Disclaimer: I own nothing in this marvelous universe; it all belongs to C.S. Lewis.
Note: Hey, everyone! I just finished watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe extended version yesterday evening, and had a series of ideas strike me. They ought to be appearing as fics that I post whenever I feel I have a good grasp on them. For those of you waiting on Nighttime Demons, I'm doing my very best to figure out the next chapter, but whether I'll succeed or not depends. I have an idea of where I want to go, but it's the getting there that is causing me problems. Anyway, please enjoy this next set of fics!
Rating: K+/T
Summary: What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in LWW? Their answers might surprise you…
"Speech"
/Personal Thoughts/
What War Makes of Children
By Sentimental Star
Chapter One: The Heart's Choice
Lucy has never considered herself especially brave. Yes, she remembers once rescuing an injured and frightened kitten from their big oak tree, but Peter had been the one to get scratched. Yes, she remembers once giving her honey-glazed bun to a beggar on the street after church, but her mother had been right beside her the entire time.
She isn't brave in all the ways that matter: she isn't Peter who has protected them and cared for them since Daddy left for the war. She isn't Susan who goes alone to the post office every month for rations to help out Mummy. Nor is she Edmund, who is brave in a different way than their older siblings, who did not hesitate to comfort a strange child on an unusually quiet train by giving him a stuffed animal. Yes, that was her stuffed dog, but it had been Edmund's before hers, and when she saw how happy it made the boy who was even younger than her, she had smiled and decided to let him keep it.
Yes, she is forgiving, curious, and kind, but she's not courageous like her three siblings.
But in this world, in Narnia, here it is different. Susan, Edmund, and Peter are not the same here—Susan is too old, Peter is too worried, and Edmund…she doesn't know what to think of Edmund anymore.
So when Mr. Beaver tells them there is a prophecy, and that they need to fight a war in order to make it come true, Lucy is more than a little frightened. She is only eight years old, and it was scary enough leaving Mummy behind at the train station that day and going far away into the countryside. She's almost glad when Peter and Susan start talking. They'll take care of everything.
But when they decide it's time to go, she is even more frightened to realize she won't go with them. They can order her, but she'll refuse. She'll go with the Beavers to meet Aslan, and rescue Mr. Tumnus. Whether Peter, Susan, or Edmund come with her or not.
She thinks she might be brave enough for this, brave enough, even, to fight, because fighting for Mr. Tumnus and fighting for Narnia seems like the right thing to do.
Lucy isn't brave. In fact, she's rather scared. But she listens to her heart, and that is more important than being frightened.
Tbc.
Next Chapter: The Right Choice