[AU] to find all you seek

[the_seafarer]

It is hardly unusual that the door opens. 

It is slightly unusual, perhaps, that it opens seemingly on its own, onto a warm green land bordered by a calm, gleaming sea that smells of salt and something like lilies.

With such a view, anyone glancing out the door might be forgiven if they did not see the individual for whom it opened – not unless they glanced down.

And then down some more, where a mouse – a Mouse – stands on its back legs, studying the room before it with a soldier's practiced eye. It is about a foot high, darkly furred, and a scarlet feather nods rakishly from a golden circlet it wears about one ear. 

Apparently making up its mind, the Mouse enters, and the door closes. 

(One story ends, and another begins.)

The Mouse scurries – er, climbs – to the top of a seat at the Bar and lifts its small, impatient voice. "Hey there!" it calls. "Who is master of this alehouse?"

Comments

[the_seafarer]

"And here I thought I had seen all the wonders left to behold," Reepicheep says.

"I am thankful, indeed, to have found a new adventure in this place."

[sai_delgado]

"Aye, and in the worlds beyond it as well, if ye'd have it so," Susan says.

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep, lost in the possibilities of adventures in other worlds, thankfully misses the pang of real pain in Caspian's face as he imagines the Mouse running rampant elsewhere.

"But not without cause," he says, quickly. "And I'll ask that you speak to me before making any rash decisions."

"Of course, Sire," says the Mouse, though the light of adventure is in his eyes.

[sai_delgado]

Susan bites her lip and gives Caspian an apologetic look. Mayhap she shouldn't have mentioned it?

[the_seafarer]

Caspian squeezes her hand and winks at her.

"It's only that Reep here would willingly charge into whatever world or situation where someone might require aid or defense," he says. "A fine and noble instinct."

"Am I to simply stand by when my sword could be used in protection of those weaker than myself?" Reepicheep asks. Caspian, through long familiarity with him, doesn't laugh but instead only nods solemnly.

"I would never ask that of you, Reepicheep," he says. "Only that you look before you leap."

[sai_delgado]

She smiles, relieved, and looks back at Reepicheep. "Of course ye wouldn't. Ye're a knight."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep bows, and Caspian looks thoughtful.

"Still," he says, almost to himself. "We'll have to make sure you get that sword sooner rather than later... just in case."

[sai_delgado]

"If it's like a gunslinger being without their guns, then thee say true," Susan observes.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian's mouth twitches.

"I would say that was more like when Reep lost his tail," he says, and the Mouse gives him an unhappy look.

"Sire, please," he says. "And in front of a lady!"

Caspian has to look away quickly to hide his smile. "My apologies, Sir Mouse," he says. "But Aslan grew it back even more handsome than before."

[sai_delgado]

"It is," Susan tells Reepicheep, wanting to reassure him. "And ye've met the Lion yerself as well, then? But of course ye would have, with him helping see Caspian to the throne."

[the_seafarer]

"I have," Reepicheep tells her. "That day, when we proved victorious over the treacherous Miraz, and again later."

"He owes a special debt to the Mice, you see," Caspian tells Susan. "In the last days of the Witch, it was mice who bit through the ropes that bound him to the Stone Table and released him. And ever since then, their descendants numbered among the Talking Animals of Narnia, as his gift."

[sai_delgado]

"Oh," she says, understanding.

Susan opens her mouth to ask something else and almost visibly shakes herself before switching to instead ask, "But here I am asking ye all sorts of questions, when ye're the one new-come. Not that Caspian hasn't done a fine job of telling ye what ye need to know, I wot," she adds, with a teasing glance for Caspian.

"But is there aught else I might help with?"

[the_seafarer]

"Daughter of Eve, all I desire is your fine company," Reepicheep says, his manners as courtly as any knight of greater physical stature might be.

"After all, you are my first friend here."

[sai_delgado]

Susan laughs, even as a light pink blush tints her cheeks.

"Ye are very kind, say true."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian grins. "Charming, isn't he?" he asks Susan, his smile broad and bright. "Next thing you know he'll be asking you for a favor to carry with him."

"Sire," says Reepicheep, pained. "I understand you mean no insult, but I wish you would not make light of my respect for this lady."

"Not at all, Reep," Caspian says, and his smile is very fond. "Forgive my teasing."

[sai_delgado]

"A favor?" she echoes, blankly, then shakes her head at Caspian and gives him a look that tries for stern and fails utterly in its fondness. "Thee are such a mischief for teasing him so."

Susan turns to Reepicheep and says, "Ye are charming, though, and gracious as well as kind, if ye'd not mind my saying so."

[the_seafarer]

"Some small item of yours," Reepicheep explains, after bowing deeply at her last statement. "During a tournament or if a knight must away on adventure, he might ask his lady for a token of her favor: a ribbon or a handkerchief, perhaps."

"Or a lock of hair," Caspian says, utterly unfazed by her chiding and glancing admiringly at her fall of golden hair. "It used to be sleeves, back when the fashion was for very long pieces of fabric at the cuff. You'd see the knights wearing their lady's favor tied about their arm or on their armor somewhere."

[sai_delgado]

“The rest makes more sense than a sleeve,” she says, practically. “It’s like something from a story, but then we had naught of tournaments in Hambry.”

[the_seafarer]

"Just as well," Caspian chuckles. "Enormous, expensive hassles, just to see who can get knocked into the dirt the fastest and who can do the knocking."

"I seem to recall several ladies of the Lone Islands offering your their favors, Sire," Reepicheep says, and Caspian looks faintly embarrassed.

"That was a long while ago, Reep."

[sai_delgado]

“Do’ee say so?” Susan asks, bright-eyed with sudden interest. She gives Caspian a laughing look and turns her attention back to Reepicheep.

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep, who either doesn't see or chooses to ignore Caspian's grimace, only nod, earnest.

"Yes. I cannot pretend to be any great expert on beauty as it pertains to Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, but I was assured by several members of the crew that many of the young ladies in attendance at the tournament thrown by the Duke of Galma were both uncommonly pretty and quite interested in His Majesty riding with their tokens. And his daughter certainly smiled at you a great deal, Sire."

Caspian, giving up, only shakes his head, rueful.

[sai_delgado]

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Susan observes. “What happened in the tournament?”

[the_seafarer]

"His Majesty unhorsed many knights – "

"And was unhorsed myself, Reepicheep," Caspian puts in. "With rather a few nasty falls."

But his protestations do not dissuade the Mouse, who, caught up in his story, begins leaping about and shadow-fencing as he tells of the jousting and swordplay and the final duel between two of Galma's most accomplished knights before the tournament ended.

"There was a great deal of feasting as well," Caspian tells Susan, once he's given up on halting the story. He leans back against the couch and laces her fingers a little more firmly with his, amused.

[sai_delgado]

She wrinkled her nose at him in response to his resigned amusement.

“Such a sight it all must have been,” she says. “Oh, ye’ll think me foolish, mayhap, but it’s wonderful to hear such things from those who lived them, do’ee ken?”

[the_seafarer]

"Foolish, Daughter of Eve? How could it be? Your natural curiosity does you great credit."

Finished with his reenactment, Reepicheep comes to sit once more on the edge of the chair, sipping his small goblet of wine. "Tell me: what was your Hambry like, if not like Narnia?"