Story [Narnia] Music, Beetles, and Love Necklaces (Aravis/Cor Oneshot for the Story Cube Challenge)

Title: Music, Beetles, and Love Necklaces

Fandom: Narnia.

Summary: Aravis, Cor, and the little joys and gifts that define their love.

Timeline: Set after The Horse and His Boy and focusing on the budding romance between Cor (once called Shasta) and Aravis in the beautiful country of Archenland.

Characters: Aravis; Cor.

Genre: Romance; Fluff; Mush; Drama.

Author’s Note: Written for the clever and creative Story Cube Challenge from @Raissa Baiard. My rolls were a musical note, a bug that looked a lot like a beetle to me, and an L.

Music, Beetles, and Love Necklaces

Songs of Spring and Sea

Aravis and Cor had taken their breakfast and a blanket onto the verdant green lawn that surrounded the red-brown stone Castle of Anvard for a picnic celebrating the overthrow of oppressive gray winter and the glorious, golden ascendency of spring. Their breakfast consisted of hearty helpings of eggs with sun-yellow yolks poached in a peppery sauce spiced with cumin and coriander. The hot flavors of Calormen tasted on a blanket spread over Archenland ground.

Alongside the spiced eggs, they enjoyed toasted flatbreads with sweet figs baked into it. The flatbread was smeared with ample amounts of fresh honey and creamy goat cheese. A breakfast Aravis had eaten many times when growing up as a proud Tarkheena in Calormen. A meal that always made her nostalgic for the land of her brith. The land she had chosen to leave behind forever.

King Lune, the cup of his generosity pouring over as always, had hired a Calormene cook to prepare foods that would be familiar and pleasing to her palette. She loved these dishes from her homeland and King Lune for being so kind to her when he didn’t have to be.

Cor, too, savored the elegant Calormene meals the cook made. Often closing his eyes in rapture and commenting in a voice like honey and warm sunlight filtering through emerald forest leaves that it was a pleasure to sample the Calormene delicacies that he had never gotten to enjoy when raised under the hard-fists of a poor, short-tempered fisherman.

As they ate this morning, they were regaled by lilting birdsong from the tree branches of the wooded, high ridge that stood near Castle of Anvard. The birdsong seemed to inspire Cor to create his own music. Releasing lyrics from the wellspring of songs he had been taught as a boy in a fishing village along the ragged coast of Calormen. Melodies that called to mind the dance of cerulean waves crashing against sandy white shores. That conjured images of seas that were stormy and calm by turns. That made her picture the foaming froth of waves and the strange creatures that swam inside them. That made her feel both alive and adrift in a vast ocean that could drown her without a care as she listened to him sing.

When he stopped singing, she asked almost breathlessly, “Doesn’t it hurt you to sing those sea songs? Don’t they remind you of your days of exile? Your childhood of being beaten by a filthy fisherman?”

“I was always happy when I sang as a child, and I’m always happy when I sing now.” Cor grinned at her. Bright as sunlight shining on a grassy field where a young couple pinicked in early spring. “I always felt free when I sang those songs, and I am free now. Those sea songs are songs of freedom and beauty to me.”

“That makes no sense.” Aravis smirked at him. Teasing him because she knew no other way to tell him that she loved him with all her heart and mind on that morning in the clear Archenland air beneath a radiant sun. “Your wits must have sunk to the bottom of an ocean somewhere and be lying like a lost shipwreck.”

Less than a Beetle

As they walked along garden paths shaded by summer fruit trees, Aravis noticed that Cor went to the trouble of changing his stride to avoid stepping on a beetle. She laughed and elbowed him in the ribs when she saw this. Remarking archly, “You’re such a soft-hearted fool that you can’t even bear to tread on beetles.”

“Growing up in Calormen, I was less than a beetle.” Cor stretched to grab a peach from a branch above him and presented it to her with a bow that almost succeeded at being courtly and not clumsy. Proof his princely lessons were paying off and not entirely wasted on his thickheadedness. “I was trodden on and beaten whenever the fisherman was in a bad mood, which was often. I didn’t like being trodden on and beaten. So I try not to tread on or beat others. Even little beetles that crawl along garden paths beneath peach trees.”

“You are less intelligent than a beetle.” Aravis took a dainty bite of the peach. Not that her delicacy prevented the juice from streaming along her lips and chin. Peaches were just impossible to eat neatly. As she chewed, she considered Cor’s words. Continuing, “You are more compassionate than a beetle.”

“How kind of you to say.” Cor snorted. Rolling his eyes. Demonstrating the limitations of his education in courtly etiquette. “I should have your words carved in marble so as to preserve them for future generations to know of my greatness.”

“Your compassion to the tiniest of creatures–even garden beetles–will make you a great king someday.” Aravis leaned toward him. Pressed her mouth against his shocked one. Savoring the flavor of his surprise. Hoping that he could taste the sweet stickiness of the peach he had picked for her. The gallantry of his gift to her. “Your people will love you for your compassion. As will I.”

“So you do love me?” Cor recovered from his shock. Deepened the kiss.

