Narnia (movieverse) fic: "A Weather Eye"

[bedlamsbard]

Title: A Weather Eye
Author: bedlamsbard
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia movieverse
Rating: G
Summary: "This is not what I expected," Susan murmurs. A quiet moment between Queen Susan and King Edmund in the second year of the High King Peter's reign.
Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia and its characters, settings, situations, etc., belong to C.S. Lewis. Some characters, settings, situations, etc., belong to Walden Media.
Author's Notes: For cupiscent. This was supposed to be a hundred words. It is not a hundred words.



Peter is away on campaign in the south, fighting against neighboring Archenland, and Lucy has gone to stay with the Beavers in the west, and Susan has the most horrible cramps, which is far more than Edmund really wants to know about his sister. All he can do is bring her mug after mug of hot chocolate and replace the hot water bottle on her stomach when she so much as makes a sound. Because Susan is as much a workaholic as Peter, Edmund occupies their time by reading her reports out loud. Under the circumstances – aside from the war, there really aren’t any crises, and the war is isn’t really a crisis as far as such things go – anyway, Peter has it well in hand, and Edmund will probably go join him as soon as the weather clears – under the circumstances, Edmund doesn’t quite understand why they can’t take a day off so Susan can lie in bed and not move like she clearly wants to – well, as she’s doing, aside from the in bed part - but Susan can be just as terrifying as Peter when she puts her mind to it.

“Did a letter come from Peter?” she asks when he’s done telling her about the conflict he mediated between two dwarf clans from the north.

Edmund’s impulse is to reply, Don’t you think I would have read that first?, but he curbs his tongue and says, “No, the weather’s too bad for the birds to fly.”

The weather is the only reason he’s still at Cair Paravel and not either with Peter in the mountains – where the weather’s undoubtedly worse; the White Witch may have kept Narnia eternally winter, but that was winter without storms. From what they’ve been able to puzzle out from the memories of those turned to stone at the very beginning of the White Witch’s reign, it’s likely that the weather patterns in Narnia will be off for years – or on the road south. There have been storms raging for almost a week now. Walking outside is like walking into a wall of white: it’s impossible to see more than a handswidth from your face. No one wants to travel in this. Edmund wonders if the war has paused too, or if Peter and the army are fighting in this horror.

Susan puts her forearm over her eyes. “Not Lu either, I suppose.”

Same problem. The storms are raging across all of Narnia, as far as Edmund can tell. Edmund tries to think like Peter, and is pleased to come up with flooding in spring. Then he takes a moment to think about that, and sighs.

“What?” Susan asks.

Edmund voices the thought.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Susan says. “As bad as this year, do you think?”

A hundred years of winter translates to a lot of snowmelt, and what had been valleys had turned into lakes. Edmund is almost positive Peter had white hair within a week of their coronation. Short on food, and short on fields to plant new crops in, and dryads drowning, homes washed away, still dealing with the aftermath of the White Witch, everyone expecting Peter to be able to handle everything as easily as Aslan would have – and then Archenland had invaded, just as the immediate aspects of that crisis had faded. And they’re still short on food.

“Probably not,” Edmund says thoughtfully. As much as it’s snowing, there can’t possibly be as much snow as the White Witch left and Aslan melted. He’s starting to hate spring. Summer is a much better season. His one Narnian summer has been very wet, although he’s not entirely certain whether or not that has anything to do with the disaster the White Witch made of the weather patterns.

“This is not what I expected,” Susan murmurs.

“No,” Edmund agrees. “Me neither.”

Susan sighs, and takes her arm away from her eyes. “Next,” she says, and Edmund picks up the next report on the stack. They’re limited to the immediate area around Cair Paravel; for all they know, the rest of Narnia has fallen off the face of the earth.

“Royal guard,” he says, showing her the inked pawprint at the bottom. With Louhanna away with Peter, that means the head of the guard at Cair Paravel is a wildcat with the personality of a lion named Kalyca. The rest of the guards – the majority of whom are leopards and tigers, all much bigger – are terrified of her.

“Apparently,” he adds thoughtfully, skimming the report before he reads it out loud; Kalyca can’t write herself, but they have scribes precisely for that purpose, “we have a mouse problem. Not talking ones, just...ordinary mice. Getting into the stores.”

“Of course the cats notice,” Susan says wryly. “Now tell me what it actually says.”

