The silence in the mountain could be overwhelming sometimes, even for a dragon. With this silence Smaug found himself in a dilemma of two parts.
The first: He's dependent.
The second: He just realized it now.
We all know to whom it is, of course.
It was quite a late realization if one would think of it. However, we could all agree that when one is isolated to the world as a dragon is, either by own choice or by design, kindness goes a long way. Said way would either be good or bad, but it's a long way. The realization demanded a lot of questions to be answered, but not all questions were needed to be answered. Especially those that he would rather forget before they were recognized.
Inside the mountain, reality was far enough to not touch him. He could lounge around and wait for Susan to come. At the same time, he could do amounts of research in world travel magic. Surely the dwarves would have books about such magic. Another was to force the wall so he could be the one travelling.
He was dependent, yes. He only realized it now, definitely. It's the truth. Was there any need to do anything about such realizations? Not really.
It was the Great Hall this time and it wasn't a dream. The transition was, for the lack of better word, almost scenic. From the library, he walked in the middle of the Great Hall when he started hearing voices and light permeated from the very walls. They started to fade and he had to squint to adjust to the sudden brightness. Green plains and dark stone buildings came to view. Some were painted with cream but had long darkened because of time. Benches and young women walked past and through him with blurred faces. Red jackets, striped ties, gray skirts and blurred faces. Blurred faces. So much blurred faces, smell of stagnant dust and leftover smoke. So much disconnection.
That was until he saw the first face and, of course, it was her. He wouldn't have preferred anyone else's, to be quite honest. It was hypocrisy to even want to see the others. To be here was to be with her, as simple as that.
She was alone amid all activity and it was clear that she was in another place. He wasn't surprised. Even before and even with her ability to gather crowds with a bat of her eyelashes, she was a solitary creature. She chose so few to be so precious, yet considers everyone with the same regard. Her mystery was with how she built her walls so beautifully, while showing everyone that they were still that, walls.
Her birth land had its own curiosities. He still remembered the metal dragons of his first visit, as well as many others. He was still curious and it showed with how he kept looking around as he sat beside her. Lush green gardens and forests in the far distance graced his view. Paved roads that only great cities of his world could boast.
His lips quirked. Her birth land was an in between.
"Oreius. Tumnus. Mr. Beaver. Mrs. Beaver." His head snapped back to her face, bent to her book with her lips moving without pause. "Peridan. Swallowtail. Tommen. Isla. Corin. Cor. Lune. Garrett."
Could he consider this a prayer?
"Padriac. Sigvir. Battalion." Her forehead scrunched. "Eo. Eodel? No. Eo. Eo. Eo. Eoghan. Eoghan."
A sigh of relief.
"Shadow. Cara. Ava. Tamara. Lilia. Venin." The names turned to quiet murmurs. A list of names he couldn't recognize except for a few.
How long was it since he made the same desperate attempt to hold on to individuals he would outlive?
"Susan!?" A woman wearing a similar uniform approached. "Lunchtime will be over soon. A few minutes. Miss Peregrine wouldn't want anyone late."
Susan smiled and gathered her things. "Thank you Lotte. How many times is it now?"
"Thrice this week." Smaug could only appreciate Lotte's fire hair. Her face was too blurred to even look at. Susan stood and he followed suit. The magic thrummed quietly and he hoped that it would give him more time to observe than before. "Lucy didn't come today?"
"No. She said she was going to have lunch with her friends."
"And you?"
"I needed to do some thinking."
"A new story?"
"Not really."
Lotte nodded in understanding. "Lucy did put you as a forefront to tell stories but I'm glad that you didn't think it an obligation of sorts."
"Lucy and Edmund are the better storytellers in our family."
"I doubt that."
They made a sharp turn and maneuvered through the crowd with ease. Smaug on the other hand just walked backwards before them so he could observe.
"What do you mean, Lotte?"
"Everyone has a different way of seeing the world and portraying it. It's the same with you four. I like yours the best though."
Susan gave a sheepish smile. "Why?"
"You lure without giving yourself ever away. You make us think that you've given so much when in reality, you gave close to nothing."
"I... I don't know what to say to that."
"You don't have to say anything. As I said, I like it. It makes my mind work."
