Caspian reflects… as he lies on his sickbed, dying.
Note… this is after his wife, Lilliandil, dies, and Rillian is gone.
I don't own anything. I do know that technically, Rillian is an only child, but Caspian has more to be sad about if I add his daughters in! Creative FF license! I know a lot of ages keep being repeated, but this story goes through many years very quickly and it is to help prevent confusion.
Caspian sighed. Now that he was dying, memories were coming back to him full force. The happy twenty-two years that he had spent with the star's daughter, Lilliandil, and the twenty years he had spent raising his only son, Rillian, and his great number of daughters, Lilliandil, Lucy, Aravis, Margaret, Edmonda, Petra, and Susan. Thinking of his daughters brought a fresh pang of sorrow to his heart. He had had seven daughters, all younger than Rillian. Lucy had been the eldest, Lilliandil had been quite impressed with the young girl Lucy Pevensie, and they agreed to name their eldest daughter after her.
Lucy, Princess of Narnia, had been born three years after Rillian. She had had light platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, a mixture of her father and mother. She had always been tiny and delicate, a perfect little princess. By the age of sixteen, she had been well versed in music, art, and well-educated. She received many offers of marriage, but declined all of them. She wasn't very much suited to be a big sister and eldest daughter, for she was a quiet girl. However, she became a big sister when she was two.
Edmonda, named after Edmund, was their second daughter. When she was born, her older brother Rillian was five years old, and her older sister Lucy was two. She had her father features- curly ebony black hair and clear glistening blue eyes. With fair, unblemished skin, she was a beauty to behold. She married Lord Gamdas in her seventeenth year. She was the perfect older sister, bossy and snobby and her younger sisters looked up to her, especially the sister only one year younger, Susan.
Caspian had been hesitant to suggest the name of Susan, his former love, whom his wife had never met. However, they had been struggling to find a girl name, and Lilliandil had immediately fallen in love with the name. So, their third daughter and fourth child had been named Susan. She had been the first child to have her mother glistening emerald green eyes. It was combined with her father's dark hair to make her the opposite of her eldest sister Lucy in looks. She had a vibrant, bouncy personality. She was beautiful, but didn't care, and was rather reckless and tomboyish, the exact opposite, Caspian remembered reluctantly, of Susan Pevensie. When Susan, Princess of Narnia and namesake of Susan, Queen of Narnia, had been born, Rillian had been six, Lucy had been three, and Edmonda had been a year old. It was then that Caspian had felt that his happy family had been complete, however, it most definitely was not.
Four years later, girl twins had blessed Caspian's rapidly growing family. They had been named Petra, after Peter, and Aravis, after the heroine of a tale of the Golden Age, The Horse and His Boy. They were identical twins and had looked exactly like their mother, but their personalities were very different. Petra was a tomboyish girl who excelled in archery and was also very bossy. She looked up to her sister Susan, who was a lot like her. Aravis, on the other hand, was very quiet, and looked up a lot to her eldest sister, Lucy. When the twins were born, Rillian was ten years old, Lucy was seven, Edmonda had been five, and Susan had been four.
A year later, the second to last girl, Margaret, had been born. She had had a twin, Tirian, but Tirian had died in childbirth (yes I know Tirian is the name of Rillian's great-great-great something grandson in The Last Battle). Margaret had soft red locks, inherited, Caspian guessed, from one of his parents, and hazel eyes. She looked quite unlike Caspian or Lilliandil, yet for that she was loved all the more. She wasn't as pretty as her older sisters, but she was very very smart. She received an education. She loved riding. It was her favorite pastime. Although only a year younger than the twins, she seemed three or four years younger, despite her great intelligence. She was seven years older than the youngest girl. When she was born, Rillian was eleven, Lucy was eight, Edmonda had been six, Susan had been five, and the twins Petra and Aravis had been one.
It was seven years later when Caspian's little Queen, Lilliandil the Younger, was born. Looking so exactly like her mother, she also had the same gracefulness and lilting voice of her mother. Grey-eyed, she was like a pretty dove. She had the same personality as her mother, quiet and gentle. She rarely cried. When she did, there was a good reason. She was literally the voice of reason, calm, cool, and quiet. These traits made her a good hostess and confidant. When she was born, Rillian was eighteen, Lucy was fifteen, Edmonda was thirteen, Susan was twelve, Petra and Aravis were eight, and Margaret was seven. Caspian was only able to share two sweet years with both his wife and his favorite daughter, who was exactly like her mother and even shared her name, before his wife was brutally killed by a snake, and his son and heir abducted.
It had been such a hard time in his life. His heir gone, where he knew not, his beloved wife dead. He had had the anguish of burying her himself. Now, he was alone with his seven daughters. And, one by one, horrible things happened to them. Edmonda was the first to marry, two years after Lilliandil's death. Lucy and Susan had helped with her marriage. It was a small affair, not at all like you would have imagined the first royal to be married off would have been. Despite the two years in between, Narnia was still shrouded in gloom over Lilliandil and Rillian. Caspian's life had been changed irrevocably.
