Caspian X | at the stables, in the bar

[the_seafarer]

It has been some time since his last sojourn here at the end of the Universe, but when Caspian enters from his cabin on the Princess Royal, the place looks quite the same as ever. 

A few new faces, and the lack of some old ones, but that same warm feeling is as present as he recalls.

And it's spring – better still. Moments after he arrives, he makes his way to the stables, where he spends a good deal of time cosseting his old friends. Who is managing the place now, he's not certain, but the horses and creatures seem well cared for. It gives him a pang to see Susan Allgood's once bustling stables so quiet and still, though, and he makes himself a promise that he'll come back more frequently to care for them as they deserve.

The horses he turns out, letting them stretch their legs in the warm spring sun as they frolic around the paddocks. Once they're set, he turns his attention to the problem of the Hope, waiting patiently in the stall where he'd set her to winter. The little boat needs plenty of work, but it'll be hard work to move it out into the fresh air by himself. He draws open the stable doors as wide as they can go, then begins setting wooden rollers on the ground.

Later, towards the evening, he may be found at the bar proper, a cup of tea at hand as he pens a letter.

... it is passing strange, to look about this place and not see those I expect. It feels rather as though they are simply just out of the corner of my eye, waiting for me to look at them so they can tease me for my long absence. And, of course, it is not the same without my raven girl, wind in her hair and the spring sun shining down upon her. The wildflowers are blooming, Marian. I wish you were here to see them.

Do come say hello.

Comments

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sure was," Bucky agrees. He stops scrubbing for a moment to check the surface, then goes back to it. "My best friend was one of those in the city. From what I heard it was pretty wild."

[the_seafarer]

"If it's anything like the world the Pevensies are from, I expect the people there would be quite alarmed at the sight of an enormous flying serpent," Caspian says, reasonably.

[nerves_of_ice]

"You'd be right," Bucky agrees. "But I guess all's well that ends well."

He gives the other man a curious look. "You asked about sea monsters. That a common thing where you're from?"

[the_seafarer]

"Heavens, no," Caspian says. "Thank the Lion. I ran afoul of one in my youth and did my best to avoid any others afterwards. Nasty, vicious things; that one was quite intelligent, too. It very nearly sank us."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky eyes him with interest. "In your youth, huh?"

He shakes his head. "I hope your boat was bigger than this one."

[the_seafarer]

"Bigger," Caspian assures him. "But not big enough. The serpent must have been, oh, three times as long as the Treader and quite thick around."

At the other question, he shrugs, very slightly. "A long while ago, now, though I know it doesn't look it."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, don't worry," Bucky says, dryly. "I know a fair bit about what that's like, too."

He shifts position to start sanding another patch on the hull.

"How'd you deal with the serpent?"

[the_seafarer]

"Do you?"

It's Caspian's turn to study the other man, before he turns his attention to the question. "Well, the beast was looping itself around the ship, like so – "

He demonstrates by holding out one arm and miming the serpent as it dived over the deck, then came up under the keel and over once more. "And was starting to squeeze, planning to smash us to kindling and pluck us from the water at its leisure, no doubt. And its scales were far too thick to cut through; we broke sword after sword on them. But one of my knights had the idea to push, rather than attack."

He draws the one arm slowly over the other, showing how they managed it. "We all lined up and pushed, to a man. We lost a bit of railing, but in the end we freed ourselves and left the creature behind."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Pretty smart knight," Bucky observes. "That was a good idea."

He gives his attention to the spot he's working on, making sure he doesn't take too much off. "And yeah, I do. I'm a hundred years old," he says, matter-of-factly. "Although, like you said, I know it doesn't look it."

[the_seafarer]

"Indeed it does not," Caspian agrees. "I would have assumed you were still quite a young man."

Although there's that shadow in the man's eyes that seems a good deal older than his features. Caspian shakes his head and moves on to another spot along the gunwale. "I myself am on my second time around, a miracle wrought by Aslan at the end of my life."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Aslan?" he asks. "Some miracle."

