Disclaimer: I do not own C.S. Lewis' stories.
I enjoy looking at Narnia fanfics, and have admired those who manage to write such wonderful stories in true Lewis style. So, I decided to have a crack at one. Although I like Narnia, I am by no means an expert, so please don't hesitate to point out any inaccuracies. Thank you!
Children of Narnia: Chapter one
It was only two weeks after the four Pevensies were crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia that they came across another adventure. They hardly ever talk of it today, yet I am sure that the memories of the events which occurred are still fixed firmly in their minds, and I am certain they often think about it when they are alone, or are in the mood for dreaming. Let me start from the beginning.
The day on which this particular adventure started began as any other. Kings Peter and Edmund and Queens Susan and Lucy woke up bright and early in their respective chambers. Already they were becoming quite used to the life of a royal. They met for breakfast in the grand dining hall, which was adorned with golden trimmings on the walls, and the table was set with a spotless white cloth, and beautifully carved golden plates.
"I say, this is a jolly good spread!" Edmund, who always had a good appetite, looked in delight at the feast before them. Fresh Narnian fruit, perfectly toasted bread, an array of jams, cakes, ham, cheese and pastries were set before them.
"Make sure you don't spill jam on your shirt," Susan warned, watching as her hungry brother piled masses of food onto his plate.
"Still acting like mother?" Edmund teased, with his mouth full. "Come on Su, we're royalty. We can do what we like!"
"Well, you should act dignified. What would Aslan say if he saw your table manners?" Susan daintily took a bite of her toast, her face a very queen-like picture.
"I do wonder when Aslan will come back," Lucy said, sighing. "I love him dearly, but I wish he weren't so unpredictable."
"He isn't a tame lion, you know," Peter said, grinning as he spoke the much-repeated line among the Narnians.
"I'm sure he'll come to visit us one day." Susan poured her sister a cup of tea, which tasted very much like the tea they used to drink in England. "What are your plans for today?"
"I vote Edmund and I go hunting," Peter said. "Every Narnian is expected to know how to hunt. I have the duty of organising hunting parties for the spring festivals. A king has to practice his hunting skills!"
"Practice them? You don't have any to start with!" Edmund couldn't help snorting, earning him a frown from Susan. He quickly swallowed. "What about Susan and Lucy?"
"I thought I might stay here, at the palace, and do some sewing," Susan said. "I'm going to be taught how to cross-stitch complicated patterns."
"I think I would like to go for a ride." Lucy had proven to be quite skilled at horse-riding, and enjoyed it tremendously. "It's such a lovely day, sunny and bright."
"It's been sunny and bright ever since the White Witch was defeated," Peter remarked. Silence fell upon the children as they reminisced on the past, Edmund especially. Mentions of the White Witch still sent a shiver down his spine. He had, after all, experienced her evil-doings and ruthless, cruel nature at closer hand than any of the others.
The silence was interrupted by the clatter of hooves on marble floor, and Mr Tumnus, the lovable fawn, hastened into the room.
"Excuse me, your majesties, for interrupting your breakfast like this." He bowed respectively.
"Oh Mr Tumnus, you know you don't have to act so pompous among us!" Lucy giggled, and ran to give the fawn a hug. "What is it?"
"Well, some centaurs went out for an early morning canter, and they came across two very strange-looking humans, in the forest. As they were quite unsure what to do with them, they hurried back, feeling that your majesties would be the best people to deal with it."
"Two humans? In Narnia?" Peter was curious. It was a rare thing indeed for humans to find their way from their own world into Narnia.
"So it seems." Tumnus accepted Lucy's offer to breakfast and sat down at the table. "The centaurs said they were sleeping by the creek."
"I wonder how they got here," Susan mused.
"I suppose we should go and find them as soon as possible," Edmund said, wiping his mouth on a silk napkin. "They are sure to be quite confused when they wake up."
