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

[sundayfish]

Yep.

[deepest_magic]

Eventually Bella runs out of pictures to display. "...I'm very hungry," she observes.

[sundayfish]

"I've got food." He glances at Chris and Elizabeth. "You want to stay for dinner?"

[queensidecastle]

Chris looks at James.

[neverbeatme]

James nods.

[queensidecastle]

"Yeah, sounds good."

[sundayfish]

Food is assemble-your-own-sandwich. Charlie makes bacon.

[deepest_magic]

It is not particularly Narnian, but Isabella puts some of most of the things on at least one of the two sandwiches she makes and reacquaints herself with the contents of a delicatessen.

[neverbeatme]

James sits near Isabella and eats food and is quiet. She is not used to feeling this kind of uncertainty, and she does not like it one bit.

[deepest_magic]

Isabella hooks her ankle around James's.

[neverbeatme]

...She smiles, suddenly and brightly. Okay. All is not lost.

"Thanks," she murmurs.

[deepest_magic]

"You're welcome."

There is sandwich. There is storebought sugar cookies.

[neverbeatme]

Sugar cookies are good. Isabella is also good.