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[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"Did I save you before." She asked still tired. She couldnt remember what she had done before the dragon came, but she didn't much care. Her mind still rested on her dream and this time there was no horrible happenings that Caspian didn't know about that he could question her about.

[King Caspian X]

"Yes." he answered, smiling. She had saved him before, many times that perhaps even she didn't know about. Susan had saved him from sorrow. She had saved him from being alone. She had saved him from anger. She had saved him from many things. "I love you." he said softly to her and placed his head on top of hers again.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Susan shrugged and closed her eyes wanting to continue her dream. But sadly, dreams only returned if they were nightmare. she tried and tried to bring it back, but it never came. "Strange how ths things we realy want only come once, and then never again." she whispered letting her thoughts becoem words without her knowledge. "I liked that dream."

[King Caspian X]

"Oh? What were you dreaming about?" Caspian asked, his eyes closing even though he was still awake and tired. He felt peaceful when he was with her, and wanted to hear about her dreams. Caspian could smell her perfume and smiled. The liked the scent. "You smell good." he complimented her.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She pushed aside his little comment. She had never been told that before and wasn't entirely sure how to react just yet. But the dream was a diffrent matter. She sighed and took his hand and placed it over where Lamont's child was growing. "We had children," She told him, "two sons and a daughter and one that hadn't been born. I wish you couldv'e seen it. The oldest one, Caspian, wanted to be a swordsman just like his daddy. The girl was a little archer, young but at least she'd have more expeirence than me. And the other was sick with a fever, but it looked like it was going down. It was wonderful."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian smiled. "It sounds wonderful. I do wish I could've dreampt it too." He hadn't had a real family in longer than he could remember. His own dream was too short for him to remember any details, just simply that he had proposed to Susan and she had accepted. He had felt like the happiest man on earth when she was his wife. He could remember a sense of belonging that he hadn't had since he was five. Caspian rubbed her belly sadly when she put his hand over the baby. He felt frightend for both her and the child, knowing that if Lamont ever found out then one of many things would happen. Either Lamont would completely ignore the fact that he was a father, the less likely response. He might try and get his child back by kidnapping and kill it, or he might try and fail to raise it himself. Or the worst, his cousin might come for both the child and Susan. Caspian shuddered. The King would do everything he could to keep the knowlege from his last living blood.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Susan felt the rumbling of the carrage as they continued at its slow pace. With each bump or ditch that sent the carrage shaking she gripped her stomach as if to protect it. She knew the move was foolish, she was not far enough along for the child to take any real damage just yet. She simply acted off of what may have been her own instinct. She wouldn't have known. Even as queen suitors came from all of Narnia, but all had been turned down as if fate had decided long ago that Caspian was to be her lover. She had never loved, never married, never had children, and now all but the second of these choices were happening all at once.

"Caspian," She asked as her wandering mind demanded answers, "What was life like for you since me and the others left?" She did not know herself what she wanted for an answer. He could have simply lived as though nothing had happened which would have, in the end, made her feel much less useful than she already was. Or he could've spend his days crying and longing for her as she did to him. But the many days of endless was so painful that even thinking about the endless void of a life without him brought tears.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian shook his head, remembering those few months without her. That knowlege that she would never be with him again, and the ignorance that she would indeed be coming back for him. "Dreadful." he said. Then he laughed slightly at himself. "I think, I must have smashed... about four-hundred pumpkins from the patch. I was reading books like mad, trying to figure out a way to get my mind off all of it. But I couldn't. I could always hear your voice from behind the pages. It was louder than the words on the page and I couldn't take in a single sentence." Caspian thought for a moment as the sad memories came back to him. "There was this one tree that I would wander out to every day and carve our names into it. Each day the engravement got deeper." He took her hand. "I'm just happy that you're back now." Then Caspian asked, "What was life like, for you?"

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Susan listened and then fought to hold back tears as she thought to answer his question. "Every time I heard something my mind played tricks on me and I thought I could hear you. Once I embarrased myself and stood up in class and ran down one of the hallways following the voice in my head that made me believe that you were just around the corner. When I looked at the others all I remembered anymore what how we helped, and in Peters case argued, with you. Alot of times I just went to the forest and cried until I fell asleep. One time I woke up and it was late, far past the time I was supposed to be asleep. I knew if I was caught then I would be in so much trouble. But then your voice came again, only it was a little diffrent. I assumed time had changed your voice, but now I know that it was bacause of something very diffrent. But I thought it was you and I ran towards it. Then, by raw chance alone, I was in Narnia."

With her story over and done with she forced her mind to dwell on other things. It was not long before it went to the tree where Caspian had carved their names. She had her own fantasy image on what she thought it might look like, but she hsd no proof. "I'd like to see this tree of yours one day." She said, "Maybe more memories could be made there besides you carving away."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian stroked her hair as she told her story. "Alright." he said, when she had told him that she wanted to see his carving tree. "You can see it when we're back home again." Then Caspian felt a sudden feeling of knowing that rushed over him. The tree was where he would propose. He felt nervous and excited and happy all at the same time. Again the question of whether she would accept or not loomed in his mind. But he would never know if he never asked. Caspian kissed her forehead again, "You should get some rest." he told her.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She nodded and tried to move closer to him, but there was no closer to get so she was forced to settle with what she had. She closed her eyes hoping to dream. But even before she could begin dreaming she continued to think, with a passion she did not understand, about the tree. She imagined it to be tall and wide with leaves of all colors as though it were autum once more. the rising moon behind it cast beautiful pale light that almost, but not entirely, blocked out the light of the small fairies and fireflies around it.
she wanted to see the tree as soon as they arived. But then, she was asleep with visions of her children swinging from the branches.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian was awake for a while after she fell asleep, listening to the sounds outside of the carrage. A sleeping world filled with faeries and pixies and fireflies, chirping crickets and singing night birds. Eventually he fell asleep with her in his arms, the sounds of the sunless world fading from his ears.