[AU] bright is the morning

[sai_delgado]

There are days, say true, when restlessness runs deep in her blood. If she were to be at home, it's at times like these when she'd saddle one of her da's horses and take a long ride on the Drop, oh aye, but here at the end of the worlds it's not to be.

Instead, Susan Delgado rises with the sun and comes to the stables that are her charge, to care for the horses and other creatures there, and tells herself it's enough and more then.

(Mayhap it is, and mayhap it isn't. Ka's a fickle thing, say true.)

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[the_seafarer]

He squeezes her hand as comfortingly as he can, but more comforting still is the birch-woman, who – how he could have not seen her face before, he has no idea – smiles warmly at Susan. The face in the wood is ageless and gracious as she leans in a rustle of branches and leaves to brush something like fingers over the spot where they'd planted the apple sections.

A moment later, a small green shoot appears. The wood-woman looks pleased.

"A gift," Caspian tells her. "In thanks for welcoming us here."

[sai_delgado]

"It's to be an apple tree," Susan offers. "Russet fruit."

The tree-woman - and oh, how a tree can be a woman as well she doesn't know, but mayhap it's like something from Caspian's Narnia, since he isn't surprised and doesn't seem worried - bends her head a little in Susan's direction, acknowledging what she's said.

[the_seafarer]

She's like the dryads who had stayed in their trees so long they became one and the same thing, although he doesn't think she's exactly the same. Like, but not like. The birch-woman gestures, a long, slow, graceful motion towards her garden and opens her leafy hand as if to say enjoy. A voice floats towards Caspian on the breeze – or a suggestion of a voice, a thought of one.

This place is for all who come to share, breathes the disconnected voice of the tree-woman. And I have not had guests in so very long.

Sorrow edges the voice; he sees the same sorrow in her face. Speaking is an effort, it's clear – mayhap she's nearly forgot the trick of it.

[sai_delgado]

There's a hint of sadness in the woodlady's whisper, Susan thinks, and she can't help but respond to it.

"Then we're glad to have come, if we're not disturbing ye," she says, clear and certain. "I'm Susan Delgado, lady-sai, of Hambry in Mejis, and my friend is Caspian, of Narnia."

[the_seafarer]

The birch-woman smiles again. So young, breathes the voice. Stay a while, little saplings. Eat. Drink. Grow strong. There is nothing to fear where my sisters and I tread.

"Your sisters?" Caspian asks, and the same brush of sorrow floats past once more.

Lost, says the voice, grieving. Lost. We found this place. Here we'll stay.

[sai_delgado]

"We came through the forest from Milliways," Susan says, wanting to find a way to ease the other's sadness, if she can. She hasn't noticed, really, that she's still clinging to Caspian's hand, but she's glad of it, as she feels more anchored that way, more secure.

"If ye like, we can tell others of the path so mayhap you'll have more visitors? But only if ye'd wish it so."

[the_seafarer]

Gladness, from the tree-woman. "I think you've hit on it, Su," Caspian murmurs, before speaking more clearly.

"Was it you drew the path through the trees?" he asks, and the birch-lady nods, slow, slow. "Can you keep it clear for travelers?"

Hesitation, and then she nods again. "You and your sisters, mayhap?" Caspian suggests, and this time there is no hesitation. The woods shift, she tells them. We are not the tree-herders our husbands are. But we can clear the way.

[sai_delgado]

"We'll map it, the way we came, any road," Susan promises. "And let others know, so they'll be able to find ye." She glances at Caspian as if to ask silent permission before she finishes, "And we'll visit ye again, too."

[the_seafarer]

He nods to Susan and squeezes her hand, then looks back at the tree-woman, who looks relived.

Thank you, little sapling, she says, sounding pleased and a little wistful. So young. So kind. Stay as long as you like.

So saying, she surrounds them in a brief embrace of leaves and careful branches – Caspian sees the light glowing through the leaves as it plays on Susan's face – then straightens and slowly, slowly makes her way along one of the other garden paths, tending to the flowers and trees as she goes.

"The gardener," Caspian marvels. "Like none I have ever known before."

[sai_delgado]

"Do'ee say so?" She's completely surprised by that, and both looks and sounds it. "But, Caspian, you were so calm, as though you talked to tree-women every day!"

