Between Two Ages | By : AislingSiobhan Category: A through F > Chronicles of Narnia Views: 4541 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own The Chronicles of Narnia, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
New story. I am so horrible. Why am I starting a new story when I can’t bring myself to update The Lambs? Anyway let me know what you think. Leave a review, and if anyone is willing, will you make me a banner please? Caspian 3 and 10 look exactly alike – in case you are wondering.
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“Between Two Ages”
Disclaimer: It all belongs to C.S. Lewis and Disney, et all. So don’t sue me. I’m just doing this for fun.
Summary: [P/C] Imagine if the Kings and Queens of Old had found a way back to Narnia straight after leaving the wardrobe. What will they make of the thousands of strange people washing up on the coast of Cair Paravel, led by Caspian II. 1300 years later Peter finds himself back in Narnia face-to-face with another Caspian but not the one he remembers. Could he love this Caspian too or is Narnia far too different to how it once was? Peter’s heart is caught between two Ages of Narnia and he isn’t sure which one he loves more.
Warnings: Slash. Peter/Caspian X. AU. Peter/Caspian III. Death. Violence. Language. Takes place at the end of the Golden Age, then through to Telmarine Narnia. Book and Movie-mix.
Rating: R/NC-17 SLASH!!
A/N: If they found a way back to Narnia straight after leaving the Wardrobe, they would have been there in time for the Telmarines to arrive. Let’s pretend that happened. They will still have to leave for the year (a long way into the story) so we can get to the Peter/Caspian X. It will be Peter/OC for a little while though.
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Words: 2,689
Chapter 1
A New Age
There was a legend in Narnia, as old as you or I, or older still in fact, that boasted that those who captured he elusive White Stag would be granted wishes. It was with that thought in mind that the two Kings and two Queens rode out from Cair Paravel that afternoon. Mr. Tumnus, who was a good deal older than when they had first met him, had arrived at the castle earlier to deliver the good news that the White Stag had been spotted in the Western Woods.
A rather large party accompanied the Kings and Queens. They did not fear that the noise would frighten off the Stag. After all they were only hunting for the fun of it, and the Stag was possibly quite used to large, joyous parties such as theirs chasing him.
The Stag led them on a merry chase until at last all but four horses were too tired to continue on. The guards and the courtiers let the Kings and Queens go on alone. Edmund rode off first. He had always been a little standoffish, but over time he had straightened himself out and he was much like he was before he went off to that horrid boarding school of his. Lucy followed soon after, her long blond hair hung down her back, the wing catching it and throwing it up into the air as she giggled in delight. Susan, with her dark hair and her dark eyes and fair skin, followed the youngest two hastily.
High King Peter turned to his subjects and smiled. “We shan’t be too long, I believe.” He patted Fledge on the side of the neck. The winged horse snorted at him, but didn’t speak. The horse would not be the first to admit defeat. “We both are growing weary of this chase, are we not?”
“Speak for yourself,” Fledge muttered mutinously and took off at a gallop, as Peter chuckled from his back, holding on fast to the reins.
The guards and courtiers watched them go, before dismounting and settling down for their return. They had no idea that their Kings and Queens would disappear for three full weeks.
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The adults – for they were no longer children – felt as if they were in a dream, or if they were remembering a dream that they had dreamt many years ago.
“Well if this isn’t a queer looking tree?” Edmund said as he reached out to run his hand down the iron pole.
“It’s a lamppost!” Lucy exclaimed suddenly. “It’s not a tree at all.”
“Why would someone put a lamppost here? You wouldn’t be able to see the light through all of those trees anyway!”
“Honestly Edmund,” Susan said, for Peter still hadn’t caught them up and she was to be the reasonable one in his absence as she was the second oldest. “That lamppost was obviously here before these trees. For the lamppost is quite old and these trees are relatively new.” Edmund made a small humming noise, almost in agreement, as Peter darted out from the trees.
“Have you lost the Stag, fairest siblings?” He slowed Fledge the horse and dismounted.
“Look at this dear brother,” Lucy beckoned him over. “Can you not remember something? A land?” She scratched her head in thought before smiling widely. “I remember! Spare ‘Oom in the land of War Drobe. Oh Peter, oh brother,” she cried holding her hands out pleadingly in front of her chest. “May we go back, just for a short visit?”
Peter looked at the others, but they were all watching him, waiting for his answer. “I don’t see why not Lucy. But not for long, after all the courtiers are waiting for us.” He tried to be stern with her but she smiled at him so charmingly that he couldn’t help himself. He grinned widely and clutched her to his chest in a fierce hug. When he released her he turned to Fledge. “Wait here for us would you, my friend?” The free and Talking horse bowed slightly and nodded his head. But Fledge kept his silence for he was against what they planned to do but he didn’t want to upset Lucy by voicing his opinions to Peter while she was still there.
