ladyoftime | (no subject)

"Yes, yes, it is. Quite a lot bigger, usually, unless the planet is controlled by one government." She patted the support again. "More than you could imagine. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't do 'boring' well."

"I don't do boring very well either," Lucy said, her bright expression fading somewhat, to an almost glum tone. "And school is very boring." It was hard to explain to her classmates she'd rather be outside, walking through a wood, or running around with Edmund (far away at another school all year long), or swimming or having long conversations or... well, doing anything, other than sitting in class. "In Narnia I had a tutor, and that wasn't so bad. We weren't forced to learn silly things; we were told about history and the other countries we had to make alliances with, and their monarchs and their histories, and their social customs... and not a single arithmetic problem." She looked at the doctor a long moment. "...were you ever in school?"

"It's not easy." The Doctor made herself comfortable on one of three chairs a couple feet away from the console, lined up like car seats.

"Oh, I was in school for far too long, if you ask me. Lots of stuffy professors teaching nothing very interesting. Probably would've gone mad if it hadn't been for my mates." There was a touch of sadness in her voice as she spoke. Hadn't she picked wonderful friends. "We'd sneak out and talk about what we wanted to do when we were out of the Academy. We had the universe to explore then, nothing to stop us or ruin our fun." She shut her eyes lightly. "Long time ago." And opened them again. "A princess, were you?"

"...a queen, actually," Lucy said softly. She had been watching the doctor as she spoke, thinking of the few girls at school she had come to like and know, of one in particular, named Marjorie, whom she had tried very hard to be kind to. But it wasn't the same, none of those girls could have ever understood Narnia, and it made a kind of barrier, that was hard to get around.

"My siblings and I, we were all kings and queens. There was a prophesy, that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve would sit upon the four thrones of Cair Paravel and overthrow the White Witch, then wrongful queen. And we did defeat her, with the help of Aslan and many Narnians. So my brother, Peter, became high king, over all kings of Narnia, and Susan, and Edmund, and I, became monarchs too." Her voice was very soft, and far-away, and she felt rather like she was remembering a very beautiful poem.

"...they crowned me the Valiant," she said, almost a whisper, "and Peter was the Magnificent. Edmund was the Just, and Susan... the Gentle."

The Doctor stayed silent as Lucy spoke, imagining Lucy's Narnia. She'd clearly been through quite a bit for her age. But then, she wasn't really as young as she looked, was she? The Doctor knew about that.

"I've known a few queens," she said conversationally. "Saved one from a werewolf, as a matter of fact, and was knighted for it. Course, she banished me after that, but you can't win them all." Pause. "Not that there was much reason for banishing me." She could see it, too. Lucy looked, despite her age, like a monarch, and the Doctor suspected a fantastic one. "Queen Lucy," she added belatedly with a little bow of her head.

"My brother fought werewolves after he became king. I went with him, once or twice. They were part of the Witch's army. It took us a long time to stamp them out." She smiled at the Doctor, then laughed at the titular.

"Oh don't," she said brightly, though her voice was full of longing, "Unless I can call you Sir. You were knighted." She paused then, thinking. "...but I can't call you Sir Doctor. You never told me the rest of your name."

"Not an easy task, is it? Fighting werewolves." She only managed it because it had been prepared for, but she didn't feel the need to tell Lucy that.

"That is my title. Sir Doctor of TARDIS. I go by the Doctor, it's always been enough for me. Of course, I've had my fair share of confusion over it, but it always balances out. Quick and easy to yell out in danger, too, which is more than I can say for a few unfortunate people I've met."

Sir Doctor of TARDIS. Lucy wondered why there wasn't a name after Doctor. But, well, maybe it was an equivalent term, or... "I think I shall call you Sir Doctor, if you don't mind," Lucy decided. "It seems it has been a lifetime since I met a knight who wasn't a brother of mine too." She considered the ease of 'the doctor', and laughed suddenly. "I knew a wonderful giant named Rumblebuffin. He once mistook me for a handkerchief. It was a bit hard to shout his name in a pinch, though, to avoid him accidentally stepping on you or the likes."

"Of course I don't mind," the Doctor said. Be rather nice to have the title, and it was hers, after all. "You could have given him a nickname. 'Fred' or something. Much shorter and faster for avoiding being stepped on."

Lucy laughed. "I should have thought of that. He was very careful, though. A very gentle soul... for a giant." Though he had been as fierce in battle as anyone. "Have you met any giants, Doctor?"

Lucy was being careful not to lean on or touch anything that looked like it might have a reaction if she did, but at last, she decided to sit by the doctor and just talk.

"Oh, I've met people who were bigger than most, some homanid, some not. I don't know if I've ever met any of the giants you would know." She adusted her position slightly to give Lucy more room to get comfortable. "What were your giants like?"

