A New Pet
By Princess Lucy; BETA'd by Aranel Carnilino
Chapter One
Saturday morning, Lucy bounced out of bed. "Wake up, Susan! It's Saturday – pancakes!"
The little girl threw on her dressing gown and ran down the hall to her brothers' room. "Wake up!" she shrieked, jumping on Peter's bed and bouncing up and down in the other bed.
Edmund groaned, pulling the covers up over his head. He was not a morning person.
Lucy was undeterred. She ran over and poked and tickled the lump that was her brother. "Come on! Wake up, sleepy head! Pancakes today… and sausages! I can smell them…."
That seemed to wake up the eleven year old considerably.
Lucy skipped out of the room and down the stairs. Susan was in the kitchen and Matthew Pevensie was at the stove.
"Hi, Daddy," she said, climbing up on a stool. "Can I help?"
Matthew tenderly turned to his eager youngest daughter. "Are your brothers up yet?" he asked, handing her the mixing bowl.
Lucy took the bowl. "Still sleeping, but I think they're coming down."
Matthew nodded and poured more batter on the griddle.
When breakfast was over, the four of them cleaned up the kitchen while their parents went to Bristol to visit an old family friend.
Lucy ran outside and knelt under a bush, looking for a toy that she had lost the day before. Suddenly, she noticed eyes and started. It was a… there was… a puppy! ...A puppy staring out at her with mournful eyes.
"Oh, how adorable!" Lucy crooned, gathering the trembling animal into her arms. It was mangy looking and dirty. Cradling the poor thing securely, Lucy stood up and headed toward the house.
"Look what I found!" she cried excitedly, running into the kitchen. "I'm going to name him… Tumnus."
Susan frowned. "No, you're not! You know what Mum and Dad say about pets…." She put her hands on her hips, water dripping from her fingers.
Peter and Edmund came in, having heard the sternness in Susan's voice.
"Where'd the puppy come from?" Edmund asked, surprised.
"Outside," Lucy replied. "It's hungry…." She offered it a sausage from the plate Peter was holding.
"Don't feed it!" Susan cried. "It'll think it belongs here!"
"Oh, dry up, Su," Peter said. "We can't let it starve."
Susan pursed her lips. "If Mum and Dad find out, we're going to get in so much trouble…," she warned.
"Don't you want a dog, Susan?" Edmund asked.
Susan seemed torn. "Of course I do, but maybe we should wait until Mum and Dad give permission."
Peter snorted. "Mum and Dad are never going to let us have a pet. You know that."
Susan sighed, "We should at least give it a bath; it smells awful!"
Thirty minutes later, the bathroom was a mess. Water and soap were everywhere, but the puppy was clean at least. The children could see it had rust-colored fur.
"It's a cocker spaniel," Peter said, pointing to a small picture in the encyclopedia, open to "Dogs".
"It is rather cute," Susan admitted, watching the puppy sleeping peacefully on Lucy's lap. "But I think Mum and Dad will be upset if they know we have a dog."
The others looked thoughtful.
"Well, we could hide it," Edmund said with a shrug. "Just for a while… Until we can tell Mum and Dad the truth," he added, to appease Susan.
"Then it's settled," Peter said seriously. "We keep this a secret."
Everyone nodded and Lucy giggled. "Have you noticed we're now keeping two things from Mummy and Daddy – first Narnia and now a puppy?"