Apparently, this was what Susan called a boarding school and it was immensely boring. Smaug had taken to walking between the seats and looking close to what they've written on the green board. They call it a blackboard when it's green. He didn't try to comprehend. Newton. Galileo. Aristotle. Sophocles. Names that meant nothing to him. Susan kept her gaze onward as her hand moved unceasingly to take notes. The teacher kept droning on and on about laws that doesn't involve crime or has any political importance.
Smaug followed Susan to every room she went to. Roamed them and listened for a bit before he tuned out. The longest he tuned in was about the economic state of the country and the impact of the war to it. Susan was quite sharp-eyed during the particular lesson that he needed to tune in. Lotte went a separate way after three classes and with a 'see you soon' to Susan.
Was this how it was for Susan? Repetitive cycles of learning and living would indeed be a chore to someone as learned as she. However, he stood firm with his words the last time. Susan's world was confined to this set of buildings and a shadow of a lifetime lived. There was so much more past this and Susan would find her footing to move onward.
"What wins a war?" Smaug snapped out of his musings to realize that the waiting was over. The teacher came in and just announced the question. She was a tall and slender lady with a gait of purpose. Her fading golden hair was left in a neat braid which matched the clean cut suit she wore. Unlike most of the other teachers, her voice was challenge and excitement. He could easily imagine a wicked grin. The class of, what Smaug assumed as, home-bred and good girls, was taken aback at the gravity and timing of such topic. "Well?"
Disappointment leaked from the teacher before it was halted by a raised hand. "Yes! Miss Hollander?"
An uneasy girl took a few more moments to gather her thoughts. "Resources, Miss Parker."
"Thank you. And?"
"Um. Well. Strength. Numbers. The larger the army the greater their chances of winning the war."
"Why do you think so?"
The girl carried on before Miss Parker moved to another student till the whole room was buzzing with opinions.
Susan was wide eyed and frozen. Her pallor dangerous with how pale she was naturally. She was also gripping the edge of her seat hard. In the background he heard mentions of power and geographical positioning.
"Miss Pevensie." One. "Miss Pevensie!" Two. The whole class quieted. Miss Parker made a move to close in.
"Susan." He dared.
Susan snapped out and she sighed, old bones rattling.
"I'm... I'm sorry. I wasn't focusing." She wiped a bead of sweat away.
"Are you fine? You are pale. If the subject made you uneasy, I can send word to the clinic and excuse you for today."
"No!" A shake of the head and a few blinks. "I'm sorry. I'm fine. Just surprised. I want to be here."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes." The topic was closed after that.
"Well then!" Miss Parker went back to her place. "Tell us what you think wins a war, Miss Pevensie."
Susan met her eye to eye. Tumbling locks and an exquisite gown could easily be imagined. A crown as well, but one Smaug was sure was far from how hers was like. All he knew was she was golden-crowned. The one he saw was a more elaborate tiara than Galadriel wore. In his head, branches twined and lilies adorned her. Then tiny diamonds winking as they played hide and seek in her hair. Too grand maybe, but queenly for sure.
"A reliable, extensive and perfectly managed intelligence network." Now that was new and Miss Parker was holding on to it with quite the interest. Susan didn't disappoint.
"One can win a war with limited resources or people with the right management and planning. Only if one has the right cards to play. War at the front are all the fighting of the battlefield, yes. However, what lies beyond dictates the rise and fall of empires. Information is key and getting it more so. We play the strings without even looking like it. We show the world the villains they need to abhor and the heroes they should rely on. We show the world the united cause they need to fight for. The heart that they need to believe in. One line that will push their hope into action. If we have every information needed, whether it be false or true, using it wisely can end or spark a war and managing it even through gameturners would reveal the victor. We trigger."
We. Smaug was sure of the Narnia connotations. He was surer that the 'We' didn't even mean the Four Monarchs. It was a front. We was Edmund and Susan. We was the spider web they created within the shadows spanning the whole continent.
"You make me think that you are part of one, Miss Pevensie."
Susan's eyes faltered, but the smile she bounced back with was perfect. "No, but to have two brothers and a sister is a perfect ingredient for mock warfare."
"And who are you to be then?"
"The Gentle."
And for that one moment, that room felt like an echo of Narnia.
