InsaneJournal

He kissed it, as was custom, just brushing his lips across her knuckles before releasing her hand and picking up his goblet, taking a sip, as apparently he was going to be doing a great deal of talking. "It's lovely to meet you as well, Miss Gabrielle." He laughed lightly at her question and shrugged. "I never thought to ask," he admitted. "I'm the last in a long line of Caspian's. The tenth, as it were."

"Let's see, a story..." he mused, wondering which to tell her. There were so many, after all. Perhaps one that didn't involve himself, so that he wouldn't come off as pompous and arrogant. He chewed on a grape as he thought and then nodded.

"A thousand years before my land was as I knew it, Narnia was under the control of a White Witch," he started. "Aslan, the Son of the Emperor Over the Sea, brought four children from another land, to right the winter that had plagued our land for over a hundred years. Their names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, and though they were siblings, they were as different as any could hope to find." He smiled fondly, distantly, as he thought of his friends, and took another sip of water.

"With the help of the talking animals and spirits of Narnia, a great battle was waged, with the children at the spear point, and, with the help of Aslan, they restored Narnia to the land of peace and prosperity that it had once been. For years after, the four Pevensies ruled over the kingdom as kings and queens, until they disappeared, quite suddenly and without warning, leaving my land and returning to their own."

"Yes, that's where I'm from. Though my ancestors were from Telemarine, and from there, the same world that the Pevenies came from," he shrugged. "Time in my world moves differently than others. For the Pevensies, the time between their first visit and their second was thousands of years to their one, but when Edmund and Lucy came back a third time, it had only been three years for me." Confusing, yes, but it worked.

He went back to eating while she spoke, and smiled at the end of it. "The Greeks were very smart soldiers," he said, clearly impressed. He wondered if there'd ever come a time for him to use that trick. Not likely, but it was still something to keep in mind. "That might have been useful in the battle to regain the throne from my uncle, now that I think about it," he mused.

"When I was only a couple of years younger than I appear now, my uncle, Miraz, was the Lord Protector of Narnia, until I was old enough to take the throne," he explained. "At least, that's what he wanted everyone to think. Then he had a son of his own, and his plans changed. I was warned by my tutor, and managed to escape before he had me killed, and I disappeared into the forests, where I found a few of the remnants of Old Narnia - the talking beasts and such that I told you about - that had almost entirely been wiped out by my ancestors."

"The Pevensies returned, and with their help, and quite another epic battle, they and Aslan regained me my throne." He smiled a bit and shook his head. "I still think that I was too young to rule, but I did it anyway, for fifty years, until my death," he shrugged. "And then I ended up here."

Caspian nodded at her recap and smiled. "I lived it and I'm not entirely sure how it works," he shrugged, giving a little laugh. He sobered when she did, though, and nodded. "Battle is generally so needless, even when there is no other course of action," he sighed. "I was never much of a fighter." Alright, that wasn't entirely true. It might have been better said that he didn't particularly enjoy the fighting that he did do, but for Caspian, it was much the same. His heart wasn't in it, so he didn't consider himself very good at it.

It didn't matter. Caspian laughed at her opinion and shook his head, waving off her apology. "I said the same thing," he assured her. "But apparently the fact that I did not feel ready to rule meant that I was," he shrugged. "Something along the lines of my ego not getting in the way, I'd assume." Which really, made sense. He could have very easily turned into a ruler like his uncle had been, but his hesitation kept him from being a tyrant. "I still would have gladly passed it off to someone else, but my father, and any of his friends that would have taken my part, were long gone. Either killed by my uncle or sent far across the sea." He smiled fondly. "I found most of them, later in my rule. That was a fun trip."

Caspian swallowed a piece of cheese he'd popped into his mouth and nodded. "Just Caspian, please, and yes. Dwarves, centaurs, naiads, dryads, common animals of every sort you could imagine, fauns and satyrs...And all sorts of not so nice things as well...One of my most loyal friends was a badger, and another a mouse," he smiled. "Reepicheep stood about this high," he said, holding his hand about three feet off the ground. "And was as brave as a lion," he laughed. "You'd not find a more valiant-hearted warrior in all of Narnia, I assure you."

Caspian nodded. The lords he'd gone in search of hadn't been his friends at the time, but one or two of them did become so after finding them and proving who he was, in word and deed. But still..."You're right, Lady Gabrielle. Without my friends, I truly would be nothing." As a matter of fact, he'd be dead, a lot earlier than his rather natural death as an old man.

"A princess?" he asked, wondering why she hadn't said something sooner. Caspian felt remiss in his duties, but to try and make up for it now would be too little too late. He'd just have to remember in the future. "Tell me about your land, and of the Amazons?" he asked with a polite smile, interested in anything that could have created such a lovely woman as Gabrielle.

