Fanfic : Crossing Borders
Title: Crossing Borders
Author maaike_fluffy
Fandom: The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian movie-verse
Pairing: Caspian/Susan
Rating: Fiction rated K
Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia were created and written by C. S. Lewis. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Prince Caspian and the Pevensies continue their life after their farewell, but none of them can stop dwelling on the past.Then Caspian makes a decision; If she can't come to him, then he'll have to find her. Movie-verse. Not beta-ed.
Chapter 1: The Horn and the Tree
Chapter 2: The Crown of Narnia
Chapter 3: The Shadows Behind the Tree
A/N: Hi! I am back again. And this time with an important Author’s Note, before we begin. After I uploaded the last chapter a reviewer raised two very good points, and it took me a while to figure out what to do with them. Before I continue I’ll remind you all that, when I started writing this, I hadn’t read any of the books yet. Any information not given in the movies were unknown to me. By now I have started VDT, and I can see the inconsistencies between my fic and canon. First: Lucy is twelve in this fic, not nine. There is a big difference between the mindset of a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old, and I have written too much of her already to change it now. Also, the movie keeps us in the dark about the Pevensies home after their stay at Professor Kirke’s, or the whereabouts of their parents. In the books the Pevensies attend boarding school. In my fic they don’t; their father is fighting in the army, and their mother has died in the 1940 Blitz. Since I am going by the ages of the movie-actors, Peter and Susan are both adults, (21 and 20 years old.) and more than capable of taking care of their two younger siblings. Especially considering the fact they were all responsible adults once. And the British Government had to worry about more important things than that at the time. I have to have the Pevensies live at their own home without their parents; it is necessary for the plot. So if those little things above make the story a little AU, so be it.
Yes? Got all that? Good. Onwards!
4. Relapse
The next night Caspian didn’t get any further than the hill towards the tree. He was pulled out of his deep sleep and was consequently so disoriented his poor frantic guard needed to explain the reason why twice.
“My apologies for waking you at this hour, my Lord, but a situation has risen and we need your help. A fight broke out, just three miles south of Cair Paravel. A Telmarine killed a Talking Beast and I’m afraid it’s turned quite ugly. Sir, some of your soldiers were sent to keep the peace, but they can’t seem to get the situation under control. It would be good, I think, if your Majesty made an appearance, so the people…”
Caspian was already on his feet. Even in his confused and sleepy state he had caught enough to judge the urgency of this matter. It must be ugly indeed, if they had to resort to waking me.
He dressed quickly, his head getting clearer now, and as he looking around briefly in search of his boots he caught the expression on the face of the guard that had just woken him. Suddenly Caspian realised that waking the King in the middle of the night must have been a very unpleasant-and possibly dangerous-job under Miraz’ regime.
He walked past the guard as he went to pick up his boots by the door, and gave the poor fellow an encouraging clap on the shoulder. “Thank you for waking me. You did good.” Then he swept out of the room, his cloak billowing behind him.
You wouldn’t say it was in the middle of the night if you saw the street. All the Telmarines and Narnians in the vicinity were out. It might have been a celebration of some sort, if it wasn’t for the grim looks on the people’s faces. They had fallen silent at the arrival of the King, and were now eyeing him nervously as he walked through the crowd to where his soldiers were restraining two Telmarines and three Narnians.
“Release them.” Caspian ordered curly, and it was immediately done. “What, pray tell, has happened here?” One of the soldiers opened his mouth to answer his King, but Caspian pointed at a Telmarine with a long red hair and a bushy beard.
“That… tiger… attacked my son, my Lord.” He said, pointing at the still form of a lynx lying still on the cobbled street. Even without the three arrows sticking out of it’s back, it was unmistakably dead. Caspian felt a pang of regret for he recognized the lynx. “It attacked my son, so I killed it. There is no crime in that! And now they come here and-” But before the words had left his mouth a roar of outrage sounded from the Narnians.
“Eius didn’t attack that boy! Eius liked him, Aslan knows why. They were simply playing! You murdered the only Narnian that tolerated you folk!”
“Murdered? Pah!” The second, brown-haired Telmarine scoffed. “It was a beast.”
“A Talking Beast!” One of the fauns replied, looking furious. And several other Narnians started shouting too.
“All the same, I see no difference.”
“It makes all the difference in the world, you - Oi! Get off me!” The faun pulled his arm from the grasp of a soldier that was trying to keep him from lunging at the Telmarine. “Talking Beasts have souls, voices and characters. You just murdered my very best mate!”
“SILENCE!” Caspian roared, and the crowd calmed down once again. Now that all faces were turned to him, Caspian continued. “This lynx was no threat to you or your son, dear man. I myself have seen this lynx play with Telmarine children. With that boy, in fact.” He pointed to a scrawny boy with short dirty-blonde hair and wide, bloodshot eyes. The boy clung to his mother at the shock of being singled out by the King.. “It that your son?” The red-haired Telmarine nodded. “The lynx meant you no harm. Losing him is a great loss, for he was one of the few who truly worked for peace in these lands.
