Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any characters you may recognize from the books or the movies, I wish I did but I don't...

Summary: One moment in time is all that is necessary to turn a simple father and son outing into something bigger...

One Moment in Time

The sound of someone moving stealthily pulled me from sleep. Well, he was trying to move stealthily. After all, there was only so much stealth a one-year-old Centaur colt could achieve. My suspicions as to who was moving around were confirmed when I felt a much smaller body bounce against my back. I couldn't help the slight grunt that escaped under the impact, it seemed my son had gotten heavier, and I opened my eyes to meet his eager gaze. "Da, wake up. You promised we could go. Come on, Da."

Yes, I had promised him; however, I had not realized he would want to go before the sun even came up. For some reason I had thought that getting away from Cair Paravel and my duties in the army would allow me to sleep longer than usual. But, judging by the darkness I could see through the bedroom window and my son's hands on my shoulder, that was not going to be the case...at least not today. He gave my arm another little shake and I felt my wife's body tremble with suppressed laughter as she pretended to continue to sleep by my side. It seemed she was opting to be completely oblivious to our son's eager chattering that I had promised and I needed to wake up. I gave up on trying to sleep and raised myself up on my elbow, "All right, all right, I'm up."

That was all I needed to say for my son to scramble to his feet, thus allowing me to get up. I finished my morning ablutions and strapped on my claymore, which prompted a raised eyebrow from my wife who had sat up to speak with our son. I ignored it, I knew she thought I was being overcautious, but there had been an increase in appearances of Fell Beasts all along Narnia's Western and Northern borders and by the Lion I wasn't going to take my son somewhere without at least one of my weapons in easy reach. I didn't care that our family home in the Southwestern plains was far enough from the border that Fell Beasts were unlikely to make it this far into Centaur land without being spotted, I would be prepared in case the unthinkable happened. My wife rolled her eyes at me over our son's head before she smiled at him and kissed him on the temple, "Off with you now. Listen to your father, and be careful." She glanced at me and I knew the last had been directed more towards me than our son.

I smirked at her as our son eagerly promised to behave then ducked out of the way as I walked over to give my wife a kiss before I followed my son into the hall. The sky was just beginning to lighten with the coming of dawn when we stepped outside. I started walking and my son followed...in a manner of speaking. As I watched him dash from my left to my right and occasionally run out ahead of me, I was struck by the realization that I had missed much of his first year. The trouble along the border had required me to be away for months, in fact this was the first time I had been able to spend time with my family since Christmas. At least he had recognized me when I returned two days ago unlike at Christmas when he hid behind his mother for almost two full days because I hadn't seen him since he was three weeks old and he had had no idea who the strange Centaur talking to his mother was. Yes, in the first year of my son's life I had managed to be absent for all but a month and a few days and I had to add the three times spent with my family together in order to reach that amount.

I didn't realize I had sighed out loud until I felt a small hand grab my own and I looked down to meet the serious gaze of my son. "Are you all right, Da?"

I nodded wordlessly and he gave me a skeptical look. I couldn't help grinning at him, "Come on, let us see how fast you can run this morn." As I had hoped, the skeptical look was instantly replaced with the shining eagerness I had seen since I promised to spend the morning with him last night. Of course, I had promised this as part of a bribe to get him to go to bed, but racing with my son that morning I was grateful to have made that promise.

I allowed my son to race out ahead of me by two lengths before I increased my pace from a canter to a full gallop and easily caught up with him. Then, the mischievous colt decided it would be fun to force his father to leap over him as he suddenly cut directly in front of me. Lion's Mane, he was clever enough to figure out how to slow me down without getting into trouble himself...I had a feeling that his mother had had a hand in the stunt. The colt glanced at me, checking the reaction of the father he still didn't know well, and I shook my head with a smirk before I lunged at him. He leaped away with a delighted laugh then started galloping as I playfully charged after him.

ӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁ

After about an hour of play, I thought my son was finally starting to slow down enough that I could inform him we needed to head back home without too much protest on his part. Of course, first I needed to figure out where he had hidden himself. I trotted to the top of a low hill and finally spotted him as he splashed across a stream. I called to him and he splashed back across the stream, though he took a little longer to do so than I had seen him crossing to the other side.

I was about to encourage him to hurry when I heard something running up the hill and I was glad the colt was taking his time as I placed a precautionary hand on the pommel of my claymore. I turned slightly to my right as whoever or whatever it was reached the top and I saw nothing then I lowered my gaze in time to see a flash of light-colored hair right before a small body bounced off my right foreleg. I released my claymore as I met the wide blue eyes of the small girl who looked at me with a perplexed expression before she leapt to her feet and dashed around to cling to my left foreleg as she peeked down the path she had followed up the hill.

Though I was surprised to see one of my frequent charges as soon as I heard a familiar voice calling out her name, I looked down at where she was clinging to my foreleg and raised an eyebrow when she looked up at me. "Is there a reason you are hiding from your uncle, My Lady?"

She nodded, "I don't want him to catch me." Before I could reply, she suddenly looked down the hill and asked, "Who is that?"

I felt a sense of pride as I responded, "That is my son." She made a low sound that I had never been able to decipher but it usually meant she was curious yet content to wait for further explanation. She moved to lean against both of my forelegs as she watched my son trot closer, but she ignored the next person to arrive on the hilltop. I smirked at the exasperated look her uncle gave first her and then me. "I take it they gave you watch duty?"

He glared at me, "Of course, they did. Probably because they knew the little one has started to wake extremely early and would decide it is fun to run around before sunup. You laugh now, my friend, just wait until you have a daughter then you can find out how much more trouble they are than the sons."

I laughed harder when a small voice piped up with a very astute observation, "He has a son, Uncle. And, they're running around too."

Her uncle glared at me and I held my hands up in a silent defense. He grumbled something under his breath about cheeky five-year-olds then accepted the girl as I handed her to him. Her uncle did not have the best morning personality, but even he looked amused as she reminded him that she would be a cheeky six-year-old in four days. He carried her back down the hill just as my son reached my side, "Who was that, Da?"

"That was Pholus and his niece, the Princess Alambiel."

My son looked up at me and I could see the seriousness creeping back into his eyes as he commented, "She's small. Who protects her?"

I hid a grin at the observation because the young princess had actually grown quite a bit in the last two years and I doubted the precocious child would appreciate being called small even by a Centaur. The question, on the other hand, prompted me to realize that Selene was right; our son was very much like me. "Her family protects her, as do I and others in the army." He nodded silently and I decided this was a good moment to head home. "Come, Oreius, we need to get back before your mother finishes cooking breakfast." My son looked in the direction Pholus had taken Alambiel then he looked at me and grinned before he galloped down the hill towards the trail we had followed earlier. As I pursued him with a laugh, I couldn't help wondering what had gone through my son's mind that he had such a serious and determined look when he first turned back to me. I found out at breakfast as I choked on my wine when Oreius informed us that he was going to join the army so he could help me protect people. The look Selene gave me was one of amusement mixed with the warning that I was in a lot of trouble as soon as she figured out how this was my fault.

ӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁӁ

A/N: Please Read and Review! So, this cute little one-shot is the result of the plot bunny that bit me when I woke up this morning...hopefully, you enjoyed it. This is part of my A Light in the Darkness Universe, but I believe you can read it without reading any of my other fics. For those of you who have read all of my other fics and are waiting for me to update two of them...um, sorry but I had to write this down first! I can say that the next chapter of Shields should be up tonight as I'm about halfway through it. Click the little review button below and let me know what y'all think about this one-shot...was it good, bad, indifferent or something else?