[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]

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.

[the_seafarer]

"I doubt that," he says, his smile warming. "What is it?"

[sai_delgado]

"I wouldn't want to intrude," she demurs. "Or be aught of trouble to anyone who's there. But oh, I'd love to see inside."

[the_seafarer]

At her soft admission, his eyes light and his smile shifts from warm to brilliant. Ever since they'd arrived, the years that sometimes cloud his eyes had fallen away, but now he truly looks like the young King Caspian who had set sail from this very beach all those years ago.

"I'd like nothing more than to show you," he promises. "Come. We'll take the path up from the shore."

[sai_delgado]

She squeezes his hand, and clicks her tongue to the mare to send her along beside Destrier.

[the_seafarer]

He lets go her hand to guide Destrier along the familiar beach toward the path that clambers up the slope. As they climb, he points out things here and there to Susan.

"When I was a boy – and later a man – this whole area had been washed away by erosion, and the castle stood on an island in the Great River Delta, not on this hill."

[sai_delgado]

Susan blinks in surprise. "However did thee make it into a hill, when it were an island before?"