Hello :) I'm new to posting but quite familiar with writing. Any feedback is appreciated but be gentle, this was written almost 5 years ago and I know I've grown since then. I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia however, Lydia, her family and Elaine are all my lovely characters. So please read and share love!
If this war lasted much longer, Lydia didn't know what she would do. Her father, who was a doctor, had been sent to the war to help wounded soldiers. And as far as she was concerned, life on the homefront was just as difficult to deal with as it was in Austria or Germany. She was in constant fear for her friend Elaine's life, who was a Jew and hated by the Nazis. She knew America was one of the safest places to be. There was news of more immigrants arriving to Ellis Island in New York everyday seeking refuge, yet Lydia was still scared for her friend. Everyday they received new news of what the Nazis had been up to. So even though she had it a lot better than others, Lydia's life was still hard.
It was a Friday afternoon, Elaine and Lydia were walking home from school, talking about the stories they had written for English. As they walked and talked, Lydia fixed her braids with her school bag slung over one shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, her older brothers Alex and Garrett grabbed her bag from her and took off running turning around only to leer at her.
"Alex! Garrett! Give it back!" Lydia yelled as both girls took off in pursuit of the boys. When they finally caught up with the two boys they were leaning against a wall leading down to the subway. They had dumped the contents of the bag onto the busy sidewalk and were now playing with some of the things.
"Aww! Lydia gots a waddle," Alex said in a mocking baby voice shaking the little toy. Lydia's dad had made it for her when she was a baby and she carried it around with her all the time to remind her of him. It was a little wooden dumbbell with different colored wooden rings.
"Give it back! Why can't you just leave me alone?" Lydia said, tears flowing down her cheeks as she snatched her bag back and quickly shoved its contents back into it.
"Aww poor Lydia is crying. Hush little baby," Alex cooed. She snatched the rattle and jammed the heel of her shoe into Alex's foot before running down into the subway station.
"I'm gonna tell mom, Lydia!" Garrett hollered over the wall to his sister racing down the stairs. As Lydia and Elaine ran down the stairs, Lydia bumped into someone going the opposite direction, dropped the rattle and fell the rest of the way down.
When they reached the foot of the stairs, they were no longer in the subway station. They had entered a thick, lush forest unlike any either of the girls could have imagined and Lydia's rattle that had landed on the subway station floor was no where to be seen. Lydia couldn't stop crying and Elaine did not know what to say to comfort her friend.
Suddenly, the girls heard a noise through the trees. Four beautiful horses stepped into the clearing, each of them bearing a teenage rider in fancy clothes, the eldest looking to be about Alex's age.
"Who are you, where did you come from, and how did you get here?" the eldest of the four asked.
"I'm Elaine and this is Lydia, sir. We're from New York City, New York in the United States. We were running into the subway station, away from Lydia's brothers when she tripped down the stairs and we both ended up here," Elaine explained, answering all three questions.
"And if you're going to give us a hard time, we might as well just go home where my brothers can pick on us," Lydia added rudely.
"You can't go home until you're sent there and that's not a decision for us to make," the oldest answered kindly back to Lydia's retort.
"Alright then fine! Who are you, where are we and why are we here?" Lydia asked just as rudely, tears still trickling down her face.
"High King Peter, the Magnificent. My brothers and sisters, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant. This is Narnia, a separate world from where you're from. And as to why you are here? Well only time can tell. The great lion Aslan is the only one who would know that. But everyone who comes to Narnia from our world is brought here for a reason," he answered.
"Excuse me, sir," Elaine said in her soft, gentle voice. "Did you say our world?"
"Lucy here, found this world in a wardrobe in a spare room back in London. We're not from the same country but we're from the same world as you," King Edmund explained.
"Aww! You poor thing. You look like you're hurt," Queen Lucy said jumping off her horse and running over to where Lydia sat on the ground. She stroked Lydia's hair and then turned back to her siblings. "Can we take them back to Cair Paravel and get them cleaned up?" she asked.
"I don't see why we can't. After all, they could be here awhile," King Peter decided. "Can either of you ride?" he asked Lydia and Elaine.
"I can. I used to ride before I moved to New York," Elaine answered.
"Alright then. You can ride with Susan," he told Elaine. "How about you? Can you ride?" he asked Lydia.
"I don't know. I never have before," Lydia answered.
"Well you can ride with Lucy and Edmund can help you mount. He's the best rider."
Lucy hopped back onto her horse and Edmund climbed off of his. Edmund reached for Lydia's hand and pulled her off the ground. They walked towards the horse that Lucy was perched on top of.
"Put your left foot in the stirrup. There, just like that." He put his hands around her waist. "Now push yourself up and swing your right leg over. There you got it."
Once Lydia was safely on the horse behind Lucy, Edmund remounted his horse and they took off through the woods. Lydia now realized that falling down the stairs had done some damage, and she couldn't pay attention to her surroundings because of the pain.
