The sun shone bright on a scene of great joy. Lucy Pevensie, her three siblings and her beloved cousin, all running around calling out to each other as they tried to escape from the hands, or wings, of the three bumble bees that were following them. Only Susan was weary of them, the others just liked to have a reason to run around silly, running between the apple blossom that lined the floor. Lucy suddenly cried out with joy as two of the bees changed their course and began their way, zooming towards her. She laughed as they followed her round her favourite apple tree and then weaved their way through the air towards Edmund who ducked out of the way, grinning broadly.
It was as Edmund and their cousin were occupied with the bees that Lucy suddenly felt a harsh pain in her chest. She rested her hand where her heart was and began to feel tears forming in her eyes. Peter and Susan noticed and ran over to her.
"What's wrong Lucy?" Peter asked, concerned as always when Lucy was upset.
"I….I…miss Narnia." She whispered. Their cousin didn't know about the magical world they had once ruled for years on end. She had heard the tale that Lucy had spun about a place in the back of a wardrobe where there were lions and centaurs. And the year before she had once again heard about another trip to this imaginative place where Susan had fallen for the Prince who had been running away from his Uncle who had wanted him dead. But the Pevensie children knew that anyone would be mad to believe anything they said about Narnia so there really wasn't any point in mentioning that everything they said was actually true. So at this precise moment when Lucy was trying not to cry, Edmund was trying to distract their dear cousin, for he had also spotted that Lucy was upset, but unlike the others, he knew what was upsetting her. For it was upsetting him too. If you have ever left your home and not gone back for years you will know how they felt.
Upon hearing their mother calling them however, Lucy wiped away her tears and smiled broadly, trying to look as happy as she possibly could.
"You look like you're in pain Lucy." Peter whispered as their mother came round the corner holding five strawberry ice cream cones. They were already melting as the Pevensie children, this included their cousin as she shared the same name, began devouring them.
"How are you liking the countryside then Charlotte?" The Pevensie's mother was a kind, sweet and gentle human being and had worried about Charlotte since she had arrived at their house. She usually lived in London but she never gave up an opportunity to talk about her family's wonderful mansion in Paris. Therefore she had never lived in the countryside, but had lived happily in cities for the seventeen years of her life.
"I'm loving it, thank you Aunt. It's lovely to see so many wild flowers. We have many gardens in London and Paris but due to those choking fumes from the cities not many grow!" She was a very uptight young woman, who was about the same age as Susan but wasn't as relaxed and calm as she. She had her golden curls tied up in a bun that was always tightly placed on the back of her head, directly in the centre. Her pretty dresses, which were always plain white or pale pink, were always clean and tidy, and when people met her they always had the suspicion that she had been born a Princess to the wrong family. She had delighted in this idea as a child, but now wished people would stop calling her their Pretty Princess and would let her grow up into the mature woman she wished to be.
It was then that the phone rang in the house and her Auntie dashed back into their small, idyllic cottage to answer it. Charlotte then, with a smile at Lucy, grabbed hold of her hand and they began to run about the garden, being closely followed by Peter and Susan. Edmund however didn't follow them. He had stopped and was staring at a particular place in the hedgerow. Nobody had noticed that he wasn't joining in though, which in a way was a good thing, because if they had, Charlotte would have been in on the secret the Pevensie's had been trying to keep from everyone for years. If Charlotte had noticed that Edmund was looking at a new doorway to the land of Narnia, then they would have all been in a lot of trouble.
Mrs Pevensie suddenly raced out of the door and shouted for Peter and Susan to come into the house for a minute. "Someone to speak to you both my dears. Nothing to worry about." She added with a smile as the siblings looked at each other, wondering who it was. They raced into the house after their mother and were gone only a short while when Charlotte flopped onto the ground exhausted.
"Phew!" She said as she landed on the green grass, "I'm so tired now." She laughed and closed her eyes. "I think I'm just going to have a quick rest if you don't mind Lucy."
"Not at all." Lucy said. But she was not listening to Charlotte, she was concentrating on what Edmund had just signalled to her across the garden. She quietly made her way over to him, trying her hardest not to go too quickly in case Charlotte opened her eyes, and looked into the hedge that Edmund had pointed at. It was at that precise moment that a bright blue butterfly flew around their heads. It was as bright as the sky, a beautiful colour. Suddenly it flew into the hedgerow, making a slight flutter as it's wings brushed against the roots of the bushes. Then the fluttering stopped and everything went silent, the butterfly did not reappear. Lucy and Edmund looked at each other in excitement. Lucy was about to make her way towards the house to tell Peter and Susan when Edmund grabbed her arm.
"They can't come this time," he whispered, "remember? It's our time now." And with that he scrambled into the bushes in the back garden of their small house. Lucy looked back at Charlotte to see of she was watching, and upon seeing that she wasn't, followed her brother. However, what they didn't know was that Charlotte had seen and heard everything that had just taken place, and so once Lucy disappeared through the magical doorway, their sweet cousin jumped up off the grass and ran over to the overgrown shrubbery, and without looking back, followed her cousins into the unknown.