Disclaimer: I no own Chronicles of Narnia.
Chapter Seven: The Nature Child
Summer breezes were whispering between the talking trees above the frothing river, happy to be moving cool air through the limbs. In the shade of the towering elms, a flaxen-haired nymph lounged atop a slick river rock in the water, running long fingers through her drying locks. Her skin was covered in tiny pink blossoms that had erupted in a lovely, sweet smelling lather that was as close to soap as one could get in the deep woods. Besides the blossoms and sunlight, she wore only a small dress made of soft cloth with one strap over one of her brown shoulders and stripes of gold and moss-green, the skirt of which had gathered at her hips when she had sat down to bathe.
The nymph's blue eyes turned at the sound of singing behind her on the riverbank, though no fear ever registered in their depths. At that moment, a flash of color and a familiar humming noise signaled the arrival of the music's owner. It was a hummingbird, who landed on her shoulder with a light touch and she smiled merrily enough to make the day seem that much brighter. "Hello, Talith! It has been quite a few days since I've seen you."
Ruffling his feathers congenially, the young hummingbird fluttered down to perch beside her on the rock. "My apologies, though I am quite fond of seeing you again as well, Milady Caitlin."
The words brought let free a bright giggle from Caitlin's throat. "So formal today!" With a slim finger, she touched the soft ruby-red chest with the back of a nail. "Well, Talith, you have caught me just as I finished my bath."
"My apologies." The bird said with a bow of his head.
Caitlin shrugged. "It is of no consequence, good Hummingbird. I was planning on leaving for the market as soon as I left here, so I'd wanted to smell something that wasn't otter pups or dirt."
"Quite understandable." said Talith as he hopped down her arm to perch on her outstretched finger.
With a final sweep of her hair, Caitlin met the gaze of the little bird and adopted a most mischievous grin. "Would you race me, if I asked nicely?"
The bird answered by springing from her finger with a humming laugh and disappearing in the general direction of the otter den. Caitlin laughed and leapt from the rock she had been perched upon, landing in the grass as gracefully as a butterfly would upon a blossom before she took off towards home as fast as she could.
Over the grass she flew, swift and light as a deer, with the wind of her flight blowing back her hair and the heavy charm that hung from her neck. The waterskin that her foster father had bought for her at market bounced heavily against her hip but she took no notice of it as she leapt over rocks and logs and hollows that she came across. Her hands reflexively caught a strong vine that swung her over a smaller stream that didn't slow her down in the slightest. She absently heard Talith hum near her ear, his song being a melody that she recognized but could not place. Familiar voices of birds and squirrels above called down to them as they weaved between the towering trees, and Caitlin had begun to think that the trees had tried to speak to her on several occasions. Three or four months ago, that would have seemed most impossible to her, but now she was merely wondering what had taken them so long to speak up.
Soon enough, Caitlin had rounded the bend in the river that brought her home into sight and the sound of Mama Otter calling to her pups reached her ears. She slowed down only slightly to make her way across the slippery stones that led across the river and home.
Mrs. Otter heard Caitlin's feet touch the riverbank as she jumped from the last stepping stone, but did not look up from her wash that needed to be hung up to dry. She nodded courteously at Talith as he settled on the clothesline.
Caitlin yelled a hello at the pups, who let out a communal whoop of happiness at their bigger sister's return, before she ran to the line of clothes and blankets that her mama had hung up and grabbed at particularly bright-colored piece of cloth. "Is my good dress clean?" she said quickly to her Mama, who sighed heavily.
"Hello, Caitlin." She said amusedly. "And no, dear, your good dress is still soaking."
With a huff of annoyance, Caitlin started to wrap her long blonde hair in the bright-colored cloth to hide the color of it as she tucked an end into itself. "Well, is my jerkin clean? I can wear that with some leggings or something."
Her mama shook her head. "Aye, your jerkin may be clean but your leggings are not. And I'm sorry, but I do not see you going into market in just that jerkin. You'd look a bit foolish with those tree-legs of yours bare for all the world to see."
