more Narnia fic bits: "Ozymandias", excerpt from Telmarine history book, "Comfort" (Peta/Caspian)

[bedlamsbard]

Jill puts her head to one side and peers up at the massive stone, touching the faded letters with one hand. "What does it say?" she asks.

Eustace, a few inches taller, stands on tiptoe to read the inscription. "'Here, Peter Bittersteel, Summer's King, High King of Narnia, won a great battle against Erthgi, King of the Giants, in CY 756, NY 169, the fourteenth year of Summer. Many, Narnian and giant alike, perished in the fighting, until the King of Summer met and slew the King of the Giants in single combat. Siwyno, the last Giant King, knelt to Peter the High King on this spot, giving the lands of the North to Narnia forever. May the High King's reign be long and his blessings plentiful.'" Beneath this is a finely carved crown and sword; below this, the lion of Narnia.

He comes down off his tiptoes slowly. Peter Bittersteel is Peter Pevensie, his cousin Peter, a cool-eyed near-stranger in an RAF uniform and an unmistakable aura of power. It's hard to imagine him in plate and mail, a sword in his hand and a crown on his head.

To his surprise, Puddleglum sweeps off his hat and gets down slowly and ponderously to his knees.

"What are you doing?" Jill says uncertainly. "And who's Peter Bittersteel?"

"My oldest cousin," Eustace says. He's only seen Peter twice in the past year -- once, when Peter had spent the entirety of the gathering sitting in a corner drinking spiked eggnog and not even blinking, and twice, when he'd come to pick up Edmund and Lucy from the Scrubbs' house. He's quiet, reserved, with a distinct air of disdain and over all else control -- and he scares the hell out of Eustace like nothing in Narnia had managed to do, not even turning into a dragon. "One of the Pevensies. He was --"

"He is the High King of Narnia," Puddleglum says abruptly, with the kind of reverence they've never seen him show for anything or anyone. He gets up from his knees and restores his hat. "The greatest king Narnia has ever seen and ever will see. Poor Caspian can't hold a candle to him, I'm afraid."

They gape at him, possibly because he's never sounded positive in his life, or at least as long as they've known him. And Peter -- Peter is exactly the kind of person Eustace would expect Puddleglum to insult by calling a tyrant, or something like that. Peter certainly seems like a tyrant.

"My father saw him once," Puddleglum confides to them. "When he was a young Wiggle, and went to the castle for the King's coronation. The High King won him his crown, you see -- and then he gave it away, when he might be expected -- and rightfully so! -- to keep it for himself."

Jill looks at the stone again. "When was CY 756?" she asks.

"Oh, well over a thousand years ago," Puddleglum says.

"But that's impossible!" Jill exclaims. "He can't have lived a thousand years ago -- over a thousand years -- and then been here only a few decades past. People simply don't live that long."

"It's not really that clear-cut, Pole," Eustace says. He doesn't understand it himself, but he'll take Edmund's word for it, even if Edmund hadn't wanted to talk about it either. "Magic, you know," he adds, trying to sound like he knows what he's talking about. "You can meet him yourself when we get back to England, if he hasn't already been shipped off. He's in the RAF."

"Not exaggeration, then," Puddleglum murmurs, completely ignoring them. "Narnia really did reach this far north under his reign. How far have we fallen?"

"Fallen?" Jill says disbelievingly. "But Narnia hasn't fallen at all! From what I can see, it's --"

"Better than the Telmarines the King may certainly be," Puddleglum says, "but today's Narnia is no Golden Age." He looks up at the sky, adjusts his hat, and says, "We'd best keep moving. Looks like rain -- and lightning and thunder too, with our luck."

Eustace sneaks a last look back at the lonely stone as they fall into step behind him. Peter Bittersteel, Summer's King, High King of Narnia -- and the half-mad boy he knows, the wolf in sheep's clothing, leashed and tethered and hobbled. Narnia broke us all, Edmund had said once on the Dawn Treader, drunk and melancholy with it. Us today, you tomorrow. Don't fall in love with her. The glory of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! he hears in echo, and feels the shiver run down his spine.





