A/N: Zariel's POV will be in first person (I, me, we, etc.) and anyone else's will be third person.
Don't own The Chronicles of Narnia
I'll be making this a bit of a mix between the movies and the books.
Zariel Maylea Astra-13
Manzanita Pallida Haukea-9
Lucy Pevensie-8
Edmund Pevensie-10
Susan Pevensie-12
Peter Pevensie-13
A flash of pain.
Three drops of blood fall onto the fresh snow.
Red.
Blue.
Gold.
They mix with the white, twisting and changing until the snow builds up like a shell around nothing. A breath from a single lion begins to melt the snow, the melt flowing down the body of a baby girl.
A small girl, only a few years of age wanders through a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers, her golden hair falling down her back in waves. A majestic lion watches her with eyes full of love and sadness, knowing that he will need to send her away some time, never knowing if she will make it back.
"Why, Aslan?" A girl barely nine years old cries, tears falling out of her big eyes. "I don't want to leave! Why are you sending me away?"
The great lion presses his nose onto the girl's forehead. "I am sorry little one," he says.
She wraps her arms around as much of his neck that she can reach. "Will I ever come back?"
"I can not say, little Zariel," he says sadly.
"I'm gonna miss you." She sniffs, and wipes off her tears with the sleeve of her dress.
Aslan breathes gently on the girl, and she is swept away on the ghost of a breeze.
I sit up in bed, breathing heavily. I'm covered in a cold sheen of sweat, and I know that I won't be getting back to sleep again. Pushing off the blankets, I stand up and quietly pad over to my dresser. None of the other thirteen year old girls stir when I walk by, so I pull out some of my clothes and walk into the bathroom.
When I enter, I light a candle and peel off my nightdress after splashing my face with cold water. I put on my underclothes, followed by my ratty brown dress that most of us orphaned girls have. When I finish with that, I run a brush through my hair and tie it back with a ribbon the same cornflower blue of my eyes.
I put on my watch and slip my locket around my neck. It's golden, with white moonstones and blood red rubies set in the shape of an 'A' entwined with a 'Z'. The only tie to Narnia that I have left.
I slip the locket under the neckline of my dress and carry the candle out. Today all of us girls at the orphanage will be on a train away from here. Not all of us are going to the same place.
Really, I could care less if I'm separated from the others. They act like they're all bitter towards me for having something of my father's. Or that's what they think.
I've tried to make friends, but they're just mean to me every time I try. So I stick to myself most of the time, not being mean to anyone, but not getting too close.
Aslan taught me to always be kind to everyone, even if they're mean to me. He ingrained compassion into my bones, and brought me up to be able to love as fiercely as him. Years in the orphanage have never stopped me being compassionate or kind, but they have made it harder for anyone to get to my heart.
I prop my elbows on the windowsill and gaze out at the rising sun. The view isn't as good as the one I had back in Narnia at Mirror Lake, where the reflection of the moon would pass over each night through the stars, and the stars would fade one by one as the sun rose, casting a fiery glow on the water, but I still love it.
A loud knock on the door snaps me out of my thoughts.
"Wake up!" the Matron, Madame Dalby, yells. "You leave in half an hour!"
I scramble to pack my few things and light the candles in the room. The other girls change into their clothes, and I put on my shoes and jacket. We head out of the room and into the meal room. The other girls are scattered throughout the room at the tables.
When I see one little girl huddling in the corner and crying silently, I walk over and sit down next to her. Her eyes are pale gray, with pale blonde hair that tumbles down her back in ringlets frames a heart-shaped face. I pull her into my lap and hug her shoulders, letting her cry into my shoulders. Eventually, she looks up into my face.
"I'm Zariel," I say gently. "What's your name?"
"Manzanita," she says. "You have a pretty name."
I smile and tap Manzanita's nose gently. "So do you, but it's quite a mouthful for a little one like you, don't you think? Do you have a nickname?" When she shakes her head, I chew on my lip for a few seconds before saying, "How about I call you Nita?"
"Then I get to call you Zari," she says, and I laugh.
"Alright, Nita," I say and brush the tears off her cheeks with my thumb. "Why were you crying?" She buries her face in her hands.
"I don't wanna go," she says, her voice muffled by her hands. My heart aches as I hug Nita closer to me.
"What do you say to asking Madame Dalby to stay together?" I ask softly, not wanting to get separated.
She looks up, her eyes bright with hope. "We can?" she asks, and I nod. She smiles and hops off my lap, tugging me along.
When we approach Madame Dalby, she looks up sharply, but her eyes soften a little when she sees Nita's hopeful face and my amused one.
"Can I help you with something, Miss Astra?" she asks.
"Actually, I was wondering if you would mind arranging for Nita and I to stay together when we leave-if it's not too much of a problem."
Madame Dalby nods slowly. "I can't make any promises, but I'll do what I can."
Nita beams up at her and pulls me over to where there are bowls of porridge for breakfast. We each take one and walk back over to the table, where we eat the small amount of food.
