[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]

"We seek to spend the night here," Caspian tells her. "Until the anniversary passes."

He doesn't glance at Cuthbert; he'd promised Susan he'd ask, and he knows she'd have him tell the truth. "It may bring you trouble, sister. But we ask, anyway."

The birch-woman considers them both for a long moment. Danger?

"Perhaps," Caspian admits.

A thoughtful murmuring of her leaves.

[sai_delgado]

"If it does, we'll stand against it," he says, on the heels of that. Susan had told them not to press, but this isn't, Cuthbert decides, just making some things clear.

"To defend her and this place and you all three. I think the danger's more from within than without, but we can't be certain. Either way--"

He touches his hip and the weapon there. "--I swear on the guns of my father to do all that I can and more to keep you from harm."

[the_seafarer]

"We don't wish to bring trouble on you," Caspian murmurs. The magic here – growth and life and roots and the dance of seasons – is the best antidote he can think of for the horror of the Reap-Day anniversary.

He won't press, but he thinks the birch-woman is only considering, not balking. Your weapons are not necessary here, she tells Cuthbert, though not without sympathy. No harm will come. No killing frost and no flame. Bring her and be sheltered. Drink of the stream. Eat of the fruit. Sleep and be refreshed.

Caspian breathes out a slightly shaky breath and now glances at the gunslinger.

[sai_delgado]

"Lady-sai, we thank you," Cuthbert says, each word filled with deep respect. "Truly."

Alain will be glad, and he thinks Susan will too, once they've reassured her that it was the treewife's free choice.

[the_seafarer]

"Aye," Caspian agrees, and bows again. "Thank you."

The birch-woman sways, lonely and loving, both. My sisters sleep, she tells them. But I will stand watch.

Caspian nods, and looks to the gunslinger. "It'll be warm enough here, don't you think?"

[sai_delgado]

"It should be," Cuthbert tells him. "A few blankets for warmth just in case, a lantern for light, some other odds and ends, and we'll be well set."

[the_seafarer]

"Good."

He smiles back at the birch-woman. "We'll take our leave, lady," he tells her. "And be back before the sun sets."

[sai_delgado]

"Go your course in peace, sai," Cuthbert tells the treewife as she sways gently back and forth. "As my friend here says, we'll return soon."

It's all he can do not to dash across the garden to their horses, as filled with hope as he is.

[the_seafarer]

Go, then, is the amused memory of words. You rush about like the birds.

"I suppose so," Caspian chuckles, and turns from the birch-woman, indicating with a tip of his head for Cuthbert to join him. "We move a good deal faster than she does, after all. Well! How about we give the horses a little exercise on the way back?"

[sai_delgado]

"I think that's an excellent idea." He gives an affectionate slap to Kiseki's shoulder as they reach their mounts, checking him over with easy familiarity before he swings back into the saddle.

"As was this. You were right."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian lifts himself up with ease and settles on Duncan's back, then reaches forward to pat the chestnut's neck. "Thank you for taking the gamble," he says, and smiles over at the gunslinger before he turns Duncan back to the path that will take them out of the woods.

"Now, shall we let them run?"

[sai_delgado]

Cuthbert's answering grin is quick and bright. "You bet we should."

To his credit, he holds off on actually doing so until they've cleared the garden itself.

[the_seafarer]

In the time when they race back to the bar, it's almost as if they're both the age they look, and as though their hearts were truly beating life through their bodies.

The horses enjoy the exercise, too, and need to be properly cooled down once they've cantered back out of the forest and back towards the stable.

[sai_delgado]

She hears the sound of approaching riders while she's lunging Liaffen in the training ring. The battle-trained palomino stallion backs and snorts an alarm, and for the next several minutes all her attention's given to soothing him down and working him in pattern-circles until he's settled.

Susan praises him, gives him a bit of apple as a treat, and turns him out into his paddock before she makes her way back up to the front of the stable to meet the others. Alain's already there, helping Cuthbert to cool out Kiseki. She hesitates by the fence-rail, unaccountably nervous, then goes to Caspian and Duncan.

"Did he do well for thee?" she asks.

[the_seafarer]

"Duncan?" he asks, his spirits still high and feeling a little full of mischief. He swings off the saddle and lands lightly on the ground, then brings the reins over the tall chestnut's head to start leading him in a cooling walk.

"Or Cuthbert?"

[sai_delgado]

Susan gasps and barely stifles a giggle. "Oh, thee mischief," she scolds, but lightly. "All right, both, then."

[the_seafarer]

"Both were just fine."

He comes to greet her, looking down at her with a smile that's full of light and hope. "We spoke with the birch-woman. She said to come, and welcome."

[sai_delgado]

Susan freezes, looking up at him, wide-eyed. "She did?" Hearing herself, in the next breath she hastens to assure him, "I'd not doubt thee, never, I'd just not dared to let-- to think--"

[the_seafarer]

"She did," he promises. His smile gentles as he watches her, but doesn't fade. "We didn't press, Su, I swear it. We wouldn't have needed to. 'Come and be sheltered,' she said."

[sai_delgado]

Flustered, she reaches for Duncan's rein to take over cooling him down. "Here, an'ye'd allow it," she insists, softly.

It's easier to focus on the horse than on her tumbling, confused thoughts.

[the_seafarer]

"Of course."

He gives over the reins and steps to the side so she can walk the big gelding. It'll give her a little space to think, he expects, and so holds his tongue and walks quietly by her side.

[sai_delgado]

After a minute, she reaches for his hand, twining her fingers with his. It's likely he'll feel the way she's shivering, she kens that all too well, but she does it anyway.

"Do'ee think it'll work?"

[the_seafarer]

Her fingers are trembling, and so is the rest of her, when he chances a look that way. "I don't know, Su," he murmurs.

"But I hope so. Cuthbert and Alain have done it before – not quite like this, perhaps, but something like, all the same."

[sai_delgado]

She nods, and makes herself draw a deep breath - and although shivers continue to run through her, she's able to smile up at him, sweet and real and true.

"I didn't wish to trouble her," she says, softly. "But I'm so glad she agreed. Thankee, for suggesting it."

[the_seafarer]

"So am I," he murmurs, and squeezes her hand, meeting that smile with his own.

"I'm sorry for distressing you earlier. Thank you for allowing me to ask."