"I can go," Lucy volunteered. "I was going to go riding anyway. Susan, you can still do your sewing, and Peter and Edmund can go on their hunt. I'll bring them back to the palace straight away."
"Should you go alone Lucy?" Susan asked, looking worried. "I know the White Witch is gone, but some of her army escaped, and evil things are still lurking around."
"I'll go as well," Edmund said suddenly. "I'd quite like to meet these people, and going to see them sounds much more interesting then going hunting." As he was younger than Peter, and still used to living in modern England, he didn't see the importance of learning to live like a royal as Peter did. He was more inclined to do something adventurous, exciting, and more often than not, mischievous.
Plans were quickly settled, and when they had finished eating, Edmund and Lucy hurried to the stables to saddle their favorite horses. They enjoyed the brisk ride to the place where the humans had been spotted, following directions the centaurs had given them, and hoping that the two humans hadn't wandered very far. They needn't have worried, for as the crowd of trees around them thinned, and the noisy, bubbling creek came into view, the two humans were still sleeping soundly, and hadn't moved an inch.
The two children Edmund and Lucy observed looked very strange indeed. There was a boy and a girl, both of whom looked about Edmund's age. The boy was leaning against a large oak, snoring softly. He was dressed in very odd attire, in an adult-sized suit which drooped down past his hands and feet and dragged in the dirt. Around his neck was a large, silk tie, loosely knotted, and a pair of gold-rimmed reading glasses, which had slipped past his freckled nose and hung more or less round his chin.
The girl was the same. Her shoulder-length brown hair was curled and hung limply around her shoulders. She was dressed in a large white nightdress which, like the boy's suit, looked many sizes too big. A frilly nightcap had flopped over her eyes, and Lucy could see that she was bear-footed. She lay curled in the soft sand by the water.
"Look, the centaurs tied them up!" Edmund whispered. And sure enough, both children were bound securely in tight bonds, so that they could not escape. The centaurs had really been wary of these unusual visitors to Narnia, and had used their stealth to secure them without waking them up.
Edmund and Lucy were just wondering whether they should really wake the children, for they looked so terribly peaceful and happy, when Lucy's horse, which was tired of standing still for so long and wanted to gallop, let out a whinny. At once, the boy's head snapped up.
"Where am I?" he asked himself, looking down at his bonds, his eyes wide with confusion. "Who has tied me up? Really, doing something like this to an innocent old man as I am!" Edmund and Lucy would at once have rushed to help him, if his manner of speech had not been so odd. They froze, watching him carefully. The boy wriggled, and the glasses flipped down onto the dirt beside him, causing him to notice his clothes for the first time.
"Why, I feel befoggled! My clothes have grown!" The boy stared in amazement at his large suit. "Dear me. This suit was one of my best, and now look at the dirt that's gotten on it." He looked around him, squinting through the sunlight at the woods and stream beside him. Edmund and Lucy, shielded by bushes, did not fall into his gaze. Suddenly, a look of pure delight spread across his face, and all signs of fear disappeared. "Why, I do believe I'm in Narnia!" The boy's face now held a giant grin. Lucy looked at Edmund in astonishment. Had the boy really been in Narnia before?
The boy's eyes fell on the girl, still asleep, and he gasped. "I say, is that you Polly?" At the sound of his loud voice, the girl's eyes opened, and she yawned. Upon hearing her name, she struggled to sit up, but of course she couldn't, for she was bound with rope. When she saw the boy, puzzlement spread across her face.
"Digory? Is that you?"
"It is, Polly my dear. We're in Narnia again! I must say, it's been quite a while since we were here, hasn't it? 70 years at least, I'd say. And look, you're young again!"
"Well, you look young as well!" Polly replied, seeming to relax a little.
"Why, I dare say I do!" The boy, whose name we have now identified as Digory, laughed. "I barely noticed."
"I must be dreaming," Polly said. "We can't have come back to Narnia. The last thing I remember, I was in bed with an awful cold. Horrid thing."
