[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

[the_seafarer]

Drinian's sea-faded gaze lands on her, curious but not unkind. He glances at his King, then steps forward to lower himself to one knee, lifting Susan's hand to kiss her knuckles. "Greetings to you, Susan, Daughter of Eve," he says, as he rises. "And welcome here to His Country beyond the edge of the world."

[sai_delgado]

She's a little startled at the extent of the formality beyond the likes of the bow Reepicheep's used to greet her, but mayhap that's just how he prefers, although she can't think why he'd show her such honor.

"It's a wondrous place indeed," she says, trying to make her own manners even more proper. "And His Majesty were very kind to bring me here."

[the_seafarer]

Drinian's manners have flustered her, Caspian can see, but Susan Delgado has always been able to rise to the occasion, and indeed she does again now. He comes to stand beside her, a warm hand on her back. "Kind of you to indulge me, I think," he tells her, aware of Drinian's keen glance.

His Captain smiles, the sobers. "Sire, I hardly know how to ask," he says, carefully. "But in the time since I've been here, I've not seen your son...?"

Caspian's heart makes a queer shift in his chest, but he smiles. "And you shan't," he promises. "Not for a long while, I hope. For Rilian was returned to us, thanks to our dear friend Eustace."

[sai_delgado]

Rilian's return had happened very near the end of Caspian's life, she knows - enough time for a reunion, for him to be aware his son was alive and well, but not much more.

She leans a little into the touch of his hand, trying to comfort him as best she can, for it's clear to her from the way he's smiling that he doesn't wish to burden his friend with the grief he'd endured - grief they'd both endured, mayhap, for wouldn't Drinian have known Rilian too?

"He were safe," she tries to reassure, "when he were able to return home, and well."

[the_seafarer]

Drinian turns back to the railing, as if to look out over the water, but lifts his hand once and then again to his eyes. "I am very happy to hear that," he tells them, his voice a little thick. When he turns back, his eyes are wet but clear, and his smile warm.

"You've lightened my heart tremendously with this news."

[sai_delgado]

"Ye were close, then," she murmurs, even as her heart sinks, remembering the night when Rilian had appeared in the bar and had

(forgotten his father's face)

not known Caspian, nor even his own name. Such a thing will only hurt Drinian to hear, it's obvious, and she's certain-sure it'll hurt Caspian even more to tell it. She tries to think of a way to spin the tale in a different direction, and smiles back at Drinian, gentle and warm.

"Just as the two of ye must be, I wot, with all yer adventures on this beautiful ship. I've only heard a few of them, but enough to see that plain as plain." She casts a teasing glance at Caspian. "Is yer friend as much a mischief as thee are?"

[the_seafarer]

Drinian laughs, appreciative. "A mischief, eh? Sire, what pranks have you been pulling on this lady?"

"Pranks, none," Caspian says, amused. "Don't believe him, Su, he may look serious but he can cut up as well any."

[sai_delgado]

"He wouldn't be the first such I've known so," she tells Caspian, then nods to Drinian. "Aye, mischief, but no real troublesome capers."

[the_seafarer]

"This is how you mis-spend eternal youth, is it?" Drinian asks Caspian, mock-sternly, before he turns to Susan.

"Aye, well, I suppose he's earned it. Now, tell me, miss, have you ever seen a vessel so fine as this one?"

[sai_delgado]

"Never in life," she assures him, with a brilliant smile. "Hambry were hard by the Clean Sea, but we only had fishing boats, and none even near so fine."

[the_seafarer]

"Have you given her the full tour, sire?" Drinian asks, and Caspian shakes his head.

"Part," he tells his old friend. "But not all."

[sai_delgado]

"We heard you walking on the deck," Susan puts in, wanting to explain. "And came to see who it were."

[the_seafarer]

"And just as well, too, for no one knows this ship quite like Drinian," Caspian tells her.

His friend smiles, teeth white against the tan of his skin and beard, and politely offers an arm. "I'd be delighted to accompany you... and to protect against further mischief."

[sai_delgado]

(we'd all protect her if we could)

"I'm sure there's naught of need for protection," she says, lightly, but rests her hand on Drinian's arm with a warm smile. "But yer company'd be much welcomed by both of us, say true."

[the_seafarer]

"Then perhaps it is you who are doing me the favor, by allowing me to tour the ship I love with a beautiful woman on my arm," Drinian says, his blue eyes twinkling.