They walked twenty paces before they began to remember things that they had soon forgotten, having been so enchanted by their life in Narnia. Twenty paces more led them into a dark enclosed area of the forest, but none of them were scared. It seemed right, this placed seemed to be calling to them, and so they continued to walk forward. But soon it was not leaves and branches brushing their faces but rather soft furs and wool and cotton. Peter pushed something away from his face, and instead of reaching through what should have been a branch into thin air, his hand hit something hard and solid.
The sidewall of the wardrobe.
In a matter of seconds, before Peter, who was at the back and the first to realize what was happening, could warn them, all four had come tumbling out of the wardrobe. They landed in a pile on the floor just as the door to the spare room opened. Lucy looked around frantically. “Mr Tumnus!” She cried. The thought of losing her best and closest friend terrified her. She jumped back into the wardrobe but she met the solid oak of its back wall, and curled in on herself as she cried, hidden from the others by the many coats.
Peter sank to his knees, his mouth open as he tried to control his breathing. A part of him just wanted to stop breathing all together. He could hear Lucy’s cries and he could see the horror and desolation on Susan and Edmund’s faces and it was his fault. It was his answer that had ultimately brought them home. He could have said no and they would have remained in Narnia. But he had agreed.
By what folly had he agreed?
He curled his fingers into fists and began to punch the floor. In the threshold of the room Professor Digory Kirke watched the children mourn and he knew how they felt. Before they could notice him, he hurried back to his study and took something out of a drawer. Many years ago, his friend Polly had helped him bury the contents of this tin box in the back garden around a very special tree. But when the tree had blown down, Digory made this wardrobe out of its wood. And he had dug up the rings and kept them safe in this little tin box ever since.
“Why do you weep so, child?” He asked as he entered the room for a second time. Susan and Edmund were holding Peter, and each of them were crying silently, but the Professor could only see Peter’s tears because Peter was the only one facing him.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Edmund sneered. Almost immediately he had gone from the wonderful grown-up he was to the spiteful, hate-filled child he once was. Peter squeezed him tightly and Edmund cried harder. “Sorry,” he sniffled.
“No need to cry, children,” the Professor said realizing they were all crying. “Once a King or Queen in Narnia, always a King or Queen in Narnia.” They stopped crying long enough to stare at him in shock. Lucy even came out of the wardrobe. “Oh, oh, no, you won’t be getting back that way! You’ll have to wait until She calls you back, Narnia I mean. But there are ways to cheat.” He gave Peter a sly little grin and Peter wiped away his tears and stood up.
“How so, Sir?” He said. He only remembered to add the ‘sir’ part when he realized he had to look up to the Professor: he was no longer an adult.
He held out the tin box and Peter hesitantly took it. He didn’t open the box, instead he examined the outside. The box was tin, and old and dirty. But it was engraved with the most beautiful designs of fauns and centaurs and dryads and sprites and mermaids and, there on the very lid, was Cair Paravel of the four thrones. Peter’s true home.
He opened the lid and inside he found four sets of rings. “It was all I could find, years ago.” The Professor said. His uncle had either used the others he made, or lost them or destroyed them.
There were four green rings and four yellow rings. “What are they?” Edmund asked looking over Peter’s shoulder.
“Rings.”
“Well I can see that!” He said rather angrily.
“They were made from magic, from the soil, dust and sand of the place called the Wood Between the Worlds. The Yellow ones will bring you to the Wood, the Green ones will bring you anywhere else. The Yellow ones, remember, will only take you to the woods. You will need both to come and go, so don’t lose them. Now, you don’t necessarily need to wear them but make sure you touch someone who is wearing them. Bare skin only, mind you.” He warned. “And don’t forget to mark the puddle you come out of.” He left the room at that.
“What say you?” Peter asked them. They were all looking at him again, waiting for his answer.
“I want to go home,” Lucy said at last.
“Hold on to me,” Peter said. They all took hold of him, gripping him tightly, as he reached into the open tin box and slipped a Yellow ring on his finger. It suddenly seemed as if the air was heavier, or packed in tighter around them. They almost struggled before they each thought of what might happen if they were to accidentally let Peter go. So instead they focused their energy into holding onto their brother tighter.
When they let go, they were knee deep in a lock of water. “Is that what he called a puddle?” Susan asked incredulously. It looked as if it would get even deeper if they waded out. Instead, they headed towards the shore. The moment their feet touched the soil they felt as if they belonged there. It was as if they hadn’t just arrived but if they had lived their all their lives. They wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest for a time. It didn’t matter how long, because this was where they thought they belonged.
