It was said that, if one could catch the ever elusive White Stag, their greatest wish would be granted.
King Edmund had gone after the Stag in the hopes that it would grant him great wisdom with which to grant justice to the people of Narnia, for that was one thing in which he believed he lacked, despite anyone's assurances to the contrary. Queen Susan chased the Stag for the chance to find happiness in the arms of another, for though she was the most beautiful woman in all the lands and any man would be happy to have her as his Queen, she could find no love for those who courted her. Queen Lucy had gone along with her siblings, still unsure of her wish, if they were indeed able to catch the Stag. Or so she told her siblings, for, deep down, she had decided on her wish long ago.
It was Queen Lucy's opinion that she had everything she needed in Narnia. Her cordial never ran dry, so she always had the opportunity to help others, and the life of a Queen was not unkind. Indeed, her siblings often spoiled her, shielding the young Queen from the truly wretched matters of state. She did go into battles at times, but the brutality of battle was not one with which she was very familiar. But if there was one thing that Lucy Pevensie wanted above all else, though she wasn't sure how a White Stag could achieve this miracle, it was the chance to see their mother again, at least one last time.
Their mother, Helen Pevensie, whom she and her siblings could hardly remember after all their years in Narnia. A woman with a loving heart and kind eyes. Lucy thought that perhaps those eyes had been brown, though she couldn't recall. And it bothered her that she could not remember what her mother looked like, could not remember anything else about the woman.
It further worried her that her siblings were not bothered by their lost memory of that other world, the world beyond Spare Oom.
Susan's memory of the place had been the first to go. She had forgotten the land called England, just as she had forgotten automobiles and trains. Then she forgot whom their mother was.
Peter was next. When Lucy questioned him about their mother, not believing that he couldn't remember the woman who had given birth to them anymore, he had grinned and said, "Yes, Susan's been acting awfully motherly lately, hasn't she? But don't worry, Lu. That's just her way."
Edmund had lost all memory of that other world a year after the two eldest siblings, though Lucy would have thought he would be the first, given how adamant he was not to remember the world where he had been a bully of a child.
It was Lucy who had found Narnia first, Lucy who entered the wardrobe and believed before any of them. And yet she had not forgotten their mother, their first home, as her siblings had.
But it was for Peter's wish that, when they heard the news of the White Stag being in the Western Wood, the two kings and two queens leapt upon their horses and began the hunt with fervor.
And in the days to follow, when the four young monarchs of Narnia found themselves returned to their world, returned to the age in which they had been when first entering Narnia, and forced to once again be children, Peter yearned to know only whether that wish would be granted.
While they were in Narnia, many had assumed that Susan would be the first to marry, being the most beautiful woman in the land as she was often told. Indeed, hundreds had come for her hand in marriage, from the sons of the Tisroc himself to the highest lords of Archenland, only to be turned away in kind but stern tones. It was assumed that she would marry for the sake of Narnia to create an alliance.
Then, since attentions were never returned from the Gentle Queen, attentions had been turned on Queen Lucy, despite her young age and the protectiveness of her older brothers. But Lucy was at heart only a child in Narnia, even as she grew older. She took more pleasure in dancing with the dryads and fauns or going on adventures than in the interests of men.
Even Edmund, despite his calm, silent countenance at court and solemn shyness, was the constant object of attentions from Calormene tarkheenas and ladies to the East. In some ways, his coldness only proved more alluring to the young women who threw themselves at him every time they came to Narnia, though Edmund found more interest in a sword.
But at least one monarch had to marry, and the spurned suitors took hope in that. One had to secure a lasting alliance with some other country, or Narnia would soon be undone when more temporary alliances failed.
Many women had come for the hand of the High King as well, but he was even less moveable than his siblings, and had too many responsibilities toward Narnia to want a wife.
Yet it was a wife that High King Peter found, where his siblings did not. But it was not a wife of noble breeding, nor even one who could make an alliance secure. Nay, she was not even a Daughter of Eve, many would make the claim.
