A/N: While I can allow myself to read Narnian fanfic, it just would feel wrong to write any myself unless it didn't mess with the book's contents. So here is my first Narnian fanfic, that isn't exactly about Narnia or the characters that C. S. Lewis brilliantly brought to life for us, but more of a story about the story, I suppose.
Summary: This story follows the plight of a lonely and desolate child. A child who feels as though all her life she has been left behind by everything and everyone. A child who desperately tries to reach a land of magic and mystery where she hopes to finally feel free and as though she belongs. A child who grows to a teenaged mess who has long since forgotten, long since stopped believing and pretending. A child who will eventually become a young woman, tired of struggling within herself. A child who will eventually come to the final realization.
Disclaimer: Narnia is not mine, but this story is. I created the little girl in this story and her friends and family. Narnia and everything in it created by C. S. Lewis, however, I did not.
"Life is a veil of tears…"
Chapter 1: Dreamland
She lived in a world of dreams. The air whipped locks of her hair to cover her face before thrusting it back once again. She clung to the chains, rocking her small body back and forth as she kicked her legs, climbing higher and higher till she reached the peak of the height that she could gain.
Sad and curious eyes drifted across the vast area before her, watching other children rush around, playing together, and being friends. She frowned.
She was only nine, but in all her life she could only truly remember one home. And now she was on the other side of the country. Every night she would go home and tell her parents about all the new friends she had made and all the fun they had together in the past two months. Except it was all a lie. She was alone, and no one even so much as tried to acknowledge her. They did not seem to care. They had their own worlds and left her alone to try and make one for herself. Only it was not working.
Her one wish in the entire world was to have new friends. But it did not seem to her as though that would ever happen. So perhaps if not in this world, there was some other world where she truly belonged. Maybe there was some other world where she would never want for friends, where she would never be alone. But instead she was left in the harsh reign of reality, a place where everyone was happy but her. A place where she was left on the sidelines to watch the happiness of others, but never interact.
She took another look at the other children, all so happy together.
A tear slowly coursed its way down her face as her legs stopped kicking and her body lost momentum. Her toes dragged in the sand as she slowly came to a complete halt. She clung to those blackened chains for a few seconds longer, not noticing the rust flake off and stick to her sweaty palms as she remained entranced by the laughing children. She finally stood and began to trudge across the field and back to her class. The pain one such as this that child could suffer at such a young age would be unbearable to many adults. The vast longing and utter desire to be in a world where she belonged was that unbelievably great.
The bell rang when she was almost at the classroom. She paused. She wished she would walk through the door and be magically transported to another world. Like the little girl in the book their teacher was reading to them. Someone ran into her instead, and they tumbled to the ground together.
"Sorry!" she heard the simple word as it was practically yelled into her ear. "Sorry," the person-- another girl-- repeated, quieter this time.
She looked at the strange girl's face. It was the girl that everyone in her class adored and wanted to be best friends with.
"Come on, we'll be late!" the girl exclaimed, taking her hand and running the short remaining distance to the class.
As she struggled to keep up, she smiled. She gripped the other girl's hand— the popular girl's hand— just a little tighter, and she ran just a little faster. Finally there was someone to hold on to, someone who saw her rather than through her for the first time in months. The other world she had imagined melted away without notice as she wondered if she could say she had a friend now.
A/N: So what do you guys think? Please R+R! I'd appreciate it so much! Thanks!