[the_seafarer]

Caspian laughs, abashed, and lifts his free hand to the back of his neck. "Not like this," he tells her.

"There are dryads in Narnia, but I don't think she's the same." He shrugs a little. "Talking to her seemed like the right thing to do. You were right; I think she's lonely."

[sai_delgado]

"Aye, belike," Susan says, looking in the direction the birch lady had wandered before turning back to him. "She sounded so sad."

[the_seafarer]

"I wonder where she and her sisters wandered in from," Caspian muses. "Lost, she said. I suppose if they were brought from their world and couldn't find their way back out again, here they'd have to stay."

[sai_delgado]

Susan shivers. It feels colder all of a sudden, as though a cloud has passed over the sun.

(a stone, a leaf, an unfound door)

"Mayhap," she manages, through a suddenly-tight throat. "Mayhap so."

(o lost and by the wind grieved)

"But we'll not leave them lonely."

[the_seafarer]

Caspian squeezes her hand, offering comfort. "No," he agrees. "We'll not. And perhaps we'll be able to help them find their way home, if they wish it."

The door is fickle, he knows, but there is no malice or cruelty in its fickleness. Perhaps these wood-women we only brought here to tarry a while.

[sai_delgado]

She squeezes back and gives him a firm nod. "I'll tell sai Bernard. If there's aught to do with it that's of the bar, he'll kennit, I wot. But that's for later--"

Cheerfulness brightens her gaze again as she considers, and she smiles at him. "What would'ee do now, Caspian? There's so much to see!"

[the_seafarer]

What would he do?

She's so lovely in the clear air and sunshine of this place that for a moment all he wants to do is smile at her, and so he does. "Come on," he says, getting to his feet and coaxing her to hers, never letting go of her hand. "She told us we could stay a while; let's go see what she's been growing."

[sai_delgado]

She goes with a will, climbing to her feet beside him. "Mayhap we could follow the creek," she suggests. "See where it wends."

[the_seafarer]

"A very fine plan," he says, and glances around, then tugs her hand lightly, leading her in the direction of the cheerfully bubbling water.

[sai_delgado]

He doesn't let go of her hand, and she doesn't try to pull away. He's always been so sweet and kind, and even more so since the night she'd returned from the battle at the Academy, smelling of smoke and blood and gunpowder, mazed with grief and loss and relief all mixed. She's always been comfortable around him, say true, and now it feels natural to be closer.

"Are there gardens like this in Narnia?"

[the_seafarer]

"Like," he says, "yes. Not with the wood-woman's magic, mayhap, but there were many skilled gardeners, both at Cair Paravel and out in the farmlands."

He walks easily by her side, their hands swinging between them. "And a whole apple orchard on the castle grounds."

[sai_delgado]

Susan shakes her head, marveling a little. "We had farmers in Hambry, but naught of gardens such as this. Crops - beans and corn and the like, ye ken - and wildflowers on the drop, mostly."

She considers that and adds, "Some apple-trees, and oranges, too. No castle, though," she adds, teasing him. "Not in Hambry. Ye'd have had to go all the way to In-World for that."

[the_seafarer]

"No castle!" he says, all exaggerated shock. "And yet if I try, I can see you there on the white parapets with that golden hair of yours streaming behind you like a flag, looking out over the sea."

He can see it... but just as clearly he sees a rumpled girl with her hair in a plait coming undone, laughing and playful in a meadow brimming with wildflowers. "We had beautiful gardens at Cair Paravel," he tells her. "After growing up in my uncle's castle, well – "

He shrugs, slightly. "I always wanted to be surrounded by life and growing things."

[sai_delgado]

"Imagine me riding across the Drop overlooking the sea and ye'll be closer," she laughs, but sobers a bit as he confides the rest. Susan squeezes his hand. "Ye were a good king for yer people."

[the_seafarer]

"That I have no trouble at all imagining," he tells her. "It's clear as a bell, that picture."

He smiles at her and squeezes her hand back, grateful for the comfort offered. "I hope so," he says. "Only history will tell how I am remembered. But I tried to govern with love and not fear, to protect the defenseless, and to embrace joy when it came, for myself and for all the peoples of Narnia. I think... there are worse ways to reign."