"Well," Lucy said, thinking back (sometimes it was so hard to remember, and sometimes it frightened her), "they were very big. Big like houses. Some were from good families, you know, very gentle and civil. But some that lived up in the north were very fierce and dangerous. My brother Peter lead a campaign against the wild giants on our borders, who liked to destroy things and were threatening Narnia. Wild giants still eat people sometimes, obviously that's very dangerous." She was thoughtful a moment. "I didn't go with Peter that time, Edmund and I and Susan stayed home. But a kingdom on our borders, Archenland, came under attack by the Calormen army - that's another country, again - because my sister wouldn't marry their prince, and they meant to conquer Archenland and then invade Narnia. But Edmund and I rode to help defend Castle Anvard and turned the tide of battle."

She was quiet a moment, remembering it all; she felt better now, now that she could remember a story well enough to tell it, and after a moment she added, "Peter's campaign was very successful. They still talked of it a thousand years later. He really earned his name, he is a wonderful high king."

The Doctor fell quiet while Lucy remembered out loud, letting her have the time she needed. "They titled you Lucy the Valient for a reason, it seems."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Lucy said, laughing. "I'm not nearly so brave as Peter or Edmund. I'm frightened, more often than not, when it comes down to battle. And I was always afraid during air raids. But sometimes you must do things you are afraid of, I think, and not just to face your fear, but because it's the right thing."

She was smiling as she watched the Doctor. Something told her the Doctor knew all about being brave in the face of terrible danger.

"But that's it!" the Doctor told her earnestly. "Being frightened and doing it anyway, shaking in your boots and still walking where angels fear to tread. That's bravery, that's what makes you valiant. It's not real bravery if you're not scared to death." Her eyes lit up as she spoke, the same way they always lit up when she extolled the virtues of humans.

Lucy flushed slightly with pleasure. She liked to be told she had done well. Who didn't? "It was a name Aslan gave me," she said at last. "When He calls you something, you want to live up to it." She paused, then said, after a moment, "something tells me you're very brave yourself, Sir Doctor."

"I'm not very brave," the Doctor said cheerfully. "I'm just an idiot. Don't know when to stop. Bumbling in an out of danger, that's me." One name Lucy mentioned nagged at her. "Who is Aslan?"

"Aslan? Oh, Aslan is..." Lucy paused for a moment, an overwhelming wave of longing crossing her face from her heart in that pause. "...Aslan is the Great Lion, the king above all high kings, the son of the Emporer-Across-the-Sea. It really, it doesn't do him justice, saying the names. It's Aslan to whom Narnia really belongs, he made it." She felt this was a very poor description, and stopped, trying to find words to go on. It took her a moment.

"He's the true king," she said at last, "and he is very good. He died to save my brother's life, and then he came back to life. It's very hard for me to describe him." Love shone in Lucy's voice and in her face, something stronger than the affection of which she had spoken of her siblings. "It is as if," she said at last, "all good things come from and are inside one great lion. He is not tame, but he is very good. I'm afraid that doesn't really describe him at all."

She couldn't truly say she understood, because she never completely understood gods- not even those of Gallifrey- and that was unmistakeably what Lucy was talking about. But she nodded anyway, because she didn't know what else to do.

Lucy understood that look on the Doctor's face, and lowered her head a moment. When she lifted her head again, the sudden light that had been there had diminished, and she smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said at last, "I didn't mean to go on like that. It's hard to understand if you've never seen him. But he will appear in my stories a great deal. Oh, all of the stories would have gone completely wrong if Aslan hadn't been there, he's the reason good wins out in the end, you see. And it was he who made us all kings and queens, so of course I..." She sighed softly. "I wish you could see Narnia," she said after a moment.

Well, that was no good, because even if the Doctor didn't understand, Lucy clearly did, and it made her... happy. Joyful. "Why not?" she asked, mostly of herself. "I've got a TARDIS. I could at least give the old girl a try, see if we can't find Narnia."

"...do you think...?" Lucy began, surprised and almost fearful of the idea, though from the longing in her face she very clearly liked the idea. "I don't know if you can," she said after a moment, "it's all magic... is the TARDIS magic?"

She wasn't sure what her fear was, but she remembered Susan telling her Aslan's words about being too old. If that was true, would the Doctor even be allowed to see it? "Though I suppose you could try," she said after a moment, "and if you can't find Narnia, maybe there's somewhere else..." she wasn't quite sure what she meant by the last part, but had a feeling it ended that you can take me.

"She's... science," the Doctor explained somewhat hesitantly. "Very beautiful, delicately balanced science. But she could make the transition to a magical world without.. damage."

"There's everywhere else," she assured Lucy. "Anywhere in the universe, if this doesn't work." She stood up and made a few adjustments to the bewildering array of knobs and buttons and thingamajigs on the console. "I don't have any co-ordinates," she thought aloud. "Might be a way around that. I don't recognise the planet, but the TARDIS might." What could she do? She tapped her fingers as she considered it. "Do you still have access to that Wardrobe you found? I could take the TARDIS to that, should still be some residual energy, some sort of link to Narnia."

"The wardrobe is somewhere in England," Lucy said with a sigh. "Professor Kirke has it, and I don't have his address anymore, Peter was going to mail me a letter from there so I'd know where to write. So I'm afraid I don't right now..."

The Doctor's enthusiasm deflated somewhat, but she wasn't the type to give up easily. "Did his house have a name? Was it near any cities or anything with a name you remember?"