hey, guys!! Thanks for the comments!!! Sorry it took so long for me to post the next chapter, but here it is.
Chapter 13
Edmund sighed. "I suppose I should just do it." he thought as she walked by. He hopped up and ran after her. When he had caught up to her, he cleared his throat and gently grasped her shoulder, to turn her around.
"Lady Alana?" He said, realizing he would need to choose his words carefully.
"Your Majesty?" Alana responded, curious as to what the Just King wanted.
He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, aware that his brother was watching him to make sure he did it. "I wanted to uh... apologize about how I have, uh.. treated you, since you came here. I suppose I was mislead, and I apologize. I should not have judged you so quickly." He stated awkwardly. 'This is embarrassing' he thought to himself.
"Thank you... Your Highness." Alana said, slightly shocked. Suddenly a look of realization came across her face and a smile played on her lips. "Did Pete... I mean, the High King, put you up to this, or did he just goad you into apologizing?" She said, looking down and letting her hair fall over her face, blushing at her slip of the tongue.
Edmund raised his eyebrows, and a smirk spread across his face as he saw his brother, a ways behind Alana, with a slightly worried look on his face. 'Ha.' he thought. 'Peter told her to drop formalities.' Then to Alana he said, "My brother did suggest that I apologize to you, I just took him up on his suggestion. Did he tell you to call him Peter? Come along, you can tell me. " he said with a mischievous look on his face.
Before Alana could answer, Peter decided he should intervene before she said something that Ed would use to his advantage. "Well, Alana, I believe you two are done here, correct? I would like to show you something." He said, glaring at Edmund, who was struggling to smother the laughter that was surfacing.
"Thanks." Alana said as she and Peter walked off toward the direction of the beach. "That was too close."
Peter laughed. "Well, I suppose it is just Ed, but he would use it against me forever. I just wanted to get out of there before he had a chance to get enough information to do that." Peter said, rolling his eyes.
"I am worried. I feel that since we have dropped formalities between us, people have started to notice, and are starting to wonder." Alana worried.
"Well then let them wonder." Peter laughed again. " We are not hiding anything. Besides, it can get amusing when they start to wonder."
She turned to look him in the eyes. "But Peter..." Alana started, but Peter put his hand gently over her mouth, silencing her.
"Do not worry about it. It will come out alright, whatever happens." He said.
They arrived at a gathering of logs, blocking their path. "Peter, where are you taking me?" Alana questioned.
"You'll see!" He called over his shoulder as he climbed up the logs. He then turned around to help her up. As they stumbled across the logs, Alana's feet started to get sore, and she worried about her dress getting torn. "Peter, how much farther!" she called, looking up to find herself running right into him. He had been standing over a hole in the logs, but when she ran into him, she pushed him in. As he was falling, he twisted in the air, trying to grab onto something that would stop his fall. Alana, meanwhile had gasped, and was trying to grab hold of him to pull him back up. It ended in disaster. She grabbed hold of him, but did not stop his fall. They both tumbled down the pit in the logs, landing on the ground with a thud.
Alana heard Peter groan. "Peter, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'll live. You?" He replied, sitting himself up.
"I am fine." She replied. "What was it that you were going to show me?" she asked again.
"Believe it or not, this is it. I had just not planed on going down like this." he responded with a laugh and a groan.
"Peter, you are hurt, aren't you?!" she questioned him.
"I will live." he said through gritted teeth.
Alana proceeded to help him up. He groaned. "I must've landed on something hard." he murmured.
"Well, how do we get out of here?"
"There is a tunnel around that way." Peter responded, wrapping his arm around her shoulder to support himself and pointing ahead. They started to walk, but it was slow going. Peter was limping, and Alana believed that he may have broken a rib or two. After a while, he could go on no longer. "Just let me rest for a little bit. I will be alright." He said.
"Maybe I should go for help." Alana said. "I could go get Queen Lucy, or King Edmund. They could help, right?"
"But you do not know your way out. You could get lost!" Peter exclaimed. "I will not allow you to go alone." He said, trying and failing to get up.
"Rest. I will be fine." Alana said, laying her hand on his shoulder and pushing him gently down. He grabbed that hand and kissed it. "Fine, only be careful." he said, letting her hand go.
Alana turned to go, but Peter grabbed her arm and turned her about. "here, take this." he said, handing her a dagger. "It is dangerous down here, in certain places. If you wander to far off path, call for help, and it should come." he said. She glanced down and grabbed the dagger from him. "Thank you, Peter." She said. He kissed her forehead and then let her go.
"Oh, I hope she will be alright." he muttered to himself.
***
Alana made it out alright, and then ran to find one of the queens or kings. She ran headlong into the Valiant young queen, who got a concerned look on her face as she saw the condition of Alana's clothing and how worried she looked. "What is wrong? Where is Peter?" she asked.
"We fell down a hole, he hurt himself, and I made him stay back while I went to get help. He needs medical attention." Alana gasped.
"Stay here, I will go get Ed and my cordial." The queen replied, whipping around and running back where she had some from. She returned to where she had left Alana standing, with exactly what she had promised to retrieve.
"Well, show us where he is!" the Just and Valiant royalty both exclaimed.
Alana led them to where she had exited the pit, and they proceded to find Peter, gasping for air. Alana ran to him, followed by Edmund and Lucy.
"Peter!" they all exclaimed. Lucy pushed herself through and unscrewed the cap to her cordial, then let a drop fall into the mouth of her ailing brother. His breath slowed, and he opened his eyes, slowly. "Oh, thank Aslan you made it out alright." He said to Alana with a sigh, sitting up to his full height.
"Well, it was not hard, besides, I had the life of a king on my hands." Alana teased.
Peter laughed and threw his arms around her waist in an embrace. "Thanks." He whispered into her ear.
"Your welcome, Peter."