Illustration: The castle of Cair Paravel as it is was during the Golden Age of Narnia. Although the precise location of the castle has never been discovered, pre- and post- Conquest records describe Cair Paravel as "lying where the Great River and the River Rush join and enter the sea, at the top of a green hill overlooking a natural harbor that, during the reign of the High King, was nearly always filled with ships from a hundred different countries, which formed the so-called Shifting Market." In CY 759, or Narnian Year 172 (also 16, in the reckoning of those Narnians who count time as beginning again when the High King ascended the throne of Narnia), Cair Paravel was destroyed by Natarene invaders and the Shifting Market burned, giving Graveyard Bay its name. The ruins of Cair Paravel and Graveyard Bay have been placed up and down the coast of Narnia, from as far north as the Marshes and as far south as Glasswater Bay. While the latter claim is most commonly accepted, some historians dispute it because no wreckage can be seen at the bottom of the bay, which takes its name from the water's extraordinary clarity. Other historians point out that the "hundreds of ships" burned during the Sack of Cair Paravel would have rotted away in the intervening millennium between the Telmarine Conquest and the Dying Times.





She wakes up to Caspian fucking her slowly with one finger.

He's behind her, his breath warm on her neck, and Peta keeps her eyes closed as she shifts her hips a little, pushing back against his hand to let him know she's awake. He smiles against her skin and kisses her just beneath her right ear, turning his finger in slow revolutions, a light but exacting pressure that makes her sigh a little. It's less erotic than it is just comfortable, something she's missed badly these past five years, even with Peter. Caspian is a warm, familiar weight against her back, half-hard against her hip, his other hand cupping her breast. Idly, he swipes his thumb over her nipple, sending a shivery little spark running straight to cunt and clit, and keeps his careful, uneven rhythm, occasionally brushing against the spot inside her guaranteed to make her gasp. Peta moves with him, just a little, enough to assure herself that it's really him, enough to assure him that she's really here and not just a figment of his imagination, that he's finally gone mad after three years alone and imprisoned. He keeps his lips on the top of her shoulder, not a kiss at all, just an anchor. With that, Peta lets herself go, concentrating on those points of contact, where Caspian's working her slowly and steadily over the edge.

She comes almost suddenly, almost a surprise, her head falling back against Caspian's shoulder as sparks go off behind her eyes. London Bridge is falling down, falling down...

The ships are burnin' in the bay, down in the deep where the bodies lay, oh the summer's gone this very day, the castle's broke and there's just no way.

Not again, Peta promises herself. Not my country, not again. She twists around and drags her palm down Caspian's chest to his cock, opening her eyes for the first time as he rolls onto his back, Peta straddling him.

It's still dark. There's just enough light filtering through the cracks in the slats that make up the wall that she can see his form, faceless and shadowed like he is in her nightmares, the nights she reaches for him and he fades away like a ghost, until the wardrobe door slams shut and she's left alone, crying silently as England, Earth, shivers around her, leaving her blind and deaf. Peta keeps her hands on his skin as she slips herself down onto his cock, Caspian rocking up into her in short shallow thrusts. He grips her hips, thumbs dipping low to brush at her clit, and Peta hisses as Caspian scrapes the edge of his nail over it in counterpoint to his thrust. Not long now, not for her.

This time, it's not for her. She leans down and kisses Caspian, drawing it out, hair falling on either side of her face and shielding them, separating them from the rest of the world. She kisses in words, in sharp desire, in promises and prayers, in apology and anger, and in the end, all it means is, I love you.

Caspian bucks up into her and comes. His hands are in her hair now, tangled so tight it hurts, but Peta doesn't care. She comes in a single sharp pulse, Caspian's lip caught between her teeth so sharply she's sure she's drawn blood. She's vaguely aware of him smoothing his palm up over the slick skin of her back, sliding free of her as he rolls them over onto their sides again. He drags a slow, lazy kiss from her lips, the kind they don't have time for now -- again, after all these years.

"I love you," Peta says, just to hear the words. The sun's coming up, light streaming into the room through the cracks, and she can see his face -- a little older, a little harder, a scar at the corner of his left eye that hadn't been there when she'd left him five years ago. And her -- she's not a day over twenty-one. Again.

Caspian cups her face between his hands. "I know," he says. "I love you too."

Comments

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

ooo, loving Eustace's reaction to Peter, and Jill's disbelief in how time runs, plus of course Puddleglum's automatic reverence of Peter the legend.