Caspian's mouth twitches as he fights a laugh. "Careful with that one, Su," he counsels, strolling nearby. "He's always been terribly charming."

[sai_delgado]

Susan, in turn, doesn’t try to keep from laughing. “Oh, it’s thick as thieves the two of ye are, I kennit,” she teases. “With manners fair as yer faces, too.”

[the_seafarer]

"Some fairer than others," Caspian jokes, and Drinian sighs.

"Shall I show you the forecastle, miss?" he asks, and escorts Susan toward the bow of the ship, where the great dragon's head rears, glowing gold in the sun. "Here, the sailor on watch would stand, keeping a sharp eye for pirates and other dangers."

"And Reep would often sit here, too," Caspian tells her. "We never did seem to sail quite fast enough for him."

[sai_delgado]

“Let me simply be Susan to ye, I pray,” she tells Drinian, then beams a quick smile at Caspian. “I can just see him doing so, eager to see what’d lie ahead, so I can.”

Susan peers closely at the side of the great gilt dragon, then climbs up a step to look out the way the sailor on watch would have done. “It reminds me of a tale of a prince who looked through the eyes of a dragon,” she muses. “Many and many-a year ago, in a far, far-off kingdom.”

[the_seafarer]

"You've met Sir Reepicheep, then?" Drinian says, surprised and pleased in equal measure. "No doubt he's told you all our stories."

Caspian smiles to watch her clambering around the ship. "If he were looking through the actual eyes of a dragon, we've a story like that, too," he says, cheerful. "Though I doubt Eustace remembers it so fondly."

[sai_delgado]

"Aye, and that I have." Susan turns back around with unselfconscious grace on the perch to look down at Drinian as she explains. "He found his way to - to the place between worlds where I first met His Majesty," she decides, "and it were there I met him, too. He's very dear, and has told me some of yer tales, but not nearly all yet, I'd wager."

She shakes her head at Caspian, then, sending golden hair cascading down over her shoulder. "Nay, not the same as being turned so," she clarifies. "This were a dragon-trophy, the head of one taken in a hunt when it threatened the land's people and mounted as a prize on the wall of the old king's chamber. But there were a secret passage behind it that even the king knew naught of, ye see."

[the_seafarer]

Drinian shakes his head, but fondly. "He never could abide an adventure he couldn't go on," he says, amused.

"We'll give him your best on our return," Caspian tells him, and meets the curious, keen glance his old friend sends his way with a small nod; one that says we shan't be staying, not this time.<

Drinian nods back. "Do," he says, and turns to Susan. "And I'd wager the rest of that story is a good one."

[sai_delgado]

"I kennit," she agrees, and oh, but it's clear from her tone that Susan's deeply fond of the Mouse. "He's a brave and selfless creature, say true."

Susan hops back down to the deck and looks up at Drinian. "Well, in the end it were, but at the time it were a dangerous trial for the prince and his brother both." She thinks over the story, and thinks about Caspian's father, and hastily decides to tell an abbreviated version. "Ye see, the young prince Thomas came upon the passageway and were led by ka to the window behind the dragon's eyes, where he witnessed a great treachery in the making - but he weren't able to warn his brother in time, and so the older prince were betrayed and thrown in a tower prison. But eventually the two brothers were able to be reunited once more, and Prince Thomas used the bow of his father, the very same that slew the dragon, to drive the enemy from their kingdom."

[the_seafarer]

Sailors love stories as much as they do songs and superstition, and both Caspian and Drinian listen attentively and with visible appreciation.

"Ka?" asks Drinian, and Caspian explains, as well as he can: "Fate, or something similar. Like destiny."

"Well," Drinian continues, once she's finished. "That is a fine tale, and no mistake. And it all came right in the end, which is always pleasant to hear."

[sai_delgado]

Susan nods, confirming Caspian's explanation. "Ka like a wind, my da' always used to say. And when it comes, yer plans'll stand before it no more than a barn before a cyclone."

She flushes the faintest pink at Drinian's compliment. "Ye say true, and I say thankya," she agrees. "I've always loved a good story myself."

[the_seafarer]

"Well, any sailor will tell you the best way to deal with a wind that strong is to run before it and let it blow you where it may," Drinian tells her. "For to do anything else, if you can't find safe harbor, will only end in catastrophe."

He offers his hand, gallant, to help her down from her perch, though he smiles as he does it. "If you enjoy that view, perhaps you'd like to see the one aloft, from the fighting-top."