The red-haired Telmarine still didn’t look particularly remorseful, but he withered under the glare of his King.
“And my dear Narnians,” Caspian addressed the other half of the crowd, and looked at the faun in particular. “It is not so easy to see the difference between a Beast and a Talking Beast from afar, and a person cannot always afford to hesitate. This man had good reason to fear for the safety of his family and acted instinctively.”
He paused for a while and looked at the people, Narnians and Telmarines alike, that were still staring at him. Some of them hung their heads in shame.
“The war between Narnia and the Telmarines is over!” Caspian said forcibly. “The Narnians have only ever wanted peace, and the Telmarines have agreed to live amongst the Narnians peacefully. There is no need to keep fighting amongst ourselves. Let us instead put aside our differences and start building on a harmonious future together! This Narnian…” Several people stepped back as Caspian walked to the body of Eius the lynx. “This Narnian understood this well, and has practised it. He was an example for every one of us, and he will be given an honourable funeral.” At Caspian’s signal, two soldiers rushed forwards and carried Eius’ body to the carriage. “You five, ” and here he pointed at the two Telmarines and the tree Narnians, “will come with me. I will decide what to do with you in the morning. The rest of you:” He raised his voice as two men, a centaur and two boars trudged past. “Go to your homes and take lesson of the tragedy that happened tonight, so that fights like these shall not happen again.”
After that he walked back to his carriage, and he immediately heard the soldiers scattering the crowd. “You heard what the King said. Go on, go home! Back to your houses. You too! Shoo!” Caspian closed the door to the carriage with a sigh, muffling most of the noises outside.
“You handled that exceptionally well, my young King.” Professor Cornelius sat on the bench opposite him, smiling.
“But for how long?” Caspian looked outside to the crowd that was slowly disappearing. “Incidents like these have been happening for over four months now, Professor. This is already the third incident this week. The third! That I know off. The people don’t seem to learn from it. I am starting to think it is impossible for them to live together peacefully.” The carriage suddenly started moving, taking them back to Cair Paravel.
“If you think that, then it is.” The Professor said wisely. “You must keep faith, Caspian. They have been enemies for many a decade, and this change is not easy for them. When you loose hope, Caspian, we all will.”
Caspian nodded and pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the sleep away. “I haven’t lost hope. But I can’t go running out of my bed every night either to soothe another quarrel. I am barely getting sleep as it is.”
“A King like yourself shouldn’t have to be called for minor conflicts such as these.” Professor Cornelius said.
“They’ll listen to no one else.” Caspian said, warily. “The Narnians don’t trust my Telmarine soldiers. They won’t accept a single order, unless it comes from me directly.” Me, Aslan or the Kings and Queens of Old. Caspian added in his thoughts, but he did not say it out loud. He knew his old Professor disapproved of his continuing obsession with the Kings and Queens.
The events of the night had driven all other thoughts from his mind, but the image of the tree returned full force. Caspian pushed the image from his mind and focused on the words of the Professor.
“And why is that, do you think?”
Caspian frowned. Why do they trust me? Wasn’t the answer to that question obvious? “Because I’ve fought on their side in the war, of course! And,” he added after a thought, “because Aslan crowned me.”
“Precisely!” Professor Cornelius smiled in an all knowing way that slightly irritated Caspian. “You have earned their trust. You have proven your loyalty to them, and they recognize you as King because Aslan himself crowned you. All other Telmarines have yet to prove themselves.”
“Yes, I understand the problem.” Caspian said, slightly frustrated. “But that still won’t help me, will it?”
“Understanding is the first step to the solution, Caspian. The Narnians trust their own kin, do they not?”
“Well, yes...” Caspian looked at the Professor expectantly, waiting for an elaboration. But the Professor look pleasantly back at him, as if the solution was obvious. “How does that help me?” Caspian asked, confused. “Should I-” An idea occurred to him. “Should I sent Narnian officials as well as Telmarine ones?”
“You are King of two different people, my dear Caspian. It makes sense that your officials should represent the whole of your people, and not only part of it.” Caspian sat straighter, his attention fixed solely on the discovery of a realistic solution to his problems. “I take it there are more Narnians like Eius the lynx who are willing to work on a united Narnia?”
Caspian nodded. Yes, yes, there are. And they’ll have to be impressive and charismatic… “Glenstorm maybe, or Reepicheep…”
When the carriage arrived at Cair Paravel at long last, Caspian exited with a lighter heart and a well laid out plan.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Finally, I'd like to end this chapter with a little shameless plugging. Not for myself, but for a two days old Susan/Caspian community devoted to fanfiction and fanart. Find it here!