Comments

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

BWEE! Narnia fic all of my very own! It's rather charming, with its siblingness and their capability and the air of "we're the ones who get shit done while Peter's carving himself to glory and Lucy's frolicking".

I especially love:
- but Susan can be just as terrifying as Peter when she puts her mind to it - HELL. YES.
- “This is not what I expected,” Susan murmurs. - I love this partly because I've been ruminating on Susan a lot recently, in books and movies, the little things we're given around the edges, and it occurs to me that involvement with Narnia has sort of been a series of disappointments and readjustments and even when it's been splendid, she's the sensible one and can see the problems around the next corner, and really, is it any wonder that she gives it all up as not worth the trouble?

Also, Susan's cramps. Oh, poor lass. And Edmund's flail about the cramps. *snigger*

(When I finally managed to untangle myself and finish the Narnia thing I'm currently writing, I will have to return the favour.)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, the country won't rule itself. Needs must and all that. *waves hands* There are four of them for a reason.

(And this got me thinking, too. Of course the weather would be completely screwed for the next few years; God knows how much damage magic is going to do to natural weather patterns, and they'll have to readjust themselves. Which means crises.)

Susan breaks my heart -- well, Peter breaks my heart the most, but then Susan. Because Peter has things to hang on to -- he's the oldest, and at least he'll be old enough to fight, and there are things that are eternal between worlds (I read a fic somewhere where Peter had been at D-Day in Normandy, and I don't quite agree with most of the sentiment or the characterization, but the ages do line up) -- but Susan has nothing. And really, it's not healthy to hang onto the past, and she has to look to the future, and what's past is past -- and this is where she lives now. She might as well make herself at home. It isn't a tragedy -- and yet it is, at the same time.

*sigh* I have been thinking about this too -- seriously, I blame the fanmix I'm working on. It's a mix of, "Well, that was great, but," and "Fuck this shit, I'm outta here. You want me gone? I'm gone, and I don't need you," and "You bastard, you broke my heart and you're making me work to fix it."

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Belgariad/Mallorean series? It's utter froth, but I do quite love it, and there's a hilarious bit where Garion uses the weather to make a magical point and then Belgarath shows up and yells at him a lot because he just nearly started another ice age. In short: yes. (On the other hand: magical land. Pah. I like realism.)

Narnia is an abusive relationship for Susan.

I'm just going to leave that statement there because it's sort of wrong but I could qualify it forever and still not get there so stuff it, I like the starkness.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I have not, but I have seen similar sequences in other fantasy novels. *shakes head* I am far too fond of Golden Age Narnia being one crisis after another.

Yes.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

The flooding! The dryads! <3
EDMUND TAKING CARE OF SUSAN AND HER CRAMPS <3333333333
Go Edmund! And Susan! And you. :)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I am suddenly struck by how many problems they must have had after the White Witch was defeated.

Everyone needs an Edmund to take care of them when they have cramps. *grin*

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

Nice sibling interactions!

Ahahaha, "...more than Edmund really wanted to know about his sister." I loved that part.

*sigh* Such a very dark Narnia. But great job, anyways!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Every time I think about it, my Narnia gets darker and darker. To the point where Trumpkin's, "Narnia may be a more savage place than you remember," in PC makes me laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Then laugh some more.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

I'm going to join in laughing on this one, because I'm just polishing my fic and I wrote a line, and I quote: "In some ways, it seemed, Narnia was not a more savage place." (Though I think the Golden Age's was a more sophisticated savagery. To be completely contradictory. *G*)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

No, that makes sense. It's difficult to compare the two -- the Golden Age and modern Narnia -- because they have so little in common. The Golden Age was...more civilized, in the sense that had a working government and a united people and so forth. (My reasoning is that the population was also two or three times the size, at minimum, as well. Mainland Narnia, not counting the outlying territories.) But I think that Narnia was a more savage place, even if all that's left are the White Witch's minions and not external problems. By the time of PC, the native Narnian population is severely depleted, and they're likely pretty scattered. (I have a theory that barely half of them showed up at the How, and a quarter to a half of those didn't show up until word got out about the High King being there. Seriously, whose bright idea is it to go join an army being led by your natural enemy?) There's likely not much of a Narnian culture left. However, the Telmarines seem to have things well in hand (after a matter of speaking), and modern Narnia seems to be pretty isolated. It doesn't seem to have the things that go bump in the night as much as the Golden Age, and it won't have the leftovers of the White Witch, either. Huh. *ponders*

Ignore me, I'm just thinking out loud here.