"This isn't a dream, it's real. I feel wide awake as anything!"
"The strange thing is," continued Polly. "I don't feel my cold at all. It's disappeared."
"Narnian magic, my dear, Narnian magic," Digory said, looking wise.
"I wonder why we have become children again," Polly said. "I mean, it's wonderful not to have such aches and limitations as being old, but I thought time worked the other way round. Narnia time doesn't take time in our world, and a little time back home is a long time here. We shouldn't have become young! If it were the other way round, and we were going to our world after being old here, I would expect us to lose some years, because we would go back to where we were last in England. But not this way."
"I don't know." Digory shrugged. "Curious thing, magic. But why bother thinking about it? I've lost 60-plus years, and I'm back in Narnia! Yippee!"
Edmund and Lucy, who were most puzzled by this behavior, felt it was time to intervene, and, leaving their horses to enjoy some fresh Narnian grass, clambered down to meet Polly and Digory.
"Good morning," Lucy said politely. Both children's eyes flew to her at once. "Welcome to Narnia."
"I say, it's Lucy and Edmund! What on earth are you two doing here? How are you, Edmund old chap? The last I saw of you, Mrs Macredy was shooing you away while she showed some guests in." Digory chuckled. "I must say, I don't mind being away from that woman for a while. Haha! Narnia feels wonderful!"
Lucy, as is to be expected, was shocked to discover that Digory knew her and Edmund's names. "Um, have I met you before, Digory?"
"Have we met before, why, I dare say we have." Digroy chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Let's see, the last time I talked to you, was when you ran crying to me that night the other children wouldn't believe your tale of a magical world."
Lucy thought back hard. (After spending time in Narnia, it sometimes becomes hard to remember your old life.) Suddenly, realisation hit. "You don't mean, surely you're not, I mean, you can't be-"
"You're the Professor!" interrupted Edmund. "Professor Kirk! The man we went to stay with!"
"At your service!" Digory laughed gleefully. "Although I feel rather young to be called 'professor' now. May I introduce Polly Plummer to you, my oldest and dearest friend."
Polly smiled politely. She had never met Lucy or Edmund, and was just as surprised as they were to discover that Digory knew them. Of course, now that they knew who they were, Lucy and Edmund lost no time in untying the two children. Digory at once began leaping up and down madly, yelling excitedly at the top of his voice. It was, indeed, quite amazing that he could manage so energetic a feat in his restricting, floppy clothing.
"I'm in Narnia again! I'm in Narnia again! Yippee! I'm befoggled. I never dreamed I'd get back! Yippee!"
Polly, who was a little more refined, tried to calm him down, although inwardly she was just as excited as he was to find herself back in Narnia. "Maybe we should follow Lucy and Edmund to wherever they want to take us," she suggested, much to Lucy's relief. Digory calmed down, his face flushed red with happiness.
"Take us wherever you want! I'm ready."
He rolled up his long sleeves and pants and ripped off the irritating tie. Polly did the same, disposing of her senior nightcap. Digory then rubbed his hands. "Right. Where to?"
"How about the Palace?" Edmund said. "Peter and Susan will want to meet you for sure...Professor."
"Palace? I don't recall a Palace in Narnia," Digory said. "But of course I've been away a while. Things must have changed!"
"Indeed," Lucy said. "Come on!" And so Lucy and Edmund showed Polly and Digory the way to their horses, and the girls mounted one animal, and the boys the other, and they began trotting slowly back towards Cair Paravel, so the horses wouldn't tire from the extra weight. Many different thoughts were racing through the children's minds. What a strange, unexpected thing to happen!
To be continued...
LOL that turned out longer than I expected. Hope I didn't bore you. Please review!! And I'm not sure whether I shall bring in Jill and Eustace. I know they are from the future, but I have an idea as to how they could come in, though I have to sort things out a bit. What do you think?
Oh, and next chapter Aslan comes in. :)