THE PRINCESS, THE APPLE, AND THE HORN

Disclaimer: The characters of Peter Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, Lucy Pevensie, and Aslan are all property of Disney® and C.S. Lewis, as is Narnia.

Ten

Just under ten years had passed Narnia since the fifth annual spring celebration that had been completely devastated by the black dwarf attack. It ended that evening with a funeral and the younger king's disappearance for a few months. He returned later with a young child that was merely several months old.

The entire country of Narnia knew her as Angel, the young princess adopted and raised by the Kings and Queens of Narnia. No one seemed to know where King Edmund had found her, and no one had taken the time to ask.

It was obvious how deeply he cared for the girl. He and his brother paid strict attention to her studies as well as how she was brought up. He wouldn't let her near a sword, yet he allowed Queen Susan to teach her to use a bow. She and her sister taught her at a young age of how a proper lady and princess should act.

Angel, on the other hand, had a mind of her own. She was always curious about everything, usually acting a bit younger than she was, and had a knack for getting into trouble when she least meant it. She preferred spending time in the woods climbing trees among the dryads rather than spending time on her studies. She was a delicate and beautiful child that each of the Kings and Queens were proud of.

Problems with the White Witch's old army were becoming few and far apart. The most recent had been a giant problem up north that the High King had gone to deal with personally. During that time, Calormen had attacked Archenland, which King Edmund had gone to protect. When both Kings returned, Angel had bombarded them both with questions of the war, enough bedtime stories to last her a month.

Problems with pirates, on the other hand, had come to a complete stop. At first, the silence had been disturbing to the inhabitants of Narinia. They were simply waiting for another seize even though the largest pirate problem had been taken care of. Silence continued for years, and the unease slowly subsided.

The halls to Cair Paravel were dark and quiet one late fall morning. Frost covered the windows and grass while the courtyard pond was glossed over with ice. The young princess was sound asleep in her own bed chamber; her light brown curls spread out on her pillow. Her cheeks had grown a rosy pink against her freckled complexion overnight at the unexpected cold in her room.

She was breathing softly and steadily. Every so often she'd mumble something soft and innocent in her sleep, but for the most part she remained still. She was past the age of nightlights, though she still slept with a small stuffed black bear at her side to keep her company.

As a faint tint of light began to peek over the horizon, her eyelids flickered open revealing the deep chocolate eyes beneath them. She let out a soft and tired moan before sitting up, rubbing her eyes. She shivered slightly and pulled the covers over her head, making her body as squished together as possible. It was so cold! She closed her eyes tightly and tried to think of something warm. Hot cider, a lit fireplace, a freshly baked cake—

Her eyes suddenly bolted open and a wide smile crossed her face. Cake: that reminded her. It was her tenth birthday today. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Peter had constantly reminded her for the past month that turning ten was a huge deal.

Giggling to herself, she sat up, pulling the covers as tightly as she could around her before getting out of the bed and hopping over to her wardrobe. Pulling the doors open, she tried searching for her favorite flower-patterned dress that she could wear all day. Finally finding it, she carried it over to her bed, her body still wrapped in the blanket before climbing in.

Attempting to change under the covers was a quite difficult task, she quickly found out, and it was simply easier to venture the cold for a few minutes than struggle. She pulled on her slippers before hopping over to the door and pulling it open. She peeked into the dark halls, they were completely empty. She must have been the first one up then. She grinned even wider before hurrying down the hall and opening Edmund's door. It was completely quiet inside, and dark. Without hesitating she jumped onto his bed.

"Uncle Edmund! Uncle Edmund! Wake up! It's my birthday! I'm ten today!"

She giggled excitedly until she noticed something rather odd. He wasn't asleep in his bed. Her smile quickly turned into a friend. She pulled back the covers to make sure he wasn't hiding, even though the bed was awfully flat.

"Uncle Edmund?"

He wasn't anywhere in the room. Thinking it rather odd, she left the room, closing the door behind her before trying Lucy's room.

"Aunt Lucy?" she asked into the room. Sadly enough her room was as empty as Edmund's. What was going on? Had they gone on some vacation and forgotten her? Surely they wouldn't forget her tenth birthday!

"Uncle Peter?" she asked into Peter's room, his was just as empty, as was Susan's.

Angel was beginning to feel scared. Perhaps they moved and forgot to bring her along. She felt tears coming on as she moved down the long hallway. No one was in sight.

"Hello?"

