Disclaimer: Well... I still don't own Narnia.
AN: So I'm sitting in a hospital cafe waiting for my mum to come out of surgery (for, and I quote, "The removal of a suspicious lump") and I needed to write something. So here it is.
Spoilers for all seven C S Lewis books to follow.
My new project – One shots prompted by a single word. In this case, 'beginning.' And don't worry – the Valiant chapter of Virtues is nearly done. :)
Enjoy!
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Beginning
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"In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth."
The Bible - Genesis 1:1
Every tale has a beginning. Every individual story is different. Looking back on my time in Narnia, and my life since then, I, Edmund Pevensie, wondered where my part in the tale actually began.
Was it when I stumbled through the Wardrobe after my younger sister into the arms of an evil Witch and an endless Winter? Or was it before then? Was it when I and my siblings were sent away, perhaps? Sent away from the threat of guns and bombs, only to be thrust into the potentially greater threat of swords and treachery and the everyday perils of running a nation?
Or was it before then, even? In Narnia, my and my brother and sisters' arrival was fortold for centuries. Was that the beginning of my part in this tale, even though I wasn't there to witness it?
Or was that not it either? Professor Kirke told us where the Wardrobe came from. From the seed of a healing apple brought back from Narnia's very own Tree of Protection to bring the Professor's mother back from the brink of death. Planted, grown, blown over in a wind and sculpted. The Wardrobe was the prompt – my call to service, one might say – for my entrance into Narnia. Was the beginning of the Wardrobe the beginning of my tale?
But no, perhaps not. Perhaps the beginning of my part in the tale was the beginning of the world itself? The very day Narnia was sung into existence by the mighty Lion himself, Son of the Emperor Over the Sea? For surely the Great Lion knew, even then, what would happen years later – that the White Witch would rule Narnia for a full century, and that I would, in my childish spite, clamber into a Wardrobe after my sister, trying to scare her by locking us both in the dark.
Or did my part in this tale even have a defined beginning? Have I always been a part of the tale, right from it's conception, even though I didn't realise it? For Aslan says that He knew each of us before we were even born. That He knew each of us even before the world was created. Was that my beginning in this tale?
Or is this the beginning? Right this moment? Has my part in this tale merely been the introduction for The Tale? The greatest Tale there ever will be?
"I have a queer feeling, Edmund," Peter, standing beside me on the platform, said.
"Oh?" I replied. "How odd. I have the queerest feeling too. It feels as though... well. I'm not quite sure how to describe it."
"Like you used to feel before we left for a battle, only its bigger than any battle we ever fought? As though a whole new adventure is beginning, but... larger somehow?"
"Well... yes, actually. That's it exactly. What do you think it means, Peter?"
"I'm not too sure," the High King responded slowly. "But I think I'm excited about it. Almost as though it's Christmas Eve, and you think you know what you might be getting, and it's the best thing you ever could possibly get, but you're not sure if it will actually be under the tree in the morning."
"Me too. It's strange, isn't it? I feel almost like I do when Aslan is nearby. Just nearby, mind – it's not the same feeling I get when he's actually there. What about you?"
Peter never did get the change to reply. A moment later, the train we were waiting for came around the corner, looking like it was a little off balance.
A whole new adventure indeed.
"And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a Lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great that I cannot begin to write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
C. S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle
AN: Well that was rather different from my usual style. How did I go for my first foray into the world of first person? I didn't mean to write it in FP. Really! It just sort of... happened.
Let me know what you think! And let's see who can pickup all the meanings and sub-meanings...
Love Bundi