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[youngestqueen]

Mornings were getting better again, Lucy had found. There was a while after Rickon had been born that she'd found them difficult. It was no one's fault, a baby could not help crying at night, no more than she could help that it had woken her. But as time passed, Rickon slept for longer, and Lucy became better at sleeping through his waking at

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[giftless]

The rotten thing about going home to England was that swords in the hands of kids were generally frowned upon by adults. But here, even though he wasn't a king, Edmund could still wield a sword. No one had so much as batted an eye at him, so he was out in front of the house, practicing.

There hadn't been a lot of fighting on the Treader, but the moves came back to him easily. He got lost in it, even to the point that he didn't notice Lucy -- or anyone for that matter -- watching him.

[youngestqueen]

Watching Edmund was not something she would tire of soon, Lucy was sure of it. His being here was still too new to her. She treasured every moment, even if it did make him look at her oddly sometimes.

"I've been taking weaponry classes," she said from the door when he paused in his practice. "We could practice together."

[giftless]

Edmund laughed at the suggestion. He didn't intend it to be a mean sort of thing, though often times Lucy took the brunt of his teasing. He'd grown out of that mostly.

"I'm considering it a gift from Aslan that I arrived here just after term had started," Edmund explained. "I'm not going to do homework of any sort, even if it is with swords and you."

[youngestqueen]

"It wouldn't be homework," He nose pulled up, crinkling in dismay. After nearly a year of the classes, she thought she was becoming rather skilled. "It might be fun. I might be better than you imagine."

[giftless]

"Practicing for a weaponry class is homework for you," Edmund replied, rather smartly as he felt he was right and Lucy was just not seeing things correctly.

"Also, fighting my little sister would not be fun." Edmund also felt this should be quite obvious, and his tone said as much.

He sheathed his sword cleanly, the metal making a lovely noise against the air as he did, and thought to win the argument completely with: "Should you even be learning how to use a sword, anyway?"

[youngestqueen]

"It wouldn't be homework if it isn't assigned. It would simply be extra practice," her response, she thought, was much more logical than Edmund's.

"But you'd fight Peter?" Lucy crossed her arms over her chest, "That isn't fair you know. That you'd fight him and not me."

His last words stopped her. "Why ever not? I already know the bow, and I'm learning hand to hand combat, knife-fighting, and these funny sticks called bantos. This isn't Narnia Edmund," for a brief moment something darker crossed her face, thinking of the Others the Halloween past, "there isn't always someone here to protect us, nor should we need protecting. Su fought in Narnia, and Arya, Jon's sister, she's brilliant with a sword. You should see her."

[giftless]

"A bow's different from a sword, Lu, and you know it," Edmund replied, frowning now. He didn't know what bantos were, and wasn't very skilled in knife-fighting. Being rather proud, it made him uncomfortable to think of his younger sister being better at something than him.

"I'm not going to fight a girl, especially not my sister who is a queen no matter what land we're in," he said. "And Aslan will always protect us," he added, his voice a little softer when mentioning the Great Lion. "Especially you, so you don't have to get caught up in all that nasty business."

[youngestqueen]

"Why is it only ever nasty business when girls wish to try it?" Lucy asked, drawing herself up to stand tall, to stand her ground against her brother.

"Aslan isn't here the same way he was in Narnia Edmund." It was a hard admission, but one she had accepted only recently. "Fine. I'll ask Arya to fight you. She can show you that you're not as good with your fancy sword as you think you are."

[giftless]

"It's not!" To counter Lucy's stance, Edmund crossed his arms over his chest and frowned down at her. No matter how much Lucy had grown since he had last seen her, he still towered over her by a great number of inches. "It's nasty business when boys get into it, too. But boys are supposed to get roughed up and have to do nasty things. Girls are supposed to be better than that

[youngestqueen]

"It is nasty business and I didn't say I like the idea of war, I don't. It's awful when people are hurt, or die," Lucy frowned at his assessment, though it was not so far off from her own when she'd arrived here. "Girls are supposed to be better than that?"

Her morning wasn't going near as well as she had hoped, the freckles on her cheeks jumping out as she paled in anger. But Edmund had been so stubborn, she'd had to defend things. "What's right? How is it right or wrong? Is it wrong for Jon to be teaching Su how to use a sword? You weren't here last year Edmund. You didn't see those glowing blue people! Nobody saved us but ourselves. Not you, not Aslan, no one."