Peter found her during his long crusade against the giants of the North, and quite by accident. She was in the mountains, though she was not a mountain nymph, but a Meliai- the dryad of an ash tree, and the only one to be found on that particular mountain.
He had stumbled underneath the protection of her leaves, the only protection that day from the fierce rains of Ettinsmoor, exhausted and injured. He knew not where his soldiers were, only that he was alone and wounded, and if he did not find protection soon, he would die from the elements.
His body collapsed against her trunk, and in an instant, he had closed his eyes and was asleep.
She had gathered her branches over his head and shielded the High King as best she could, and while he slept off the exhaustion of battle and mountain climbing, she watched over him, hiding his presence from any giants that happened in their direction. Her leaves surrounded him like a blanket, in an attempt to keep him warm.
The wind whistled through the air all that night, the rain beating against her trunk with an intensity that may have easily felled her on any other night. She swayed in that wind, entire body bending forward in her efforts to save the High King. Her roots began to creak with disuse.
At one point, she was afraid they would pull out of the ground, and she would fall, the High King still wrapped in her branches, plummeting towards the earth a hundred miles below.
But she did not move to protect herself, only the High King, for this was her duty, was it not?
There were not many Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve to enter Narnia, and even fewer traveled this far North. Indeed, she had never met one before, though she was not very old for a dryad and so could not make the claim that it never happened.
She was suddenly overcome with the desire to leave her tree and see what this one looked like, hidden beneath the leaves of her branches.
So she did, and it would forever change the course of Narnia.
As she moved away from her tree to sway in front of the young High King, she thought she saw him stir, if only for a moment, and quickly moved out of his line of sight.
The High King rubbed at his eyes, pulling the sleep from them, before glancing around worriedly.
The rain was gone now, hence her desire to look at him, and, after a few moments, he called out, "I know you are there."
He didn't sound troubled, only curious, and it was this that caused her to slink forward into his sight.
He blinked at the sight of her, and then gave the little dryad a small smile. "Is this your tree I have been leaning against? I thank you, for letting me do so."
She smiled then, shy at the sight of a Man, speaking with her, and wasn't quite certain how to respond for some time. Finally, she managed to answer him, in the lilting tone that dryads have, and they spoke for some time, until the High King regained his strength and said that he must return to the battle to fight the giants.
She did not understand this very well, only knew that Men and Giants fought, and that this meant he would leave, and offered to continue to protect him here, if only he would stay a while longer.
The High King smiled at her, gently, but firm. "I must return," he told her. "Just because the Giants won that fight does not mean they will win the next, and if I do not return to lead the ranks, they will surely come into and destroy Narnia. If we are victorious, I will return and find a way to thank you properly."
The ash dryad was surprised at that, surprised that anyone would wish to destroy the beautiful land where she lived called Narnia, and so let him go more out of that surprise than anything. And surprised that he felt such a need to thank her, her, who had only shielded him from the rain for a time.
He left.
He was gone for many days, and she grew worried that he might not return, that soon enough the Giants would invade Narnia, as he had said, and destroy it. She left her tree for a time, to warn other trees, that they might be prepared, and when she finally returned to her little ash upon the hill, which looked so lonely now, it was to find the High King once again sitting beneath it, tired and worn.
He glanced up as she flew toward him, excitement causing her to envelope him in her leafy embrace before she remembered herself and pulled away.
He laughed, though, not seeming to care, and jumped to his feet, looking very much a child to her, in that one moment.
"We won, Gentle Dryad," he told her, sounding so happy that she could not help but be happy as well, despite the fact that she knew this would only lead to him leaving once again, going back whence he came, and she being so very lonely in this tree, now that she knew what it was like to befriend another soul.
It turned out, she need not have worried. Seeming to sense her loneliness, the High King invited her to return to Cair Paravel with him, to see what it was she had always wished; dryads and other creatures living happily within the palace walls, the other king and queens, his siblings, he said, and lands of which she had only dreamed.