When they arrived at Cair Paravel, Lydia gingerly slid off the horse she was riding with Lucy. Her and Elaine were taken into a fancy bedroom where Lydia's scrapes and bruises were patched up and where she washed her face, erasing all signs that she had been crying. Both Lydia and Elaine were given gowns like the ones that Lucy and Susan wore. Lydia was sitting on the bed fixing her braids when she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in," Elaine called to the door. Lucy skipped in followed by Susan in a much more dignified manner.
"It's dinner time. We're going to escort you to the dining hall since you don't know where it is yet," Susan said. Lydia and Elaine both climbed off the bed and then followed Lucy and Susan to a grand room with a neat dining table with six chairs. Peter was already seated at the head of the table and Edmund was sitting to one side of the other end seat. Lucy took the seat next to Edmund, Susan took the seat at the other end of the table, Lydia sat across from Edmund and Elaine sat down across from Lucy.
"I hope you like your room. I'm glad Susan's old dresses fit you both," Peter told the girls. Now that she didn't have tears obscuring her vision, Lydia really saw the four kings and queens.
High King Peter still looked Alex's age, but she noticed an air of pride that Alex definitely did not have. He had the look of someone who had too much stress for his age. He had neat brown hair and beautiful bright blue eyes. His title, Magnificent, suited him well, and looking into his gentle but stern kingly face made her feel guilty of being so rude to him earlier. She could see that Peter had never been the type of brother Alex was and only meant well.
Next to him sat Lucy. She had long brown hair that she wore pulled back and lively blue eyes. She was full of energy and excitement. Unlike the rest of her siblings, her dress was covered in wrinkles, as if she spent more time playing and running around than acting dignified, which Lydia figured she probably did.
Lydia skipped to the other end of the table where Susan was. She was like an older version of Lydia's little sister, Alice. Same long brown hair, same blue eyes, only with a look of intellect in them. This was probably the sibling who could always out shine the others in school. She seemed to be the calm and gentle sibling, like Alice was in her family.
Lydia finally layed her eyes on Edmund. He looked like the black sheep in his family like Lydia was in hers. He was the only one of the four with messy black hair rather than brown, and light brown eyes rather than blue. Like Lucy, he had a lot of energy and was short on stress unlike the older two. Unlike Lucy, Edmund could handle acting dignified much better. He was also handsome. Peter was handsome too, but Lydia thought Edmund was more handsome. At that point, he looked towards her and their eyes met. Blood flushed her cheeks as she quickly looked down at her hands, neatly folded in her lap.
"I'm sorry I was so rude when you found us in the woods. I had no reason to behave like that. Will you please forgive me and let me start over?" Lydia asked the siblings.
She looked up when she heard the soft, gentle chuckle of Peter. "You were forgiven before we even left the forest," he explained.
"Besides you were hurting both physically and emotionally. It may not be a good excuse but it is an excuse. And we do still forgive you," Edmund added. "Oh by the way, did one of you lose something earlier?" he asked, pulling Lydia's rattle from his pocket and shaking it.
Lydia exchanged a look with Elaine. "It's mine," she confessed looking back at Edmund. He laughed gently, handing her the rattle.
"Why do you carry around a baby toy anyway?" Lucy asked.
Lydia knew she didn't mean for this to be offensive but she didn't want to tell the whole truth. "It was my favorite toy as a baby. I don't play with it, I just keep it in my school bag."
After that they talked. Lydia learned the four kids were the Pevensies. They wanted to know about Lydia and Elaine. Elaine talked about living on the ranch out in the west before the war. She talked about how when Hitler gained power, her dad decided to move to an area with more people, where it would be easier to blend in.
Lydia told the Pevensies about living in New York. She talked about her dad. She talked about living with her mom and fighting with her siblings.
Then the Pevensies told stories. They talked some about their time in England. Mostly though, they talked about life in Narnia. They talked about the White Witch and the great Lion Aslan. Narnia was full of such wonderful stories.
After a while, a man, well he wasn't exactly a man, half man, and half goat, came in to the dining hall. He introduced himself to Lydia and Elaine as Tumnus the Faun.
"Your majesties. It is getting late and you have another busy day tomorrow."
"You're right Tumnus. It is late. We should be getting to bed. Tomorrow morning at breakfast we will discuss what the day is going to look like," Peter said taking authority.
They all said their good nights and then Lucy walked Lydia and Elaine back to their room.
As far as she could tell, Elaine had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Lydia on the other hand, had too much to think about to fall asleep. She was thinking about some of the things the Pevensies had told her. For one thing, they said they had entered Narnia a few years ago but from their experience, they knew Narnian time was very different from time in their own world. Peter was now eighteen, the same age as Alex, but in her world, he was probably only fifteen. Susan was now seventeen, a year older than Garrett, but in her world, Garrett was probably two years older than her. Edmund was now fifteen, two years older than she and Elaine were, but in their own world, they would be three years older than him. The youngest, Lucy was thirteen now, so Lydia's age and three years older than Alice, but in their own world, two years younger. But she was assuming that they had only been here 5 years when she really had no idea how long it had been. It was complicated to grasp.
After Lydia had twisted her brain into knots trying to figure out how old the Pevensies were, she decided to just go with the ages they were now and she fell asleep.