Narnia. The very word was enough to send Lily spiraling into raptures. Narnia. The very image of perfect adventure, grace, sacrifice, nobility, fantasy, and all of those other perfect and amazing things. She reads each of the books at least twice a week, watches the movies on a schedule, and acts as much like Lucy Pevensie as she can. Honestly, there are some people that think she's just a little obsessed.
What do I think, you ask? Well, after what I've been through, I'm not sure what to think. I don't know if what happened to me was a dream or not. It certainly didn't feel like a dream. Every aspect of it was completely real, down to the talking animals and the kings and queens and Aslan.
But it didn't seem like the Narnia that I thought I knew. There was something... Unfree, about it, in a sense. What little I do remember about Narnia was the wild dances that the girl queens joined in with Bacchus and the grapes growing everywhere, the battle against the White Witch for freedom, the last stand for free Narnia with Eustace and Jill and the last King of Narnia. Nothing was bound up, nothing left inside, everything was given, lives sacrificed so the romps and wildness could continue.
Did I journey to the wrong Narnia? Or was this Narnia the real Narnia wrapped up in a new culture? No, I can't imagine that Aslan would have died for a world that would change over time to be something other than His Narnia.
Then I pounce on that thought. That was it! It wasn't Aslan's Narnia! Where did Aslan go? Did he leave the Narnians behind for some new land that he loved more?
I know that I have to get back to them, somehow, to find out what happened, to find out what was going on. I had to warn the true Narnians; get to Aslan and tell him. It was my mission, what I was called to do. Lily wasn't called, nor anyone else. This was my time to find the truth. The truth, you see, is very precious. Not many people believe in it anymore, but I do. I will stand for the truth, and I will find it. And this Narnia, the one I saw, wasn't true. I have to bring back the true Narnia.
So I set out to do that. I didn't know when I would be taken back, but I had to be ready because it could happen at any time. I read and re-read the books (crying when I found out that Susan never returns at the end of times), watched the movies (wondering if High King Peter would look like he did in the movies), studied the art of swordsmanship with a foam sword and pretended to be shooting an apple in an archery contest with Trumpkin and winning every time with my brother's plastic Nerf bow.
When it happened, it happened at the worst time. I was catapulted into the middle of the land without anything that I had ready except my knowledge. I knew Narnia inside and out, maybe even better than Lily did. No supplies, no weapons, just my calling and my memory.
I would make do. And I would discover the truth.