the summer i was ten again

[deepest_magic]

Isabella falls from her horse first, caught by a low branch she didn't see. She's a better rider than that, she ought to have - ow - she reaches for Jamie, grabs her hand, but while they clasp hands Isabella's got too much momentum and Jamie falls too -

Something snags Isabella's cloak, something snags her bag, she's got a heap of pine needles prickling her face and can't see. She flails a leg but only loses her shoe for her trouble, and the other slips off when she twists, trying to find 'up' before her horse steps on her - when did it get this dim, the sun was only just setting a moment ago - she can't see anything - "Jamie -"

The next time she inhales it's not the smell of pine needles, it's old fur. Not the hay-sweet shallow pile of having somehow planted her nose in her horse's flank; like a coat. Smell jogs memory. Coats - and wood, not the pines but old treated planks -

She's lost Jamie's hand somewhere along the line. She was wearing gloves against the cold and her hand's bare on fur, on wood.

She feels dizzy and small and something's gone wrong with her clothes and she can't hear the horse breathing or feel the wind anymore.

She fumbles around in the dark, looking for Jamie, the horse, a tree, anything.

She finds a shoulder, too small and skinny to be Jamie's, and then with her other hand she finds a door and blinding light and tumbles out of the wardrobe onto the floor.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"I think so... if I'm remembering right, it was a door every time I walked into it, and the back of a wardrobe every time I stood outside and stuck my arm in. But I only went through a handful of times. For all I know it had a limited number of uses... I don't feel like that's right, though."

[deepest_magic]

"Limited uses seems out of step with how magic items typically behave there, anyway, I don't know if it's different since the wardrobe is on this end."

[queensidecastle]

"I... haven't seen that many magic items in my life," says Chris, handing Bella back her notebook, "but I'd be surprised to find a magic door that worked exactly four times and that's it."

[neverbeatme]

"You've seen magic items before?"

[queensidecastle]

"I have a magic chess set. It's not good for much and I've never been able to find anything else that was verifiably magic."

[neverbeatme]

"It sure would've been nice to know that when I was considering saving the magic kingdom of Narnia from its magic evil queen," James says dryly.

[deepest_magic]

"Yep."

[queensidecastle]

"I didn't want to tell you about my useless and inexplicable magic chess set until I found a use or an explanation. It would've been nice to know that you were considering saving the magic kingdom of Narnia, but I can see why you didn't tell me."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella clasps her hands, fidgets with the place where her ring ought to be. "Yeah."

[queensidecastle]

"So what's the plan? Who else are you going to tell?"

[deepest_magic]

"I don't know about my parents yet. The notebook's pretty proof positive, but I think they'd be upset. The problem is I'm not sure I remember being ten or American or anything well enough to mimic it consistently. I may have to let them continue to send me to school just to reacclimate."

[queensidecastle]

"Elizabeth?"

[neverbeatme]

"...well," she says, "for one thing, I've spent the last fifteen years going by James."

[queensidecastle]

"...Huh," says Chris.

[neverbeatme]

"If it wasn't for Isabella I might want to be homeschooled, but I don't want to abandon her to face the genuine Earth schoolchildren alone. And there's value in seeking out normal experiences for the country we'll be living in."

[deepest_magic]

"But I live in Arizona during the school year."

[queensidecastle]

"I can move to Arizona."

[deepest_magic]

"That'd - that'd help."

[queensidecastle]

"Consider it done."

[deepest_magic]

Isabella glances at James, taps her absence-of-ring: do they mention that?

[neverbeatme]

Thoughtful headtilt; nod.

"Also," she says, "we were married."

[queensidecastle]

"...Congratulations," says Chris. "Sorry I missed the wedding."

[deepest_magic]

"There's pictures."

[queensidecastle]

"I'll have to look at them sometime. Maybe not now, though. Now I think we should be working out a plan for your immediate future and then heading home."

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah." Sigh.