Sleep Safe Till Tomorrow
-Originally posted as a part of The Power of Darkness and Fear-
Author's Note: Once again, this is meant to be an unfinished plot line, one-shot. I may continue this later.
The Archer is wake!
The Swan is flying!
Gold against blue
An Arrow is lying.
There is hunting in heaven—
Sleep safe till tomorrow.
-"Peace on Earth" by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
The first winter snow dragged on. Slowly and elegantly, snowflakes fell onto the exterior of the windowpane, on a small ledge of brick and stone. As the world entered hibernation, the wind blew the snow and the cold in every direction making swirls and wisps of free-fallen snowfall.
Dressed in a dress made from fine green and gold silk, Lucy Pevensie was busy brushing her hair with a comb humming the tune to "The Way You Look Tonight" as she looked in a mirror and sat in a chair with red velvet upholstery.
The room was heavenly aristocratic. Across from the vanity that Lucy sat was a large bed and a chest that sat at the foot of it. To the left and right, flanking the bed like two bodyguards were twin nightstands, each with a candle which sat dutifully in a silver candlestick. At the far end of the room was a grand window draped with ivory curtains. The color of the wall was that of a rose- dark but not so much that the room appeared small.
Standing on his hind legs on the chest at the foot of bed patiently waiting for orders was Reepicheep. The loyal, chivalrous, and at times, admittedly overzealous mouse who wielded a rapier (which never left him). At the moment, the mouse was partaking in the role of valet- handing whatever it was necessary for Lucy to present herself well. All that remained of the necessary elements for a lady was a necklace. Three of them, a string of pearls, a string of diamonds, and a string of emeralds, were laid out pristinely next to the rodent who was thinking to himself why she needed something as so chic as a jeweled necklace.
"Do you think Caspian fancies me, Reepicheep?" Lucy asked, still brushing her hair and smiling at herself.
Reepicheep smiled, either afraid to answer or embarrassed to. "If milady wishes me to be honest," he said, "I should say that he does, but not necessarily in the way that you believe him to."
"Well," Lucy replied, placing the bush down and looking at the mouse solely through the mirror, "we shall see, now won't we?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Reepicheep said, "we shall see and be in wonder, surprise, or shock. Hopefully there is not a combination of the three."
"Have you selected which would do best?" Lucy asked.
"Something tells me that diamonds will do," Reepicheep answered, "but something also says the emerald. The pearls seem old fashioned and a bit matron to me."
"Matron, is it?" Lucy said, "I was rather keen on the pearls until you called me old."
"Perhaps that was the wrong word to use." The mouse admitted.
Lucy nodded and turned around and gave Reepicheep a face that was not cross but not satisfactory either. "It was," she said, "but it is not a sin to have an opinion, especially on something as silly and mundane as a necklace."
Reepicheep turned towards the pearls and sighed a bit before walking over to them and inspecting them a final time. "Well," he said, "they are beautiful. I'm sure they will do the occasion justice."
"If it is not what you think," Lucy said, "then it is not what I will go with."
The mouse smiled at this and relaxed himself by leaning on the bed, letting his tail fall in between the chest and the outer sheet.
"My only requirement as valet is to recommend what suits, my only requirement as equerry is to carry out was is requested. My opinion rarely matters, should never alter yours and should not be considered unless absolutely necessarily."
"But as least you have an opinion." Lucy said, "That's why I wanted you to help me- you can speak your mind, unlike the rest of them, it's always 'Yes, Your Majesty' this and 'Yes, milady' that."
She rolled her eyes, as if the painful memories of words and phrases that occur daily were simply too much for her mind to handle. Reepicheep laughed a bit.
"Yes, I suspect the whole business of formalities is daunting." Reepicheep said, "However, you could always order for us to call you something else."
"I hate that word, order, it makes me sound like a tyrant." Lucy said.
"Would suggest be a better synonym? Or instruct, direct, give permission, ukase even!?" He shook his head, laughing again, "Ukase is such an odd one, anyway do you get the message? If it's not an order then what exactly would you call it?"
Lucy stopped a moment. To be honest, she never really thought about it. All she knew was that she hated that superficial and commanding word. It was really the only word that could describe precisely what it was that it was intended to.