Caitlin rolled her eyes as she pulled the jerkin off of the clothesline. "Mama, you never care if my legs show; I run around in a skirt that doesn't even come to the middle of my thighs, which would hardly be called decent." Except if it were summer back home, she thought suddenly, surprising even herself at the thought of that place.
"And under that skirt you're wearing some of those undergarments you made." The otter said calmly, not facing her foster daughter. "You would still look silly and indecent, so do not argue with me."
The girl huffed in annoyance yet again, and dropped the soft brown jerkin back onto the clothesline. "Fine, I will put on the wet dress and pray that it is dry by the time Papa and I arrive at the market."
"Papa already left!" called Alo from the water. "He said that you should not have taken such a long bath!" All of the other pups yelled their agreement as they began to crawl from the river and towards their mother and sister.
Caitlin looked down at her mama-otter with a glare. "He already left?! He promised he'd wait for me!"
"You did take nearly an hour with your bath." Talith said from the clothesline, earning a sharp snarl from Caitlin.
Thoroughly put out, Caitlin plopped down in the grass next to her mama-otter with a heavy sigh and rested her head on her hands. "Well now what am I supposed to do?" she said sadly. "I'm going to be bored all day."
Behind her, Dush and Mera crept up and tapped her shoulder. "You could come with us, Bigger Sister!" Mera said happily, her little paws expertly plaiting the blonde strands. "We were going to go and do some exploring until you and Papa came back, but it'll be extra fun if you come along!"
Pike and Alo looked up at her, pleading. "Please, Sister, please?"
Caitlin, feeling pup-induced guilt creeping up on her, looked helplessly at her mama and Talith. Mrs. Otter merely smiled and turned to continue hanging up laundry, and Talith gave her a sympathetic shrug. With a sigh, Caitlin's resolve broke and she gave the pups a winning smile. "Alright, kids, let's get to going."
Pike and Alo leapt away from their sisters with identical squeals of excitement, already moving towards whatever place they had in mind, and Dush tugged on the cloth that Caitlin had wrapped her hair in. "You don't have to hide your hair, Bigger Sister, since you're not going to market. You should take it down." Her little voice said quietly.
Sighing, the young woman tugged the cloth off of her head and nodded for Dush to join her siblings before turning to Mrs. Otter.
"Goodbye, Mama. I'll have them back by sundown, I promise." Caitlin said, re-shouldering her waterskin before glancing at the hummingbird who still perched upon the clothesline. "Talith, I'll catch up with you later, alright?" As the bird nodded his head, Caitlin took off after the pups who were already far ahead of her.
It didn't take her very long to catch up to them, of course, and once she did, the small group hurried down the riverbank into the parts of the forest that they had not ventured into yet. Every few minutes, the group would stop to test the waters of a newfound lagoon or climb an interestingly shaped rock, ever the curious children that they claimed to be. As she climbed the higher hills and rocks, Caitlin glimpsed the beautiful mountain range that served as the southern-most point of Narnia, where the river that had delivered her to the otters had its origin, or where the thick forests and untouched wilderness hid secrets from the very beginning of the land that Aslan had so lovingly constructed.
As the tiny group explored, Caitlin kept a wary ear out for the calls of familiar Talking Beasts, like the kind greetings of the neighboring family of foxes, or the belligerent shouts of the cranky old Owl that liked to pester them into not enjoying themselves.
But no, Caitlin heard not a bird's peep or a hare's quick steps through the brush near them, which was very odd on such a lovely day. Pushing it the back of her mind, Caitlin whooped and laughed with the pups as they made their way down the river, before pangs of hunger began to slow her progress. Perhaps two hours after crossing into a part of the forest that she'd never been to, when the sun was low in the sky, Caitlin came to a stop and sat down with a hard thump before falling back and closing her eyes in exhaustion.