She hadn't meant to get so angry, not even realising that she was still upset about that. "Go back to your fighting, I'll find someone else to practice with."

[giftless]

Edmund only frowned deeper, the pout growing more strongly. No matter how many times you get yelled at, it still feels horrible when it happens again. Especially from your little sister, even if she's the one you fight with most often.

Once Edmund had been a young man, and once Lucy had been a young woman, and they had managed to get along quite well as king and queen. But that wasn't now.

"What on earth are you talking about? Glowing blue people? Has this place made you daft?" If was not the cruelest thing he could have said, but Edmund was upset now and didn't care all that much about Lucy's feelings as compared to his own. "Girls are supposed to be treated differently. They're supposed to be given respect and protected. When you fight you just lower yourself to our level, and if you're going to do that, you can't talk like girls are better and have thoughts in their heads and get the captain's quarters while I have to bunk with Eustace!"

[youngestqueen]

"I'm not mad!" She shouted at him, managing, just, to not stamp her foot in a fit of petulance. Instead she squared her shoulders, her hands making little fists by her side. "Ask Su, Jon, Ygritte, Sansa, Robb, Arya. The Others are horrid horrid things from their world. Worse than the White Witch nearly, and they were here! They attacked us! And all I could do when I fell was poke at it with a dagger. You weren't here, were you?" And with Su pregnant, and only Jon and Ygritte with them as they escaped, it had been just awful.

"I didn't say we weren't different. Girls have to fight differently than boys you know. But we aren't better. We're not some sort of statue to be held up and cherished, and if you'd listen to yourself you'd hear how wrong it is to say that." Lucy shook she was so angry, so near to crying.

[giftless]

Edmund gawked at her, no longer pouting as his jaw fell. "How is that my fault? It's not just my job to protect you. It's everyone's." He didn't understand how this argument had ricocheted out of control so quickly. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was saying the right thing. For once he thought he was being good, but all it seemed Lucy thought was that he was right rotten for wanting to be nice to her for once. How daft was that?

"If I'd listen to myself?" he asked. His arms moved from his chest, a quick flurry of gangly teen-aged limbs, and he pointed a finger at her in accusation. "You're the one who thought we were stupid, preparing to die to take Narnia back from the Telmarines. You've never been in the middle of a battle. You don't know the first thing about taking someone else's life and you shouldn't want to. You're the one that never does anything wrong, and that Aslan loves best. Of course you're different, and if you can't see that and appreciate it, then you're then wrong one. And

[youngestqueen]

"Sometimes it would be nice to be able to protect myself," she snapped back, "Other people won't always be there Edmund. They won't!" It meant to her, on some level, that she was frightened Aslan wouldn't be there when she needed him either, a thing she was too frightened of to admit.

"You were stupid!" Lucy couldn't believe that Edmund was saying these things. Always right? If only he knew what had happened in that Magician's study, of the words Aslan had said to her. "I'm not always right Edmund, and Aslan doesn't love me best. Don't be so mad! But I want to be able to protect myself if we're attacked again. I'm not going to seek out battle!" She wasn't sure how these two things had gotten so intertwined, but they had somehow. "It isn't so simple as you'd like it to be Edmund. Not anymore. Not in this place."

[giftless]

"Oh bother this place," Edmund spat back, scowling as he folded his arms over his chest in a huff once again. "This place isn't so different, and even if it is, after all we've been through, this shouldn't bother you. We've been to the End of the World and back, lived years in Narnia, and you never once thought about using anything more dangerous than a bow or a dagger. Father Christmas gave you that cordial to heal people, Lu, and a dagger to defend yourself. That should be all you need, unless you think he and Aslan are stupid and don't know well enough." Edmund scowled even deeper at the thought, a sick feeling rising in his stomach from even saying the words.

"It's not this place that's different, or Aslan that's different. It's you." Even though he knew the words were true, Edmund wasn't sure if they were a good or bad thing. And either way, he didn't like to say it, because he didn't fully understand what they meant. So he took two steps back, looking ready to storm off into the jungle. "Don't you have school to get

[youngestqueen]

His words bothered her more than she could say. Partly because Lucy knew that he was right. She had changed in her year here, in that way and in many others. Parts of her wondered if she would ever find Aslan again, in any other form. She wondered if she'd forsaken everything she once held dear.

"I've school," she responded, finally. Before going into the house Lucy only had one other thing to say. "This isn't Narnia and it's not England either. We've all changed."