Agape,
Please don't dissipate,
yeah I know that I have got this all wrong.
I'm reaching out
To touch you now
But baby I'm clutching at straws.

For I'm so scared of losing you
And I don't know what I can do about it,
about it.
So tell me how long, love, before you go
and leave me here on my own,
I know it, I don't wanna know
who I am without you.

Agape ~ Bear's Den

Agape wore a gown of moss that streamed behind her as she ran through the glades of her home. Atop her chestnut curls sat a crown of flowers gifted from her handmaids and closest friends, although these had a tendency to fall from her hair as she laughed and played in the forests of her home. Wherever she ran, a trail of petals followed in her wake. Her eyes were always shining with laughter and her laughter was forever chiming like a little bell at some clever jest of her companion's.

Agape was a loving and dutiful daughter. Queen Elah, her mother, was forever worried for her spry, lively little girl. She had only been a sapling when the Witch had frozen the world. Elah had, with a heart full of sorrow, sent her and the other saplings into a sleep so deep that only the warm breath of Aslan could revive them. When their eyes opened again, it had been to the blossom and warm caress of the winds of Spring. So, their childhood and adolescence became one. The spring of the Long Winter was the playground for these children of the dryads. Elah watched them play from the bough of her oak tree and wished with all her heart that nothing evil would ever befall them.

Agape saw him for the first time when her mother went to swear fealty to him and his siblings. She stood at the forefront of the group of dryads as Elah kneeled on the marble floor of Cair Paravel and pledged the support of the trees and the dryads to the new Kings and Queens. Her head to one side, she studied his golden hair and his bright blue eyes. She wanted him to be hers and she wanted to be his, she knew from the very beginning. And the High King caught her gaze as her mother stood and he smiled in a way that made her heart flutter.

Agape, to him, was wild and free. She seemed to be the embodiment of everything Narnian. She ran fast, she laughed loud, she skipped and sang and pulled him through hedgerows and the long grass and showed him all the secrets of his kingdom that she knew. From her he learned bird calls and the whistles of the trees as the wind blew through their branches. From him she learned how to juggle and how to skip stones across the pond in neat little jumps. And he couldn't help but watch in wonder as this slim, flowery figure danced around him and show him the world.

Agape first pressed her hot, little mouth to his amongst the dew heavy flowers of Beruna and, in the warm, head-strong, intoxicating flush of first love, pressed an acorn from her tree into his hand. She begged him not to tell; such a gesture was usually reserved for betrothed couples and her mother would be appalled if she found out. He promised her to keep it safe and to never show another living soul. For that, she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his again with a squeal of delight.

Agape loved the feeling of her hand in his. It was a large hand, slightly calloused on the palm from swordsplay, and it completely enveloped her nut-brown one. She loved to stroke that calloused palm and pull gently on each of the fingers as they lay together in the meadows and glades they frequented. Eventually, he would tire of her incessant fussings and pounce on her. As his fingers tickled her sides, she would squirm and shriek in her little peal-like voice and would pray that the two of them could stay like this forever.

Agape froze the first time they argued. It was over something trivial. Something so stupid, they should not even have been arguing. But he raised her voice at her, and she froze, her flowerlike face showing utter betrayal and confusion. She fled in a trail of flowers and he cursed and sat with his head in his hands until she came back; slowly, foot by foot like a nervous doe. He tried to give her back her acorn but she refused to take it. Pressing it deep into his palm, she swore she had not made a mistake. They were young, and they were in love, and this small tiff would only make them stronger. She wanted him to keep the acorn. It was hers to give and she wanted it to be his.

Agape dreamed of little golden-haired saplings with roots growing proud and strong in the courtyard of Cair Paravel. She dreamed of a white dress of Calormene silks and a small crown of golden flowers to replace the real ones that still adorned her head. She dreamed of one day finding the magical Spare Oom and, arm in arm with him, exploring his world as intimately as they had explored hers.

Agape clutched at his arm, one bright sunny day, and cried in agony as the pain seared across her stomach. She sunk to the floor, cradled gently in his arms, and tried not to cry out for a second time. Far away in her glade, an axe was plunging again and again into the trunk of her tree. The woodsman didn't know, had no way of possibly knowing, that the tree into which he swung his axe was a dryad's tree.

Agape breathed her last in the arms of her King on the cold, hard floor of Cair Paravel. The woodsman who unknowingly took her life faced the wrath and retribution of Queen Elah. The trees of Narnia would never again feel the touch of an axe for as long as she ruled, this she made certain.

And although her King loved again, more passionately and more deeply than he ever loved her, he never forgot the sun-lit curls, and laughing eyes, of Agape.

I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot of mine. :) It is part one of my Bear's Den Collection which is inspired by the beautiful music of the band Bear's Den. Please, please, please go listen to the song that inspired this fic because it truly is wonderful and the guys' harmonies are incredible. I was lucky enough to see them play live very recently (my friend is a die-hard Bear's Den fan and made sure we were even right at the front!) and I came out of the venue with a new favourite band and many plot bunnies wriggling away.

The Bear's Den Collection currently stands as three oneshots and two short stories. I will update them as I get them finished. Please leave me a review here and tell me what you thought of Part One!

Disclaimer- I do not own neither the world of Narnia nor the lyrics to Agape or any other of the works of Bear's Den.