She went with him, not thinking about her precious ash tree, for he promised that it would be protected just as it was now, and that she would know should anything befall it and could return at any time.
She met his darling little sister first, Queen Lucy the Valiant, and they spoke for long hours of many things which she found to have in common. And then she met the beautiful Queen Susan, and the quiet King Edmund, and even the little Prince Corin of Archenland, who found her tales of living on the edge of a cliff interesting, even if she did not.
And she stayed at Cair Paravel with other dryads like herself for some time. As each passing day went, and she thought of her ash tree, alone on the edge of the world, she felt a pang in her spirit, at the thought of returning to it, of leaving so many of her friends behind.
Of leaving her High King behind, where he would be without her protection, even for a little while.
And so she did not go, for some time, and stayed in Cair Paravel and had many adventures, until the day of her greatest adventure; the day that she, too, became a Queen of Narnia.
It was unexpected, a strange phenomenon, amongst the Narnians, and especially amongst the other nations. The High King, if he was to marry at all, would surely marry a Woman, not a dryad, for what hope did a dryad have of having a child with a Man, and what use could she be as the newest Queen of Narnia, when she had not even a name?
But it mattered not to the High King, and so it mattered not to her, and, gradually, these other nations seemed to forget about the scandal of it as well, remembering the younger King of Narnia, and that he was as yet still unwed.
And the dryad and her High King were happy for a time, until the day they realized that they did want a child, and that such a day would likely never come for the two of them.
The dryad was saddened by this, for she dearly loved her High King, her First Man, and wished only to protect him; protect him from the rain, as she had once done, and protect him from the sadness in his eyes when he finally looked upon the children playing at Cair, children of foreign monarchs, and saw his heart ache within his soul, as only she could.
And so they had been unhappy for a long time, for Aslan had not returned to Narnia for many years and they had no answer for their quandary, and the other Three saw the melancholy which had taken hold of them both, and knew not what to do for them.
Until came the day when Lucy heard of the White Stag, which could grant any wish, and that it was here, in Narnia, for the first time in many decades.
It was many years after the disappearance of the Kings and Queens of Narnia when Peter's dryad felt an ache from deep within her, an ache that accompanied pain that would not be remedied. But the pain, though strong, was fleeting; her beautiful ash tree, far away in the mountains of Ettinsmoor, was being cut down by a Telmarine scout for firewood in the otherwise empty land.
Her entire body shimmered, and she could feel their son reaching out to her, calling her name, but could not respond.
She followed the sound as her tree, far away from Cair, tumbled to the ground and lay still. The Telmarine slowly cut off its branches and chopped it, preparing a fire for the night.
The dryad disappeared, as if she had never been, leaving a son to mourn her and the land called Narnia swept into chaos. The mindless destruction of her tree, a crime in Narnia if ever there was one, to chop down a tree without permission, was mourned throughout the land, as she had been a lovely Queen and Queen Mother. Her son was named King of Narnia, for a time.
But that Telmarine scout returned home to let his people know that Narnia was weak and easily overtaken; mere months after her beautiful tree had been burnt in a small, warming fire, the Telmarines invaded Narnia. They marched on Cair Paravel and her son was murdered in the same year as she.
And in the world known to Narnia as Spare Oom, the world known as England, a beautiful ash tree sprouted in the front yard of the Pevensie home. It was not noticed at first, as it took ages for the little sprout to grow into a lovely tree that would stand guard over them until they were gone. But that tree remained long after a terrible train accident, and was still there when the one known as Queen Susan in another land came home, leaning against it and sobbing.
And the ash tree offered comfort in the only way she knew how; by sheltering the Gentle Queen with her leaves, and wishing that she could speak in this world.
And, if Susan Pevensie, when she finally stood from her position, hours later, thought she heard a voice whispering on the wind, a voice that awoke feelings in her that she barely remembered, memories from another world, a world she refused to acknowledge for so long, well, that is another tale to tell.