Oooh, Dee-fic!

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Golden Age people *knew* shit was complicated and dangerous and acted accordingly. PC people sort of stumbled around in the woods..."I'M SO CONFUSED!" might as well have been their group motto. They have it emblazoned on their shields, except nobody has any.

[swift-tales.livejournal.com]

Again, so much awesomeness in one story with not so many words. I hadn't ever really put much thought into all the problems the four pevensies would have after the White Witch was defeated and Aslan went off to do whatever it is he does in Aslan's Country. But now that you've brought it up, it sounds so perfectly logical that I'm surprised I hadn't thought about it. Maybe the Golden Age is called the Golden Age because no matter how many crisis (or what kind of crisis) there were, team Pevensie always managed to solve them?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I have this theory that the Golden Age was just one crisis after another after another, and it wasn't called the Golden Age until a couple centuries later, when no one was left alive who remembered what really went on and all that was left was glory and memories. During the Golden Age, it was just called the Great Summer.

I'm glad you like it!

[venilia.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like Kalyca already.

Why is Archenland invading Narnia?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The entire Narnian royal guard is so much fun. I really need to write more of them so we can see how awesome they are.

*considers* Because it's there, mostly, and because they think it's weak post-White Witch. Even with The Horse and His Boy, which takes place very late in the Pevensies' reign, I don't think Narnia and Archenland had that good a relationship. I think at this point, Archenland (who may still remember that their kings are descended from Narnia's at one point) sees the White Witch's removal as an opportunity to carve out a piece of Narnia for themselves -- nice, green, fertile Narnia, which has to look pretty attractive for a small mountain country. I think they sparred back and forth at each other for the better part of a decade before Archenland tried a controlled invasion (or Narnia launched a pre-emptive strike; I haven't decided yet) and Narnia kicked Archenland's butt and took Prince Corin to foster at Cair Paravel as insurance (which is, historically speaking, pretty valid). But this is very early on.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Well, the Archenlanderian (?!) royal line *is* the rightful heir to Narnia's throne. They're descended from King Frank & Queen Helen's younger son and their line was never broken...so technically, they have every right to invade when Aslan handed over their satellite country to some usurping kids.


I'm sure it's all part of the Aslan Conspiracy Theory. *grins*

[rebeccama.livejournal.com]

This is great. Poor Edmund being a typical brother about his sister having cramps (and poor Susan for having them). I love Susan being a workaholic and the feeling of comfort and trust between Susan and Edmund. The family bonds are one of the things I love about the story.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I was talking to celandine about the sibling interaction amongst the four of them. She commented that all of them had some kind of "special" closeness with each other but Susan and Edmund-and it's true, you don't see much in the movies. (It's outrageous they didn't give Skandar more lines!!!)

This is what I said to her, in regards the books:


Susan and Edmund...I think HH&B is pivotal, there, because it's the only one where you get significant interaction between them without any other sibling around.

He's protective of her in a gentle way, doesn't yell at her about getting them in this trouble with her bad judgement (whether or not it's her fault, somebody might), and he does call her Su, once, which isn't common among them; she, in turn, seems comfortable relying on him for help and advice, doesn't want him to think badly of her because of this. *muses*

Just as Peter and Lucy share a common trait of being "outward" looking people, more extroverted, and touched by Aslan in certain ways, I think Susan and Edmund share a certain contemplative nature.

And it's important to remember that he's the next youngest to her. She's enough older than him that she'd have been the one to hold his hand when out for walks, or help get him breakfast and things like that. Peter might have made sure they were all physically safe, to the best of his ability; but Susan would have been the "little mother", as eldest girls usually are. Then when Lucy came, he'd have been lumped in with her more and any specialness would have been harder to come by; but the remembered feeling of looking up to her would still be there.

I'm both a younger and an older sister. *smiles wryly*

Also, in PC Edmund comments that Susan's the family killjoy, basically, but when Peter gets sharp with her about something, he snaps at Peter to not talk to her like that.

It's a subtle relationship.



Granted, you're working off the films and adding your own highly individual twist on everything (and it's goddamned addictive, damn it). But I think it's true. I like the "taking care" aspect of this. Underneath all of their issues, the Pevensies love each other.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

See, this is the sort of thing I might not notice, because I'm an only child. I'm working off what I've read, what I've seen on TV/movies, and what I've seen in RL.