[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]

"Thee very dear," she whispers. "Caspian, I can't tell thee what it means."

[the_seafarer]

He curves his hand against the back of her head and smiles at the way Reepicheep obviously directs his gaze out the window, softly humming to himself.

"You needn't," he murmurs. "I'm grateful to be able to give this to you, Su."

[sai_delgado]

She holds on for a moment longer, then loosens her hold and sits up, all practicality.

"Then I best get to it, if we're to have any time at all," she says. Susan brushes at her jeans and pauses as a thought strikes her. She looks up at Caspian, uncertain. "What do - I've no gowns like a court lady'd wear--"

[the_seafarer]

"If you want one, I can provide it," he says, taking her concerns seriously. "But your jeans will work just as well, I promise. After all, I expect we'll do quite a lot of walking."

[sai_delgado]

Susan eyes him. "There's a great deal of difference between the two," she points out. "Which is it that I should wear?"

[the_seafarer]

He opens his mouth to say whatever you like, but catches Reepicheep's gimlet gaze and rethinks himself.

"Wear your jeans," he tells her. "If we need anything else, I have a feeling we'll find it there."

[sai_delgado]

"As ye'd have it, then." Susan shifts and gets to her feet. "If ye'd but give me a few minutes to wash up, I can be ready that quick."

[the_seafarer]

"Of course."

He stands up to give her room, and Reepicheep scurries down from the back of the couch. "I will offer my services to Cutherbert and Alain," the Mouse tells them, and makes an elegant leg to Susan. "I hope you enjoy your trip, my lady. I will await your thoughts on your return."

[sai_delgado]

She drops into a curtsey of her own in answer. "Thankee-sai," she tells the Mouse. "And on 'Bert and Alain's behalf as well. For everything."

[the_seafarer]

"Thank you, Reep," Caspian says, and the Mouse bows to him in return. "Sire," he says, and makes his way, humming to himself, out the door.

Caspian turns his smile on Susan. "Now then, Su. Go on and wash your face, and we'll take our leave."

[sai_delgado]

"And my hair," she says, ruefully. "Reepicheep did his best, but it's all a tangle still, I wot. But I'll be as quick as I can."

Before she crosses the room to her wardrobe to gather fresh clothing, Susan touches her fingers lightly to Caspian's cheek. "I see thee very well," she murmurs. "And what thee are doing. Thee very, very dear."

[the_seafarer]

He smiles at her and catches her hand in his, then turns his head to kiss her fingers.

"Go on, then," he murmurs, but the smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes shows he'd heard her.

[sai_delgado]

Laughter dances in her eyes as Susan turns away to gather up a few things, then dashes into the bath. It's just as well she's not been given enough time to be all over nerves about such a visit, she decides, as she scrubs at skin and hair under the rainfall of water.

Combing through the golden mass is still more of a trial than she'd like, but the washing helps, and eventually Susan's able to comb it clean and tie it up in a braid thick as her wrist. She binds the end with a leather cord and slips into dark blue denim and a silk-soft cotton blouse the dusky pink shade of a wild rose, then shoves her feet into her boots and dashes back out to rejoin Caspian. "Will I do?" she asks, breathless.

[the_seafarer]

He'd made himself comfortable on the couch, gazing out the window and thinking with quiet delight of all the things he'll show her. Now, as she comes back out into the main room again, he rises to his feet, gazing at her with open admiration.

"More than," he promises, and comes to slip his arms warmly around her waist. Smiling, he lowers his head to kiss her sweet, smiling mouth and her cheek, pink with excitement and nerves. "You look perfect."

Stepping back, he offers her his hand. "Shall we?"

[sai_delgado]

She laces her fingers together with his and beams back at him. "Aye," she says, simply. "Lead on, Caspian, do, and I'll follow thee wherever thee'd have me go."

