[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]

"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?"

[the_seafarer]

"She told me what happened," he tells the gunslinger. "I won't pretend to understand everything the way the both of you do – I wasn't there."

He looks back and forth between the two men, shoulders set. "All I want is to comfort her and keep her safe, body and mind and all. I expect she'll need the both of you for the night, when it comes... but for today, I ask that you let me do what I can."

In the end, the decision is Susan's, of course, but he's not fool enough to leave the two men before him out of the conversation. The nature of the strange relationship between them all is still largely a mystery to him, but not so much he doesn't recognize its importance.

And so he asks, odd though it feels.

[sai_delgado]

"Well, and that's the thing, isn't it?" Cuthbert points out, an unnatural grimness to his tone. "We weren't there, when we could have been. When we should have been."

"'Bert's right." Alain moves to Kiseki's head, soothing the gelding before he starts to loosen his tack. "Believe you me, sai, what you want is what any of us want. But as it happens... I'm minded to think you might be the best suited to give it."

[the_seafarer]

"You know that isn't what I mean," Caspian says, reining in any sharpness that wants to accompany the words. He likes Cuthbert well enough, but he's not of any mind or temper to assuage the man's guilt just now, when it's Susan who suffered the harm and needs the aid.

He takes a moment, then nods to Alain. "I'll take care of her. You have my word."

[sai_delgado]

"I do, but my point stands. We all carry our own scars, sai--" and oh, but Cuthbert's careful not to look in Alain's direction. "--but Susan's aren't the sort she's been able to share, do'ee kennit? She knows we know, but if she's hiding in the woods instead of letting anyone in, there's a problem."

"He knows that, 'Bert." Alain's tone, in contrast, is mild. "Leave off. Best they get started before it gets much later. She'll be wondering what's taking us so long. If there's anyone who knows how long it takes to care for a horse, Susan's that person."

[the_seafarer]

He expects he knows better than Cuthbert suspects, but neither of them will benefit from riling the other, and Susan least of all. Likewise, he suspects Susan knows precisely what's taking so long, but Alain is correct.

"Then I'll take my leave," he tells them, and pats Kiseki fondly on the shoulder before nodding to the gunslingers. "Gentlemen."

[sai_delgado]

Alain nods amiably back, and shoves Kiseki's saddle at 'Bert. "Here. Make yourself useful, Allgood."

[the_seafarer]

The courteous Mouse stays by Susan's side to her door, then stands politely to the side. "Daughter of Eve," he says, "if it's not too great a trouble, let me stay with you until the King arrives. I swear to you that if you wish for quiet, I will be as silent as a... well. I can hold my tongue without issue."

[sai_delgado]

“It’s naught of trouble,” she says, softly. “Ye’d be welcome, say true, and ye needn’t be quiet.”

She pushes open the door for him, and her glance falls on her unmade bed. “What ye must think of my untidiness,” she says, low with embarrassed distress. “If ye’d only excuse me this once —“

Even as she speaks, she’s crossing the room to flip the covers back over the bed and smooth them into place, without waiting to remove her winter things.

[the_seafarer]

"Please don't concern yourself," the Mouse says, and leaps lightly to the other side of the bed to assist her with making it. "When one comes from as large a family as my own, one becomes accustomed to some disarray. Indeed, I'd hardly say this is any untidiness of note."

[sai_delgado]

“How large is yer family?” She smooths the coverlet into place and crosses back to the coat-hanger behind the door, where she hangs her scarf, then coat, before she removes her gloves and sets them on the little shelf she uses for such things.

[the_seafarer]

"Oh, I have several dozen brothers and sisters, not to mention cousins," Reepicheep replies. "Peepiceek is their head, now."

His sharp black eyes take in her rumpled appearance, her scratched and reddened hands, and his fur ruffles in his distress. "Daughter of Eve, shall I fetch some salve and bandages for you?"

[sai_delgado]

“It sounds lovely. Were ye close?”

Susan shakes her head. “I’ve salve already,” she reassures him. “I just need to soak them a moment, I wot.”

She’d rather not be alone, say true, but she’s hesitant to trouble him so by asking. “I’ll just run a basin and carry it in.”

[the_seafarer]

"Please allow me," the Mouse says, gallantly, and holds up his paws for a basin. "Close, yes, some of us. As with any family, I expect. Not that all the Talking Mice are related; that is a common assumption."

[sai_delgado]

“I reckon,” she agrees, with a shiver as she forces aside the memory of her aunt’s hate-twisted face to focus on her father’s instead.

The issue of the water presents a useful distraction. She’s certain he’d strain himself trying in his kindness, and equally certain that she’d not do anything to hurt his pride. “Mayhap if ye could fetch some clean cloths from the Bar instead?” she suggests. Surely that won’t take long, and it’ll let her get settled with the water. “I’d take it as a great kindness, an’ye would.”

[the_seafarer]

"Yes, of course," Reepicheep answers, and bounds for the door. "I shall return presently."

[sai_delgado]

“Thankee-sai,” Susan calls after him. She doesn’t let herself draw a deep, shaking breath until he’s out of sight.

There’s a bowl in the bathroom, along with the promised salve, and her hairbrush and comb. Susan fills the bowl with water as hot as she can stand and takes it to the low table near her sofa, then brings everything else.

It helps, to have something to do to keep her from thinking.

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep hurries from the staff quarters and leaps onto the bartop. "Clean cloths, I beg," he requests. "Soft, for bandaging wounds."

The bar complies by manifesting a basket of soft, clean muslin cloths, which Reepicheep takes. He thanks the Bar and jumps to the floor, then makes his way back towards Susan's rooms, rapping politely on the door and announcing himself before letting himself in.

[sai_delgado]

Susan looks up as he enters. She’s seated on the sofa, both sleeves rolled up, soaking one hand while she tries to clean out the scratches and small cuts. The tangled golden mass of her hair is shoved back over her shoulder as best she can manage, and her gaze may be shadowed, but it’s clear and steady.

“It’s kind of ye to help so,” she tells him. “Truly it is.”

[the_seafarer]

"A small enough kindness in return for that which you've shown me." The Mouse sets the basket of cloths next to her, then studies her for a moment before winding the tip of his tail around the comb and climbing to the back of the couch. "Allow me to assist you with untangling your hair, madam."

He's well aware of how being well-groomed can affect one's mood and outlook, and her poor hands look far too sore to comb out her snarls herself.

[sai_delgado]

“All right,” Susan says, soft, and picks up the top cloth. She dips it in the water and goes back to cleaning her hands.

“I’ve been a great deal of trouble to everyone this morning, I kennit. I truly am sorry, Sir Reepicheep.”

[the_seafarer]

"Please don't apologize, Daughter of Eve."

Reepicheep begins the work of untangling her hair with his clever paws before attempting to work the comb through the snarls. "I expect if it were one of your friends who was frightened and hurt, you would not want them to apologize for needing help, would you?"

[sai_delgado]

"Ye have the right of it, say true." His touch is gentle and deft, and she does her best to hold still and not disturb him.

And she sees the point he's making, aye, she sees it very well. "But they're all much braver than I am, I wot, and it seems foolish to take on so over a - a silly dream."