[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]

"That I am, lady, that I am."

He clasps his hands at the small of his back and gazes down on the ship with pride. "And I am very glad to have the chance to show her to you. As is His Majesty, I wager."

[sai_delgado]

“Oh, he were,” she agrees. “Ye kennit, how much he loves this ship and the sea beside.”

Susan peers down again, taking in every detail she can. “I may have grown up by the water, but I don’t ken ships the way the two of ye do - it were horses, for me - but I ken enough to see she’s trim and well-crafted.”

[the_seafarer]

"Would that you could see her under sail," he says, regretfully. "But that would require a crew greater than two. One day, perhaps."

[sai_delgado]

“Mayhap.” Susan throws him a sparkling smile. “For if ye can’t find new waters to sail in Aslan’s Country, I can’t think where ye would. How many sailors does it take to crew her?”

[the_seafarer]

Drinian considers the question thoughtfully. "I should say no fewer than six, to take her out safely. More, of course, if we'd need to row."

[sai_delgado]

“Well, there’ll be water if ka wills it,” she says, practically. “And sailors too, come the right day, when it’s time.”

[the_seafarer]

"Plenty of water," Drinian chuckles. "Wind, too. I expect we can't hope for everything on this one day, but you'll get your cruise, my lady, I promise."

[sai_delgado]

Susan smiles up at him, bright and shining. “I’ll be glad to see ye again, come the day, say true.”

[the_seafarer]

"And I to see you," he promises, and glances down. A familiar golden head has reappeared on the deck, and Drinian smiles.

"Shall we rejoin His Majesty?"

[sai_delgado]

“If we don’t he’ll climb up,” she laughs. “Aye, best we do.” Susan moves to climb from the fighting-top to the rigging.

[the_seafarer]

"You're right," Drinian chuckles, but comes to halt her before she can climb down. "Allow me to go first, in case you slip."

[sai_delgado]

She searches his face and decides not to protest overmuch. “If ye’d have it so, but I’ll not slip.”

[the_seafarer]

"I've no doubt, my lady, but kindly don't ask me to risk it."

He swings himself back onto the rigging and climbs down a bit, then waits for her to follow before he continues, looking up constantly to ensure she's safe.

[sai_delgado]

She descends carefully, not wanting either to fall or to cause Drinian any alarm by a haphazard scramble, since he's so determined to see her secure.

Once she's close enough to the deck, Susan hops down and lands lightly. "It's such a lovely view," she tells Caspian, smiling, before she busies herself with taking her hair down and retying it back in a loose tail.

It gives her a moment to mind herself carefully, aware now of his friend's keen eye.

[the_seafarer]

"It is, isn't it?"

He offers her a hand to step back onto the deck as Drinian ensures she descends safely. Not that either of them need worry; Susan is as adept on the rigging as she is in the saddle. "A little less so when a storm is blowing up, though."

The quiet joy that's suffused him ever since they arrived through the door is even brighter now; he looks like someone with a delightful secret they can't wait to share. "Thank you, Captain, for offering the tour."

"It was my pleasure, Sire," Drinian tells him, smiling.

[sai_delgado]

Caspian looks so happy that it’s practically shining from him like sunlight, and Susan can’t help but smile back at him before she turns to Drinian. “It were kind of ye to do,” she tells him, still smiling, with sincerity in each word. “I’m so glad to have met ye here.”

For Caspian’s sake, aye, but also for himself.

[the_seafarer]

"And I you, Daughter of Eve," Drinian tells her. He bows and reaches for her hand to brush a kiss over her knuckles before turning to Caspian. "Sire."

"Old friend," Caspian says, and comes to embrace the Captain.

[sai_delgado]

Susan steps back and to the side, to give them a moment. It lifts her heart to see the joy in the two of them at their reunion, and even though Caspian’s to return to the bar for now, there’s no feeling of loss here at the parting.

[the_seafarer]

Drinian clasps him tight, then pulls away, smiling. "My best to King Edmund and Queen Lucy," he tells them both. "And Eustace, of course."

For a moment, humor dances in his eyes at some memory. "When next you come, Sire, we'll have such a cruise over the waters here that the poets will weep for not being able to write of it."

"I'll look forward to it, Captain," Caspian laughs, and comes to smile at Susan. "Well, Su. Back ashore?"

[sai_delgado]

She waves to Drinian and looks up at Caspian. “Only if thee are ready,” she murmurs. “If thee’d stay longer—-“

[the_seafarer]

"Another time," he promises.

One day, he'll come back here for good, and until then, he can visit as he chooses. But this trip was not for him. He holds out his hand to her in invitation. "Walk with me?"

[sai_delgado]

She takes his hand without hesitation, for although there's a bruise still on some small corner of her heart --

(I swore allegiance to the Queen)

-- Susan kens well that Drinian spoke in love and she'll not hold it against him, nor act other than true to herself, to Caspian, and to what's shared between them.

"Where would'ee next?" she teases, a flicker of amused mischief in her glance. "Yer land holds so many wonderful things."

[the_seafarer]

"I hardly know."

He laces their fingers together as they step off the gangplank and onto the white stone quay, then peers up at the sky, which is just beginning to be painted with watercolor brushstrokes for evening. "Shall we find the horses, or wander on our own two feet?"

[sai_delgado]

"I'd not mind wandering," she admits, "but will they be well enough where we've left them?"

[the_seafarer]

"No fear on that front," he promises. "They were saddled and bridled because we needed them to be. Now that we don't, they may well be running free and easy."

He directs their steps up the beach, toward a path that will take them by the Great River and into the welcoming woods beyond. "Is there anything I've told you of before you'd still like to see?"