Helen Pevensie looked around the house, realized that the children were all asleep and slumped into her chair in relief; the war was over, the children had been home for two weeks and all she wanted to do was follow their example and sleep. It wasn't that she hadn't missed them, because god knows she had worried about them every second that they were away, but there was something...different about them now. They were so mature and they moved as if they were used to adjusting to one another's movements; whenever Lucy moved even a few steps either Peter or Edmund moved slightly to one side, standing between her and the door, or the window, or any other man in the room. They did with Susan too, but to a lesser degree, they mainly looked to a spot right behind her back whenever a man got a little too close to her or addressed her in any way other than complete respect. Then there was the way that Edmund and Peter, her waring boys seemed to suddenly be the best of friends, how whenever one was insulted or questioned the other would step immediantly to their side and glare down the offender, hand occasionally straying down to an empty space of air just above their hips.
Helen ran a hand through her hair, the other day she had heard them listening to reports of battles whose details were finally being released and they were discussing how decisions could have been made differently to end the battle quicker; once she had even caught them using a chess set as a diagram of a battle field, using the black pieces as Germans and the white pieces as Brits. This wouldn't have been so unusual except for the fact that the strategies actually sounded like they would work and Lucy, her little baby girl had joined the discussions; acting like someone at least three times her age. Never before in Helen's life had she heard a nine year old discussing "acceptable number of casualties" and "diplomatic back doors" and quite frankly it unnerved her. Even the way they sat scared her a bit, straight backed and proud, with impeccable table manners and interesting conversation, most of the time using a type of code that she was not privy to, using words like "Aslan", "Cair Paraval", or "Mr. Tuumus." And proud as she was that they were now such fine well mannered children she found herself longing for the sound of squabbling over what wireless station they were going to listen to or what board game they were going to play.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and a flash of light, Helen gave a cry of shock and threw herself backwards, imagining air-raids and bombs exploding in the house. There was immediate yelling from the rooms above and all the children were hurtling down the stairs, fire pokers clutched by Edmund and Peter, short knives in the hands of Lucy and Susan. They all stopped and stared at each other for a moment before they all began to scream at once.
"What in the hell do you think you're doing, Lucy, Susan, are those knives? Edmund, Peter, what in the world are you doing with those pokers?"
"What's going on, what was that noise?"
"This knife doesn't feel right, I need my bow!"
"God-damn it! Why didn't we bring our swords with us on that ride?"
"Ed, go check the back door, Su, cover the front, Lucy stick by me and check Mum, I'll do perimeter on the room, and Mum for the love of God, stop screaming!"
Peter's voice was so authoritive that Helen stopped yelling and looked at him in shock for a moment, then froze in horror as her other children easily moved away from the group, walking as if they had done this hundreds of time and would do so hundreds of times again. Lucy suddenly pushed her back into a chair and started taking her pulse and feeling her brow with the air of a practiced nurse, Peter was moving around the room, then suddenly gave a cry of shock. "Ed, Su, get in here now! Luc, she's fine I think I know what happened, leave her be for a minute."
Susan and Lucy came flying into the room again, skidding to a halt in front of Peter who was now holding a book. "Recognize this?"
Helen looked at him in confusion, it looked like a normal book to her, no reason why it should cause bangs, and light, and her children going insane. But apparenly it meant something different to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, all of them gasped and Edmund seized the book from Peter and examined it a little closer, "Narnia...The land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy...the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund then Susan and Peter discover the magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye their lives are changed forever."
The children all sat there and stared at the book for a moment almost reverently, but Helen took the sudden silence as an opportunity to start yelling again. The children sat patiently through ten minutes of her railing at them then as she stood glaring and out of breath Peter began to read aloud.