Hey everyone! I apologise for the delay… I won't give you the reasons as we'll be here forever. I have the rest planned, so it shouldn't be quite so long now.
A million and one thanks to Vinnet for Betaing for me :)
"Look, Karrena I know you don't want to believe it and maybe there's another explanation for it but we have to prepare ourselves for the fact that it could be Corrin who's doing all of this."
After Karrena's magic had lead her to the door to the private quarters of the King Jack had needed to drag her away, all too aware of what would happen to them if they were caught loitering outside the King's door at that time of night. After all, Jack had been dubbed a traitor already.
"No, it cannot be. I have grown up with him, I- I know him as well as I know myself."
Jack sighed and resisted the urge to shake some sense into her. "Who else would be in Corrin's quarters at that time of night?"
She had no reply to that.
Walking over to her, he sat down beside her on the bed, slipping an arm around her shoulders, giving her a quick, comforting squeeze.
She shook her head. "I know that it sounds irrational but…I know it's not him, Jack. I just…I can feel it in my guts."
Now it was Jack's turn to shake his head as he let out a long sigh. "What am I getting myself into?" he muttered before turning Karrena's face towards him and regarding her steadily. "Alright, so it's not Corrin… who could it be?"
Karrena's face brightened ever so slightly at the realisation that Jack was going to trust her on this; was going to take her word for it. "It could be anyone; whoever it was definitely wanted us to think that it was King Corrin, though."
"Right. What we really need is someone who will actually listen to us and take us seriously, and whom we can trust." He paused and stared off into space for a while before shrugging and turning back to her. "I've got nothing, you?"
She hesitated a moment and Jack raised an eyebrow, sensing her uncertainty. "What of the Centaurs? They have long been true friends of Narnia and always have they been loyal."
Jack's mind flashed to the brief conversation he'd had with Nightstar. 'Older than you appear, but younger than you look.' Silently, he debated it; he didn't know much about them but he knew that they were highly respected and honoured.
"They also have some understanding of magic; they read the skies." She hoped to convince him.
His gut told him to trust them but his head told him that they couldn't be sure.
He told his head to shut up and followed his gut. "Alright. We'd best head out soon, before everyone starts waking up."
Karrena smiled and let out a breath, and he couldn't resist the smile that pulled briefly at his lips. He just hoped that they weren't wrong in this, because if they were then it was entirely possibly that they were royally screwed. No pun intended.
"First, we need to…acquire some more suitable clothes." He looked up at her as her voice broke into his thoughts. She stood and moved to the door, "I will return shortly." She had slipped out of the door before he could stop her but, true to her word, she was back in no time at all, armed with a large pile of clothes.
Depositing her load on the bed, she silently began to separate it out into two piles, creating two practical, warm winter outfits.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?" The question was redundant; he'd already guessed that she was going to disguise herself as a man.
"If we are going to be travelling in daylight, then we should disguise ourselves. They will not be looking for two boys."
Eyebrow still raised, Jack leaned back a little and sent his eyes running from her head to her toes and back again. She shifted uncomfortably. "Karrena, there's no way in hell that you'd pass for a boy. You have too many…" he shaped the air with his hands. "…curves. Not outside of a tranny bar, anyway." The last sentence was murmured under his breath as he didn't feel up to the task of explaining why some men from his world like to pretend that they were women, and vice versa.
A mutinous look crossed her face, ever so briefly. "Well, what do you propose we do? They're going to be looking for a girl and a boy."
Earlier, Jack had been relieved to see the original, obstinate, confident and ever so slightly controversial (to the Narnians anyway) Karrena returning, but at this particular moment, all he could do was push away the sudden flash of irritation. "Well there's really not a lot we can-" He broke off as a wicked gleam entered her eye.
"If I cannot pass as a boy then you will have to pass as a girl."
"Oh no! No no no no no no!" He tried to protest, but she was already moving toward the plain wardrobe that stood in one corner of her room. He tried desperately to come up with a reasonable excuse not to go along with her plan but soon realised that there was no reason beyond the fact that he just didn't want to do it. After all they were – a few curves and bulges aside – similar sizes. He let out a long groan as his shoulders slumped. Once again he keenly felt the loss of power that his de-aging had caused; he knew that Karrena would not overrule him on this based solely on his whiny protest that he didn't want to dress like a girl.
He was reluctantly reaching out for the green and brown everyday dress that she was holding out to him when inspiration struck. "Wait! My hair's not long enough for me to pass for a girl!"
His triumphant grin faded as Karrena rolled her eyes and pointed out that with the weather being this cold and windy most human women out of doors would be wearing shawls and hoods anyway.
Snatching the offending item from her hands as he shot her a scowl before - with a momentary pause to figure out the logistics of the strange garment - he changed his old outfit for his new.