Pike noticed her absence first and slammed on the brakes to look for her, followed quickly by his brother and sisters. "Bigger Sister?" they called, worry lacing their little voices.
"I'm right here, pups. Just taking a break." She said, just loud enough for them to hear. She heard them all scurry to her side and opened one eye to look at them. "Are you guys hungry? The sun says its lunchtime."
Looking between each other, they all nodded.
"Mhm!"
"Yep!"
"If you are!"
"Uh-huh!"
Caitlin smiled and sat up. "Alright then, how about you all hop in the river and see if you can scrounge up some fish or clams or something. The one to get the most wins!" she said. "On three, okay?"
The pups poised themselves, glancing quickly back at their bigger sister every few seconds whilst twitching.
"One…two…THREE!!" Caitlin said jubilantly, watching as her pseudo-siblings jetted over the grass and slid into the water as gracefully as a pack of flailing cats. Shaking her head, Caitlin stood up to search out something to compliment their aquatic meal among the bushes and trees. In her time among the trees of the Great Forest, Caitlin had noticed her senses sharpening as more time passed; she was able to find distant berry bushes by their smell and she could climb trees well enough that it was easy to see where she was if she ever got lost. She had learned which nuts she could eat and which she couldn't, and which mushrooms were okay to eat and which were not.
Of course, these facts didn't stop her from feeling very proud when she knelt down to pick a handful of elderberries that had been hiding at the base of one of the great trees, or when she found a decently-sized patch of bright yellow Chicken of the Woods mushrooms that would complement the berries perfectly. After she had filled a leaf with all the mushroom-pieces that would fit, she dearly wished that she had brought the nifty little reticule she'd made herself, so that she could have taken the rest home for supper.
As she made her way towards the sounds of the pups trying to catch a few fish, Caitlin cast a glance towards the darkening sky; apparently it was much darker than she'd thought it was. With a disgruntled sigh, she realized it could also mean a thunderstorm, but she'd seen no dark clouds or even smelled rain on the air as of yet. Pike's voice shattered her train of thought as she came into their sights.
"Hey, Big Sister! Look, I won!!" he yelled ecstatically, jumping up and down and pointing wildly towards the four little brook trout that he'd managed to wrestle out of the water, still flopping about weakly. The pups hadn't ever killed fish on their own; Caitlin was always the one to have to do it when they were on their own.
After Pike, Alo had caught two little fish and found a few mussels, and the two girls had found a handful of mussels between them. Caitlin looked down at her little otter-siblings proudly.
"You all did very, very well! You're the best fishermen than I've ever met, to be sure!" she said merrily, plopping down next to the pups and spreading out the gigantic leaf full of food in the center for them all to pick at. All of the pups watched in fascination as Caitlin picked up the first of the trout and bit it once on the back of the neck hard enough to break its spine and kill it, and then saw her do the same to the others; there was no need for Caitlin to make a fire, since these kinds of fish were safe to eat raw. The mussels, which were pretty big compared to ones that Caitlin had found in her own food foraging, they could eat raw, straight from their black shells, so there were no more necks for Caitlin to have to bite.
The five pseudo-siblings took their time with their haphazard picnic, popping a few berries into their mouths between slurping up mussels and eating bits of mushroom and fish fillets. It was the perfect afternoon, better than any afternoon at the bustling market could have been.
But, of course, Fate could never allow such a perfect afternoon to stay so perfect, and Caitlin's hand stopped halfway to her mouth as a sudden chill shook her spine. Some long-dormant, animalistic portion of her mind attempted to warn her, to set her legs into motion, to keep the pups within her sights. But the larger part of her mind ignored the warnings, and focused more on following her otter siblings as they began to scurry around the riverbank.
Fate was preparing to deal out a terrible blow, and began to slowly bare its teeth as little Mera wandered into unexplored territory before Caitlin's eyes could notice her absence. By the time her screaming reached her siblings, it was too late for destiny to be avoided.
a/n: Cliffhanger!! Okay, more very soon. Review, please. Love always, Fausta