"Magnificent!" Miss Parker grinned wide and clapped her hands. Susan flinched at the word. "That was wonderful. This reminds me of a good lesson. It's still related to our history of course. I won't stray, don't look at me like that Miss Williams."
Susan bowed her head and took deep breaths. She then reached out for her pen and started twirling it between two fingers until her hands stopped shaking.
In the end, they discussed about a Peshwa Bajirao who never lost a battle because of his intelligence network. Smaug doubted if it was part of the teaching plan but he was never 'schooled' to really have a say.
"Susan! You better come quickly!" Lotte came rushing to them after two more classes. Without any question, Susan did. It wasn't hard to catch up with his long legs, but the coldness on her face had him decide to keep in stride. Out the buildings they went and on to a grand gate. On the other side was what he could only assume as another school. On the road between them were a group of fighting boys. He phased through the crowd, waiting for Susan and Lotte to squeeze their way through.
When the ladies got to his side, the gatekeeper had come to break the fight. He started pulling a boy off the pile one by one until in the middle were two huddled bodies. Alive, Smaug assumed.
"Peter! Edmund!" A quick look to his left showed Lucy, gripping the gate bars tight and her face, clear as day, as close as the hindrance would allow. That seemed to have woken the boys to look around them. Students of the neighboring school were crowding the same way.
"You again!" The gatekeeper howled. He was a really bulky man that reminded Smaug of a dwarf. "Pevensies! You brothers should be stopping the other when they get in trouble, not joining! Thrice this week!"
"What is it this time?" Susan said so softly that Smaug had to turn to her to confirm his hearing was still superior. She was clearly irritated but there was a crease of worry there as well. The question was echoed by the gatekeeper. Peter turned ramrod straight and Edmund had his grim face.
"He was talking lewd things about my sister." There was no question on which sister. Peter growled and Edmund twitched. "Too lewd to even grace him the right to do to any woman."
"And so you went for the face?"
"Would've went for the nuts to be honest and however unhonourable, Sir." Edmund this time. "But no, we asked them to stop first."
"They were the first to throw the punch." Now, Peter quirked a smile. "We can't just let it pass."
"And how did you provoke them, then?"
"The truth, Sir."
"And you Devon? Spill."
"Liars." Someone spoke and spat blood to the ground. Face too blurry to really make the impact. "How dare you say that I was provoked with truth. You weaklings won't event know the truth to use."
"Devon."
"I WAS THE ONE TELLING THE TRUTH." Rage, but the petulant and annoying kind. "Their sister is nothing but a spoiled tight knickered girl boasting a beautiful face but without any grace to match. Do you know how dare she raise her nose at us? Us? Oh, prim and proper. Think she's too good for us. Once broken she'll be spreading her thighs to anyone cause she's a bitch, always had been."
Peter had turned to an alarming shade of red with eyes flashing wide. Edmund went the other way. He turned white as a sheet with eyes dark as the night. What couldn't be denied was the murder held back in varied degrees. There won't even be any need for swords. If this was Narnia, it wouldn't matter if they weren't kings. Devon would be dead.
Someone phased through him and he snapped quickly to catch Susan's back as she passed a stunned Lucy. In a few moments she was out the gate and marching to where her brothers were.
"I swear she won't be so good and behaved once she had a taste of something like this." Devon jerked his hips. "No woman could-"
The crack of teeth meeting echoed to cut the tirade off. Susan stood there, fist high to the air and seething. Devon was sprawled to the ground looking up at her in shock. His mouth was bleeding, probably from biting his tongue. He might not speak for a while with that uppercut.
Smaug thought that the satisfaction was over, Susan wasn't.
"This is where your eyes meet mine." She stared him down until courage fled him, which wasn't that long. Then, she gave her brothers a meaningful glance before walking back.
They gave her way.
Her hand was bleeding. Peter and Edmund were giving each other smirks. Lucy recovered from her shock and moved in to step astride Susan.
They gave her way.
Note:
This is another chapter that stayed on my files for the past two years. I am getting through writing the next chapter and trying my best to remember what it was exactly that I aimed for when I first wrote this. There will be changes, for sure, since I barely remember the details. What I do remember are the key scenes for the development of their relationship.
Again, thank you for your time and interest.