Happenings of Narnia
Chapter one: Beach Run
Tennessee
Edmund covered his ears and tried to find his place in the large textbook that sat inches before his eyes as his sister's voice came loud again. Too many times had he tried to finish this stupid page, how was he supposed to know that the second high queen of Narnia was a faun with five brothers and sisters all of which were advisors, and all of the historical dates of her life? If she had been the only ruler he had to learn about this wouldn't have been too difficult, but there were about forty-eight others he needed to know. Truth be told he knew them all almost by heart, but he was still nervous, he was taking it for the second time, after not taking it seriously the first.
He buried his nose in the book once more to restrain from looking at his sister, who was dancing across the marble floor of his extremely large room and then jumping up onto his bed and jumping once or twice, just enough to completely tangle the red velvet sheets and throw the silk pillows in all directions. Then she ran back to his large and extravagant cherry wood desk carved with faces of Aslan all over it.
"Come on Edmund! Please, this is sooo boring!" Lucy shouted flinging herself onto the desk so her hair was blocking the words of the textbook.
"Lucy, no!" Edmund said pushing her away running his finger down the text in search of the line he had been on, "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Too busy to play with me?"
"Go play with someone else!"
"Like who?"
"I don't know!"
"But-"
Edmund hit the desk as hard as he could causing his sister to jump and then looked back down at the yellowing pages and smudged text, "You don't seem to understand the gravity of this situation."
Lucy looked confused.
"Peter is going to kill me if I flunk another one of these things," he sighed putting his head in his hand, giving him a chance to blink hard and try to regain his vision that had long been dulled by the darkness broken only by the light of several candles that hand been eight inches long hours ago, but now were nothing more than stumps of wax struggling to keep their flames alive.
"You know the stuff though," she smiled pushing the book shut while his eyes were on her.
"Lucy!" he scowled, "You lost my page!"
"I lost nothing! Would you just come outside, it's so nice out," she pleaded.
"No I-" but before he could answer she had pulled the curtains back letting the natural light of the sun illuminate the dust that filtered through the air otherwise unrecognized.
"Get out of here!"
Lucy seemed rather disappointed and walked from the room with her head hung, glancing up at her brother as if expecting him to breakdown and take his words back like Peter always did, but Edmund just sighed shaking his head and looked back into his book as Lucy closed the door.
Outside the door Lucy bit her lip while looking around the large hall, still waiting for Edmund to call after her, he didn't. She turned to open the door again when she heard a small clunking of hooves on the marble floors from out of view. A wide smile crossed her face and she waited to see if it was actually who she thought it was.
Around the corner walked a faun, a creature with the back legs of a deer and the torso of a man and small horns on his head. He was carrying a silver tray covered by a domed lid, something underneath it smelled very good. He had a happy sort of glow around him as he walked past the hall Lucy stood in without notice of her.
"Mr. Tumnus!" she shouted causing him to jump and almost drop the tray.
"Lucy," he said in a relieved yet slightly scolding voice, "Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry…" she smiled walking over looking at the tray, "What are you doing?"
"I was just going to have lunch outside, what are you doing?"
"I was trying to get someone to play with."
"What about Queen Susan?"
"Practicing archery."
"King Peter?" he tried.
"Riding with Oreius."
"Edmund?"
"Busy…."
"Busy with what?" he asked cocking his head.
"Studying," she sighed.
"R-really?"
"Yeah, he needs to study for that test…."
"The one, you informed me, he failed last time," Tumnus nodded.
Lucy gave him a half broken smile along with what was almost a chuckle.
"How are you doing in school anyway?" he asked in a very fatherly tone.
"Fine, it's a lot different that what I'm used to, I'm not tallest in my class anymore," she grinned giggling.
"Is that right?" he smirked.
"But I'm doing well I got a perfect score on the last test; which is good because I've only been in class a month, and only here here two months."
"That's a short time to learn Narnian history. How did the others do?"
"Well, Susan and Peter did really well, but that's the one Edmund didn't do too well on."
"Seventy-five percent of your class isn't bad, and if he didn't do well he should be studying."
Lucy nodded, "But have you seen him out of his room for the last two days?"
"Come to think of it, no."
"He's going to turn his brain to mush; all he'll be able to do is recite facts… like Susan."
"Well maybe you should go talk to him then."
"I tried, he doesn't want to leave his room."
"I would say try again, but that's just me."
Lucy grinned and nodded, "Alright."
"Well my Queen, if you need anything else I will be outside," he said bowing and then leaving.
Lucy watched him walk from the hall out onto the balcony and then turned back to her brother's door and knocked.
"Lucy," came Edmund's voice, "I don't want to play."
Lucy opened the door anyway and walked in, "Please Edmund, come down to the beach, you can study there."
Edmund didn't respond he simply turned in his chair to stare at the wall as if debating. Lucy took this chance to grab his book of studies and run for the door.
"Lucy! Lucy, give it back!" Edmund shouted chasing after her, but it didn't take long until she was outside considering her brother's bedroom was up a few steps and around the corner from the doors leading right onto the beach, making mostly everyone jealous.
"Give it back!" he scowled grabbing her by the arm and spinning her around so fast that the book flew from her hands and landed in the water.
Neither moved, they just stood with jaws dropped looking down as the open book lay facedown in the high tide, ink instantaneously smudged and ruined.
"What have you done?!" he shouted.
"You sound like Susan!" she yelled back.
Edmund paused and suddenly realized the truth in this. "… What do you want to play?" he sighed lifting the destroyed book from the water and shaking it out and then tossing it onto the sand.
Lucy shrugged; Edmund looked upset "Why did you bring me out here then?"
"… I don't know," she smiled leaning into the water as her brother turned to go inside and threw a handful of sand at the back of his neck.
"Why did you do that?!" he stuttered wiping it off his shirt.
Lucy smiled from ear to ear, kicked off her shoes, and took off down the beach as her brother ran behind her with a hand full of sand tossing it at her dress.
Halfway down the beach Lucy stopped to catch her breath as did Edmund so both sat down on the sand by the rocks that lead up into a large area of grass land that they had never ventured to far into.
Both inhaled deeply and a sudden feeling of lightheadedness came over them, they looked at each other with expressions of shock as their faces became more and more blurred in each other's eyes, and they fell backwards.
Hey! Another one from Tennessee, I'm on a roll! Well as always, please enjoy, and I love all polite comments!
Thanks again
Tennessee