Sunset
Slowly, the dark red sun was lowering over the Narnian fields… The new Narnian fields, of a world where Aslan had defeated all evil and eternal light was to rein the hearts of the folk living on the cloudy island they could call their own now.
A warm breeze was brushing over the grass, which made it look as if the seemingly endless meadows were more like a green lake deep down on the floor of the ocean than a green symbol of the utopian lives they were leading on their new earth. Clouds were passing by high up in the sky, passing from one island in this new universe to the other one.
As life was not to be as bothersome as it used to be before, many people felt like dancing and feasting all day and night long, and so it happened to be that also on this beautiful evening, whether it was the first in this new time or not no one can tell as no one bothered anymore, there was to take place a feast in the palest, the big castle Paraval. The home of the Kings and Queens and now also every Narnian creature was shining brighter than it had done when its walls were still made form ordinary stone, and it felt so much warmer inside… There would be no need for a fire inside once the cold winter nights would come to wrap Narnia into the white frozen water and make all shimmer and glitter with melting crystals dangling from roof and tree.
One faun was not dancing around the fire tonight with his fellows. He was sitting on top of a tiny little hill, taking another deep breath of a dozen. With it, the feeling of a new spring, of a different spring than the ones he had known, was filling not only his lungs, but his whole body, refreshing his mind in a way no other air could do. It was a miracle, since the first day in this new and still so familiar places, he was enjoying that miracle. He was taking it in with every minute, every second. With every sight, every smell, every taste, every sound, every feeling, he was taking it in.
The red light spread over the sky as he kept warming both his skin and fur on its light, enjoying this warmth which he rejected getting used to.
"It sure is beautiful, isn't it?" were the words a voice cut through the birds singing. Although then, to the faun in the grass, it didn't sound like a brutal cut through their wild and ever changing song, but rather like a different voice finding its way to fit with the eternal tune.
Turning around, he spotted, a few metres behind the point where he had decided on sitting down to watch the up and down of the sea of grass, the Queen of Narnia who also was called the Valiant.
"It sure is", he agreed with her, turning around again to face the beautiful depth of the colours around him.
"May I sit down next to you?"
"If you wish, my Queen", was all that he could possibly answer, for his mind was taken by the beauty everywhere around him.
The young lady joined him, sitting down carefully on his right side. Her green dress matched the colour of the floor almost perfectly fine, and it fell as if it were made from grass itself; as if it wouldn't want to disturb the peaceful surroundings by being rough, contrary to the smooth grass bending beneath the wind.
"I always like the sunset in Narnia best. They are beautiful elsewhere too, but over here, they seem to have this special something among them…" she confessed with a calm voice.
"I have never happened to see any but the ones in my home. They are kind of keeping me here… Maybe I'm not meant to see any other sunsets, maybe this one here wants to keep me all life long."
She gave a little laughter on his response.
"That is a good theory indeed", was what she answered with a smile on her face.
After a moment of a silence, she spoke again:
"I think that you must have been here for much longer a while than we are, isn't that right?"
The faun lifted his head a bit, following the way of some clouds with his eyes as they were drawing closer and closer to the sun just to pass over it and drift away again.
"A while it must have surely been, I believe", he answered. "But time passes when you spend your time waiting."
"Waiting for what?" asked the woman curiously.
"For somebody to join you; for someone, to enjoy all this around you together with you. Aslan is a good company of course, but he only always showed up for the shortest of whiles, and I wouldn't happen to find someone else strolling around, so I spent my days waiting and passing the time with the sun and the clouds and the moon and the stars."
"Alright", that was everything she gave him for an answer.
After a moment, he asked something in return: "And what have you been doing all this time?"
She smiled slightly again, gave him a quick look before answering: "I have been here and there. I have been busy and bored, in company and lonely, too. I was everywhere and nowhere, it seems to me now. Until I have come here, and now I know where I am."
"And where are you now?" It was his turn to ask a curious question.
"I'm here, sitting on the grass, watching the most beautiful of sunsets, together with one old friend."
Silently, they watched how all the lower part of the sky grew red. Although, it was not a single kind of red: it was a mixture of the most different reds one has ever seen, and it was glowing like a flame and shining like a distant star at the same time, while it was filling their hearts with a warmth they knew but would never be able to describe. And they did not only watch, but also smell and taste and hear and feel all of that sunset. They were absorbed by the light, drowning in it, but it was a pleasure for them to lose to this burning brightness in front of them and anywhere else.
"How does it feel", the companion of the faun whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "not being alone out here anymore?"
"It feels nice", was all he could say.
"Is it tickling a bit?"
"Partly, it might feel like that."
"But it's still calm, right?"
"Yes."
"Does it make you feel comfortable?"
"That it does, indeed."
"Does it feel like a bouquet of flowers on your mind?"
"That is a good comparison. A wild flower bouquet, I would say."
"And does it feel as if some birds were flying around in your stomach?"
"I might say that there are more than some birds in my stomach. There are loads of them, beautiful ones, and picking around to make me feel somewhat strange."
"I feel just the same, you know."
"I guessed so by now", was what he answered with a smile on his face.
"So, let's just sit together a bit more and join the feast after the sun is long gone?" was her next suggestion.
"I'm fine with that."
And after he had taken her hand into his, she laid her head on his shoulder and he rested his head a bit on hers.
And so, being together a lot more than before, they watched how the sun vanished beneath the horizon.