eye stopping halfway in his movements.

'Don't startle,' Caspian said from behind her and he lifted her elbow a bit more while placing his other hand on her stomach.

'Hold tension here,' he instructed. 'Breath in, and breath out while releasing the arrow.'

Vittoria released the string and the arrow soared through the air, embedding itself not far from the bullseye. She laughed, though she quickly cut it off when George stormed towards them, his sword thrown on the ground by Fred's feet.

He shoved Caspian's shoulder harshly and pulled Vittoria away from his hand still on her stomach.

'That's quite enough,' George said to Caspian between gritted teeth.

Vittoria took his wrist. 'Stop it, George,' she whispered, embarrassment flowing through her veins.

'I just wanted to help,' Caspian said as he held up his hands in a calming manner, but George still bristled with fury.

'Was it really necessary to touch her like that, though?' he growled, and Vittoria wished she could sink right through the ground.

'I apologize,' Caspian started, 'I─,' he broke off his sentence as Vittoria's hair caught his attention.

A bright pink colour slowly replaced her usual brown hair, and although Vittoria desperately tried to contain her powers, the fear of what was happening caused the ends of her hair to turn white and it spread to the top of her head.

'Vittoria, your hair. . .' Caspian stammered, and as his words echoed through the cave, everyone stopped; some in fear, others in curiosity.

Caspian opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

'Who are you all, really?' he demanded to know.

❉━━━━━━❈✾❈━━━━━━❉

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓:

𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒂𝒏 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒚 @ 𝒎𝒆
𝑷𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒙 𝑻𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒚 Avengers14
𝑮𝒊𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒂 𝑨𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝒃𝒚 GwynethStarks
𝑵𝒐𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆 𝑶𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒃𝒚 Detective_Pevensie
𝑬𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒚 @ 𝒎𝒆
𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒔𝒉𝒊 𝑩𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒚 RockingGirl06
𝑬𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒉 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈 𝒃𝒚 -MoonlightRose-
𝑽𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝑭𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒚 gracelikeaWave-
𝒂𝒏𝒅
𝑪𝒂𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒏 (𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚) 𝒃𝒚 zukkkas

❉━━━━━━❈✾❈━━━━━━❉