Narnia fic: Dust in the Air (9)

Title: Dust in the Air 9
Author: bedlamsbard
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia movieverse/bookverse
Rating: PG-13
Summary: And the end of all our exploring / will be to arrive where we started. An AU of The Last Battle, some five years after that book begins.
Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia and its characters, situations, settings, etc., belong to C.S. Lewis. Certain characters, situations, settings, etc., belong to Walden Media. Title and quote from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets: Little Gidding.
Author's Notes: This is part nine, obviously, and this is also the first WIP I've posted since 2006. (And that WIP was abandoned, so one can see I'm understandably nervous about posting another one.) The structure of this lends it to being posted in sections, though, so that's how it's going up. Because of this, however, it's not getting posted to any comms until the whole thing is done.

( Dust in the Air 9 )

Part One 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17
Part Two 00 | 000 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Interlude | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

chances are this would be easier in a non-visual-based medium

Jesus Christ, I think Dust 10 just won some kind of medal for needing the most research of any chapter (or story so far); I think I spent more time on Wikipedia than I did writing, and I'm only 2K in.

And all I did was write about armor! Also tent-pegging. And horses. Guys, I never wanted to know this much about horses, ever. I DON'T CARE.

Except apparently I do. *beats head into desk*

The Calormene horses that the Pevensies ride in Dust 4 are Barbs. The big Calormene warhorses that we see in The Horse and His Boy are Arabians. (And since Bree and Hwin were able to pass as Calormene horses, I would guess that Narnian talking horses are probably Thoroughbreds, although there may be a chance that talking horses are as diverse as any other kind of horses. I wouldn't bet on it, though. I mean, it's not like we've seen talking ponies.) (You have no idea how close I came to making regular Calormene horses Caspian horses, just because it amused me. (Not that this ever comes up in the story, mind; hell if the Pevensies know anything about Earth horses.) But Caspian horses are way too small.) Narnians haven't ridden talking horses to war in sixteen hundred years; no talking horse will let a human onto its back.

Apparently, Jewel is an Andalusian with a horn. (Well, the unicorn in LWW was an Andalusian, so it stands to reason Jewel would be too.) Also, if I have to think about centaurs, I'm introducing a plague, I swear to God.

And don't even get me started on armor. Oh, yeah, you can totally tell I'm reading Stirling right now.

You know, I thought that the Telmarine cavalry in PC used lances (which is, uh, why they have lances in Water), but upon rewatching? Nope. Swords. Which is surprising. The centaurs in LWW serve as lancers, though, and in Dust we are going to see a full balls out charge with knights in shining armor, which is why I've been looking this stuff up. (That scene doesn't come till way later, though; it's just that Dust 10 starts with Vespasian practicing tentpegging. In full armor. On a big warmblooded destrier, sixteen hands, also in full armor. Oh, sweet lord, if this is what I do for fantasy I am greatly relieved I feel no particular urge to write historical fiction.)

And then I remembered that I had other plot points besides sheer world-building and now have the lovely Narnian curse of, "Shadowmaster take your soul and drag it beneath the ice!" which doesn't work quite so well it's King Edmund, the original Shadowmaster, that you're addressing.

Excuse me. I have to go wax rhapsodic on the Red Company's scouting uniform, which involves me backspacing out the chain mail and adding in swords, bows, and shields.