"I guess we'll stick to orders. For now anyway, until I can find a better word." Lucy said. "Now, if you would be so kind to hand me the diamonds or the emeralds, whichever your preference?"
Reepicheep shook his head, "I'm afraid my preference," he said, "would be to discard this and present you as is. It may come as a surprise to you but you do not need diamonds or emeralds to enhance yourself, when you already have the qualities of those in you already."
Lucy smiled and admittedly blushed. Her cheeks turned slightly red as she stood from her chair and kneeled down to the rodent's level.
"Stop with your gracious words," she said, "or I'll have you imprisoned."
"Under what charges?" Reepicheep asked, smiling as he did so.
"For making me blush." Lucy replied and gently kissed him on his furry cheek. Reepicheep's whisker's twitched slightly, almost as if he had been electrocuted as a sensation of fulfillment and arousal ran up and down his spine. His mind did not go where it normally would, for his conscious knew its place, but to say that his heart wasn't moved would be a lie and an understatement at the same time.
"The court finds me guilty on all charges and sentences me to death." Reepicheep said as he raised his right.
Lucy reached for nothing and stood up again. "Then I shall resurrect you."
Reepicheep laughed as he waved her on with his paws, wanting nothing more than for her to gallivant in the splendor that was to be something of a splendid occasion- a ceremony of whom Caspian should marry. As Lucy walked out of the room, she placed the necklace on her neck and turned back towards the mouse, as if to say 'gratitude is not necessarily good enough'.
"Why go without?" Reepicheep said.
If Lucy were to answer that question truthfully it would be because the mouse had persuaded her to, but instead she produced a lie that was not false, but less true than what her head was thinking.
"The emeralds will irritate me, the diamonds will blind me, and the pearls, let's be honest here for a moment-I'll fiddle with them 'til the world ends." Lucy said.
Lucy turned towards the hallway and walked through the threshold of the door. "Are you coming?"
Reepicheep said nothing as he jumped from the chest to the floor and scurried over to the door. When he was beside Lucy and out of the way, Lucy closed the door and walked down the hallway. Reepicheep followed without protest noticing how the tile floor reflected the walls and ceiling and even himself as he walked. He stopped a moment, stood up on his hind legs again, straightened his fur and continued on all fours.
As they made their way towards the ballroom, Lucy looked into the library, the tea room, the conference room, and the guest bedrooms, noticing that all of the doors were open and that the light produced from there gave the hallway a darker, more medieval castle type of feel, despite the fact that there were candles on the wall every three feet or so. To be fair though, the ceilings were at least fifty feet into the air, and the airy cathedral-like space made one feel small and insignificant.
"I always hate this time of night," Lucy said, "it gives this place a dark feel, if you catch my meaning."
"Yes," Reepicheep replied, "it is a bit grim, but, at least there's no reason other than poor lighting planning for it to be grim, so that's good I suppose."
Lucy nodded, not wanting to argue with that logic and took a left at an intersection. If they were to have continued straight, they would have ran into a door that leads to a courtyard, if they would have strayed right they would have gone into Caspian's room.
The ballroom was resplendent in every sense of the word. White cloths hung from the ceiling and draped across the room, cascading into troughs and weaving through columns and ending beautifully on the floor. Candelabras on the wall and those in stands illuminated the place almost as good as electricity and the denizens present and dressed in their best, were all patiently waiting for Caspian, Peter, and Edmund's arrival, who were all out hunting for the main course- duck. Their goal was to catch fourteen- enough to feed the party and then some.
Evander, a satyr as well as the chief secretary of the treasury, was busy talking to Jason, a centaur and the chief ambassador to the Centauri, the group of people that included the races of the satyrs and the centaurs. The conversation was political and involved taxation.
"All I'm saying is," Evander said, "we must generate some sort of income. If not hunting then the solution is agriculture and then we shall move into trade."
Jason shrugged his shoulders, "Only if this winter lets up then yes, I propose and support that notion. We must progress forward."
"Good," Evander replied, "I'm glad you can see to progress, now, let us be gay in our spirits!"
He and Jason walked towards a table with wine and assortment of cheeses when they turned and saw Lucy enter they first said nothing and then bowed as low as they could to the ground.
"Her Majesty, Lucy Pevensie!" They said, almost in unison, which caused everyone in the room, about seventy people, to do the same. It was a spectacular moment of synchronization that can only be described as being insane and a form of deep respect.
