This place was wicked weird. That was about as far as PJ’s mind could focus. She’d left her new ‘home’ with the idea of exploring the place. She hadn’t introduced herself on the network yet, but she had done a little reading on it before deciding to get a view of this place herself. The weather was hideous, dark storm clouds, and it was raining pretty hard, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to take a look around. She had a raincoat and figured she’d be okay.
She was leaving the housing when she caught sight of what she could have sworn was a little dragon, it caused her to look back again not paying attention to where she was going, turning she ended up being face to, well, chest of someone. PJ always knew being short was dangerous, but right now she really was wishing she had those few extra inches. Stepping back quickly, she looked up at the guy she’d nearly ran into.
“I am so sorry, I just thought I saw a miniature dragon, and I know that’s a possibility, I just,” she stopped sticking her hand out. “Inspector PJ Halliwell, or just PJ, I guess I’m not really an Inspector here.”
Caspian, too, had been focused on the dragon. He’d been on his way back to his house after a long, exhausting day of training at the Base but the sight of the little creature had distracted him so thoroughly that he’d stopped in his tracks to watch it, framed, as it was, against the dramatic storm clouds overhead. The sight called to Caspian’s mind his last encounter with a dragon.
The last dragon he’d seen had, in fact, not been a dragon at all. Eustace Scrubb was a human who had fallen victim to his own greed after coming across a dragon’s treasure hoard and had been, as a result, transformed. He’d made rather a good dragon, Caspian thought. Aslan had helped him regain his true form eventually and he had returned to his own world, along with Edmund and Lucy. Although Caspian didn’t feel the same bond with Eustace as he did to the Pevensies, he was rather sorry the boy wasn’t in Atlantis, in either of his forms.
The arrival of someone else in his immediate, personal space, arrested Caspian’s attention, bring him sharply back to the present. Instinctively, he raised his hands in a steadying gesture, although the other person seemed to realise their mistake and backed away from him to a safe distance before any steadying was necessary.
Caspian studied the woman in front of him, watching with interest as she held out her hand to him. The shaking of hands wasn’t a widespread custom in Narnia but Caspian had spent enough time around Peter and Edmund to understand what was expected of him. With all the politeness of his station, he graciously took the hand that was offered to him and gave it three firm shakes.
“Caspian,” he replied, an amused smile spreading across his face. “I won’t recite my full name since, as you point out, titles have little relevance here.”
He let go of her hand and glanced upwards again, to where the dragon had been a few moments before, but it had gone.
“I’ve never seen one that small before,” he mused, his gaze dropping from the dark sky back down to the woman in front of him.
He had a firm handshake, and she approved of that, that was a good sign for this place, although truthfully he was just the first person she happened to speak too. Curiously she smiled softly. "What is your full name? Now I'm curious." She had a distant memory of someone named Caspian in a book she read as a kid, but she couldn't grasp it.
She looked back towards where the dragon and been and frowned as she tried to find it again, her eyes searching.
"The only dragons I've run across are one that was more human form and breathed fire, and the story of when my cousin Wyatt conjured one when he was a baby and caused a lot of problems, including nearly getting erased." She shrugged.
"Are there are a lot of dragons around here?"
Caspian took a deep breath before dutifully reciting, “Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel, Lord of Telmar, Baron of Ettinsmor, Duke of the Lantern Waste, Duke of the Seven Isles, Duke of Galma, Count of the Western March and Emperor of Dragon.” He had been born to rule a colonised country but instead had found himself with an empire stretching far beyond the bounds of anything he’d ever dreamed possible. In the three years since he’d assumed the throne, he’d barely visited half of the places referenced in his many titles but he hoped there would be plenty of time yet for that. He didn’t intend to stay in Atlantis forever, just as long as he was needed to secure the safety of his world, then he would return to his people and his duty to them.
PJ’s explanation of her experience with dragons caused Caspian to lift his eyebrows in bafflement.
“Erased?” he repeated, his tone a mixture of worry and incredulity. “That sounds markedly undesirable.”
“I’ve heard there are, or at least have been, a few but I haven’t seen any until today.”
"Oh! Narina! Thank you!" She said as the pieces came together in her mind. "Wait, you're actually from, well, the Narnia books?" She got the message from the hologram but hearing it and having it right in front of you were two very different things.
She blinked and nodded. "Yes," she said with a shrug. "In my world, magic isn't something that is allowed to be seen by most, and he exposed magic, and there are these guys who erase magic, and in this case, my cousin." Her eyes widened. "Don't worry, he's fine, he wasn't, you know," she said with a shrug.
"Heard but not seen?" She asked about the dragons.
“The Narnia films,” he clarified, dismissing how strange it felt to be describing his life in such a way. “There are films, apparently.”
Caspian listened carefully, trying to follow the thread of the conversation. He was a lot more accustomed to magic than he would have been if they’d been having this conversation three years ago but Narnian magic seemed to be different to the magic of other worlds. Being in Atlantis was like discovering magic was real for the first time again. He was glad he’d grown skilled at adjusting to unexpected circumstances.
