the salt is on the briar rose
the fog is in the fir trees.
the fog is in the fir trees.
Caspian is fighting back both yawns and shivers this morning, as the breeze stirs up the beach and reminds him (as if he needs another reminder) that winter is coming.
But it is not here yet - not as far as he’s concerned, because Benvolio is still joining him at dusk every evening. Today, though, when they’d parted in the cool wet dark, the little bat had said Soon, I think, before wrapping his wings around himself in a way that always looked so comfortable it made Caspian envious. The paint had wanted to argue, but held his tongue - a rarity that didn’t go unnoticed by Ben. They both knew if it weren’t for their bond, the bat would already be hibernating with a thousand others of his kind; the frosts had come already, and the snows would be following soon.
The moral was, Caspian was not very good at saying goodbye.
It wasn’t that he was lonely - he had plenty of acquaintances his age, and his sister lived in town, and anyway he never minded being alone. It was that nobody else understood him the same way (or maybe that nobody tried, or knew to try).
These were not thoughts the boy liked to sit with, much less on a dark newborn morning, and abruptly he shakes himself, snorts at a passing crab, and begins to pick his way from the stony cliffs to the beach. May as well watch the sun rise, see what the tide’s brought in, and not head home for a nap empty-handed.
He spots the figure from several hundred yards away, not much more than a dark silhouette against the level beach. Caspian’s curiosity is caught at once (and a bit of defensiveness, too - he views this bit of coastline as his, nevermind that it isn’t anyone’s save, perhaps, the queen’s). He trots nearer as the pegasus steps to the edge of a tide-pool, watching with ears forward and head cocked as she bends her nose down. It doesn’t look like it would take much for the stranger to topple in, and a mischievous little smile curves his mouth.
“Whatcha find?” he calls abruptly, rather more loudly than the distance between them necessitates.
CASPIAN
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