Queen Lucy's tearful smile, King Edmund's grave smile and Eustace's friendly smile. Smiles were all he saw before the water engulfed him. He could feel the water rushing into his lungs, but it did not hurt and he was not scared. Indeed Sir Reepicheep, Knight of Narnia, had never been afraid of dying and this, now, was an instance he had given up his sword for. For passing on to Aslan's country. The country he had always dreamt of.
The water was trying to force him down, and it was succeeding in drowning the brown furry corpse but Sir Reepicheep was going up. Up towards where a voice was calling him. Guided by an eternal light, he went towards the voice calling him to one place he had always longed for – home.
He closed his eyes and he could feel the warmth. And it was now that he remembered his most dearly concealed secret. A memory he had not shared with anyone, not even his closest comrades.
Reepicheep, the newly born mouseling was trying to snuggle closer to his dying mother.
Born in the winter months, his body, lacking too much fur, was longing for warmth. Too young to even open his eyes as he was, his instinct guided him towards the warmth of his mother's body. However, this body was covered with another kind of warmth. This was not the tender warmth of a mother's body but the rough, rusty and repulsive warmth of oozing blood. This little mouseling, however, was just born and unable to distinguish between warmth, he longed and reached out for any that he could find.
"My son." Came his mother's tender, but tired and broken voice. He should have been too young to understand anything his mother was saying but he did. His mother's last, dying words were forever etched into his brain.
'My son will make me proud. He will serve Narnia and Aslan with his heart, soul and sword and will one day pass on to the Mighty Lion's world with full honor and dignity. He will be an epitome of courage and valor and dedication."
At this moment, as he stood in the heavenly warmth with closed eyes, his mother's word rang in his mind and he became a bit nervous. Has he truly made his mother proud? Did he live up to her expectation?
"You have, my son." That soft, tender and caring voice once more reached his ears and it was then that one of the greatest knight of Narnia did something he had never, ever, even thought of doing – he knelt and cried.
Two soft and small paws reached out and held him in close and loving embrace as he cried his heart out.
"Mother?" Reepicheep opened his eyes to look into a mirror image of his own eyes but while his were filled with tears, the other one was filled with righteous pride.
And when his mother smiled, he too smiled. He was in Aslan's country and the person he loved the most, next to the mighty lion, was holding him in embrace. What else could he ask for?
His mother nodded and for the first time Reepicheep saw how his mother truly looked. He had been told that he looked like his mother but now he was actually looking at the woman he had always looked up to. The woman who was even close to being as loyal to Aslan as he is. The woman who had given birth to him.
She had the same rust-brown fur as him, the same eyes and the same fierce determination in them.
"I am truly proud of you, Reep, my son." She said earnestly and the mouse felt happy.
"Mother." Like all mouse, Reepicheep was fluent with courteous language but today words failed to describe his emotions.
But the emotions he felt on seeing his mother was nothing compared to the one he felt a few minutes later when the soft warmth and golden glow washed him, as he looked up at the Mighty Lion Aslan.
"Welcome, dear one." Aslan said in his deep voice. "You are home."
For Reepicheep these six words coming from the mouth of the King above all High Kings meant more than any praising words anyone could bestow upon him.
He felt turmoil of emotions, ranging from a deep sense of calmness to overwhelming excitement, but amidst all these, he realized.
All the time he had swung his sword in defense of his country, all the enemy he had killed or defeated, all the deeds he did for Aslan had been only the steps of his journey. A journey that was over since now he had achieved his goal and reached his true destiny…
He was home…