It Is Time

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She woke with her body lying in Caspian's strong arms. Her stomach was beginning to hurt and she felt as if she was going to be sick. She had gotten used to this feeling over the months, but something more was there, somethings she did not fully understand. She moved and kissed her husband lightly enough that she would not wake him and wiggled her way out of his arms and the bed.

She moved through the forest easily, following the instinct that drove her on rather than her own knowledge. When she stopped she put her hand on the trunk of the tree hat bore her name. Our secret place. She had brought herself to the secret place. But when she touched the bark it was not the feeling of peace she normaly felt, but one of dread.

Something bad was going to happen.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian felt the warmth of her kiss, even in sleep. But then there was a coldness next to him after she left, his resting mind not knowing that she had done so. He winced in his sleep, another dream, good or bad, threating to disturb it. His eyes opened lazily. He didn't feel like risking a nightmare right now, even if he could have had a pleasant dream for the first time in a long time. He rolled over and his arm hit something that shouldn't have been there. Emptiness. The man sat straight up in bed. Where was his wife? He looked around around the room. Susan was no where. Caspian, in his sleepy state, looked under the bed, in the closet, everywhere as if he might find her even in the smallest of spaces. The King searched the castle in his pajamas for near fourty-five minutes, but she was no where there either. Why hadn't she woken him if she was going some where? Had she kissed him, or had he been dreaming it? Poor Caspian was so confused as he stumbled out onto the fresh morning grass, his barefeet getting wet with dew. Where would she have gone?

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Again pain struck her as she withdrew her hand from the trunk of their tree. You called me here, She thought, somehow . . . But wh? She recieved no answer from the tree that summoned her. The since of dread and fear only increased to painful levels. She collapsed ready to cry, but did not know why. The pain inside her was growing, but that she did not fear. It was the fear of fear itself that forced her to tears. The knowledge of something horrible, but being unable to know when or where. She lost track of time before she could stand. Her stomach still hurt and the child continued to move without rest, as if he had felt the great fear of unknown. Please, can you tell me nothing? She asked it, but the tree was unforgivingly silent, giving her nothing more than more fear.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian sleepily began to move towards the town, hoping that perhaps she had gone to watch the sun rise. But one of his servants stopped him, telling him that the Queen had been seen walking towards the forest. Caspian knew where to find her there. He began to run, knowing that the forest only ment danger. Their secret place was not far off, but still. Anything could happen on the way to it. "Susan?" he called her name, his step ever growing until he found her. The King knelt next to her, his hand on her shoulders. "What are you doing?" Caspian asked her. A smile was on his face because he now knew that she was safe, but it was quickly wiped away. Her expression only spelled pain.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"I . . . I don't know." She told him falling short of an answer. With his smile came momentary peace as she stood. "I just woke and came, like the tree was calling me. But it hasn't told me why. Couldn't you feel it as well? When I touched it I felt sad, but when I asked for explination I only felt worse. I think our tree is trying to tell us something, but it isn't Narnian so I don't know how that's possible. Whatever it's trying to tell us is bad, but I don't know what." She left out something she had thought as she spoke. With every passing moment her dread increased, as if prevolked by time itself. Whatever magic of their secret place was trying to tell them it would happen very, very soon, perhaps within the next few hours.

[King Caspian X]

"The only thing calling me was finding you." Caspian said. But she was right. There was a sense of warning over their place. "But I can see what you mean. It's like we should be taking precautions for something..." He looked down at himself, realizing that he was still in his pajamas and shirtless, and without a sword. "What do you think is going to happen?" asked the man. "I've never been called or warned by a tree before."

