fake m_m

[dear_of_heart]

The woman who walks out of the woods, 19th century backpack slung over her shoulders, hasn't been here in a long time. One might be forgiven for not noticing -- though she's a couple years older in appearance than she was last, she's much less stressed or worried than she ever was before.

"Oh!" she says, turning in a circle. Then she smiles, bright. "It really is Milliways."

She settles on a boulder by the lake, and takes out some cheese and bread. She'll head indoors in due time.

Comments

[dear_of_heart]

Cora has put away her food, and currently has a book open on her knees, pen lying along its spine. She's watching her surroundings with a quiet contentment.

(In it, she's written Morning -- I seem to have found Milliways. Not the one in His country, but as it is among the living. It is lovely, and not much changed that I can see.)

She meets Lothíriel's gaze with a smile, and stands off the boulder -- setting the book aside.

"Good day, my lady," she says, though despite the appelation her curtsy -- while polite -- is shallow. All are equal before Aslan.

[sea_and_field]

Lothíriel curtsies slightly in return. She doesn't fail to notice the stylus and the book.

"I apologise for interrupting. I very nearly did not see you.", she explains. She too finds Milliways lovely, and feels compelled to comment on it. "It is a beautiful day, is it not?"

[dear_of_heart]

"Yes," Cora smiles back, turning outwards and glancing away to the clear sky and the lake. "Yes, it's lovely. I'd forgotten, I think -- or I just hadn't remembered."

They're subtly different, to her.

She glances back. "Have you been here long, my lady?"

[sea_and_field]

It is lovely, though it doesn't surpass the clear sky and the sea with its distant horizon at home. Few things could.

"Not at all. This is, I believe, my fourth visit. It has not quite exhausted its surprises for me."

Lothíriel is too new to know who frequents Milliways, or how often (or how long ago), but she parses Cora's comment well enough, she thinks, and asks,

"Are you back after a long absence?"

[dear_of_heart]

"It never does, at least in my stay," Cora says, quickly amused. "Long for me; it's always difficult to tell how time has passed here while I've been gone.

"Cora, late from Narnia," she introduces herself, after a moment, "though there's like as not very little chance you've heard of us."

Not now that all of the Narnians in Milliways she knew have moved on.

[sea_and_field]

"My visits have not been much separated by time - it makes it easier to get used to going through the right door into the wrong place." Lothíriel shakes her head, not quite seriously.

"My name is Lothíriel of Dol Amroth", she replies, and because she knows not of Narnia, adds, "in Gondor. You are right, of course: I have never heard of Narnia. Is it a country, or a city?"

[dear_of_heart]

"A country," she says with a smile. "I was from Beruna, first, but most recently of Cair Paravel-- the capital. Is Dol Amroth large?"