The fact that Peter is practically otherworldly in this world is just - waaa. And I do like how Eustace is having problems picturing Peter with sword in hand, since he's probably seen Edmund with sword.

:pokes: stop reminding me of how broken Peter is, dammit,

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

i'm really digging the first one! EUSTACE AND JILL HOORAAAAAAAY and edmund drunk and melancholy with brokenness. don't worry ed, you'll have narnia again soon... ONCE YOU DIE. excerpts from history books hooraaaaaaaaaaaay, i cheer for more!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

See, originally it was Puddleglum who said that Peter was probably a tyrant, because that's a very Puddleglum-like thing to say -- but he wouldn't, would he, because he's a Narnian and Peter is Peter, myth and legend and history and charm against the darkness. In the far parts of Narnia, folk still swear by the King of Summer, and carry charms in the shape of a circled cross to represent Peter's sword and crown.

I kind of want to like the story that plays with the trope of Edmund teaching Eustace how to fight back in England (er, I'm not actually sure it's a trope, just that I've seen it before), where Peter shows up, just for kicks, and then he and Edmund spar and he kicks Edmund's ass and then turns to Eustace and Eustace, like, quails. *cough*

I can't help it! He just gets more and more broken every time.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

...that's a lot of exuberance, there. *pats* Oh, the history, it haunts us.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

HA. all exuberated out. i fear next time there will be naught but offhand shrugs.

[lyamainu.livejournal.com]

The ships are burnin' in the bay, down in the deep where the bodies lay, oh the summer's gone this very day, the castle's broke and there's just no way.

oh my gosh... that's the dying times isn't it?

And I love Eustace in this!

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:pokes: and this is why you should write it. Damn it, I wrote my Peter out in Malaya with the army, you so need to give us RAF-Peter. Also RAF-Peter in the officer's mess, distant and scaring everyone else with his intensity.

And I really shouldn't want the time where some of the wags and bullies try to jump Pevensie after a session in the pub because he's so quiet and withdrawn, had a lot to drink and easy bullying material. or at least the aftermath of it.

Well, the books do say that Pole and Scrubb had lessons and practiced between the books - who else would they get lessons off in archery and swords if not Eustace' cousins?

Peter, the looming utterly broken presence in the corner of family gatherings. Granddad says it's shell-shock, like his brother had after the Great War, such a shame to see it happen again. Only Peter's trying to carry on and his siblings won't talk about it except to say that he's fine, he's coping, and no he is not going to a hospital to get help (because they know it would make him *worse*, Peter needs to be doing something). Eustace' parents use peter as an example of why they're so utterly opposed to war and repression of one's feelings. And why people need therapy. Of course, they're horrified that their promising child suddenly changed into a weapons-lover under the influence of the Pevensie children.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I'm, like, ninety percent sure my Peter was in Burma when the RAF was there, but I just don't know anything about WWII Burma beyond what's on Wikipedia. Also, I want him to get shot down and reported dead, so Edmund can freak out. And everyone else, too. And then he survives, of course, and walks out of the jungle with only a knife on him. (Look, I just fail at being nice to characters.)

And I really shouldn't want the time where some of the wags and bullies try to jump Pevensie after a session in the pub because he's so quiet and withdrawn, had a lot to drink and easy bullying material. or at least the aftermath of it.

I want that too. Does that make us bad people?

Edmund's probably a better teacher than Peter, but can't you just see Edmund bringing Peter in just when Eustace thinks he's gotten good, to show him that there's always someone better.

Oooh. *winces*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Only offhand?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The beginning of them, yeah. It's a reference to the Sack of Cair Paravel and the burning of the Shifting Market, up above.

[aella_irene]

I love Puddleglum, and the way Jill has no idea, and Eustace's shock, because all he knows is the Peter of England, less than half of what he could be. And Edmund getting drunk and quoting poetry.

Ah, Telmarine history books. Always getting everything ever so slightly wrong (and more and more wrong as time goes by)

The ships are burnin' in the bay, down in the deep where the bodies lay, oh the summer's gone this very day, the castle's broke and there's just no way.

Oh, that hurts, everything implied in those four lines.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Edmund's quoting the Bible, actually. (Which I had to Google, because all I knew was the "how are the mighty fallen" quote and wanted to know where that was fun.) Narnia is just -- a lot of it is about perceptions, for me, what's seen and not seen, and by whom.