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"I don't think they ever have either. I know we used one of the Narnians to send a message through to Pete and the others that Aslan was dead along time ago. But this is just an ordinary tree, if it wasn't you would have heard it screaming when you carved into it. To say I understand would be-" She stopped as the pain in her body returned with greater force then ever before. It hurt so badly she wanted to cry and scream, but all she did was fall into Caspian's arms with her arm wrapped around her full stomach, the source of her pain. All at once she knew what was happening to her. Knowing what Caspian would think before he said anything she looked up at him trying desperately, but failing, to hide the pain in her eyes and voice. "It is time."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian's eyes went wide. "Now?" he asked, looking down at his wife in his arms. The King helped her to her feet again, but didn't leave her side lest she fall a second time. "Maybe we should get you back up to the Castle first." he suggested. He tried as best he could to be calm. Caspian put his arm around her waist and took the hand farthest from him. "Come." he said. If they could get back up to the Castle, then at least they could get some help. The King looked at her again and smiled encouragingly, but inside he only felt the same fear and dread that she did. Whatever happened, it could go one of two ways. Life or death. Happiness or sorrow.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Pain tore through her body unlike anything she had ever seen or known before. She had known it would hurt, but never had she imagined pain like this before. She couldn't see far, the world was blurred through her forming tears as her body contracted. The hand he offered was taken and all her strength was forced into her wrist and she squeezed powerfuly. It did nothing to help her, only distracted her from pain. "There is no time," She said forcing herself not to scream to words and barely able to hear his. "It dosn't matter. Take me there, beside the tree between the roots. Let me give birth there in our secret place."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian's heart pounded. Today, he would either be a father or lose his wife. When she squeezed his hand the man winced. She had never squeezed his hand like that before, and he couldn't even imagine was she was feeling. The King helped her over to the tree where she wanted, and sat down beside her. He took both of her hands in his instinctively and waited. "You're going to be alright." Caspian tried to comfort his lover, even if he wasn't sure how false or true his words were. "Everything is going to be fine."

[Lennia Silverwind]

Len awoke eairly to gather herbs. Her stock was growing low and she knew that the morning was the best time to go into the forest. She recocked her supplies fairly quickly and headed towards the castle. She heard some noise not to far off. Runing, she almost bumped into Caspian. "Susan, don't tell me your ready?" She asked as she studdied the pregant girls face.


(it is short but I am posting through a cell.)

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

The feeling of earth against her body made part of her feel better. It kept her from using her strength to stand. But the pain stayed with her and only grew. So much of her strength, if there was much left in her, was put into not screaming. But after a few moments of her body's contracting she found it impossible. The sun was beginning to rise, sending shafts of golden light around them. But where she lay had been covered by the leaves leaving her and Caspian in the shade. She continued to grip his had harder than she had ever held it before and listened to his words. Any comfort was one she would accept.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian looked up at Len as she came running. "I think she is." he answered for Susan. He brushed his wife's hair away from her face. Susan's screams tore at his heart. He couldn't bare to hear her in so much pain. Caspian felt as if he could do nothing to help, but he would try anyway. He rubbed and patted her back, holding her close to him as if trying to shield her from something that could not be shielded away. Not this time. "You'll be okay." Caspian told her. "You'll get through this, and you'll be a mother." Please, make her pain stop. The man pleaded to Aslan in his mind. She doesn't deserve this. Please, ease her pain. He couldn't stand to see her hurting. "It's going to be alright." Caspian looked up to the magic-weilder. "Is there anything that you can do?" he asked her.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Susan let him speak, never answering his comforting words. Her body tightned again and she held her breath, for only a second, resisting the urge to scream again. She began to try to work with her pain, to make it worse but, in turn, making it shorter. She could feel his touch, but only just, over the pain that imprisioned her body. you will be a mother, she told herself, You will get through this. You will, you will, you will. But the voice answered back "Then what did the tree warn you for? One of you will die." I won't, I can't, I'll fight death for Caspian! "Do not be foolish," It told her, The warning is clear as light itself. If it is not you who dies then it will be your child. Will you let that be?" No! She looked at her husband reaching to touch his face. For the first time since the pain begain the eternal emotion of fear returned to her eyes. If it came to her or the child she would give in.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian touched her face when she touched his. He saw the gleam in her eyes and wanted to kill himself. "Breathe, Susan." he reminded her when he realized that she hadn't taken a breath. He could almost sense what she was thinking, but he hoped to God that he was wrong. "If it comes between you and the child, you live." Caspian begged. "Please. Don't give your life for the child." He knew that his words this time weren't very comforting, but they made sense. The child couldn't live with out her anyway. If Susan died, so would the baby. And Caspian knew better than anyone, a child shouldn't be forced to live without its mother. "Both of you are going to be fine." he said to his wife, and kissed the top of her head.