"My friends from the other world said the same. Animals don't speak there. But in Narnia, they have spoken since the moment of creation. There are beasts that have gone native now, that have reverted back to their natural ways and are completely wild, but most..." he smiled. "Most speak. And far more intelligently than most humans."

"You would love it," Caspian assured her with a nod. "And were it possible, I would no doubt take you there, m'lady. But I cannot return, even if we find our freedom from this land. In Narnia, I would be nothing but a ghost."

Caspian listened to her story, leaning his forearms on the edge of the table and shifting toward her slightly, his posture indicating extreme attentiveness. "I believe the Narnians and the Amazonians would have quite a good deal in common, were they to meet," he said with a decided nod. After all, his people had been oppressed and all but wiped out at one point.

"I don't know of any here," Caspian laughed lightly, "But if I run into one, I'll be certain to let you know." He thought about her question and smiled. "Some are just as you would expect, I'd imagine, and some would take you greatly by surprise. They are - well now - accepted citizens of the land, and they maintain homes and trades just like the Telemarines do," he shrugged. "I'm not sure that their viewpoints are much different from our own, though there are always a few that view themselves a great deal higher in class than the rest. In truth, I'm so accustomed to them that I don't even notice anymore. Though it was a great shock the first time an animal spoke to me," he laughed at the memory. "They were all in hiding for a very long time prior to that."

Caspian nodded. "A ghost. Perhaps in the other world as well, though I'm not certain. I died there, of a blissfully old age, and so to return...I wouldn't exist. But here..." He reached out and brushed his fingers against her own. "I'm very much alive."

Caspian sighed. This was going to apparently take some explaining, and even he didn't really know how it worked, only that it did. With his free hand, he popped another piece of fruit in his mouth in order to give himself a moment to think, and then sighed.

"I was born sixty-six years ago," he told her softly, as if lowering his voice would somehow lessen the blow that that information carried. "I grew up, I became King, I travelled, I married, and I had a son. I lost, I gained, and I lived. A full life. Then I died. Right after my death, I was brought to a bridge between worlds, and Aslan brought me back to life, restoring me to the form that my friend Eustace - who was there at that time - knew best, as he'd known me as a young man," he said, gesturing to himself. We had one last battle together," Caspian said with a little smirk and a shake of his head. Some battle. "And then I was meant - I believe - to go to Aslan's Country, your Heaven, I suppose," he said, remembering a term used by the Pevensies once. "But I ended up here instead. But in my land, I died, and I assume there was a funeral and the like. So there, I would be a ghost," he shrugged.

"I think so," Caspian nodded in response to her question, nudging his plate just a half an inch to the side, indicating that he was done, knowing that a goblin would be around before long. "At least, that's the way it was made to sound when explained to me."

"Actually," he chuckled. "Lucy, the little girl from the stories? Apparently she wrote down some of the adventures we had," he shrugged. "At least that is what I was told at the ball. A young lady there knew my land because of it and, I believe, who I am, though she was attempting to be discrete."

Caspian frowned and picked at a rough spot on the table with his free hand. He hadn't thought about that, and he didn't like the idea much. Sure, he was adjusting quite well to this new place, but eventually, wouldn't he want to move on? And where would he go if Aslan couldn't even stop having Caspian ripped from His side? "I suppose it matters what sort of life I am able to build here," he said after a moment. "But I've been given a chance to restart mine. I'm not about to squander it."

"The Elysian Fields? Tartarus?" Caspian repeated, clearly never having heard of either of those places, if the confused look on his face was any indication. "What are those places like?" he asked, interested.

He smiled a bit at her enthusiasm over the possibility of the books, and shrugged slightly. "It would be worth a shot," he admitted. "Lucy Pevensie is her name, though I don't know, she may have married before writing them," he shrugged. "Miss Hermione said something about The Chronicles of Narnia, so that may help you in your search." For himself, he didn't particularly want to read them, even through the eyes of a child. Living the events once had been enough.

Caspian nodded and reached out to squeeze her fingers a bit in thanks for the comforting thought. "Well, if this is a chance to start over, perhaps a walk is the best way to begin?" he offered, noting that neither of them were eating any more. Standing up, Caspian offered his hand and a smile. "Would you like to take one, m'lady?"

Caspian listened to her, his eyes widening a bit, but otherwise, he took it all in stride as best as he could. "I hope that you end up in the Elysian Fields then," he offered with a smile.

When she took his hand, he lifted her to her feet and then turned his hand under hers so that her fingers were laying along his own, escorting her properly. He was finding that the longer they talked, and the more she graced him with her sunny smile and cheerful disposition, that he liked her all the more.

Which, lead him to ask a rather embarrassing question that made Caspian feel as if he were really the age he represented physically. "Are you spoken for, Gabrielle?" he asked in a quiet, serious voice, watching her face for any sign of offense.