[au] an early snow

[the_seafarer]

It's only mid-autumn, as the Bar-year reckons, but one morning Caspian wakes early to find that the light coming through his window has that particular muted quality to it that only comes from sifting through clouds and a veil of snow.

And snow it is indeed, when he comes outside: it crunches pleasantly beneath his boots as his breath freezes in the air and his cheeks turn pink with the cold. Snow; and still it falls, silent and light.

He heads to the stables with the intention of finishing his chores quickly so he can let the horses out to frolic in it, whistling as he goes.

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[the_seafarer]

A chill spears through him and he finds there is still murder in his heart after all, after everything, because he would like nothing more than to ride to whatever is left of Hambry and put Susan's Aunt Cord and everyone else who followed the witch to the sword. His arms tighten around her before he consciously gentles them, unwilling for her to feel anything but his warmth and steadiness.

Surely she's had enough anger and hate, enough to last a lifetime and more. He'll not indulge in it while he holds her and tries to comfort her. "I'm sorry," he murmurs. "You deserved better. I don't know why she hated you so or why she must have hated her own brother, but that was her failing and not yours."

[sai_delgado]

"He never did anything to hurt her," she murmurs. "He took her in, when she'd nowhere else to go. But he stood for the Affiliation, and mayhap that were enough, in the end - for her, and Fran Lengyll, Kimba Rimer, Eldred Jonas and his harriers and Coral Thorin, and all the rest."

Susan draws a long, slow breath, and lets it out in a sigh, then tilts her head back to look up at him. "But what's done can't be undone, and we stood against them all and turned their plans to naught. I'd do it again, I would."

[the_seafarer]

"I believe you," he tells her, looking down into that fog-gray glance that has so captivated him. "Because you're good, and brave, and you stand for goodness and courage."

And so of course her cruel world wished to cut her down, to own her if it could and to kill her if it couldn't.

[sai_delgado]

This time her blush is more the shy pink of wild roses. "Thee flatterer," she teases, or tries, then before he can protest she adds, "Nay, I ken thee mean it, every word. And I've tried to be, to do what's right as best I can."

[the_seafarer]

After all this, everything she's bared to him, she's still trying to lighten his mood, to make sure he is all right, and the rush of affection and admiration that fills him feels as though it will crack his ribs from trying to contain it. "Of course you do," he says, loyal and absolutely certain.

"Your father raised you well. And then you grew up well. He'd be proud, I'm sure of it."

[sai_delgado]

"I hope so," she says, earnestly. "I think he would, though."

She shifts a little in his embrace and lays her head back on his shoulder, bringing one hand back around to rest over his heart, feeling its beat under her fingertips.

A part of her whispers that she should offer to let him think all this over, in case he'd wish to change his mind about her, but a deeper, wiser part tells her to trust in him and everything she knows. It's that voice she chooses to listen to now, and bites back her worrisome fears.

[the_seafarer]

He shifts to set one leg behind her, his knee bracketing and supporting her, and keeps his arms around her, surrounding her with himself as though he might manage to be a barrier between her and all the evil she's experienced in what turned out to be a tragically short life.

"Thank you for telling me," he murmurs. "I'm sorry you had to go through it all again to do so."

[sai_delgado]

"Thee needn't thank me," she insists. "And I meant it when I said to ask, if there's aught else thee'd know. But ... mayhap not just now, if that's all right."

[the_seafarer]

"Of course it's all right," he tells her, instant though his voice is gentle. He presses a kiss to her bright hair, trying to soothe.

"No more for now."

[sai_delgado]

She makes a soft pleased sound as he touches his lips to her hair and leans into the curve of his arm, just breathing.

"... it's so pretty," she says, after a moment. "Look."

Susan lifts her hand from his chest long enough to wave downstream. Several yards distant, green grass shifts to gold, and just beyond that snow falls lightly on the rippling brook, building up on the banks.

[the_seafarer]

"It is," he agrees, lifting his gaze to follow her pointing finger. "It's lovely. I've never seen anything like this."

[sai_delgado]

"And with all the wonders thee's seen, that's something indeed," she teases.

[the_seafarer]

"There's always something new and wondrous," he tells her, smiling.

"Especially in this place."

[sai_delgado]

She wrinkles her nose at him.

"Would'ee want to go back to the horses and keep riding through the snow? Pretty as this is, it's not what thee'd suggested earlier, I wot."

Susan hesitates, then confesses, "And I'll admit I'm curious."

[the_seafarer]

"Of course."

He kisses her hair, then extracts himself and stands before courteously offering his hand to help her up. "Curious about what, Su?"

[sai_delgado]

She gives him her hand with a will and lets him help her to her feet, then laces her fingers with his and smiles at him.

"About the snow. I'd like to see more of it."

[the_seafarer]

"Then see more we shall," he says, gallant, and strolls with her back towards the horses and their abandoned winter clothing. "One warm day will melt it all away, so we'll have to indulge ourselves now. Who knows when our next chance will come?"

[sai_delgado]

"Winter," she says, mischief in her glance. "Or so I'd wager, anyway."

Susan draws to a stop as they reach their neatly-folded clothes and leans down to pick up Caspian's scarf. She flips it around his neck and smiles, running the ends of it through her fingers.

[the_seafarer]

"Aye, so I'd guess," he laughs. As she puts his scarf around his neck, he sets his hands lightly on her hips and leans in to kiss her, still smiling.

[sai_delgado]

She kisses him back, sweet and lingering, then reaches up to brush her fingers lightly over his cheek once it breaks.

[the_seafarer]

He smiles down at her, then reaches for her own scarf and puts it around her neck, tucking it snugly in against itself.

"Besides," he says. "We need to give that big fellow some exercise, don't we?"

[sai_delgado]

“He’s been very patient,” she agrees. “And he seems to like the snow.”

She gathers up the rest of their things and parcels them out, making sure Caspian’s as bundled up as she is before they get the horses.

[the_seafarer]

"He does, doesn't he?"

He offers her a boost into the saddle and then swings up into his own, reining Corella back toward the path. She snorts as the temperature changes, but her winter coat has come in thickly, and the snow hardly seems to bother her at all as they move back out into it.

[sai_delgado]

As the white flakes start falling again, Ghost tosses his head and kicks out a hoof, nearly prancing. Susan laughs and gathers him in.

“He does like it,” she calls.

[the_seafarer]

Corella snorts and minces along the path until Caspian nudges her forward; he laughs, too. "Corella is still getting used to it, I think," he tells her.