[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]

"I'd like that." She beams at him as she pushes herself from the chair to her feet, then drops him another curtsey before stepping back to clear the way for Caspian.

[the_seafarer]

He gets up and comes to embrace his old tutor, long and fondly, before stepping back. There's a glimmer in the old Doctor's eye as he looks on his King, and a glad thickness to his voice. "Be well, sire," he says.

"And you, old friend," Caspian tells him. "This is not goodbye. Not really."

Cornelius nods. "So it isn't. Then I will only say, fare thee well until we next meet."

[sai_delgado]

(we'll meet again)

She stays quiet, and stays back, understanding in the fog-gray eyes and a gentle smile lingering at the corners of her mouth.

[the_seafarer]

He leaves Cornelius to his studies and comes to offer his arm to Susan, his smile sweet and a little wry. "Come," he murmurs. "There's still so much to see."

[sai_delgado]

She slips her hand into the crook of his elbow and steps close to his side as they exit, eyeing the wry cast to his smile.

"Are thee well?" she murmurs.

[the_seafarer]

"Yes," he promises, and lets his smile warm to assure her as they start back up the stairs. "It's only that I haven't seen him in so long."

[sai_delgado]

"Then I'm so glad he were here today." Susan smiles up at him. "He's such a kind man, and he cares for thee, it's clear."

[the_seafarer]

"He was my only real friend after Miraz took my nurse away."

He smiles back at her, pleased. "I'm glad you liked him. He liked you, too, very much."

[sai_delgado]

Color tints her cheek. "I liked him well, say true." Bashfulness is quickly overcome by spirit, though, as she adds, "But I'd not like yer uncle at all, never in life."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian can't help but laugh as she declares how she'd dislike Miraz. "No, I don't suppose you would," he chuckles. "He wasn't a very likable man. But I doubt we'll see him here."

Or anywhere. He has no idea where Miraz may have gone after the duel, but it certainly wasn't to Aslan's Country.

[sai_delgado]

His laughter is balm to her heart, and Susan smiles up at him. "Then we've no reason to worry over him, aye?"

Not today, any road.

[the_seafarer]

"None at all," he tells her, and he truly believes it. Miraz was a long, long time ago, and nothing that happened then is anything he cares to think about now.

As they climb, the spiral of the stairs tightens and tightens. There are no rooms or halls coming off it now, only windows which look out over the courtyards or towards the sea.

[sai_delgado]

She'd seen the towers from below as they approached the gleaming castle, but hadn't thought how that might affect them as they climbed. Susan tries to look out every window at once as they wind higher and higher.

"However did they build such a place?"

[the_seafarer]

"It was rebuilt with a great deal of ingenuity and hard work," he tells her. "How it was built in the beginning, I don't know. Perhaps it's always been here."

The stairway finally gives out to a door. He opens it and draws her with him out into brilliant sunlight and a rushing, salt-laced breezed. Around them, the sky is as drowning deep as the sea, clear blue and brilliant.

[sai_delgado]

Susan gasps with wonder as she looks around. The brilliant white of Cair Paravel itself doesn't interfere with her ability to see as far and as clear as ever she's seen anything, from the forests and distant mountains to the sunlight sparkle off the waves.

Carefully, but without fear, she moves to the edge of the tower, looking up and out.

[the_seafarer]

Above them, a pennant flaps merrily in the wind, the golden lion on a rippling scarlet background. Caspian comes with her, stopping a step behind her to watch as she looks about. The air is so clear that they can see for miles further than usual, and he points to what he can. "Yonder is the Western Wood," he tells her. "And the Great River. That way, there, is Beaversdam. And to the north, a wild land, full of giants."

[sai_delgado]

"Like sai Wimbleweather?" Susan pulls her braid forward over her shoulder and starts unwrapping the leather cord at the end of it. "It's all so beautiful, Caspian, it's hard to believe it's real."

[the_seafarer]

"Nay," he tells her. "These were not like our Narnian giants. There was a race called the Ettins, in Ettinsmoor. Much larger, very stupid, and terribly violent. They had either two heads or four arms, but not both. The giants of the Great Northern Plain beyond were much more intelligent, but they too were vicious and cruel."

He watches as she undoes the cord holding her braid, and steps forward, offering to gently undo the plait for her. "And yet it is, Su. All of it. More real than real."

[sai_delgado]

"Oh - mutie giants?" she asks. "They sound like it."

Her fingers still on her braid, and she smiles up at him, turning it over to his touch. "It's been a long, long time since I've felt the wind off the sea like this," she explains. "I may end up all a-tangled, but it'll be worth it, say true. Because it's as thee say - real as rain."

[the_seafarer]

"I understand."

He does, down to his core. The wind is tugging at his own hair, at his clothing, calling to him. Above, he can see a wheeling seabird, and the sight lifts his heart.

Carefully, he combs his fingers through Susan's hair, letting it fly free as he does. There's a twinkle of humor in his eyes as he goes on. "I suppose Reep would be willing to comb it out again, anyhow."

[sai_delgado]

She beams up at him as he separates out the golden locks and as the wind starts to whip her hair into a cloud.

"He were ever so dear." Fondness clear in her tone and her look. "I kennit, that I worried ye both, but it were sweet of him to help so."

[the_seafarer]

He smiles back down at her, happy to see she's not lost in self-recrimination and sorrow the way she had been before. "He's a sweet fellow," Caspian agrees, enjoying the feeling of her silken hair fluttering against his fingers.

"You ought to have seen him with Eustace when the poor lad was a dragon. Reep talked him through it when none of the rest of us could."

[sai_delgado]

She tips her head a little, giving him more freedom to play with her hair if he wants.

"Eustace must have been so glad. I'd like to do something nice for him, Caspian, do'ee have any thoughts on what he'd like?"

[the_seafarer]

"I suppose I could let him duel the gunslingers," he teases. "He'd probably like that."

[sai_delgado]

"Oh, thee mischief." Susan narrows her eyes at him. "I kennit mayhap 'Bert's teasing and ka-mai ways aren't best to his liking, but he gets on well with Alain, aye?"