A/N- This whole world belongs to C.S. Lewis, or rather, whoever holds the rights to it, since he's been gone a while. I'm not even sure I wish I owned it, I just wish I could live in the world he created. So there, there is no money being made from this, just catering to the wishes of a young girl in the only way she knows how, by writing it down. Enjoy.
In which a girl who feels empty inside finds the magical land she has always dreamed of.
It is unknown how she was made to come to the land of the fairytales. She was barely even a fan of those fairytales truly. The only part of them that she liked was the pure idea of the thing. She was the girl who had had all she held dear inside of her shredded, until she no longer believed in anything, or held anything dear. It was she, the one with nothing inside, who found the land of the forefathers. If things had gone differently then they may have called her the Empty One. As it did work out, they people would soon come to call her Queen. The Gracious Queen, who had once been lost, and in the people, she was found.
The Queen was not of the world she ruled, that was accepted as fact. Many remembered when the Queen had arrived, dazed and confused, and in strict denial. It was known that at the beginning she had been too guarded to truly be hopeful that this was anything more than an amazing dream. The people knew that she had gradually opened her heart to her new world, and accepted that she would not be soon returning to the world she had once lived.
Their queen, even when in the early stages of her life in the land, had been kind, gracious, and warier than any her age had the right to be in their eyes. They had seen hardship, all of them, for that was a part of the land they lived in, but they had never seen a young one who had the closed off eyes that she had. Those who had first found her had taken it upon themselves to loosen those eyes. They would one day succeed.
The girl, as previously stated, was not a fan of the tales of the land that she now resided in. They had been widely read in her land, and she had read them, mostly as an obligatory act than of any passion for their words. She had fallen in love with the idea of the land and the story, and promptly never reread any of the novels that they were contained in. She did know the basics of the stories though, and that would turn to help her immensely in the beginning. In fact, it was the knowledge of the legends that made her accepted in the land. Surely any who believed in the Golden Age's tales must be of pure heart and mind.
Later, when it was revealed that there was a new prophecy, very similar to the one of the child rulers of the Age of Prosperity, she had nodded absently as those around her rejoiced. Unlike those child rulers, the great rulers, she would not be tested physically. She was tested in the realms of her own mind, because her greatest challenge was her own self, and not the world around her. The great lion knew this well, as he knew all of his once and future kings and queens. It was in this that she was not required to defeat an evil queen or a mad king, but to defeat the demons inside of her, whom were always lingering telling her that she was nothing. These were the demons that made her empty inside.
The day that the Gracious Queen ascended the throne was a festive one. All of the land was rejoicing for their new queen. When her first friend in the land, a young eagle named Wisestreak placed the crown on her head, the shouts were deafening, but the queen heard none of it. She was preoccupied, thinking of how the emptiness inside of her had shrunken, and was now almost completely full of the joys and hopes of a young life.
The Gracious Queen was not accompanied by her brothers and sisters, and all of the friends and company she had, had been born in her land. Soon, she had all but forgotten about her once realm, for it could not be truly called her once home, because she had never felt at home there. She had found the place where she truly belonged, and had no ties to her old land. This was the only home she had, and the only one she needed.
In her heart though, she knew that one day she would return to her once land. She remembered enough of those fairytale novels to know that the children always returned, no matter how much they did not want it. The Great Lion gave her longer to rule than the Great Leaders of the Age of Prosperity had had. Maybe he realized that she truly had no life in the other world. Maybe he felt that she deserved it after that life she had had in the other world. Regardless, it is not our job to speculate on the whims and reasons of the Lion. It is simply fact that she ruled for years and years, and one day, was gone. She had married while there, and her king had passed on of old age. Their heirs would continue the kingdom she was sure. She would not spend her days missing them. The Gracious Queen was ready to move on, or rather, to move back.
When she opened her eyes, and found herself exactly where she had been many years before, and in the body she had long outgrown, she simply smiled and decided that it was okay to be back there. She may not be the Queen in this world, but she knew full well that Once a King or Queen of Narnia, Always a King or Queen of Narnia. The once Empty One, the Gracious Queen, knew where she belonged, and had filled the void that had been inside of her. She decided that if the Lion believed her ready to be back, then she was ready to be back. The Gracious Queen had found herself, and the magic she had always longed for.