"You can rise now," Lucy said after a few moments. She walked into the room and into her welcome party, leaving Reepicheep to the sidelines to think of philosophy and limerick as he was often known to do whenever finishing something of importance.
"Have they come back yet?" Lucy asked as she walked towards Evander.
"No they haven't milady," Evander answered, "but you shouldn't worry, they must be on their way."
"They have been gone since this afternoon though," Lucy said, "and they said they wouldn't go far."
"Perhaps they underestimated the journey." Jason said, looking towards the large door that was across the room that led outside. The wind picked up into a fury, hollowing with the wolves and beating the world into submission as if it plotted conquest. A pounding on the door. It was thunderous and urgent, but the urgency was outmatched by the storm who screamed over the pleas to open the door to let whomever it was in.
A pause.
Boom.
Another pause.
Boom.
A third.
Boom.
At this point, a Minotaur who was near the door, was starting to get a headache and opened the door so that his pain could be relieved.
Caspian and Peter rushed in. Their faces blue, their clothes covered in snow, and shaking from hypothermia. The Minotaur quickly moved to close the door when he was stopped by a vicious blood stained talon which grabbed the door as if to beg for mercy.
The bull hybrid peered his head around and saw a war beaten owl. Some of its feathers were plucked and the poor creature's face was mauled beyond recognition. The eyeballs were scratched, the beak appeared broken and twisted, a large bleeding scar ran from the middle of his head all the way down to middle of his eyes, as if he were split open and sewed back together again. The Minotaur stepped to one side and the let the owl through, not assisting him, and shut the door.
The bird collapsed to the ground after thirty seconds of flight. It let out a groan and closed its eye for a moment, breathing sweet salvation.
Caspian and Peter limped their way to the middle of the room before they too submitted to the ground and just let themselves be for a moment, thankful to be in a safe place once again.
Lucy and Evander rushed over anxiously and slowly helped Caspian and Peter. Lucy taking Caspian's arm and Evander taking Peter's.
"What happened, where's Edmund?" Lucy asked.
Caspian took a breath before answering, "That's the problem," he said, "we don't know."
Lucy's face went from concerned to grief filled almost instantly, it was as if the pain of losing her brother in another winter was just too much for her to bare. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"He means," Peter said, equally as breathy, "he was taken. We were ambushed, I'll tell you all about it later, right now, I think we both need to lie down."
Lucy turned towards her brother and said nothing as the Minotaur walked forward, carrying the owl gently in his arms.
"Your Majesties," the Minotaur said, "this bird is injured." He turned towards Peter and Caspian, "Did he save you?"
Caspian and Peter nodded, "Kashmir of Milland."
"Who may I ask," Lucy said, "are you?"
"Regis, may lady." The Minotaur replied.
"Take him to my chamber, I shall see to him later." Lucy said. She nodded once, bidding Regis goodbye for now as she ushered Caspian towards his room with Evander and Peter in tow.
Reepicheep, who was watching this unfold before him, slowly made his way back to Lucy's chambers to prepare himself for the position of medical officer. As he walked into the intersection the mouse felt a sudden chill overtake him. Looking to his left, Reepicheep noticed that the door was wide open, letting snow, wind, and the outside temperature inside. He also saw Susan, the eldest sister to Lucy and Edmund, stand on a concrete step in solely her nightgown, not bothering with shoes or a coat. The wind whipped her hair to the right, looking like Botticelli's Venus with each passing moment.
Concerned, Reepicheep scurried over, bracing himself for the chill and stood a respectable distance away.
"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" He asked.
Susan said nothing. She just stood there like a corpse. Unresponsive, emotionless, and comatose.
Reepicheep took another step forward. "Come back inside and we can talk about-"
He was interrupted by the sudden release of an arrow and the even more sudden the target of said arrow. Even though it took less than two seconds, for Reepicheep it lasted for five minutes. The expiring of a life before him had been experienced before, but that was in war. Never has it been done in peacetime. Susan fell backwards and impacted the ground, if the arrow did not kill her then the bashing of the skull against the tile certain did. Her brunette hair surrounded her head as her head slowly became encompassed in small red rivers. The arrow was dead center.
Reepicheep said nothing. He cried instead.
Finis.