Author maaike_fluffy
Fandom: The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian movie-verse
Pairing: Caspian/Susan
Rating: Fiction rated K
Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia were created and written by C. S. Lewis. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Prince Caspian and the Pevensies continue their life after their farewell, but none of them can stop dwelling on the past.Then Caspian makes a decision; If she can't come to him, then he'll have to find her. Movie-verse. Not beta-ed.
Chapter 1: The Horn and the Tree
Chapter 2: The Crown of Narnia
Chapter 3: The Shadows Behind the Tree
A/N: Hi! I am back again. And this time with an important Author’s Note, before we begin. After I uploaded the last chapter a reviewer raised two very good points, and it took me a while to figure out what to do with them. Before I continue I’ll remind you all that, when I started writing this, I hadn’t read any of the books yet. Any information not given in the movies were unknown to me. By now I have started VDT, and I can see the inconsistencies between my fic and canon. First: Lucy is twelve in this fic, not nine. There is a big difference between the mindset of a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old, and I have written too much of her already to change it now. Also, the movie keeps us in the dark about the Pevensies home after their stay at Professor Kirke’s, or the whereabouts of their parents. In the books the Pevensies attend boarding school. In my fic they don’t; their father is fighting in the army, and their mother has died in the 1940 Blitz. Since I am going by the ages of the movie-actors, Peter and Susan are both adults, (21 and 20 years old.) and more than capable of taking care of their two younger siblings. Especially considering the fact they were all responsible adults once. And the British Government had to worry about more important things than that at the time. I have to have the Pevensies live at their own home without their parents; it is necessary for the plot. So if those little things above make the story a little AU, so be it.
Yes? Got all that? Good. Onwards!
4. Relapse
The next night Caspian didn’t get any further than the hill towards the tree. He was pulled out of his deep sleep and was consequently so disoriented his poor frantic guard needed to explain the reason why twice.
“My apologies for waking you at this hour, my Lord, but a situation has risen and we need your help. A fight broke out, just three miles south of Cair Paravel. A Telmarine killed a Talking Beast and I’m afraid it’s turned quite ugly. Sir, some of your soldiers were sent to keep the peace, but they can’t seem to get the situation under control. It would be good, I think, if your Majesty made an appearance, so the people…”
Caspian was already on his feet. Even in his confused and sleepy state he had caught enough to judge the urgency of this matter. It must be ugly indeed, if they had to resort to waking me.
He dressed quickly, his head getting clearer now, and as he looking around briefly in search of his boots he caught the expression on the face of the guard that had just woken him. Suddenly Caspian realised that waking the King in the middle of the night must have been a very unpleasant-and possibly dangerous-job under Miraz’ regime.
He walked past the guard as he went to pick up his boots by the door, and gave the poor fellow an encouraging clap on the shoulder. “Thank you for waking me. You did good.” Then he swept out of the room, his cloak billowing behind him.
You wouldn’t say it was in the middle of the night if you saw the street. All the Telmarines and Narnians in the vicinity were out. It might have been a celebration of some sort, if it wasn’t for the grim looks on the people’s faces. They had fallen silent at the arrival of the King, and were now eyeing him nervously as he walked through the crowd to where his soldiers were restraining two Telmarines and three Narnians.
“Release them.” Caspian ordered curly, and it was immediately done. “What, pray tell, has happened here?” One of the soldiers opened his mouth to answer his King, but Caspian pointed at a Telmarine with a long red hair and a bushy beard.
“That… tiger… attacked my son, my Lord.” He said, pointing at the still form of a lynx lying still on the cobbled street. Even without the three arrows sticking out of it’s back, it was unmistakably dead. Caspian felt a pang of regret for he recognized the lynx. “It attacked my son, so I killed it. There is no crime in that! And now they come here and-” But before the words had left his mouth a roar of outrage sounded from the Narnians.
“Eius didn’t attack that boy! Eius liked him, Aslan knows why. They were simply playing! You murdered the only Narnian that tolerated you folk!”
“Murdered? Pah!” The second, brown-haired Telmarine scoffed. “It was a beast.”
“A Talking Beast!” One of the fauns replied, looking furious. And several other Narnians started shouting too.
“All the same, I see no difference.”
“It makes all the difference in the world, you - Oi! Get off me!” The faun pulled his arm from the grasp of a soldier that was trying to keep him from lunging at the Telmarine. “Talking Beasts have souls, voices and characters. You just murdered my very best mate!”
“SILENCE!” Caspian roared, and the crowd calmed down once again. Now that all faces were turned to him, Caspian continued. “This lynx was no threat to you or your son, dear man. I myself have seen this lynx play with Telmarine children. With that boy, in fact.” He pointed to a scrawny boy with short dirty-blonde hair and wide, bloodshot eyes. The boy clung to his mother at the shock of being singled out by the King.. “It that your son?” The red-haired Telmarine nodded. “The lynx meant you no harm. Losing him is a great loss, for he was one of the few who truly worked for peace in these lands.
