Legends

Chapter X- And Heartbeats (1)

Ivar and Kayla made it safely to the Marshlands, with Caspian and Susan coming in from the south.

"Susan, Caspian. We didn't know you were on your way up here."

"We figured we would join you two here."

"Ah, the royal family of Narnia, welcome to the Marshlands."

"Thank you, mister-."

"Mozrog. My name is Mozrog. I'm the Marshwiggle chief. My wife Kizig will prepare wigwams for your stay."

"Susan, you and I can share a wigwam."

"That would be most logical, Kayla."

"Well watch, one of the next times I come up here, I'll be sharing a wigwam with Ivar. I can't wait!"

"Kayla, you were never the lovestruck type."

"Between the two of us, Ivar is the one for that department."

"So I've noticed."

Kayla playfully shoved Susan, and Susan shoved back."

"Name one Terebinthian queen who never married."

"Susan, you should know that one. Our Aunt Bliss. She was supposed to marry Vortigern, but we all know why she didn't."

"I wonder what Uther's reaction was to his brother being banned."

"I'll ask him someday. Boys, you two will be sharing a wigwam, and Susan and I will share one."

"It's much cooler up here than in the forests, Susan."

"I've never travelled north that much, Caspian. Ivar, is it always this cool up here?"

"Yes. Thank God it's still summer. Winters in a marshland are brutal."

"And I always wanted to live in Wales."

"Well, future misses Baroness of the Marshlands and Guardian of the Marshwiggles, I think it's time you get to know your people."

"And when we get back to Dancing Lawn, you need to do the same."

"I think I know the Dancing Trees and the Dryads pretty well."

Kayla and Susan walked away to inspect their wigwam, when on the way, a baby was heard crying in another wigwam. There was no one in the wigwam, so Kayla walked in and picked up the crying baby boy.

"His name is Puddleglum."

"You scared me, Miss Kizgig."

"I know you won't hurt him."

"Puddleglum, huh? Nothing ending in -og or -gig like his parents?"

"No. When he was born, the other women here said he would be the exact opposite of his parents. My husband and I are both vibrant. So far, I have not seen anything to prove that."

"Well, even if you do, don't take it as a bad sign."

Kayla and Ivar both took to the Marshlands cuisine very well, but Susan and Caspian had a hard time adjusting.

"Kayla, you actually enjoy eating frogs?"

"Susan, two things to keep in mind here. One, I'm a hick from the United States of America, and two, we are guests here, so choke it down."

"How do you handle this, brother?"

"Well, Caspian, Marshlands cuisine isn't too different from Danish cuisine, or any food in Scandinavia for that matter. This is pretty much what the old Vikings ate. I'll make you fried frog legs sometime soon, and you'll like them, I promise. That is, if Kayla doesn't get to them first."

Without any special ceremonies, Mozrog and Kizgig named Ivar and Kayla the godparents of Puddleglum. When the couples got back to the Telmarine citadel, they were met with an angry crowd.

"What's going on?"

"Some kind of riot."

"How are we getting inside?"

"I know a way through the kitchens."

Caspian led the other three through the outside doors of the kitchens, and from there headed to the throne room.

"What is all of that outside, Peter?"

"We've hit a little snag in the reconstruction of Cair Paravel."

"Well, it's obviously not a little snag if there wasn't an ugly crowd outside!"

"What kind of snag?"

"The chief architect refuses to work alongside any Narnian workers. And even if that was the case, he said he refuses to do any Narnian designs. The people rioting outside are the workers who right now don't have jobs because the architect refuses to do his."

"Cair Paravel was built by our ancestors and then attacked. We even handed him sketches and drawings of how it was when we left! Sketches and drawings that I spent hours on!"

"Take a deep breath, Lucy."

"At this rate, Cair Paravel will never get finished."

"And that is where you are wrong, Edmund."

"How so?"

"My Momma isn't just educated in the healing arts, she's also an architect. What if we give her the reigns for this project? Who do you think was behind the rotating of the Indiana Bell Building?"

"Alright, and your mother will work everyone. All we have to do is ask."

"Easy said, easy done. Momma!"

"I could hear you all in the hallway, and yes, I will be the new architect. If only my old boss could see me now. Even for a woman, he still didn't think that rotating a building fifty-two feet wasn't amazing. Now, I'm building a castle."

"Show him off, Momma."

The first thing Leah did was demote the previous architect to being a stone cutter. When asked why she did it, she said she was giving him Biblical retribution. Leah turned out to be a better employer than the previous architect, and she hand-delivered each worker's payments for their jobs. 

"Alright, so with Cair Paravel underway again, what's next?"

"There is no way everything with Calormen will remain solid, not with this ambassador. Then again, nothing is ever solid with Calormen."

"Peter, when we were in the Marshlands, some of the Marsh-Wiggles were telling us they've seen giants get too close to our borders."

"These giants obviously being the ones who destroyed my birth parents. Don't worry, Kayla, I can put my rage for that on hold."

"Well, what can we do to at least keep them at bay?"

Kayla is the only one of the original six to have extensively studied famous battles and war leaders.

"Spikes! Like William Wallace did! Wooden spikes! We could put them on our side of the northern border, especially if the giants decide to venture over the southern hills of Ettinsmoor."

"Who is William Wallace?"

"Someone from the other world."

"But would that idea work?"

"As long as they don't see us doing it. It's a defensive measure for us. Always be on the defensive side, never attack first."

Soldiers set about getting spikes made and put in the ground on the northern border of Narnia, with the help of the kings. The only thing everyone could do was hope and pray the spikes would be enough.