Fifteen minutes later, the necessary items had been gathered together and wrapped into more conventional carry-packs (with the exception of Jack's shirt and trousers; the former of which was stuffed into the top of the dress to make him appear more womanly – from a distance at least – and the latter of which he had kept on, complaining that he would be cold otherwise).
Their disguises completed, the companion fugitives quietly snuck out of the castle and into the grey dawn light. They met no-one as they scurried through the corridors, and by the time they were out in the cold morning air, they felt safe enough to relax a little, their movements becoming less like a nervous scurrying and more like the easy strides of practiced travellers.
Despite being coerced into wearing a dress, Jack felt a lot better than he had for several days. Although the long skirt irritated him and made him feel like he was going to trip every step, he was a lot warmer than he'd been before and the long rest in the soft bed had done wonders for his weary body. The deep scratch on the side of his head had healed enough that it no longer hurt most of the time. It itched like anything, but he'd had a lot of practice at ignoring itchy, healing wounds. Above all else, he thought that the chance to have a quick scrub with cold water and a rough cloth had done wonders; there was nothing more annoying than a feeling of being sweat-sticky and grubby. He didn't understand how the kids at his high school had been able to put up with it.
None of this changed the constant niggling worries over what lay in the close future for them, how they would solve the problem, or how he would be able to return to his own world.
Seeing people walking on the path ahead of them, Jack pulled his head scarf closer around his face, diverting his eyes to his boots. He could feel the eyes of two women on them and muttered a short, falsetto greeting to them as he had countless other times as they'd met people over the few hours they'd been walking away from the castle.
The greetings were returned and uninterested eyes slid away to more interesting things.
The tension that had accumulated in Jack's shoulders eased away once again as the women passed around the bend of the corner behind them. He glanced at Karrena, opening his mouth for a quip only to snap it shut at a sound off to their right, behind some dense bushes. He grabbed her arm as he turned toward the bush, his eyes searching the leafy barrier. Another loud snap sounded and Jack decided that whoever or whatever it was, it was huge.
The intersection of two bushes moved and Jack's right hand reached for the knife he had concealed at his waist as his left pulled Karrena behind him and he began to push her backward. He wished he had time to retrieve his sword from beneath his skirts; the knife had a short range and would be little defence against a larger weapon and he was already at a size disadvantage.
A dark, hairy head burst through the foliage over three or four feet above Jack's head, followed quickly by shoulders and a torso. That torso was shortly followed by the dark, powerful horse half of a Centaur. Jack was surprised how close the Centaur had got before Jack heard him and couldn't help but respect the stealth of the creature. His hand stayed at his knife handle, ready if it was needed but he left it holstered. For now.
"Nightstar," he greeted after a few short seconds, Karrena still held safely behind him.
"Greetings, Jack O'Neill, Karrena Whiteman." Nightstar shifted his weight, his hooves barely making a noise on the cold, bare earth. His bearded face twitched in a small smile. "You may release your weapon now, Jack. I am not here to harm you."
Jack raised an eyebrow and left his hand on the knife handle. "You normally jump out of bushes at people?"
The smile twitched again. "No, but then I have never had reason to before."
Jack felt Karrena shift behind him and knew that she was going to object to his talking to Nightstar in this way when they had been heading to find the Centaurs to start with. He gave the hand he was still holding a small squeeze, hoping she'd recognise his reassurance and let him take control. For a moment he thought she was still going to object, but she hesitated a moment before shifting back to her original position.
"And what kind of reason warrants jumping out of bushes?" he replied calmly.
Nightstar gave a quiet chuckle and raised his hands toward the sky. "The reasons of the skies, of course. They told me that you would come to help us escape this dark time so here I was, waiting for you."
Jack stared at him. "The… skies… told you this…?"
This time, Karrena moved with more certainty, resting her free hand on Jack's shoulder. "I told you the Centaurs would be on our side."
He turned just in time to catch the small smile that she sent the larger creature. "Right." He tried to resist the snarky comment that rose to his lips; "But… in a bush!"
"I did not want to risk being seen."
"Why?"
Nightstar looked less amused now, and he could feel Karrena getting irritated at him.
"You are wanted for treason against the state."
"We are? And I thought it was just our charming personalities that made people want to keep us around."
Nightstar frowned and Jack waved the comment off. "Nevermind." He finally released his grip on the knife. "Well then, shall we move somewhere a little more… secluded?"
Karrena stepped away from him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you not mean somewhere you can remove your dress?"
Jack grinned. "That too."
Nightstar turned and headed back towards the bushes he had emerged from. "It is a short distance to my home; we will be safe there."
Jack gestured to Nightstar to lead the way, following after him but kept himself between Karrena and the Centaur. It seemed odd to him that the Centaur would just conveniently pop up, right in their path. He'd be aware, ready to protect himself and Karrena; just in case.
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