Narnian mice duel

Reepicheep the Narnian became almost a legend among mice in his own time. Many brave mice followed him and his example, especially after seeing Aslan restore his tail. But his legend continued to grow long after he retired to Aslan's Land. As legends are wont to do, his example and teachings became a little exaggerated and twisted. Thus was born the Order of the Mice of Aslan. Mice devoted to roaming Narnia and fighting for good in the name of Aslan and all mice. So several generations later, there came Reepicheena, one of his last descendants. Cheena had been looking for a proper and worthy mate for some time now, letting several mice court her. She was looking for a great warrior, one who could take up her sword and allow her to retire at home and raise a litter of little mice. One of the mice courting her is named Torean, the son of a merchant. He is a learned mouse, but not a strong fighter. Still, he was honest and chivalrous, and knew much of the teachings of Aslan. they paid a visit to Torean's house. But Cheena's cousin and Torean's sister did not feel that Torean was a proper match for a mouse warrior. They waylaid Torean from meeting Cheena by slipping him a powerful sleeping drug. Cheena left in a merchant ship from the kingdom, feeling spurned. Torean came to to find his love was gone. He had but one more chance to catch her. He paid a mail albatross to fly him onto the ship. He bargained the Captain to allow him to work and stay on board, and he had to spend many weeks convincing Cheena that he was still interested in her, and he had not purposefully stood her up and was a lair.
Torean had almost had her convinced when Cheea gave him this challenge to prove his heart to her. Face me in a dual, beat me in combat and prove that you are a worthy warrior to be a mate to a Mouse of Aslan. Knowing he could not possibly beat her in single combat, Torean silently prayed that Aslan would lend him speed and strength in order to hold his own in this fight, and that Cheena would see the courage in his heart was more important than the strength in his paw. On the foremast of the ship, in a swelling sea, the mice dueled. Cheena obviously had Torean outclassed. But when she was about to force him to his knees and claim victory, Aslan answered his prayer in the form of a roaring wave which crashed upon the ship. Cheena could have sworn at first that the wave resembled a great paw. It knocked her overboard into the choppy sea. Torean immediately grabbed something to float with and dove in after her. Being a merchant mouse, he had known how to swim since he was quite young. Reepicheena had devoted more of her attention to the sword than to swimming. He rescued her from drowning. The ships swung around and picked them up, and Torean forced Cheena to admit that he was the last one standing in the dual, and to give him another chance to prove himself.
It was that moment when she truly began to have feelings for this young mouse, but it would still be some time after the voyage until she let herself accept those feelings and take him as her mate.

That moment with a duel on the front of a ship in a stormy sea still stands as one of the more dramatic moments my wife and I have created in our stories. I'm happy to have it taken from my head and made into something real. Torean is mine. Cheena is from my wife. Art is by Rogueliger and Felfi on FA.