“Heard of,” he corrected her, lifting his eyebrows. He’d been spending most of his time at the Base since his arrival, except for the time he’d spent out on mission, so he hadn’t had much chance to get to know the island, or its magical wildlife population, all that well.
“Have you been here long?” Caspian asked.
“Oh, right, I heard there were films, but I haven’t seen them,” she felt a little bit weird saying that out loud, especially talking to someone who was from them. There was a lot she was going to have to learn.
PJ simply just nodded, she hadn’t meant exactly heard as in heard a roar or something, she just hadn’t added one word when she’d asked the question. She was a little bit overwhelmed being here as it was.
“About 15 minutes,” she said looking down at her watch. “Maybe 20 now.” She frowned thinking about time for a moment but blinked the thought away. “What about you?”
Caspian looked taken aback. He knew he hadn’t seen this woman before, in person or on the network, but he wouldn’t have guessed she’d been here for so little time. She seemed remarkably well adjusted for someone who’d just been pulled into another world. He envied her that.
“Almost a month,” he replied quickly. He felt very ungentlemanly talking about himself when she must have a well of questions about the situation she found herself in.
“Is there anything I can do to help you… acclimatise?” Caspian asked, searching for the correct words for such a strange state of affairs.
Catching his look, she figured she probably should be more freaked out than she was but that never did anyone any good and her life had its bizarre moments. Wasn't the first time she'd woken up somewhere she didn't understand. Although she did get the feeling, this was going to be more a long term thing and not a need to break free from a demon kind of thing.
"A month?" PJ blinked. "I guess I better start getting used to this place, huh?" She commented.
Smiling, she nodded. "You could tell me where to get something good to eat. I'm starving."
“It might be advisable,” he agreed with a nod. “I know people who have been here for years.” He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about being in Atlantis for any length of time - he missed Narnia a great deal already - but he knew that he didn’t have a choice. It was his duty to be here and fight for the survival of creativity just as assuredly as it was his duty to be a good king to his people.
“The pizza at Stone comes highly recommended,” Caspian said, after a long pause. He hadn’t visited many of the restaurants in Atlantis but he knew that Dash Parr delivered the circular, bread-based meal for people and they all seemed to speak highly of it. Caspian especially liked Dash. He was convivial and tenacious. He would happily have had him on board the Dawn Treader as part of his crew.
“Years?” PJ blinked, years in a strange land without her family? That sounded insane to her! She took a moment to let that sink in but did an okay job hiding the fact that it was a lot to take in.
Luckily he was mentioning pizza and that was always something that was easy to go for when it came to food. “I like pizza, so is it run of the mill pizza, or is it the good kind of pizza?” That wasn’t exactly the best way to talk about pizza and she could practically hear Aunt Piper’s voice in her head but she decided for right now it was what it was.
“I honestly have no idea,” Caspian replied, sounding a little embarrassed by his lack of knowledge. This conversation was bringing it to his attention that he could have done more, in the last month, to settle into life in this time and place. He’d been spending the majority of his spare time with the Pevensies and their close friends; that had become his comfort zone and he had been reluctant to step outside of it.
“What’s the difference?”
Deciding not to push for more questions she just smiled warmly. She didn’t ask any of the other millions of questions she had, he didn’t need to be bombarded with them, he hadn’t been here that long anyway by the sounds of it, just a month.
“There is the dominos kind of gross but still tastes good kind, it’s just messier and a lot more greasy, and there is the,” she paused trying to remember the exact right now but it didn’t come. “The real Italian kind of pizza, that has a nicer crust, the ingredients are usually a lot better too.”
“I prefer the sound of the second,” Caspian said with raised eyebrows. Gross, messy and greasy were not words he associated with anything appetising.
“I’ve never heard anyone call Stone’s pizza ‘gross’ so I think you should be alright there.” He paused, lifting his eyebrows as he mused, “I should probably make an effort to try some of the local establishments so I can make recommendations first hand, shouldn’t I?”
“The second is a lot better, but the first has its moments, but it has to be the right moments and you have to be really really hungry.” PJ confirmed.
“Knowing where good food is always helps when making recommendations.” She smiled. “Speaking of which, want to show me the way to Stone so I can see if this is the good kind of pizza for myself?” PJ asked. She had a feeling this guy could use a little push in the right direction to get a little bit more social, and while PJ would never say it she couldn’t wait to figure out if he was single or not, he was just the kind of person she loved to set up.
Caspian smiled. He liked the way PJ spoke, so animatedly. Her enthusiasm seemed to bubble forth and brighten the dark, stormy day. However, the black clouds overhead were beginning to rumble ominously; PJ’s suggestion that they get moving was a well-founded one.
“I think I can do that,” Caspian replied jovially. “And perhaps, in return, you’ll permit me to join you for a slice?”
Grinning PJ nodded, she didn’t want to push him to join her for a slice, but she was more than pleased he brought it up. “I think that is a fabulous idea!” She said.
Falling into step with him as they headed to Stone PJ got the feeling that this place was going to be okay after all.