Watching the Stars

The house smelled of food. Food, food, food. To celebrate.

Technically, Felix had finally asked Estella the question. And Estella had been forced to say yes. And things were moving so fast that they were going to get married next week.

Estella had quietly slipped out of the house, to avoid her mother’s talks of a wedding dress and who was going to be invited to the ceremony. All that stuff. Estella wanted to hear none of it. She just wanted to talk to someone. Anyone who had a plan of escaping this marriage.

The thought of having kids with Felix disgusted her. That’s what was on her mind.

It wasn’t long before she reached the field, where she had met Felix. On a bad note. And where Caspian had told him off for her.

Where was Caspian? She hadn’t seen him around in the village last night, where her mother (oh, the thought brought shivers down her spine) had announced to the whole village that Felix and Estella were to be married. It was tradition for everyone to know and congratulate them. But Estella knew that half the girls who told her ‘We’re so happy for you!’ were jealous. At least that had felt good.

It was another hot day, and the weather looked like it wasn’t going to let up. No clouds in the sky, no sign of rain. The crops weren’t going to survive much longer. But the field? The field was full of wildflowers. Nice-smelling ones that didn’t remind Estella of weddings. More like the ones that reminded her of Caspian.

She lay on top of the flowers as if they were a bed, and closed her eyes. If she had just stared at the sky, she wouldn’t be able to see anything except for a hot sun. She put her hands behind her head and sighed, almost wanting to fall asleep in the lazy afternoon.

Marriage, marriage, marriage, marriage, marriage.

What was marriage going to be like? It sure wouldn’t be nice. More chores, less time to relax like this. And Estella really liked her relaxing time.

What about friends? Would she have time for friends?

... What friends?

Yeah, there was a point right there. She had no friends.

And she thought that being imprisoned with chores seemed bad. Now she was going to be imprisoned with chores and a husband.

She felt someone come towards her and lay down beside her on the grass. At first she thought it was Felix. But no, it was someone bigger. And dressed in armor.

Estella opened her eyes. “Caspian?”

He lay in the exact same position as her, with his arms behind his head. His eyes were closed, and he breathed the humid air in deeply.

He didn’t answer. He only murmured, “I heard the news last night.”

Estella couldn’t help but blush. She didn’t know why. “Where were you?”

“My tower. Your mother has a loud voice.”

Again, Estella blushed. She didn’t know why it was so embarrassing for Caspian to have heard Felix’s marriage proposal and her mother’s words about it. She turned away from him so that he wouldn’t be able to see.

“Congratulations,” Caspian whispered. Estella felt shivers running up and down her spine.

“Thank you,” Estella breathed. She turned back around to find Caspian staring at her in wonder.

He sighed. “So you’re actually going to go through with it? You are going to... marry Felix?”

“I... I am,” Estella gulped, and then she groaned. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s too sudden for me.

“Me too,” Caspian agreed, but she hadn’t heard the words under his breath.

Estella continued on, “I mean, I do want to make my mother happy. She is just... pushing this all upon me. I don’t think she even asked of what I thought about Felix. I could find him utterly repulsive, and I don’t think she would care.”

“Of course your mother cares about you,” Caspian gulped.

“She is so... so old!” Estella cried, pounding the grass with her fist. She burst out into laughter, and Caspian couldn’t help but laugh with her. “Well, what I meant to say was, she is just so old-fashioned! What if... what if I wanted to pick a husband myself? I could pick anyone. It would make me feel better if she let me choose Felix. Not if she made me marry him.”

It would make me feel better if you chose me, Caspian lamented inside of his head. He only stared back at Estella longingly.

Estella turned to Caspian, lying on her side. To Caspian, the way that the grass pulled at her dress only accentuated her curves. Estella gave a sad smile, “Sorry. I have no other friends to talk to.”

Caspian grinned. At least he was her friend.

“So now you share,” Estella offered. “I guess I don’t mind listening to your problems. If princes have them, I mean.”

“Hey!” Caspian laughed, eyes widening. “I do have problems, you know!”

“Like what?”

Caspian avoided the most obvious one, of course, and thought to another. “Well, my aunt is giving birth soon. That will definitely be a nuisance.”

“You mean the baby will be crying everywhere?”

“No, I mean my aunt will be crying everywhere.” Caspian rolled his eyes. Estella laughed too, but stopped abruptly. Caspian raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Felix wants children,” Estella sighed with a twisted look on her face. Caspian couldn’t read it. He still frowned. The thought of Estella having children was like the Old Tales of Narnia coming true. It was not going to happen, and Caspian had to reassure himself of this three times in his head. She would not have children, right?

“Are you going to give him any?” Caspian asked. He tried to hide the desperation in his voice, and it worked, because Estella was picking a flower off of the ground.

“Well, I think I have to...”

“You do not have to do anything if you do not want to.” Caspian told her angrily. Estella plucked the petals of the flower.

She looked up at him, and her look seemed glazed over. “But...”

“But nothing. Maybe you could tell him that you don’t want any.” Caspian sat up.

“He wouldn’t want to marry me then,” Estella mumbled. But Caspian couldn’t believe her right now.

“So you want to marry him, or not?”

“There isn’t much of a choice of who I marry, is there?” Estella asked with a raised eyebrow. “My mother is already happy with my choice.”

“You said yourself that it wasn’t your choice,” Caspian argued. “There are choices for you, Estella. There is another choice for you.”

“Who?” Estella asked in bewilderment.

Caspian opened his mouth to say something, but it wouldn’t come out. Instead he stood up, brushing the dirt off of his suit. “I will see you later, then.”

He started walking away when Estella piped up, “You’re invited.”

“To the wedding?”

“To the wedding,” she confirmed in a miserable tone. He huffed and started walking away faster.

Caspian was not going.