A/N: I must admit, when I wrote the prologue, I had absolutely no idea where I was headed. I knew I wanted to get inside the minds of the four Pevensie kids outside of Narnia, but wasn't sure how to go about it. But, don't worry! I had a really good idea come to me at work this morning, and now I'm set to take off with it. Hope you enjoy!


A freezing rain was pouring down onto the streets of England the first day of Winter break. It was the kind of rain that seeped through even the most durable coats and left its occupant without feeling and in a sour mood.

"I swear, Su, if you don't hurry up, you'll be carrying your own bags the rest of the way," a seventeen year old boy grunted. Both of his hands were gripping a large suitcase, but the water made the handle slippery and the boy was close to losing his fight in maintaining a steady balance.

A comely girl hurried forward, an umbrella the size of a small car covering her. "There's no need to yell, I'm right here."

Straggling behind the two were another pair of children, both male and female as well. They had on the red and blue blazers depicting their schools, and the youngest, a genial girl of twelve, had traces of mud on her shoes. The boy was the farthest back, walking sluggishly forward with both hands in his pockets and his black eyebrows were furrowed.

"Edmund! Come help me with this," the boy glanced up, startled by the sudden outburst of his name. He had been troubled for some weeks since his encounter with older brother. Against his better judgment, he had not sent a letter to his older sister, Susan. Instead, he shrugged of Peter's outrage and ignored his continuous bickering. He hoped that once safely with his family in the country and away from his classmates, Peter would wave off his bad disposition.

"Hello? Ed!" The boy broke away from his thoughts just in time to see Peter shoving luggage into the newly arrived train. Before he was able to rush to his brother's aid, though, his younger sister, Lucy, was there. She cheerfully handed off small parcels and began searching for a compartment for them all to hole away in.

Edmund looked on with a hint of envy in his stare. Everything seemed so easy for Lucy. It was easy for her to do what was impossible for most. To love, to not judge, to believe without questioning why. For her, life just was. She never had to worry about finding the words to say to someone who was hurting, she just had to take them in her arms and their worries would somehow disappear. Edmund knew that if Lucy had seen Peter fighting and heard his outburst, she'd have all the right words to dissolve his anguish.


Once all seated in a back compartment, it wasn't long before everyone's attention diverted to the one thing that binded them so close.

"Do you imagine the dwarves have had their First Winter's Dance yet?" Lucy asked whistfully. Images of the creature's celebration upon the first snowfall of the season sprang into her mind and remained there, a vivid memory of a past life.

Edmund smirked, "Probably, and if I know Trumpkin, he's probably hating every minute of it."

Giggling, Lucy replied, "Our dear little friend, he always seemed so set against anything cheerful."

Next to Edmund, Peter let out a long sigh and focused his attention on the passing scenery outside his window. Lucy, noting his lack of participation in the conversation, pointed it out to her oldest brother. "Now, Pete, you always had such a good sense of the weather, how do you suppose it is there?"

Peter snapped towards Lucy. "Well how should I know? In case you forgot, Lue, we're in England." Peter regretted the statement as soon as he saw Lucy's face shadowed with hurt. Secretly his favorite, Lucy held a special place in his heart, and he never meant to be so brash with her.

"Peter's right," Susan glanced up from an arithmetic book. "There's no point in discussing that place right now."

"That place? That place?" Edmund blurted. "It has a name you know!"

Susan rolled her doe-like eyes. "Oh, Ed, don't overreact. I was merely suggesting we talk about something normal. You know, something in our world."

"Like what?" Edmund's pale face was beginning to flush from anger. "Books, jobs, the latest car model?"

"Anything's better than dwarves and centaurs and swords."

As Edmund crept closer to the edge of his seat, Peter tried his best to tune them all out. They hadn't been together five minutes before an argument began. And, just like everything else, it centered on Narnia.

It took him by no surprise at all. It seemed like all the four children could do anymore had some connection with that country. Their country. Peter had heard countless recallings of their royal lives, and almost every time they ended in a dispute concentrating on trying to figure out how to balance both lives.

"…and if you think I'm gonna put up with that…you're disgracing your friends, you are!" Peter came back to attention just as Edmund was about to stand up and start real trouble. He knew, as the eldest child, it was his job to break them up. The old Peter would have swept between them and reminded them all that they needed to act like themselves. That true kings and queens did not bicker and quarrel over silly things. The old Peter would have cracked a joke that would have broken the tension and restored them all to their old selves.

But the old Peter was gone. Now, all he had left of himself was grief and bitter jealousy that burned a fire in him so intense, he never could seem to stifle it.

"Stop it! All of you!" Lucy cried. Looking around, she tried to hid the tears forming in her eyes by blinking rapidly, but all three were not fooled.

Ashamed, Edmund bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Lucy."

"Why are we always fighting? Narnia's supposed to be like a haven."

Susan attempted to grab Lucy's hand, but the girl recoiled, still too upset to be comforted. "It is Lucy, but you have to understand-"

"No, you have to understand! I've seen the way you act at school, Susan. You parade around like you've completely forgotten Aslan."

"Nobody's forgotten him, Lucy. I'm just trying to move on with my life, is all."

"She's right, you know," Peter leaned forward. He had intended to remain quiet, but seeing his sister in such distress broke his heart. "You see, Susan and I have to move on, Lucy. Narnia's just part of our past. We can't dwell on it forever."

Lucy's tears had now breached the surface and were rolling down her cheeks in a silent downpour. "You have no room to talk, Peter. You're the worst one of all."

Instead of arguing with her, Peter silently agreed. He sat back in his chair and allowed his long blonde hair to cover his eyes. He had nothing else to say to any of them at the moment, for he distanced himself from his own emotions so much that such conversation was nearly foreign to him. The others, watching their unspoken leader give up on not only the argument, but his youngest sister as well, all followed suit and sank into their own corners of the compartment. The woods rolled past their rainy window and the scene began to shift from a downtown metropolis to green countryland. All were hoping the time alone with each other away from the hustle and bustle of city life would magically evaporate the last three months they spent trying to adjust.

However, as each of the four closed their eyes and imagined themselves back in their home, their country, their world, they also realized how difficult it would be to spend a holiday together without wars and battles, mail suits and arrows. They had all spent so much time learning how to successfully debate a Calormenes, that they had forgotten how to play cricket with their own parents. And, worst of all, for two of them, they'd never be able to get those moments back.

The rest of the train ride was spent in silence.