kitchen_maid | (no subject)

(no subject)

In the two weeks since the Ordinary Princess was last here, autumn has arrived in the Forest of Faraway. But this is that perfect moment in autumn, the one you remember. The leaves have turned, but few have fallen. The weather has turned cooler, but it's still warm in the sun. It's a beautiful day for a picnic.

The Ordinary Princess stands very still in the clearing, head tilted back to look at the trees and the sky, the squirrels chasing each other around her feet. "This is the Forest of Faraway," she says, eyes still on the trees. And then she turns to look at Caspian. "This is home."

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"It'd be very boring, and proper, likely," Caspian says, and comes to join her, taking an apple for himself.

"You, mostly. I had to prove myself a good brother for you to have, but I think she and I understood each other quite well."

"I'm glad you passed whatever, but I already knew you were a good brother."

"Well, I was hand-picked," he says, amused, and offers a piece of bread to Simon Perryvall.

"So I would hope I would be."

"You were," she says. "But, then, so was I. I think we both chose very well."

"Marvelously," he says, and grins a bit cheekily at her.

"Now," he says, "I have told you a story of my childhood, it is only fair that you tell me more about yourself. Anything I haven't heard."

She thinks for a moment. "I don't know," she says. "what do you want to know?"

"What's your favorite thing to do?" he prompts. "Or your favorite food, or memory. Something I can know before Peter."

He grins.

"My favorite food is apples," she says, in a tone that implies this should have been obvious.

"I used to keep to a store of them on top of my book shelf, and sit in the windowsill in my room and eat them and look at the Forest. And try to figure out how to get out of the palace and down to the Forest. It just looked so beautiful. And when I was six, I did.

"There's a wisteria vine, outside my window there, and one evening, one beautiful evening, I got sent to bed when it still light out, and I thought of that vine, and off I went. I was six. And I never stopped. When I ran away, I went down that vine."

He listens carefully, pushing Simon Perryvall gently out of the bread.

"It was the forest that saved me, too," he replies. "Did you talk to your godmother after you ran away?"

"Yes. I mean, I'd heard about her all my life, and not always from people who were fond of her. But I met her this summer. Around the time I realized I needed to replace my dress. I told her the whole story, and she laughed in all the right places, and then she sent me to Amber."

He laughs.

"She seems like someone who would know what to do," he says, nodding, "and she certainly seemed to point you in the right direction for this."

"I owe her a great deal," she says, simply.

"And so do I," he says, smiling.

Taking his apple, he rolls onto his back and stares up into the sky and interlacing tree branches.

"It really is lovely here," he says. "Thank you for bringing me, Amy."

She lies back, looking up at the sky as well. "You're welcome," she says. "I'm very glad you like it."

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