Edmund awoke on a due-soaked ground of grass. The sun was cracking in the sky. He breathed a sigh of relief. If he weren't rescued like that, the White Witch's dagger would have been in his neck right now.

"Edmund."

He turned round to find a lion standing a little distance away. He hesitantly stepped forward.

"Aslan?"

"Yes," said the lion. "Son of Adam, you have betrayed your family and risked death upon them."

"I know I have," said Edmund. He was very angry with himself. He never wanted to eat another piece of Turkish Delight for as long as he lived. He deeply ashamed of his own spiteful, idiotic actions the time of not believing Lucy about Narnia and encouraging her, lying to Peter and Susan that he didn't meet her there, and now he had betrayed them to a demon of the cold. "I don't' deserve to live. I deserve to be tied up to that tree and let the Witch kill me."

"That is where you offense comes to be worse," said Aslan. "You were born for a reason. A reason being to choose to do what you wish to make yourself do. But goodness is the best reward. Evil leads to many consequences like your own treachery."

"I'll take any punishment," said Edmund close to tears. He turned away and bent down.

"I ask why you do that." Said Aslan.

"Aren't you going to claw me?" said Edmund. "I put my brother and sisters in danger and deserve the worst."

"Punishments never make anything better," said Aslan. "Tell me, where do you think you began as this child?"

Edmund could see a glow in the beast's eyes. He stepped closer and looked at them. He could see his own self being hit and kicked and teased by other boys.

Edmund collapsed to his knees and sobbed, his hands covering his face.

"You remember?" asked the lion.

"I was a boy who loves his family, and plays with his little sister, then when I enrolled to that horrible school, I broke and became a spiteful bully. I picked on Lucy for no reason. I stopped respecting Peter and Susan, them being older than Lucy and me. I see a bad end for after all I did, including trading them for sweets."

"But you can stop it," said Aslan putting a paw on the reformed boy's shoulder. "You can stop it by being the boy you started off as when you were born."

"But how?" asked Edmund desperately.

"Look inside yourself. Do you remember the feelings you had?"

"I enjoyed being with my family. I wanted us all to stay together. All those small people I picked on. I want to make amends to them."

"And you can," said Aslan.

"But I betrayed my family and deserved to be punished severely."

"You are not going to be punished," said the lion calmly. "You are sorry for what you did, and that's enough. Also, you are still a child. Children are born to learn."

"EDMUND!"

Peter, Susan and Lucy rushed up to him in relief. Why were they happy? They should be angry with him. Peter should be looking ready to give him a hiding.

Aslan pushed Edmund forward to them with his head. "What's done is done," he told them. "There is no need to talk about what is past."

Edmund walked slowly up to his siblings and said very gently, "I'm sorry."

"That's alright," they said.

And at that moment on, they were all friends again. Edmund looked at Aslan who was walking away. He didn't know who he was speaking to, but his heart felt warm from his talk with him. There was something that made Edmund feel like he had a lion for a father.