PICKING UP THE PIECES
This is what you might call a little sequel to my Tragedy and Triumph story. I knew I wanted to have something with Tumnus and Oreius together, and I decided to write about how they both struggle to come to terms with what happened in their past, and how they struggle to understand each other. I feel the first chapter turned out quite well. Let's hope the rest of the story turns out just as good!
Read and review, please! (Being an aspiring author, feedback is extremely important to me.)
Characters © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media
Story © unicorn-skydancer08
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
"Father, no! You can't do this to me! I'm your son!"
"You are no son of mine, Tumnus. Not anymore." Anlon shifted the weight of his bag on his shoulder a little before turning his back on Tumnus, his young son (and his only son in the world at that), and opening the door to the cave that was their home. An intense blast of icy wind blew through the entrance, accompanied by a generous amount of snow. In spite of the bitter cold, and in spite of the ominous darkness that shrouded the wood—and the evident dangers and perils of the wood itself, especially in winter after nightfall—Anlon didn't hesitate to set hoof over the threshold, and soon he was marching away into the brisk, blustery night. Tumnus stood alone in the empty doorway and cried for his father to return, begging him to not leave him.
But Anlon paid no mind to his son or his son's anguished pleas, and merely kept going—never once slowing down, never once looking back.
Within a few short minutes, he was gone.
Heartbroken, Tumnus fell freely to his knees in the cold snow, hot tears flooding down his face without restraint. "Father…Father!" he kept wailing despairingly, but there was no answer, save for the mournful howl of the empty wind that enveloped him.
Tumnus awoke with a gasp. Breathing harshly, his face drenched in tears and perspiration, the young faun rose slowly to an upright position and glanced around. It took him a moment to realize where he was: he was in his own bed, in his own private chamber at Castle Cair Paravel. Warm early morning sunlight peeked around the sealed curtains of his window.
Realizing it had all been a dream, Tumnus sighed and flopped back against his deep stack of pillows, his eyes closed, one hand laid delicately over his heaving chest.
"Mr. Tumnus!" a frantic voice cried out just then, and young Queen Lucy the Valiant burst into the faun's room, looking white with anxiety. She had clearly just been out of bed, for she was still in her lavender satin nightdress, and her red-brown hair was tousled slightly. Yet she appeared wide-awake. Making an immediate beeline to the bed, the girl asked fearfully, "Mr. Tumnus, what happened? Are you all right?"
"I think so," Tumnus said softly, although he was still considerably shaken.
"Your face is all wet," Lucy noted. "And you look awful. Are you sure you're all right, Mr. Tumnus?" Aside from Tumnus's face, she could also see that a solid layer of perspiration coated her friend's bare chest and shoulders; and his sheets and pillows were soaked, as if someone had just poured a bucket of water all over the faun's bed.
"I'm all right, Lucy," Tumnus reassured the girl, as he sat up again and wiped his dripping brow. "I…I just had a terrible dream, is all."
"That must have been some dream," said Lucy. She shivered. "From the way you were screaming, I was dreadfully afraid something very bad had happened to you."
"Did I wake you, Lucy? If I have done so, forgive me."
Lucy shook her head. "I was still in bed, but I was reading." She smiled at her faun and laid her hand gently upon his hairy forearm as she continued, "Even if you had woken me up, though, I would not have minded. You're safe, and that's what really matters."
Touched at her kindness and thoughtfulness on his behalf, a smile spread over Tumnus's face, and he felt his eyes moisten.
Sometimes the faun wondered just what kind of magic it was that brought Lucy into his life, and made her the dear friend she was today.
"Is everything all right in here?" a deep voice spoke.
Tumnus and Lucy simultaneously turned their heads to find General Oreius standing there, in the open doorway. Unlike Lucy, the centaur was well-groomed, and fully dressed for the day.
He stood in his traditional scarlet tunic, made of heavy wool with sturdy brown leather binding; and his silver-plated armor rested over the top of the manly section of his body, while a decorative caparison covered the part of him that was horse. As he was not wearing his helmet at that time, Tumnus could see all of the centaur's long, shiny ebony hair, the tops of which were stylishly pulled back, while the rest of it hung down behind Oreius's pointed ears and rested easefully upon his broad shoulders. Two thin braids trailed in front of his shoulders, one on either side, and he also sported long sideburns and a small black beard.
"What was all the disturbance, Tumnus?" Oreius inquired of the young faun. "I could hear you screaming clear down from the other end of the corridor." Noticing how pale and sweaty Tumnus was, his golden brow furrowed with concern. "Are you all right? You look a little ill."
Reaching for his handkerchief and using it to mop up his face and neck, Tumnus said, "Hello, Oreius. It's nothing; it was only that dream again."
Knowing what Tumnus was talking about, Oreius closed his eyes for just a moment, a brief spasm of grief crossing his handsome, rugged face. Yet the centaur maintained a firm hold on his composure, and when he spoke again, his voice was cool and even. "Oh, I—I see."
And that was all he said.
Tumnus buried his head in his hands. This wasn't the first time he had suffered from a nightmare concerning his father, and the awful day his father left him forever, and the faun had a feeling it wasn't going to be the last. It had been many years since his father deserted him, and many years since Anlon died. You'd have thought the nightmares would have ceased altogether by now, that the scars would have healed by this time. While the pain certainly had lessened a great deal, it still wasn't completely gone altogether; and while the nightmares didn't come around quite as frequently as they had used to, they still came…and when they hit, they hit Tumnus hard.
"It's all right, Mr. Tumnus," Lucy soothed, rubbing his shoulder lightly in an attempt to console him. "It's all right."
"What happened in your life was a very traumatizing time, Tumnus," Oreius said, as if he could read the faun's thoughts. "What you'd gone through is enough to break any creature. You are not weak," he added, placing emphasis on the last four words.
After a moment, Tumnus slowly lowered his hands from his face and looked up to meet the centaur's intense brown eyes. "I'm sorry," he said meekly. "I didn't mean to…"
Waving aside the faun's apology, Oreius changed the subject. "Don't forget, Tumnus, you and I are set for one-on-one dueling together this morning. So, since you're awake now, freshen yourself up a bit, and meet me out in the castle courtyards in fifteen minutes."
"But I haven't even had breakfast yet," Tumnus protested.
"You can eat later," said Oreius. "Come, now, Tumnus, it'll be good practice for you. A bit of training can certainly go a long way." He added, with just the slightest hint of cockiness, "How do you suppose I got to be the fine swordsman I am today, not to boast of myself?"
Tumnus sighed, but he said dutifully, "Oh, all right. I'll be there, Oreius."
Oreius nodded approvingly. "Good!" And with that, the centaur turned and swept grandly from the room, before either Tumnus or Lucy could say anything else.