The Telmarines get things wrong, the Narnians get things wrong -- that's the curse of history, of the past. *sigh*

I am inordinately proud of those four lines. *preens*

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

if you're good i'll include some onhand shrugs.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oooh, upping the odds, are we?

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Pah. NOT an excuse. Everything I know about Malaya I got from google. It's not like you need much beyond dates in some cases of fic.

...wow. A knife. No clothing?

No, no, people getting beaten down because they picked the wrong person to pick on is always a happy subject. The question is whether Peter will have any bruises. And everyone refuses to admit anything to their superiors or say names, but they always very carefully avoid Pevensie after that. Or get out of his way in the bar.

I see Peter as probably not being a decent teacher, in the way that people with a natural talent for it just aren't - they don't get how difficult it is for the normal herd since it comes so easily to them. But I can totally see Edmund using Peter for the advanced tests.

Am picturing Eustace flat on his back and starting to get back into whining, like he sometimes does when he's really tired, and Edmund looking amused. 'I was fighting for my life for fifteen years, Eustace. You're hardly going to learn it this fast.'

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Not this fic, unfortunately. This one would need details. *sigh* (And I'm eventually going to have to look this up, because the beginning of part two of "Be Like Water" is going to be set there, from Peter's POV.)

Well, clothing, of course, but he lost his gun and most of his survival equipment, so -- just a knife.

And a knife is all he needs, really.

One shiner, maybe, and he tells people blandly that he walked into a door. On the other hand, other officers have broken bones, and Peter gets told off because they need all their limbs to fly. And the story gets around quickly, and some Army or Navy somebody shows up to bait him. Or -- since the RAF worked with the USAAF in Burma -- the Americans start baiting him, because, uh, we're talking about American soldiers here. And then Peter kicks more ass.

Am picturing Eustace flat on his back and starting to get back into whining, like he sometimes does when he's really tired, and Edmund looking amused. 'I was fighting for my life for fifteen years, Eustace. You're hardly going to learn it this fast.'

And Peter looks critical and says, "Well, I did," and Edmund says, "Pete, you're not human when it comes to fighting," reaching down to give Eustace a hand up. "And for what it's worth," he adds dryly, "I can't beat him either. Nine times out of ten. And the tenth time is just because he's gotten tired after kicking my ass."

[snacky]

Oh my, that first one. How could anyone else even try to be king of Narnia, after Peter? No wonder Caspian can't live up to it, who could? Peter's not just a legend, he's practically a god. And Narnia herself, equally as broken as Peter, without him.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*nods* And it's made worse because of how Peter's reign ended and the destruction afterwards -- no matter how badly he did, he probably would have looked good after that. But since he didn't do badly -- and just how badly time mangles legends --

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

ok, I read the Peta/Caspian, I'll get around to the rest later. OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE. And yes, blindingly functional. Bonus points to them!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how any variation of Peter gets to be in a functional relationship, but somehow Peta manages it. And they're so cute! So in love! So -- agh, I fail at words, just oh my God. Who woulda thunk it, sixteen-eighteen years back when they were screwing in the back of the How?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

also, I like the nursery rhyme.

and

He drags a slow, lazy kiss from her lips, the kind they don't have time for now -- again, after all these years.

Why don't they have time?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

They're back in the same sort of situation they were in before PC -- hiding out in the backwoods of Narnia fighting a guerilla war. It's less a literal they don't have time and more, "God damn it, now we're hurried into fighting again."

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

ah, right. coolies.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And I have plooooooooot. This is exciting. (I mean, it's basically PC-redux, but fifteen years later. Also, no How. Treehouses.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

WHEEE PLOT.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well. Plot for that section, at least. (And a twist! A secret twist! Of which I shall not speak!)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

otherwise it wouldn't be secret.

What the hell are you doing AWAKE young lady?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Talking to YOU. And it's a Saturday night! And I'm in college!

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I'd feel special, but the second is all the reason you need. ;)

GRUMBLE my new computer suddenly decides the parental wireless network doesn't exist. Which leaves me at the dining table writing porn. Sigh.

