[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]

She lets him lead her across the garden to where the gelding waits. "There's a dear," she tells Kiseki, who tears up another mouthful of grass as he tosses his head.

[the_seafarer]

"Allow me," Caspian says, genteel, and moves beside the gelding to form his hands into a stirrup for her, meaning to help boost her up.

[sai_delgado]

She accepts his assistance and settles into the saddle with somewhat less than her native grace, but collects Kiseki immediately when he tries to sidle in his surprise. "Hold still, thee silly. Make yer manners proper."

Susan waits for Caspian to mount, then asks, "Is - say sorry, for worrying everyone."

Him first and foremost.

[the_seafarer]

"I'm not," he says, mildly. "Sorry, that is. All it means is there are people who care deeply for you. And I think every one of them will understand."

They'll wish, as he does, that she might have run to them instead of into the woods, but what's done is done. "But you may need to submit to being fussed over, a bit."

[sai_delgado]

She tips her head forward, letting the golden cascade of her hair hide her face, and says nothing. Once she's sure he's settled behind her, Susan clicks her tongue to Kiseki and starts him back down the path to the stables.

[the_seafarer]

The gelding carries them at an easy pace back toward the stables and bar, and Caspian keeps any further comments locked behind his own teeth. She'll get more than enough from 'Bert and Alain, no doubt, and so he spends the time making plans of his own.

If the gunslingers will agree to take over her chores for the rest of the day, he thinks it's more than possible.

[sai_delgado]

It's a much quicker trip back than it had been out, not that that's a surprise. Susan stays quiet as they go, unable for once to take pleasure in the ride.

Light flashes from Alain's hair across the paddock as his head jerks up when they emerge from the forest. He turns to look in another direction, calling something she can't make out, before he cuts across the field to meet them at the stable.

[the_seafarer]

He waits until they've reached the stable before he dismounts, slipping Kiseki's reins over the gelding's head and handing them to Alain before offering to help Susan down. "Here we are," he says, cheerful, though he glances at the gunslinger. "And Kiseki's had a little exercise now, too."

[sai_delgado]

A single swift glance is all Alain needs to take in the way Susan's avoiding his eyes and just how much disarray she's in. He nods assent to Caspian and keeps his gaze on her as he wraps the reins around the post hook. "Aye, and he'll be the better for it, I wot."

As soon as her feet are on the ground, Alain steps to her. "Susan. Are thee harmed?"

She shakes her head. "I'm all right, Alain, say true."

[the_seafarer]

He steps back, but stays nearby, listening to Alain and Susan talk as he moves to remove Kiseki's saddle and blanket. Close as he and Susan are, there's some connection between her and the two gunslingers he feels he should be careful of. And today, certainly, isn't a day to insert himself into it.

[sai_delgado]

Alain cups her chin in his hand and tips her head up. Her fog-gray glance is shadowed, he sees, and she's on the verge of tears. "Ah, now, Sue." He takes one more step and wraps her in his arms. "Shh, now. I kennit."

"Susan?" Cuthbert vaults the paddock fence on the side of the field and bolts across to the gate.

[the_seafarer]

A small, brown-furred figure scrambles over the paddock fence in pursuit and streaks across the grass. Reepicheep can move rapidly when he wishes, and now he bounds on all four paws and must dig them in to halt himself before crashing into Susan's legs. "My lady," he gasps. "Are you well? We feared the worst – "

"Reep," Caspian says, quiet but with an air of command. When the Mouse looks his way, he gives a speaking look towards Susan, Alain, and Cuthbert. Reepicheep wilts, slightly, but steps back to give the gunslingers room.

[sai_delgado]

She pulls away from Alain, her distress visible, and shakes her head at Cuthbert before she drops to her knees and holds out both gloved hands toward the Mouse.

"I cry yer pardon, Sir Reepicheep," Susan says, her voice clear for all that it's wavering a little. "I didn't mean to worry ye."

[the_seafarer]

At this earnest apology, Reepicheep's gallantry cannot be held back. "Dear lady, nay," he says, and takes one of her hands between both his paws, patting the back of it gently. "I am only relieved you are back, and unharmed."

He'd been frightened right down to his whiskers, Caspian knows, but his relief is visibly all-consuming. "I would never have forgiven myself had some danger befallen you when my sword might have come to your aid."

[sai_delgado]

She cannot, she cannot look up at either of the men who she knows have never forgiven themselves for just exactly that. Her fingers tighten slightly on Reepicheep's paw.

"I kennit," she whispers. "But ye've naught to - I'm all right," she shifts to, quickly. "Forgive me, I beg."

[the_seafarer]

"Yes, of course," Reepicheep is swift to reply. "There is little enough to forgive, Daughter of Eve."

"It's a knight's prerogative to worry over a lady," Caspian says, as lightly as he can. Reepicheep may have only known Susan a short while, but he knows the Mouse feels his loyalty and duty toward her keenly. "And Reep is the finest knight of my acquaintance."

[sai_delgado]

"Still. Thankee-sai," she says, simply, and lets go of his paw. Susan pushes herself back to her feet with a slight wince that she tries to hide, and turns to Cuthbert. The gunslinger rests his hands on her shoulders and gives her a gentle shake. "Thee should've come to us," he scolds, although more gently than she feels she deserves.

"I kennit, but - I, I couldn't," she tries. "Not thee, nor Caspian, or anyone."

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep bristles at the scolding, however gently it's spoken, and Caspian shifts just enough to catch his glance and give the Mouse a warning look of his own. Kiseki, meanwhile, lowers his head to sniff curiously at the Mouse.

[sai_delgado]

"Susan--"

"All right," Alain interrupts, with a warning look for Cuthbert. "We'll see to Kiseki, Sue, if thee wants to clean up."

She bites her lip and darts a hesitant look at Caspian.

[the_seafarer]

He smiles at her, warm and encouraging. "Go on," he says, and looks at Reepicheep. "Sir Mouse, would you kindly escort sai Delgado back to the bar? I'll follow presently."

[sai_delgado]

"As ye'd have it," she says, softly, and looks away from them all, down at Reepicheep, weariness in the set of her slender shoulders. "If ye'd not mind," she tells the Mouse, and starts away, toward the bar.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian watches her go, then turns to the gunslingers. "I know you've been planning something to take her mind off things," he tells them. "But unless you're quite ready to enact those plans today, I ask that you take over the stables for the day, so I may take her away from the Bar for a short while."

[sai_delgado]

"That's one way of putting it," Cuthbert says. "Did you see how she looked? What happened to her?"

"'Bert," Alain interjects. His steady gaze never wavers from Caspian. "I'd ask where ye'd think to take her, and for how long."

[the_seafarer]

"She fled into the woods," Caspian tells Cuthbert, levelly. "I found her at a place we'd visited a time or two before, thank the Lion."

He settles himself, and looks to Alain. "The door no longer opens for me to Narnia proper," he says. "But instead to Aslan's Country. I have been and returned many times since first arriving here. It is a place of great peace and beauty, and may offer her the respite she needs. And then we will return."

[sai_delgado]

"God and the Man Jesus." Kiseki snorts and tosses his head at the edge to Cuthbert's voice. "She fled? It's gotten that bad?"

"From the sound of it, might be it's what she needs, aye," Alain observes. "I'd not pry into what's between the two of you, sai, but do'ee ken what she's facing now?"