[au] Narnia and the North

[the_seafarer]

There's a chill bite to the air, these days. The horses have been growing out their winter coats, and they look shaggy and plump as Caspian turns them out into the paddocks. Behind the stables, in the makeshift woodshop he'd cobbled together, the sleigh from his drawings is starting to come together. 

He hopes he'll have it finished by Christmas. With a little luck, and maybe some assistance, he thinks it should be possible. The tack, he's largely left up to Susan's devices, though he'd commission Gimli the dwarf for the various buckles and other metal pieces they'll need.

Once the horses are turned out, he gets to his other morning chores with a will, whistling cheerfully as he does. The stable stays strangely quiet around him. It takes him the better part of an hour to realize the strangeness is because he's become accustomed to Susan's cheerful presence working alongside him, talking or humming or simply working in companionable silence. 

Caspian pauses in his task – refilling the grain chest – and looks around. Susan's nowhere to be seen, and when he later wanders through the stables, checking each stall and outside, he can't find her there, either.

Comments

[sai_delgado]

"Yar," Alain confirms, almost lazily, but there's nothing lazy about his keen gaze. "Sue and I've taken care of most things that need tending here, but it'd be best for someone to keep an eye out between now and then, with all of us gone."

Susan frowns over that. "Lisa, for one, and mayhap sai Josiah. Mal, if he's about, but - but that might be hard to explain."

[the_seafarer]

"I can stay, for now," Caspian offers. He's certain the gunslingers have plenty to talk to Susan about, and his part of the planning is largely done.

"And then hand it over to Josiah."

[sai_delgado]

"Josiah?" Cuthbert asks. "Scurlock," Alain explains. "Called 'Doc' by many."

Susan ignores this, mainly as she's fighting back a flurry of distressed nerves. Stop it, ye silly! she scolds herself. Don't be foolish.

"But," she says aloud. "Caspian-- I have to tell Reepicheep something, else he'll worry."

[the_seafarer]

"Aye, he'd appreciate that," Caspian agrees. "Have you seen him yet this morning?"

[sai_delgado]

The faintest hint of exasperation flickers in her eyes. "Thee kens he doesn't like the stables."

Which means there's no hope for it, and when there's no other way, Pat Delgado's daughter kens very well that hesitation were ever a fault. Unconsciously, she draws herself up straight.

(you were fearless once - take back your birthright)

"I'll go and seek him out."

Alarm flashes in Cuthbert's glance as he also straightens. "Um, Sue, the bar's - you might not want--"

"I've seen it," she says, a little curtly, but softens her snappishness by laying a hand on his arm in apology. "Early this morn. It'll be all right, 'Bert."

[the_seafarer]

He eyes her carefully, but when she only exhales and draws herself up, he nods. "He'd go with you somewhere else," he reminds her. "Out by the lake, or to the staff quarters."

Caspian offers her a smile. "I'll join you a little later, shall I?"

[sai_delgado]

What chance I'll see thee back? whispers her treacherous memory. Even toss, echoes the answer, in Roland's deep tones.

Susan Delgado pales to the lips, save for two spots of hectic color high on her cheekbones, but she makes herself smile back all the same and even means it. "Aye, when it's time," she agrees. "I'd best go--"

She's already turning without waiting for any of them to answer, her step brisk as she starts back to the bar. Cuthbert trades a glance with Alain and hurries after her.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian frowns after her, uncertain what has her so pale, and catches Alain's eye with a question in his glance.

[sai_delgado]

He's also looking after her, sharp concern in his eyes, but when the man beside him shifts he turns to meet his gaze.

"She worried over ye while ye were gone," he says, quietly. Best Caspian understand the way of things to the full measure, with what's likely ahead. "Over both of ye."

The touch is a tricky gift at times, and he'd not for all the world have Susan think him prying, but he's grown accepting of the little insights it sometimes brings.

"She's in the thick of it already now, and fighting to keep it from affecting her. It's not the fire alone, ye ken. They took her before dawn that day, a year ago."

[the_seafarer]

He nods, his heart sinking. But one of them, at least, will be with her at all times, and he has to hope that their plan – the vigil, the garden – will give her the support she needs to keep battling against memory and oblivion. "It's going to be a long day," he murmurs. "And a longer night."

Caspian looks over at the other man. "Thank you, Alain. I'll find you all in a few hours, when Josiah can take over, all right?"

[sai_delgado]

Alain nods. "Likely we'll not be in the main bar," he offers, sure there's no need to explain why. "But I'll leave a message, so ye'll know where to find us."

Eddie and Susannah's apartment, mayhap, or Susan's own, or one of the many gathering places scattered about.

