[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 were quick as quick," she says, pleased, and turns to look in the direction of the sound. It's not a herd entire, she can tell that much from the drumbeat of hooves, and evidently Caspian's able to do the same.

It's two horses only that come over the grassy rise and canter toward them, one of which is a cloud-and-grey dapple that veers toward her.

[the_seafarer]

The two horses that appear are clearly not of the Talking variety, and yet Caspian stares anyway, letting go of Susan's hand to run forward with a shout of joy, for the other animal is his own old Destrier, saddled as he used to be and calling a deep-chested whickering whinny as he jogs towards his old master.

[sai_delgado]

"There now, thee proud, thee beauty," Susan soothes the dapple mare, letting her get the scent of her and acquainted with her voice.

"Caspian, thee recognizes him?" His surprise and happiness are wonderful to see.

[the_seafarer]

"It's my old Destrier," Caspian tells her, half in wonderment, half a laugh of joy. He catches the war-horse's reins and can't refrain from pressing his face against the old beloved mane, his arm around the stallion's neck. "The horse I had when I was a boy. He was my loyal friend through the first years of my reign."

[sai_delgado]

"And is still," she laughs. "For it's plain he knows thee just as thee do him." Indeed, the stallion's nudging against Caspian's side in welcome.

She looks Destrier over with a horsewoman's assessing glance and beams. "Oh, he's a beauty true, that he is -- and aye, so are ye," she tells the mare. "Ye needn't worry."

[the_seafarer]

He leads the stallion – a darker gray, the way Caspian remembers him, not the nearly white he was when he finally passed on – over to meet Susan, his eyes sparkling with delight and some deeper emotion.

"It was on this horse that I fled my uncle," he murmurs. "Doctor Cornelius had him saddled and ready. I rode him to all my first campaigns."

[sai_delgado]

The mare snorts but doesn't shy, content to stand and whuff at Susan's shoulder as she holds out her hand to Destrier. "Strong and proud and brave all three, then," she says, coaxing and soft. "A good friend ye are to Caspian, aye?"

[the_seafarer]

"The very best."

The tall stallion lowers his head to sniff at Susan's hand and up along her arm, and Caspian grins again, bright as sunlight. "Well! With such mounts as these, how could we say nay to a ride?"

[sai_delgado]

"Thee'll be hard-pressed to find a time when I'd not be willing to ride," Susan laughs. She waits until Destrier turns his attention back to Caspian, then pets and praises the dappled mare as she checks her over before swinging into the saddle.

"But I'll let thee choose the way."

[the_seafarer]

Once more, he lifts into the familiar saddle and view the world from Destier's back; once more he taps his heels into the sleek flanks and the war-horse moves forward, eager.

"Toward the castle, then," he decides, and slants a mischievous smile at her. "Shall we see how fleet your mount is, lady?"

[sai_delgado]

She guides the mare a few steps with a touch of her knee and a small shift in weight to take her measure, and is delighted to find how responsive she is. Susan tosses a brilliant smile back at Caspian in answer to his teasing challenge.

"Aye," she laughs, "and let the winner claim a forfeit of the other!"

[the_seafarer]

He points ahead, grinning.

"First to the beach?"

[sai_delgado]

She positions them beside Caspian and Destrier and tosses her braid back over her shoulder once more. "Give the mark," she calls, "and we'll see thee there."

[the_seafarer]

Oh, how it lifts his heart to see her tossing her hair and challenging, bright and beautiful and happy, her smile clear as the sky above. Caspian winks at her, then takes up Destrier's reins. The stallion perks his ears, and as Caspian calls "Go!" he leaps forward in a smooth, powerful rush.

[sai_delgado]

She leans forward over the mare's neck and urges her on with hands and seat and a low, sharp cry, and the dappled horse responds with a burst of speed as she breaks into a run.

Susan's laughter rings through the air, bright and clear.

[the_seafarer]

He'd thought to let Susan win, but from the first few springing strides, he's not sure he'll have to. The mare is as fleet as a cloud scudding across the sky, and Destrier, though powerful, was bred and trained for battle, not racing.

They thunder across the green grass together and hurtle for the shimmering sands of the beach, Caspian's laugh floating on the air behind them.

[sai_delgado]

Destrier's strong and swift and Caspian's a wonderfully able rider, and Susan's not certain enough of the sand ahead to keep the fleet-footed mare racing once they reach the beach.

They'll just have to make up all the ground they can before then. She balances herself in the stirrups, low over the mare's neck, and uses all her skill to coax as much speed as possible from her.

[the_seafarer]

Destrier is clearly glad to see his master once again, and stretches out willingly, Caspian low over his neck with the wind whipping his hair, but the mare's lighter frame and Susan's exceptional riding are both boons for their rivals as the speed and distance begin to tell on his old mount. The stallion reaches with each stride, but the cloud-dappled mare nudges first a nose, then a head, then half a length ahead.

[sai_delgado]

Sand sprays from under the mare's hooves as they thunder onto the beach, and Susan laughs. She draws her back to a canter, then an easy trot, and finally down to a walk as she circles back to Caspian and Destrier.

"She's swift as a swallow and no mistake," she calls, pleased.

[the_seafarer]

He pulls Destrier up and moves the snorting stallion into a walk, laughing. "She's that and more," he agrees. "A fine race, well run."

His eyes dance with merriment as he walks the stallion closer. "What boon would you have of me, lady?"

[sai_delgado]

Susan pats the mare on the arch of her neck and gives Caspian a mischievous look. "Might I think on it for a bit?"

[the_seafarer]

"Of course," he says, gallant, and turns his glance to the end of the beach, where rocks rise into a hill that overlooks the sea. And atop the hill, banners waving bravely in the brisk breeze, gleams the many-towered citadel of Cair Paravel.

"And look where we've come."

[sai_delgado]

The sharp breath she draws is filled with wonder. Susan reins the mare in close by Destrier and reaches out to catch Caspian's hand in hers.

"I've never seen anything like."

[the_seafarer]

He takes her hand in his, then lifts it to kiss her knuckles. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he murmurs, looking up at the castle.

"It looks now as I've always imagined it did in the Golden Age of the Pevensies."

[sai_delgado]

"Can we - oh, thee'll think me silly, I wot," Susan says, blushing a little.