After breakfast, Madame Dalby leads us outside and down the short walk to the train station. Nita and I take the back, making sure that nobody falls behind. When we reach the station, Madame Dalby walks off toward some of the people giving out the assigned passes. When she comes back, she hands the passes to everyone but me. When I look at her, confused, a frown crosses her face.
"The Gibbons aren't able to take you," she tells me. "They're calling around to try to find someone who can take you in."
I nod and bite my lip as I turn around to help clip Nita's pass onto her shirt. It reads;
Haukea, Manzanita P.
Professor Digory Kirke.
I hear a shout, and Madame Dalby hurries back over to the booth. The man hands her a pass, and when she walks back over, she hands me a pass. When I look at the pass, I smile.
Astra, Zariel V.
Professor Digory Kirke.
When we board the train, I take Nita's hand and guide her into a compartment. I lift our small suitcases into the overhead compartment and sit down next to Nita. She pulls a small stuffed polar bear out of the bag on her back, hugging it to her.
A few minutes later, four other kids open the door. The tallest, a blonde boy with gray-blue eyes, asks, "Do you mind if we...?" he gestures at the seats, and I smile at him.
"Go ahead," I say, and the four file in. Two boys, two girls, and probably siblings, I think. I hold out my hand. "I'm Zariel, and this is Nita."
He shakes my hand. "Peter. This is Susan-" he gestures to the older girl- "Edmund-" he nods to his brother- "And Lucy." Lucy is the youngest, and the occasional tear falls down her face.
Apparently Nita notices too, because she holds out her stuffed animal out to her. Lucy gives her a small smile and hugs it.
"Where are you headed?" I ask Susan.
She looks down at her pass. "Professor Digory Kirke," she says, and I grin.
"Us too," I say, and Susan smiles at me.
Most of the trip is spent in companionable silence until we get off. We look around.
"Wonderful," I say after a minute of silence. "We get to live in the middle of nowhere."
Edmund coughs to cover up a snort, and Susan frowns at the road.
"They knew we're coming," she says, and a faint noise registers in my sensitive ears.
"What's that?" I ask, and look around. A few minutes later, a carriage pulls up in front of us.
"Mrs. Macready?" Peter asks.
The woman looks down a beak of a nose at us and replies, "I'm afraid so. Is that it, then? Haven't you brought anything else?"
I see Nita bristle at her tone. "We haven't got anything else, Mrs. Macready," she says sourly.
"It's just us," Peter says quickly.
She sniffs in disdain. "Small favours," she says contemptuously.
Even I can't fully hold back a growl. The ride to the Professor's house is spent with Nita scowling at Mrs. Macready, and the rest of us watching the scenery.
In the morning, Nita's dozing on my shoulder as the Pevensies play a game.
"Gastrovascular," Susan says. "Come on Peter, gastrovascular."
"Is it… Latin?" he guesses.
"Yes…"
Edmund sits up and rudely interrupts, "Is it Latin for worst game ever invented?"
I frown. Even if he doesn't like the game, that doesn't mean he has to be rude about it.
"We could play hide-and-seek?" Lucy suggests hopefully.
"But we're already having so much fun!" Peter exclaims sarcastically.
"Please, please, please?" the youngest Pevensie begs, giving Peter a doe-eyed look.
He sighs. "One… Two… Three… Four…"
Lucy jumps to her feet, and I transfer Nita's head from my shoulder to the back of the couch before running out behind Lucy, Susan, and Edmund. Both Susan and I duck into a broom closet and share a smile.
"Ninety-eight… Ninety-nine… One hundred! Ready or not here I come!"
Only moments later, we hear Lucy call, "I'm back, I'm back! I'm alright!"
Susan and I look oddly at each other and walk out and follow the sound of voices.
"...The point!" Edmund is saying to Lucy. "That's why he was seeking you!"
"Does this mean we win?" Susan asks.
Lucy looks at all of us disbelievingly. "But I was gone for hours and hours!"
We all look oddly at her. I'm the one who speaks up.
"Lucy, the game only started a few minutes ago. You've only been hiding for a minute or two."
"But there was a forest in the wardrobe!" she tells us. "And I met a faun named Mr. Tumnus!"
"Don't be silly Lu," Susan says.
"She's not being silly at all," Peter says. "she's just making up a story for fun, aren't you Lu? And why shouldn't she?"
"No, Peter, I'm not," she says. "It's-It's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood inside it, and it's snowing, and there's a Faun and a Witch, and it's called Narnia; come and see."
My heart almost stops. Narnia? Could a way back to Narnia and Aslan really be this close?
Susan opens the wardrobe and raps on the back of the wardrobe.
"See here, Lu? The only wood is the back of the wardrobe."
Lucy gets red in the face and bursts into tears, running out of the room, her siblings running out after her.
I move toward the wardrobe and touch the surface of it. Golden light seems to spread throughout my body, and a breeze brushes past me, smelling of pure Narnia. A smile spreads across my lips, and I follow the others out.