He touches his forehead in a gesture of farewell, and strides off after the others.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian watches as he goes, then turns back to the quiet stables. It might not be so bad to have a few moments to himself to settle his thoughts, he supposes. He'll need to be wholly prepared when he meets them again and the night comes.

And, until then, there's the rest of the daily chores. He considers his options, then heads with a brisk stride toward the tack room to get started.

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert catches up with her before she's made it even a quarter of the way from the stables, and she can't help but be glad of it. Susan gives him a small, grateful smile, and walks inside when he opens the door for her.

It takes a few seconds, more than she'd like, to shake off the impression that the room's filled with glassy-eyed townspeople waiting their chance to

(burn)

cause trouble, but she bites her lips and makes herself settle while Cuthbert scans the room. "There," he says, his quick eye spotting Reepicheep before she does. "Yon Mouse. Would'ee have me bring him elsewhere, Sue?"

Now her smile warms, and she takes his hand and squeezes it, glad of him. "Nay, I'd not worry him. Come on, 'Bert."

[the_seafarer]

The Mouse had been surprised but not dismayed by the appearance of festival decorations in the Bar proper. Most of them he ignores, but there's a helpful hay bale sitting in front of one of the windows.

He's perched there now, his long tail curling down from his seat, gazing out the window toward the lake and humming to himself in his little chirruping voice.

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert leads her over to the Mouse, keeping hold of her hand as he does. "Long days and pleasant nights, sai," he offers, when they're close.

Susan beams a smile at Reepicheep, and oh, it's not hard at all to do so, as dear as he's becoming to her. "We'd not be disturbing ye, I hope?"

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep leaps to his feet to greet them, twirling his whiskers as he might a mustache. "Never," he declares. "Greetings, Daughter of Eve. Son of Adam."

His quick, bright glance flits over her, taking in her pale face and dark eyes. "I trust you're both well?"

[sai_delgado]

"Aye," Cuthbert says, easily. "And you?"

"Well enough," Susan replies, more practical than 'Bert. She's well aware of how she's likely to look, and hasn't missed that quick assessment. She squeezes his hand and lets go as she settles on the hay bale beside Reepicheep's, having considered and reluctantly rejected sitting on the floor and leaning against it instead. "But there's that which I'd tell ye, and that which I'd ask, if ye'd not mind it."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep shifts aside to give her room and doesn't sit, leaving them at eye level. "Speak, dear lady," he says. "And if there is a favor within my power to grant, you shall have it, on my honor."

[sai_delgado]

A motion at the door catches her eye as Alain enters, and Susan makes a quick decision. "'Bert, why don't ye go with Alain to - to make arrangements, an'ye would?"

She'll not argue that she'd be more comfortable with them there, but she's well aware now that her reluctance to have them out of her sight is born of the deep uneasiness within her, and she refuses to let it overcome her. Susan smiles up at him. "I'll be fine here with Sir Reepicheep, while ye do."

Cuthbert studies her carefully. "Thee are sure, Sue?"

"As ever was," she promises. "Go on, now."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep observes this interaction with keen interest, but only nods to the gunslinger. "No harm will come to her in my presence," he says, seriously. "I swear it, by the Lion."

[sai_delgado]

"All right." Cuthbert puts a hand on her shoulder in reassurance, and Susan covers it with her own and squeezes his fingers before he lets go and nods back to Reepicheep. "And I say thankya for it," he says, simply. "We'll not be far."

Susan watches as he goes to meet Alain, and turns back to Reepicheep with a small, slightly wry smile. "I ken ye've been worried," she starts. "And I'd not be surprised were you to have questions, say true."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep studies her with his bright eyes, the scarlet feather tucked into the band around his head nodding gently in the drifting air of the room.

"Are you in some sort of danger, Daughter of Eve?" he asks. "Only speak the word and I shall fight in your defense against whatever might threaten you."

[sai_delgado]

"I'm not," she reassures him, and prays to her father that she's not lying to this dear creature. Susan holds out a hand to him, as if to take his paw. "There's naught of danger now, only an old scar."

[the_seafarer]

The Mouse takes her hand and cups it between his two paws. "How can I assist, my lady? Is there anything I can do, any action I can take?"

[sai_delgado]

"Ye've already helped me so much, say true." Gentle and sure. "Yer kindness and the stories ye've told, it's all been more of aid than ye might ever have dreamed."

She'd not wish to hurt him for all the world, and is oh, so aware of the trust Caspian's placed in her by leaving her to explain without his guidance.

"It's only that I've need to be gone from here from tonight until the morrow, and I'd not wished ye to worry over my absence."