Four years after that, Aravis, then sixteen, married Lord Rhoop's grandson, the handsome Anien Rhoop, who was twenty three. By that time, the youngest daughter of Caspian, Lilliandil, was eight years old, and the next youngest, Margaret, was fifteen. Caspian devoted himself half-heartedly to his grandchildren. A year later Edmonda had died, giving birth to her third child. Her eldest, Meg, was six, and Caspian was three and a half. The second baby boy did not survive the birth. Anien Rhoop was killed in a fight against Calormen, and Aravis, who had loved him dearly, died in the birth of her first child, Peter, in the same year as Edmonda died. Peter survived. Margaret married Lord Danien. Susan was engaged to Lord Sarien. Caspian forced himself to realise the shrinking of his family; Lucy age twenty four, but unmarried, Susan, age nineteen, was engaged. Petra was seventeen, unmarried, and helped out with her niece and nephews, Meg, six, Caspian, three, and Peter, a baby. Margaret, only sixteen, was married, with no children. Lilliandil, the youngest, was only nine, only three years older than her niece Meg.
Two years later, Susan and her husband were both killed in a battle between Calormen and Narnia. (Susan was a tomboyish girl who insisted on fighting), leaving a one year old girl, Ivy, and a baby boy, Eustace. During the same battle, Margaret was kidnapped, and a month later, killed, leaving two children: Rosie and Betty, girls of two and baby.
Caspian force himself to come to the admittance that most of his children were dead or gone. Lucy was twenty four, and his main support now. Petra was nineteen, and helped mainly with Lilliandil, who was eleven, and Caspian's many grandchildren: Meg, eight, Caspian, five, Peter, two, Rosie, two, Ivy, one, Eustace, a baby, and Betty, a baby.
In order to secure relations with Calormen three years later, Petra, twenty two, went and married one of the leading Tarkaans. A year later, she sent her baby son, Edmund, back with a trusted handmaiden and a note that said she had encurred the Tarkaan's disfavor and that she was due for an execution. Word came back from a trusted servant a month later that she was dead. Lucy was twenty eight, and many looked at her strangely, thinking a pretty girl like her should have been married long ago. Lilliandil was fifteen, and would be married soon, probably. Meg was twelve, Caspian nine, Peter, six, Rosie, six, Ivy, five, Eustace, four, Betty, four, and Edmund, a baby.
Lilliandil was engaged when a plague swept over Narnia. Lilliandil was one of the first to die, followed by Caspian JR, Peter, Ivy, Eustace, Betty, and Edmund. When the plague was over, the first news to reach Narnia was that Calormen was attacking. Lucy was killed in the crossfire. Meg, twelve, and Rosie, six, were now raised by a governess, until both were kidnapped a war with Calormen three years later, and subsequently killed.
Caspian forced himself to think of happier things. True, all of his family except very unlikely Rillian, was dead. He had had a son, and seven daughters, and he had had eight grandchildren, and outlived all of them. Naturally, he was going to be sad… Yet his aged body began to wander once more… to the Pevensies, and Eustace, whom he considered a Pevensie.
First, he thought of Peter. To Caspian, Peter was like a partner. Chivalrous, brave, KING Peter. With a soft, lean body, golden hair, blue eyes, and a kingly bearing, Peter was the perfect king. Caspian regretted ever fighting with him over the kingship. He knew now it wasn't worth it. Peter would always be the perfect king. Caspian may be a king, but he had nowhere near Peter's level of expertise. For Aslan's sake, Peter was a Golden Age King! He had been a child when he was High King, and had been the best king ever. There was a reason it was called the Golden Age.
Next, he thought of Susan, with whom he had shared a kiss just before she left. (A/N not in the book, and I hate when it happens in the movie, but for the purpose of this one shot). He had been his first real love. He still loved Susan, after all this time. He had loved Lilliandil, but there was always a void in his heart whenever he thought of Susan. Susan was the exact opposite of Lilliandil, with dark black hair and blue eyes. Her plump red lips. Aslan, he could still feel them on his now. He forced himself to move to the next Pevensie. He could think of the beautiful Susan forever.
Edmund was probably his dearest friend. He was truly just, and had moved on with remarkable resiliency after having been enslaved by the White Witch, as Caspian had read about. He was tall and dark haired, but had a certain youthfulness about him… now, Caspian remembered that he had never seen Edmund as an adult, and had only imagined him from the Golden Age books he had read. When he had seen Edmund, he had been twelve one time, and fourteen the next. Barely a youth, definitely not an adult, yet Caspian and he had become very good friends.
Next, he thought of Lucy. He considered Lucy like a little sister. She was a pretty, vivacious girl who obviously had the dearest connection to Aslan. She was so sweet and innocent, and pretty too, with brown hair and brown and eyes and a look of purity and innocence about her. She had been eleven the first time, and thirteen the next, but according to the books she had been 7 the very first time she had gone to Narnia, before the Golden Age.
He forced himself to think of Eustace. He thought of Eustace like a son. Although only two years younger than Lucy, he had grown up about ten years in the span of a few months, in matureness from a whiny four year old brat to a mature teenager, although he had been really only nine years old. Caspian had watched him grow and mature and was proud to have had a hand in what a fine boy Eustace now was…
He thought wistfully of the Pevensies. He had a different relationship with all of them. He was a partner with Peter. Susan was the love of his life, although Lilliandil was a close second. Edmund was his dearest friend, Lucy was like a little sister, and Eustace was like a son. The Pevensies filled many of the functions of partner, love, friend, sister, and son. He was truly blessed with the Pevensies.
Suddenly, he was jerked from his musings by a familiar voice saying, "Father! I have come in time." Caspian turned his head and smiled at his son, "Rillian! My Rillian!" he said before falling back on his blankes, exhausted and dying, but peaceful and content.
Please Read and Review! If I get 10+ reviews I may expand this story to include anecdotes of Caspian's life with his seven daughters before tragedy hits. That is, if the readers want me to!