Notes: This was written for Yuletide 2007.

Shortly after their reign began, King Cor of Archenland and his wife, Queen Aravis, found themselves traveling to the northwestern border of their kingdom. While the talking beasts called themselves Narnian for a reason, some of the more adventurous made their way over the mountain pass and settled in the southern country.

One such group was a large and quite healthy family of Rabbits. Upon arriving in Archenland they had immediately begun establishing their warren, digging tunnels all through the land at the foot of the mountains. While working on a particular tunnel, the eldest female came upon a bit of iron that upon further investigation turned into quite a lot of iron. They sent word to the king, the king sent word to Narnia for some dwarfs, and now they were all meeting at the previously unimportant warren.

On the second afternoon after their arrival, Aravis sat outside under a tent with her sewing. Two small tables and a second chair had been set up beside her. One table held her sewing materials, the other a light meal. She looked up and smiled when Cor joined her.

"Are the negotiations finished?" she asked.

"We've run into a problem getting the iron out of the ground," Cor said. "The rabbits are worried the Dwarfs will have to enlarge their tunnels, and the dwarves don't like being told how to do their job. When I asked the head dwarf if they couldn't take less out a time, he told me my beard wasn't long enough to tell him anything about iron," Cor made a face. "It gave me a bit of a start, to be honest. I wasn't expecting to hear a Calormenean insult out of the mouth of a dwarf."

Aravis laughed, but not unkindly, and set down her sewing. "You should have told him you could never hope to grow a beard as fine as his. Even dwarfs must be susceptible to flattery."

"It is rather impressive, isn't it?" Cor said.

"I knew women in Tashbaan who would have given their eyeteeth for hair half so thick." Aravis said, stretching her arms over her own head of admirably thick hair. Cor smiled at her and leaned over to look at her sewing. He picked up the fabric and frowned at it.

"Isn't it a bit big for a baby?" he asked.

Aravis didn't quite roll her eyes. "Babies grow," she said. Cor lifted the fabric up further and shook it slightly to see its full size. "Careful!" Aravis said. "You'll lose my needles."

"I'll find them later," Cor said absentmindedly. He handed the fabric back to her. "Do you really think complimenting his beard will help?"

"It did when I saw him at breakfast this morning," Aravis said. "He's promised a set of toys when our child is born."

Cor laughed. "Perhaps I should let you do the negotiating."

"Why are the rabbits so against a larger tunnel? Isn't that what they were doing in the first place?"

"Length, not width, I'm afraid. They don't want the tunnels large enough to invite predators in."

"Aren't the tunnels already larger than normal because they're Talking Rabbits?"

"Yes."

Aravis looked at Cor, who shrugged, "It's their tunnels." Aravis hmm'd and picked up her sewing again.

The flattery must have worked. The next day the Dwarfs allowed that perhaps the tunnels did not need expanded much after all, and promised the rabbits they would restore any tunnels that were too large at the end of things.

Cor and Aravis rode down to the river after the final agreements were made. They'd nearly had a fight about that until Aravis suggested she ride sidesaddle as a compromise. They settled into companionable silence, each with their own thoughts. When they reached the river, they turned their horses and went upstream, towards the foothills at the base of the mountains.

Aravis stirred. "Shasta," she began. Cor turned and burst out laughing at the look on her face. "Oh, stop laughing," Aravis said. Her face was very red.

"You haven't called me that in years," Cor said. "Though I can't say that I miss the name."

"I am sorry," Aravis said. "I was thinking about when we first came here, with Bree and Hwin."

"Funny how things turned out," Cor said.

"Yes," Aravis said. "Funny." She looked sideways at Cor. "Fortunate too, for Narnia."

Cor was not much given to self-reflection, but Aravis thought he had saved Narnia as well as Archenland. Else it was a marvelous coincidence that at the time when Narnia was most vulnerable, due to the sudden disappearance of all four of her rulers, Calormene's Tisroc was the most peaceful of any in memory, going back to her father's father. (Aravis still thought like that, though in all other particulars she had become as much an Archenlander as her husband.)

"Might the two kingdoms be combined?" Aravis asked. "Rabadash will not live forever, no matter how much his subjects say they wish he might, and surely it would be better to face his heir with a united front."

Cor sighed. "That's what several of the lords say as well. But it is not of my thinking. If their majesties were taken away by the will of Aslan as they say, it may be He has His own ideas about who should replace them. As you say, there is no danger from Rabadash. We have time yet."

They had come to the place where the hills began to rise. The slope was gentle, but rocky. "I think we'd best leave the horses here," Cor said. He dismounted and went to help Aravis down from her horse. He suddenly grinned up at her, "Or were you wanting to be queen of Narnia too?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Aravis said sharply. "If I cared about that sort of thing I would have stayed in Calormene and married the Grand Vizier. His lands are practically the same size as Archenland anyway - oof," she ended as she landed on the ground.

"Are you all right?" Cor asked. "We don't have to go the whole way."

"I'm fine," Aravis said. "Better now than in a few months."

"Speaking of which, we should probably decide on some names soon."

"Not today," Aravis said. "It's too nice a day to fight."

"Very well," said Cor. He offered his arm and she took it and kept it, even after the ground grew soft again.