“I do love you.” Aravis’s fingers tangled in Cor’s hair. Trapping him by the fierceness of her passion. “Fool that I am, and fool that you are.”

Love Necklaces

When they were engaged–after Cor had knelt before her on a garden path years later and offered her a diamond ring, after jubilant feasts hosted by King Lune that went long into the night and were marked by music and dancing as well as ribald jests and wrestling matches from Corin–Aravis ventured into the capital. Ordered a goldsmith to make her two identical necklaces.

Necklaces gold as Aslan’s Mane. The Mane she and Cor had been blessed enough to touch with their own trembling fingers. Necklaces twisted into fancy script L’s.

One necklace she kept to decorate her own neck. The other she presented to Cor as they stood on a balcony at sunset, staring out at the wooded ridge that dominated the landscape around the Castle of Anvard.

“It’s an L to honor the Lion,” she explained to him as he admired the gold of the jewelry she clasped around his neck. “To remind us of the Lion Who brought us together in His wisdom and love when we were escaping Calormen with our good horse friends. The Lion Who gave our horses the final burst of strength they needed to reach Archenland in time to warn King Lune of impending attack. The Lion Who walked beside you in the mist when you crossed the mountains from Archenland into Narnia.”

“The Lion Who tore your back with His claws, making you bleed and scar.” Cor grasped her fingers. Squeezing them tenderly between his own. “I wish He had not done so.”

“You are an idiot to wish such a thing.” She clucked her tongue. Chiding her future husband gently. “Those stripes on my back were my just punishment for the suffering I inflicted without remorse on a slave girl subject to my stepmother’s cruelty. They were my penitence. They were to teach me compassion.”

“I still wish He hadn’t done so.” Cor lifted her fingers to his lips. Kissed them. “Aslan scratched me too, you know. Though not as harshly as he did you. In the form of a kitten, He nestled beside me when I was alone and afraid of the ghosts that were said to haunt the tombs outside of Tashbaan in the dark. I was about to be consumed by doubt and despair when he scratched me for my folly.”

“We do a good job of scratching each other for our folly.” Aravis bestowed a crooked, half-moon smile on her betrothed. “We must not be surprised when Aslan does the same.”

“We are good at scratching each other,” agreed Cor. Almost ruefully. “I suppose that is why we are about to marry.”

“We are like kittens in a basket clawing at one another.” Aravis’s half-moon smile swelled into a gleeful giggle.

“Aslan’s kittens.” Cor laughed, and, in his laughter, Aravis could hear the echo of his father’s booming amusement. “In the basket of the world He sang into being for us at the Dawn of Time.”

 

Quite possibly my favorite thing I've read all year!
Flows effortlessly and well short of its daunting page count!
And... yes... any other blurbs I am currently failing to recall from book covers.

 

@A Chorus of Disapproval Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my story! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it, and I will be sure to have you write the blurb for my book if I ever publish one

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for reading and commenting! It was a real treat for me to be able to write about my favorite Narnia couple: Aravis and Cor

I'm so glad that you thought the picnic sounded delicious. I always love the idea of a scenic picnic in a beautiful location with a loved one, and I can never resist Middle Eastern inspired food so that became the basis of the charming picnic Aravis and Cor share. Plus I became convinced when I thought about it that friends King Lune would want Aravis to have access to the flavors of Calormen that she grew up with. So I decided that she didn't have to give up some of the nicest aspects of Calormen in her new life. Such as the delicious food

One of the things that I've always loved about Narnia (a reason I keep re-reading as an adult) is that it teaches the value of compassion, forgiveness, and how the ugliest, most painful parts of your past can make you a better person if you learn the right lessons from them and I wanted to remain true to those themes in this fic, so I'm absolutely thrilled that you felt that idea was displayed marvelously in this fic!

The Love necklaces that can remind them both of how much they love each other and how much Aslan loves them (and guides them and brought them together on their journeys) might have been my favorite part of this story because of what it symbolized to them and how it testified to the adventures they had. And I'm like you in that I'm so happy they found each other. What a wonderful couple they make. Teasing and loving each other to the end

Thank you again for the kind words that brought a big smile to my face!

 

@amidalachick Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

I'm so thrilled that you found this to be a sweet and lovely response to the challenge

It did indeed seem like the perfect setting for a spring picnic for Aravis and Cor, and I just couldn't resist giving them some delicious food to go with the romantic setting

And, if I recall correctly, the delicious food was inspired in part by some absolutely amazing Israeli eggs that I had at a bed and breakfast where my best friend and I were staying the night before her wedding. It's always so nice when those little life details can be woven into the fabric of our stories!

I'm so glad that you appreciated Cor's gentle heart in terms of stepping out of his way to avoid trampling on a beetle, and that you loved their discussions of Cor's background and the origins of his compassion. They both do indeed exchange some wise words there! And their declaration of love warmed my heart with its cuteness for sure!

I'm happy beyond words to hear that you loved the idea of the golden necklaces and found it such a creative way to integrate my assigned L prompt into the story!

Thank you again for all the kind words that were a true treat to read!