Narnia – Felt, Stitches, and Wise Glass Eyes

This is my first foray into the world of Narnia, though it may certainly not be the last. It is actually inspired by the small little Lion that I have somewhere in my house that keeps away all of the monsters under the bed with his own glass eyes.

For Narnia and Aslan, I present this story to you!


When Susan still believed in Narnia, she had been taught how to sew dolls. Not that she didn't already know the fine art of stitchery, born of many nights of repairing her brother's torn shirts and making them tokens to joust (which she would later wave off as child's fantasies, after all, Narnia had long since become a fairytale to her, but that not bears on here and now), but she was a child, not expected to already know such womanly things. The first thing she had made was not for Peter, nor for Edmund, but for Lucy.

He was magnificent, made of the finest felt she could afford, each bit of his glorious russet mane painstakingly stitched from expensive silk thread, two dark brown glass eyes set in a way so they would sparkle mischievously in the right light. She labored for nearly a year, and it was presented with great pomp and circumstance to Lucy right after their second trip to Narnia, when the feeling of the Lion was still deep within her bones. It was appropriately gushed over, and Susan felt closer to Narnia more than ever, in that moment of joy in Lucy's eyes.

It was promptly forgotten about only a year or so after, as she tried to forget about the world she once lived in, the queen she always would be. She forgot what it was to wear silk, to draw a bow, to govern wise, kind creatures. She could not think His name, for it was too painful to remember.

And some nights, she even forgot Him, His glory and His Wise Eyes.

It wasn't until many years after, after the train wreck when she returned that very first night after the horrible things that she saw it, while she screamed and broke ornaments and glasses and all manner of things she could grab. She started on Peter's room (For it was all his fault, he'd promised to keep them together). Edmund's room was next, for he too shared the blame of not keeping the family together. Hers was next, releasing the pain of not going with them to Heaven.

But when she entered little Lucy's room, the first thing her dirtied hands picked up was that toy. She could not - absolutely would not – destroy it, as it lay there, His Wise Eyes sparkling with delight and affection.

So Susan sat, a fingertip running through the handmade mane, touching the tip of his nose, and resting briefly under each glass eye. She sat there, and she cried, holding tight to the small cloth body, wondering why she and she alone had forgotten Him.


Far away in Narnia, a Lion sat, eyes closed and head bowed in remorse for the lost Queen, who had found her way back far too late.