bedlamsbard | come back home someday (Reply)

40,146 / 50,000
(80.3%)

And how much of what I've written in the past twenty-four hours was porn and/or violence? All of it. Although I actually really like the last Peta/Caspian scene I wrote; I feel it has heart. (Also, I wasn't accidentally typing "Peter" when I meant "Peta" and "his" when I meant "her." That helps.) (This also means that Water has officially surpassed my last longest Narnia fic -- "In Constellated Wars" topped out at about 38K.)

*grin* Now I'm telling myself that this is no excuse to take another couple days off and put out Dust 6, mostly because I'm debating putting another chapter in between Dust 5 and the Cair Paravel plot. I can't go action-action-action all the time. (On the other hand, nor can I write a Lucy or Jill POV that takes place at the same time as Dust 5, because this isn't that type of story, and I really don't want to go talkyface again. I just have to figure out a good way to work in exposition without going all boardroom the way Dust 3 was, because there are certain relevant plotpoints I need to drop soonish, and at least one character we have to meet. And I suppose y'all would like to know about the Red Company and Alleyne Seaworth, the man who has never seen the sea. Osumare Seaworth would be so ashamed.)

“I’m sorry,” Susan says. “Was I supposed to be being nice?”

“Well, I am used to it.”

“We’ve clearly been in England too long,” Susan notes, and then she moves. She manages to get her hands around Peta’s staff before Peta stamps her foot down hard on Susan’s instep, knocking her head forward into Susan’s. Caspian winces at the crack, but all Susan does is blink a little bit and elbow her sister in the ribs. Peta’s grip loosens, but she doesn’t let go of the staff, just snarls a little and twists. Susan twists back, in the opposite direction, and then lets go. A centaur goes prancing back as the staff goes spinning away through the air, and then Peta punches Susan in the face and Susan gets a hand in her braided hair and shoves her sideways, bringing her knee up into the edge of Peta’s cheek.

Caspian’s mouth is very dry.

There’s a sharp, ugly crack as Peta finally gets a good enough grip on Susan’s left arm to twist it behind her back, and Susan hisses in pain but stamps down on Peta’s foot anyway. Peta kicks her legs out from beneath her and sends her down to the dirt floor, kneeling on her back and pressing her forearm across her sister’s throat as she bends her head close to Susan’s. Her hair is falling out of its braid, hanging loose in wild golden tangles around her face.

“Do you yield?” she asks softly.

“You should really lose some weight, Peta,” Susan says genially.

“Susan.”

“Only if you’ll put my shoulder back into joint.”

Peta climbs off her and gets to her feet, helping Susan up. “I can only have one of my siblings out of the fight at a time,” she says, laughing a little bit.

Her lip is split, her left eye is blackened, there’s a bruise spreading over her cheekbone where it collided with Susan’s knee, and she’s limping slightly. Susan looks considerably worse, handling her arm gingerly as Edmund puts an arm around her waist to brace her.

“You remember how this goes?” Peta asks her.

“Do you?” Susan returns, and then nods sharply, digging her teeth into her lower lip. She lets out a sharp gasp in conjunction with the pop of Peta putting her shoulder back into joint, and Caspian winces.