[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

[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."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep considers this and studies her, his tail flicking back and forth.

"You won't be going alone, I hope?"

[sai_delgado]

"I'm not," she promises him, and nods across the room to the end of the bar where Cuthbert and Alain appear to be deep in conversation and mayhap consultation. She kens very well that they're both also keeping a close eye on her, but she's not troubled by that. "'Bert and Alain will be with me, and Caspian as well. There's -- it's a watch to be kept, ye see."

She'd spent some time considering how she could possibly explain, or at least explain enough, and given the stories she's now heard, she believes she kens a way, oh aye.

"Ye remember the stories, I kennit, when the witch made it to be winter everywhere in Narnia?"

(always winter and never Christmas)

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep nods, relaxing slightly even as his ears perk with interest. "Yes, of course."

He's on much firmer ground with stories of the witch and the winter. "A spell broken by Their Majesties and by the Deep Magic. If a watch must be held, may I humbly present myself as another to lend aid?"

[sai_delgado]

"It's not that sort of watch, say true," she hastens to assure him. "It's -- there were a witch in our world too, aye, in my home. But she's been dealt with, and there'll be no more of her tricks or spells, not now or ever again."

She takes a soft breath, and continues, "But before she were dealt with, she cast a glam on me, do'ee ken? And - it were broken, but - it's why the season takes me so poor now, we think. 'Bert and Alain've dealt with such before, and all will be well in the morn. So an'ye would, I'd have ye wait for my return on the morrow, for it'll be a joy indeed to me to see ye again."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep looks very stern at this news, and his paw goes to the hilt of his rapier, hanging at his side. "Enchantments and glamours are nothing to take lightly," he says, solemn, and peers at her, undecided.

"If that is your wish." He sounds a little unhappy about it, but reminds himself that not only will she have her knights, but King Caspian as well. The Mouse draws himself up to his full height and bows his head. "Of course, Daughter of Eve. I will await your return."

[sai_delgado]

"Ye say true," she agrees, fervently. But oh, his disappointment cuts her to the very quick, and Susan draws a shaking breath.

"I'd not have ye -- I'd not wish for ye to feel I've insulted ye," she says, soft and earnest. "Cry yer pardon, if I have. I'd only not wish to cause ye --"

(my grief - you are the source of it)

"--any distress," she finishes, as a tremor runs through her.

[the_seafarer]

"Fair lady, your words were kind and kindly meant and I could take no insult from them," Reepicheep says, trembling with insulted astonishment – not aimed at her, but at the very idea.

"And if some blaggard has given you pain for only speaking your desires, well, I will show them the point of my blade if they be a knight or beat them black and blue with the flat of it if not until they learn prettier manners. I will await you and His Majesty – and your knights – all and look forward to celebrating your release from this despicable magic."