[snacky]

Yes, and it makes me feel terrible for Caspian too, but the nice Peta/Caspian bit helps with that. ;)

So, I've been thinking about your Narnia as sentient and in love with Peter, and I have a question: what happens to Narnia during The Last Battle? I mean, Aslan comes and destroys the country - is he literally killing her? Does she get to the afterlife with the rest of them? Is Heaven-Narnia still a sentient country? Okay, that was more than one question, sorry. :D

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Peta and Caspian are so functional it's kind of shocking.

*hesitates* I don't really, uh, acknowledge the existence of The Last Battle except as a destruction myth. Like, if forced to choose, I would say that yes, Aslan's literally killing her, and no, she's most likely not in Aslan's country, she's just...snuffed out, more or less (murdered!), and heaven-Narnia isn't a sentient country, because that kind of counteracts the point of it being Aslan's country. On the other hand, she might be there, and I think if she did she'd be in human form, more or less, and then she and Peter could live happily ever after. Sort of. (At some point in time we may even see Narnia's human form. She looks a lot like Peta, actually.)

[snacky]

They are so OTP, it's surprising and adorable!

Ah, okay, I see. I didn't mean to force any choices! ;) I imagine Aslan killing Narnia would be, um. Hard on Peter. Heh.

I was thinking more the second scenario, if it came to pass, that she'd be there in human form, pretty much waiting for Peter, because how could he be in heaven without Narnia?

She looks like Peta? Interesting!

Thanks for answering questions!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The only way I can parse The Last Battle at all, without resorting to "IT'S JUST A DESTRUCTION MYTH! NAH NAH NAH!" is if Peter is drugged. On Aslan's country. Or something. Because otherwise...yeah.

She looks like Peta because Peta is Peter as a chick, and Narnia doesn't actually have a physical form; if she has to appear in human form, she tends to look like a feminized form of whoever she's bound to. So -- she looks like Peta. Golden-haired and handsome and all that. (Actually, chances are that post-Peter, she actually had a permanent human form, because I don't think she liked Caspian or any of his descendants enough to want to look like them.)

Now I'm picturing their reunion in Aslan's country. It involves making out and heavy petting. Edmund stares, trying to remember where he's seen the woman before, then turns away in disgust. "WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?" he demands to no one in particular, and then thinks that at least she's not in his body this time.

Aw. That's so cute I may have to write it.

[snacky]

Yes. He'd have to be, wouldn't he? Or it would be Very. Bad.

Mmm, okay, yes, I see. I like the idea of her being so bound to Peter that no one else will ever do.

Oh, Edmund. All, "Thank every god EVER it's not me this time." That would be hysterical, along with cute.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Every time I think of The Last Battle I have to stop myself from writing the AU where Peter and Edmund end up in Narnia and resolve the problem in about ten minutes. *shakes head*

Pause, stop, rewind. "Thank every god EVER it will never be me again."

[swift-tales.livejournal.com]

Wow....*stunned into silence*

So many layers of awesomeness in these ficlets. I absolutely loved it, all of it. I loved the slight mention of Edmund being broken on the Dawn Treader, Peter being in the RAF and how he scares Eustace more then anything else. I loved Jill's disbelief, Puddleglum's reverence and Eustace hesitation in everything.

and oh Cair Paravel

And yes! Peta and Caspian, I love this verse, it's so beautiful and sad and heartbreaking and you know... Epic!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

The Petaverse is not sad! Except for, uh, those parts that are. *cough*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

we so need more of the Scrubbs post-VotD. Because Clive himself says that they're terribly disappointed with how Eustace has got so pedestrian after exposure to the Pevensies. But I do like the idea that the older WWI generation can automatically classify Peter. Telling his parents just to leave him alone at gatherings and glad he's chosen quiet and brooding rather than the outburst-type.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*head to side* What's interesting is that Peter's dead is also a WWII vet -- is he in uniform in that picture we see of him in LWW? Do we know what branch he's in? It'd be interesting to see how they relate -- or don't relate, actually.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

looked like army uniform to me.

Plus. the 'damaged by war' isn't as well-documented/didn't seem to mentally scar soldiers as badly during WWII as WWI did. I've interviewed several old codgers for a BBC war memories project and they tend to compartmentalise much more - 'oh, this happened, this happened, and my mate lost his entire face from sniper, and then Johnson tripped over a rock.' Most people seem to have come back and got on with their lives, and focussing almost entirely on the good stuff or their mates. Whereas WWI is generally regarded as a living hell that fucked you up.