(Untitled)

[dear_of_heart]

Cora is sitting in a chair near the fire, with a cup of tea next to her and almost no chalk marks on her face (she’d walked into the Milliways restroom, first thing, and had been horrified by the amount of white powder that she’d had to wash off). She’s partway through a large book titled The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales that she

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[iustus_rex]

"Wise choice," says Edmund approvingly, pausing on his way to the bar.

"Though you look as if you don't agree with something. Or it doesn't agree with you."

[dear_of_heart]

"It's not--they're very interesting," she says, looking up for the book. "But...there are tiny people, and Talking Animals."

She's on The Ugly Duckling at the moment.

"If--well, they're from Earth, and Earth doesn't have Talking Animals. And these ones don't seem too clever, either."

Then a pause, and a smile. "Er, hello Edmund."

[iustus_rex]

"Hullo," he says, and grins.

"Earth doesn't, no. Pure invention on Mr Anderson's part, so far as I know. I was always fond of his Animals for Narnia's sake, after we left, but they're stand-ins for Men and his moral, not proper Talking Animals."

"Which ones are you finding less than clever?" He rests a hand on the back of an empty chair, leaning over a little to talk more comfortably, but doesn't sit without invitation.

[dear_of_heart]

"Oh, sorry--" she says with a half-laugh, waving to the seat in a vague invitation.

"So they're just stories, then--I just thought, well." Cora shrugs, a bit embarassed. "It seems like the fairy tales back home are, for the most part, true. I was curious about Earth's, because it seems to be very different from Narnia but they've tales of their own."

"The mother duck in the ugly duckling doesn't even know what type of egg is in her nest, or if it's hers at the beginning," Cora says, sounding a bit irritated at said fowl. "You'd think she would have counted, or something like that."