[the_seafarer]

He swings their hands between them as he walks with her from her quarters, being careful not to squeeze her poor sore fingers too tightly, then brings her to the door. Caspian gives her a brilliant smile, then reaches for the handle with his free hand and swings it open. And beyond –

And beyond lies a land of gentle green hills and a blue sky bright as sapphire. White clouds whisk overhead and wildflowers dot the grass before them, and as they stand there, a delicious, mischievous breeze swirls through the open door, winding around Susan like an affectionate cat, beckoning her. One can almost hear it whispering: come and see, come and see.

[sai_delgado]

Susan gasps, eyes wide and bright. She can't look away from the country beyond the door, filled with color and life and --

(peace of the clearing)

--a vibrant, pure joy that seems to imbue the very breeze that tugs at them. She can smell wildflowers, she's sure of it, and green grass and roses and the distant sweetness of honeysuckle.

"Oh, Caspian." She breathes his name on a sigh, drinking in the sight of Aslan's Country. "Oh, it's beautiful."

[the_seafarer]

Beneath the light from Aslan's Country, here at the top of the world, her eyes are clear as glass and her hair shines like polished gold. Caspian lifts her hand and steps across the threshold, breathing deep the sweet-scented air like a longer sleeper just now awakened. "Welcome, Daughter of Eve," he tells her, and even his voice sounds richer, deeper, more full of joy than before. "Come further up and further in."

The land outside the bar always seems real, but stepping into Aslan's Country, one begins to feel that every other world is but a poor, faded imitation. The grass is a more vibrant green with a sweeter, fresher scent; the air is so clear that things far off in the distance look as clear and real as if they were standing next to them. Caspian has brought them onto a gently rolling hill, but there are mountains climbing into the sky along the horizon on one side and a dark mass of forest on the other. And ahead, far, far ahead, is the calm, sparkling expanse of the sea.

[sai_delgado]

It's been quite some time since she's felt so light and easy and free, say true. Since before the season's turning, before fin de año, and more than that - well before the Academy, even. Susan's not sure, herself, and doesn't want to think about it.

She turns in a slow circle, trying to see everything at once, and yet she still doesn't let go of Caspian's hand.

Her glance falls on the sea far distant, shining beneath the sun, and delight fills her. "Oh, look, look - how lovely."

[the_seafarer]

She turns, her head turning too, and winds herself close to him in the curve of his arm. Her delight sparks his, and he laughs, cheerful, and tucks her a little closer as he nods. "The Eastern Sea," he tells her. "This is not Narnia, exactly... but maybe Narnia as it should be. As it will be."

He takes a deep breath of the sweet, fortifying air, and smiles down at her. "In which direction shall we wander?"

[sai_delgado]

Her soft laugh ripples out. "I'd go in all of them at once if I could, I wot. Where would thee like to show me most, Caspian?"

[the_seafarer]

She already fled into the woods at Milliways, and the mountains are too far to reach on foot. He spins her out from the circle of his arm, chuckling, and points to the glittering water, far ahead. "Yonder," he tells her. "And who knows what we might find along the way?"

[sai_delgado]

She twirls around with a laugh. "Caspian Seafarer," she teases. "Of course that's what thee'd like best. But I think it's perfect, say true. Let's." Susan tugs at his hand, trying to draw him along with her.

[the_seafarer]

"I miss the salt water and the waves," he admits freely, with a laugh, allowing her to tug him along. It's good to see her laughing and full of delight, after the tears and panic of earlier.

These high meadows, clean-swept and fresh with mountain wind, seem home to all manner of creatures, large and small. Butterflies flutter around them; birds soar overhead. And once, Caspian points up as a large figure passes over them: four graceful legs and wide-stretched wings. "I suppose that must be Fledge," he tells her, thrilled. "The first of the Talking Horses and of the winged ones."

[sai_delgado]

"Oh!" Susan tips her head back as far as she can, following the pegasus's flight. "Melina's never flown so high. Mayhap I should find a way to give her a pasear through the air, too."