The red-haired Telmarine still didn’t look particularly remorseful, but he withered under the glare of his King.
“And my dear Narnians,” Caspian addressed the other half of the crowd, and looked at the faun in particular. “It is not so easy to see the difference between a Beast and a Talking Beast from afar, and a person cannot always afford to hesitate. This man had good reason to fear for the safety of his family and acted instinctively.”
He paused for a while and looked at the people, Narnians and Telmarines alike, that were still staring at him. Some of them hung their heads in shame.
“The war between Narnia and the Telmarines is over!” Caspian said forcibly. “The Narnians have only ever wanted peace, and the Telmarines have agreed to live amongst the Narnians peacefully. There is no need to keep fighting amongst ourselves. Let us instead put aside our differences and start building on a harmonious future together! This Narnian…” Several people stepped back as Caspian walked to the body of Eius the lynx. “This Narnian understood this well, and has practised it. He was an example for every one of us, and he will be given an honourable funeral.” At Caspian’s signal, two soldiers rushed forwards and carried Eius’ body to the carriage. “You five, ” and here he pointed at the two Telmarines and the tree Narnians, “will come with me. I will decide what to do with you in the morning. The rest of you:” He raised his voice as two men, a centaur and two boars trudged past. “Go to your homes and take lesson of the tragedy that happened tonight, so that fights like these shall not happen again.”
After that he walked back to his carriage, and he immediately heard the soldiers scattering the crowd. “You heard what the King said. Go on, go home! Back to your houses. You too! Shoo!” Caspian closed the door to the carriage with a sigh, muffling most of the noises outside.
“You handled that exceptionally well, my young King.” Professor Cornelius sat on the bench opposite him, smiling.
“But for how long?” Caspian looked outside to the crowd that was slowly disappearing. “Incidents like these have been happening for over four months now, Professor. This is already the third incident this week. The third! That I know off. The people don’t seem to learn from it. I am starting to think it is impossible for them to live together peacefully.” The carriage suddenly started moving, taking them back to Cair Paravel.
“If you think that, then it is.” The Professor said wisely. “You must keep faith, Caspian. They have been enemies for many a decade, and this change is not easy for them. When you loose hope, Caspian, we all will.”
Caspian nodded and pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the sleep away. “I haven’t lost hope. But I can’t go running out of my bed every night either to soothe another quarrel. I am barely getting sleep as it is.”
“A King like yourself shouldn’t have to be called for minor conflicts such as these.” Professor Cornelius said.
“They’ll listen to no one else.” Caspian said, warily. “The Narnians don’t trust my Telmarine soldiers. They won’t accept a single order, unless it comes from me directly.” Me, Aslan or the Kings and Queens of Old. Caspian added in his thoughts, but he did not say it out loud. He knew his old Professor disapproved of his continuing obsession with the Kings and Queens.
The events of the night had driven all other thoughts from his mind, but the image of the tree returned full force. Caspian pushed the image from his mind and focused on the words of the Professor.
“And why is that, do you think?”
Caspian frowned. Why do they trust me? Wasn’t the answer to that question obvious? “Because I’ve fought on their side in the war, of course! And,” he added after a thought, “because Aslan crowned me.”
“Precisely!” Professor Cornelius smiled in an all knowing way that slightly irritated Caspian. “You have earned their trust. You have proven your loyalty to them, and they recognize you as King because Aslan himself crowned you. All other Telmarines have yet to prove themselves.”
“Yes, I understand the problem.” Caspian said, slightly frustrated. “But that still won’t help me, will it?”
“Understanding is the first step to the solution, Caspian. The Narnians trust their own kin, do they not?”
“Well, yes...” Caspian looked at the Professor expectantly, waiting for an elaboration. But the Professor look pleasantly back at him, as if the solution was obvious. “How does that help me?” Caspian asked, confused. “Should I-” An idea occurred to him. “Should I sent Narnian officials as well as Telmarine ones?”
“You are King of two different people, my dear Caspian. It makes sense that your officials should represent the whole of your people, and not only part of it.” Caspian sat straighter, his attention fixed solely on the discovery of a realistic solution to his problems. “I take it there are more Narnians like Eius the lynx who are willing to work on a united Narnia?”
Caspian nodded. Yes, yes, there are. And they’ll have to be impressive and charismatic… “Glenstorm maybe, or Reepicheep…”
When the carriage arrived at Cair Paravel at long last, Caspian exited with a lighter heart and a well laid out plan.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Finally, I'd like to end this chapter with a little shameless plugging. Not for myself, but for a two days old Susan/Caspian community devoted to fanfiction and fanart. Find it here!