Peter looked down at the strange tin box in his hand and frowned. Suddenly he snapped out of the daze he was in, and shook his siblings in turn, waking them also. “We have to mark this one.”
Susan pulled a paperweight from her pocket, and ignoring the strange looks she got, she laid it down at the base of the closest tree. Edmund unlaced one of his shoes and tied it around the base of the tree, just to be safe.
“Now which one is Narnia?” He asked, looking through the trees at the three other lakes he could spot.
“We’ll know,” Lucy told them confidently, “She’ll call to us.”
And she did call them. When they were close enough they felt explicably drawn to one puddle in particular and they knew; this one would lead them home. They took hold of Peter again, and he slipped off the Yellow ring. “Ready?” They squeezed him in response. He slipped his finger into the Green ring and suddenly it felt as if they had all slipped and fallen under the surface of the water. But they did not get wet and they did not drown, so they didn’t worry overly.
When they arrived at Narnia they were still in the Western Woods, not a lake, and they were sitting on the floor beside the lamppost. “Oh look!” Lucy exclaimed and rushed over to the pile of clothing and swords and bows and shoes that lay upon the floor. “Our things are still here.”
“Those clothes will be too big for us now.” Peter said as he picked through them. He removed the weapons and the cloaks and the shoes, if they still fitted, and handed Lucy her cordial. But he left the rest of the clothing. It would be much to heavy to carry, and it looked as if Fledge had not waited like he was asked. “Let’s go. It’ll take days to walk back to Cair Paravel.”
They had been walking for three days, with short rests, before they came into sight of their home. Firstly, they spotted the coast. The water stretched out for miles to the North before going over a waterfall. Peter and a few others thought that maybe the waterfall led to another world – Peter believed it more now that he knew the Western Wood led to England. Lucy rushed forward to dip her feet into the sea but stopped short at the sight in front of her.
Two large war ships, Spanish Galleons to be exact, were moored off the beach a little further down from them. Thousands of people stood around, tents were pitched and small fires were burning. “What-?” She began, but Edmund put his hand over her mouth and dragged her out of sight.
“We don’t know if they’re friendly. We better get up to Cair Paravel sharpish.” They looked up at the cliff upon which their castle sat. Many courtiers were looking down out of the windows and over the balconies trying to understand the presence of these mysterious strange humans. For they were humans only aboard those ships.
Peter thought it was all very strange. In the fifteen years he had been High King he had learnt that Narnia was made up of animals and beasts, with human rulers. The other nearest humans were in Archenland, to the East or to the South across the desert in Tashbaan. These strangers looked like members of either region, which was worrying. The only possible explanation, Peter could think of, was that these strangers were from Peter’s real country and they had somehow stumbled into this world, into Narnia. And they seemed ready to stay here.
“We’ll see about that,” Peter murmured as he followed his siblings up through the forest, up the side of the cliff, to the entrance of Cair Paravel.
One boy, about fifteen or sixteen, watched the four leave. He smiled slightly as he stared after the blond haired male. Caspian the Third thought he was rather beautiful, and he wondered if the High King would ever agree to meet with his father so that he may go up into that castle and catch another glimpse of the fair-haired beautiful boy.
They were met at the gates by a handful of worried guards, all of whom had despaired upon their Kings and Queens ever returning to them. “We’re back now,” Lucy consoled Mr. Tumnus who was still much older than when Lucy first met him.
Every person in the courtroom cheered as the Kings and Queens sat down upon their thrones. “It is a miracle from Aslan!” Mr. Beaver said.
Sallowpad the raven flapped his wings in delight. “Now you may rule over Narnia for another fifteen years, O High King!”
“O Magnificent King.” Someone else cried.
“O Valiant Queen.”
“Long live Gentle Queen Susan!” Another cheered.
“All hail Edmund the Just!” Shouted a handful of others.
The noise and excitement was so loud that the Telmarine’s on the coast could hear them celebrating. Caspian the Third walked back to his father, smiling softly to himself at the thoughts of seeing the blond boy some day soon.
“What do you grin so for?” Captain Caspian the Second asked.
He lied: “I was wondering what they were so happy about.”
Father and son looked up at the castle of the four thrones. One frowned and the other smiled. “So do I.” He said, rubbing his fingers over his short, pointed beard. If his son had noticed the look Caspian the Second was sending at the castle, he wouldn’t have liked it.
So began a new Age in the long happy land of Narnia.
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There is the first chapter. Let me know if you like it, and I’ll continue. If not, then I’ll pass it off as a one-shot.
Bare in mind, that there will be Peter/Caspian 3rd, before Peter ends up back in Finchley. And then there will be a AU 4th book (Prince Caspian) during which it will be Peter/Caspian 10th. Keep that in mind.
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