Bucky shrugs, keeping his attention on his work. "Yeah, it can take some getting used to. Which you know, sounds like?"

[the_seafarer]

"The Lion," he says. It's a simple word, but beneath his easy tone is a deep well of faith and wonder and awe and love. "Narnia's creator... and its destroyer, in the end. As all things must end."

He pauses in his work and looks out over the green grass toward the sun sparkling off the calm waters of the lake. "I suppose. I died and was reborn, brought back to youth and vigor by His kindness. I am grateful, more than anything. A chance at a new life is a rare gift."

[nerves_of_ice]

He's not one to hold much of an opinion about different deities, not with everything he's seen both here and back in his world, so Bucky just nods, listening ... until Caspian makes his final observation, that is, at which point shocked resonance jerks him upright as though lightning's sizzled along his spine.

A rare gift. It is, it really is, and he's not sure if he's heard anyone articulate it so well before.

"You're right about that," he says, very softly.

[the_seafarer]

Caspian looks over, compassion in his clear eyes. "Is it the same for you, then?" he asks.

"Or are you one of the many immortals in this place who are blessed with unending youth?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Oh, I'm not immortal," Bucky says, shaking himself out of his thoughts before they can drift further. "I can be killed, it's just hard to do. And you know, I've no idea if or how I'm going to age at all. I don't think anyone knows."

[the_seafarer]

"It's rather new for you, then, is it?"

No wonder he'd spoken of it as a strange thing with which to come to terms. It's been years now by any reckoning since Caspian's own rebirth; perhaps it's simply become old hat to him after so long. "I suppose it does take some getting used to. But it almost seems rather normal here, doesn't it? What with our gods and demi-gods and immortals of various types, or people who have been dropped out of one time and into another."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not really, it's just no one knows," he says, dryly. "The short version's that I was captured during the war - World War II, if you know it - back about seventy years ago and ended up as a scientist's experiment. He injected me with a serum and hit me with some energy blasts, and, well..."

Bucky gestures at himself. "Later on, after I was rescued, I ended up falling from a train during a mission. Everyone thought I was dead, but thanks to how I'd been changed - which no one knew then - I wasn't. Lost my arm then, though. Ended up being found by the bad guys. Things got kind of messy from there for a while. I got away a couple of years ago. So now it's a new start."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian's eyebrows slowly climb through this rather incredible speech and the offhand way in which the man gives it.

"Well," he says, a little at a loss. "If it's been seventy years, I expect you have your answer."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky shakes his head. "Not really, not yet. I spent a lot of those years on ice. Cryostasis. That's a longer and messier story."

It helps to have the boat under his hands. He keeps more of his attention on that instead of what he's saying.

"Anyway, I figure I'll find out eventually."

[the_seafarer]

"Dear me," Caspian says, taken rather aback. "You have had a time of it, haven't you? Poor fellow."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky looks up at him, startled.

"What? No, I didn't mean it like that--"

[the_seafarer]

"Well," Caspian says, perfectly willing to change the subject so as to put the man at ease, "as it happens, I do know of that war. It was how and why the Pevensies first came to Narnia."

[nerves_of_ice]

"These are your friends from London?" Bucky asks, glad to have the topic shifted a bit. He keeps a steady rhythm going on the side of the boat, slowing as he gets closer to finishing the current patch.

[the_seafarer]

"Yes," Caspian tells him, pausing to run a thumb over the wood before he sets to once more with a will. "They'd been evacuated out to the countryside. But in the house they stayed in, there happened to be a particular wardrobe. Going through it, they found a door to Narnia – my world."

His mouth curves into a warm smile as he thinks on it. "There, they overthrew the White Witch, ended Age of Winter, and became the great Kings and Queens of Narnia's Golden Age."

[nerves_of_ice]

"That's one heck of a trip," Bucky observes. "Must have been a pretty big surprise for everyone, too."

This 'white witch' included.