(Untitled)

[called_lioness]

[ooc: It's late for entrance post, but Lucy's in anyway for anyone who wants her. She'll be back other nights.]Yesterday she and Caspian talked

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[hippodamio]

There is one she knows, at least; he has been here some time today. It has been a refuge, of sorts, and while his face does not exactly light up upon seeing Lucy, his expression softens greatly. "Greeting, Lucy," he says, coming in close and bowing. "How are things with you?"

[called_lioness]

She smiles when she sees him.

(Hektor she has to tell too; Hektor is not the hardest one. It doesn't make it easy, but it would hurt more to tell Mary first.

Small blessings are as important as large.)

"Hullo, Hektor. They're well, I suppose. Would you join me and tell me how they are for you?"

[hippodamio]

"Of course," says Hektor, moving to Lucy's table and taking one of the chairs. His clothes are not much to speak of today, undyed doeskin above and below, with green tassels on the breeches and a rolled red belt. "Thank you. I do well enough myself, for the moment, but there has been some trouble at home. Have I told you of my brothers and sisters?"

[called_lioness]

"You've not. I should love to hear, though."

[hippodamio]

Hektor nods, twining his fingers together a moment before drawing breath to speak. "My father," he says, "has been married twice, and has had children both by his first wife, and by my mother his queen, and by other women of the household. The Mother favors him above other men, they say; in the city they speak of the fifty sons of Priam, and I am not so sure they are wrong. But by Hekabe my mother he has had thirteen children so far. I was the first; my mother gave him twins not long after I was first called to this place, my brother Hellenus and my sister Kassandra."

[called_lioness]

"Do you get on well with your half-siblings?"

[hippodamio]

"Most, yes," Hektor says. "Those by Father's first wife, more than those of the house-women- but even there it is not so bad. There has been enough war within families elsewhere around us that Father has done what he can to keep us from treating each other poorly."

[called_lioness]

"I can't imagine such a large family," she muses. "How many are there total?"

[hippodamio]

Hektor thinks for a while; after a bit, he starts to mark them off on his fingers. "Aisakos and Merops and Makareos," he says. "Myself, Deiphobos, Troilos, Helikaion, Polites and Podargos. Hellenus, Kassandra, Kreusa, Laodike, Paris, Polyxena, Troilus... at least four girls by the house-women, and eight boys for certain."

[called_lioness]

"Lion," she says in amazement.

"Some in Calormene had that many, but your father would be admired for his family's size even there."

[hippodamio]

Hektor dips his head a little.

"As I said, the Mother has favored him more than many. Calormene is a country by Narnia, then?"

[called_lioness]

"In a way. It's across a desert, and Archenland is in-between."

[hippodamio]

"I see," says Hektor. "There are deserts to the far east of us at home, but one must cross the mountains first, and pass through the Hittite lands to get there. My horse Boukephalos came from beyond that desert; do they breed horses in Calormene, by chance?"

[called_lioness]

"They've some, but not so fine as even the horses in Narnia that don't talk."

Lucy is not proud of her adopted homeland at all.

No.

[hippodamio]

"We have no beasts that talk at all," says Hektor, a little regretfully. "Save maybe for such horses as some god might beget, and even then I have only heard stories, never met one. And the birds that come from Africa, but they only learn a few words and do not really understand what they say."

[called_lioness]

"Narnia's all sorts. I'd show you if I could," and that's wistful. "But oh, for every dumb animal there's one of the same sort that's intelligent and can speak as well as a man."