Her voice echoed down the dark and empty hall. Not even the guards were there. Angel swallowed, looking up and down the halls again. Around the corner there was a soft glow. Grinning to herself she ran down the hall to find who was casting it. The glow quickly faded, and was once again at the end of another hall by the time she reached the intersection.

"Wait!" called Angel, still following whatever was running away. It was moving, which meant someone was there. Unless it was a lightning bug and if it was it would have been a very big lightning bug. "Wait! I have a question for you!"

The whole thing turned out to be a game of chase. Angel was in no way about to give up any time soon, however. Down the stairs and through the corridors, she chased the glowing shadow. She only caught a glimpse of the one holding the light, which turned out to be a lantern. A dryad, she recognized her as one of Aunt Lucy's dearest dryad friends: Cherry Blossom, moved gracefully through the hall ahead of her only pausing to open the throne room door before entering. The light finally disappearing from view, but a greater light was issuing from under the doorway.

Angel frowned. Why hadn't the dryad stopped to talk to her, she didn't know. But she was determined to find out. Quickening her step, she moved to the throne room doors, pulling them open with a little difficulty before stepping inside. The light was harsh against her eyes and she had to blink a few times before everything adjusted.

"Surprise!"

Angel's eyes widened as what looked like every inhabitant of Narnia had gathered inside of the throne room. There were tables stacked with presents and wrapped gifts that were taller than her. She felt tears coming to her eyes, though she didn't know why she was crying now. Her two Aunts and two Uncles came forward with large smiles upon their faces.

"Happy Birthday, Angel," Edmund said, leaning down to give her a large hug. Angel ran forward and jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly back.

"I thought you moved without telling me!" she said, not wanting to let him go.

"We would never leave you, dear Angel," Susan replied, taking Angel from Edmund's arms and giving her a big hug. "The thought would never cross any of our minds. We would never leave you behind, dear one."

"We only wanted to surprise you," Peter said, paternally running his hand over her hair. "We're sorry to have done such a thing to scare you."

Lucy nodded. "We only wished to make you happy."

Angel nodded as Susan set her down so she could wipe her eyes before hugging Lucy and Peter. She was happy, but that still didn't take away from the scared feeling she had less than five minutes prior.

Those frighten feeling soon faded into nothingness as Angel was adorned with gifts from afar as well as all the attention she could have ever wanted. Turning ten must have been a great deal if they had gone to so much trouble for her. She was just happy they hadn't forgotten about her.

"Angel," Lucy said excitedly, sitting down next to her before pulling the girl onto her lap. "Did you know I was but your age when we defeated the white witch?"

"Dear sister," Susan corrected her. "You were younger."

"Let us hope Angel does not get into as much trouble as we did at her age," Edmund said with a laugh.

Susan scoffed. "You mean you did, dear brother. You, Edmund, got into enough trouble for the four of us."

"Enough, I pray," Edmund said with a laugh. "We were all younger and more care-free."

"Oh, but tell me the story again, Aunt Lucy!" Angel begged her. "I love that story. It's my favorite one of any that you've ever told me. And you tell it so well!"

"Very well," Lucy replied, starting their long story of how they came to Narnia, defeated the White Witch, and restored peace to Narnia. Despite everyone in the room having heard the story many-a time-before, all of them listened silently to her words. Angel could practically picture the entire story in her head, Lucy told it so well.

"But where did you come from?" Angel asked, as she always did, once Lucy was finished. "Where were you before saving Narnia? If she knew you were here, surely the adventure would have come sooner?"

"We remember not," Peter replied. "It was a far of land, much unlike Narnia."

"It must be sad," Angel said, "Not remembering where you came from."

"It's not something to dwell upon," Lucy told her, touching Angel's nose with the tip of her finger, making her giggle. "There's so much to entertain here, it would be unwise to dwell upon those thoughts."

"But don't you ever wonder where you came from?" Angel asked the four of them. She often wondered who her real parents were constantly, and although Edmund and the others took great care of her and loved her, there was always that tiny piece of her that seemed to be missing. How the others didn't seem to know about their parents and were a bit undisturbed by it seemed somewhat odd.

"I'm sure that adventure will be one worth taking," Edmund told her as he sat down next to Lucy before pulling Angel onto his own lap. "But until that time comes, we have little need to think of it."

"But—"

"Angel, dear?" Susan interrupted her. "Your guests have brought you gifts. It would be rude to leave them unopened when they went to so much trouble."

Angel quickly forgot about her previous questions and immediately went to opening her gifts. Each and every one brought to her was delightful: dresses, flowers, dolls, toys. Angel loved the fact that everyone seemed to take the trouble to bring her such lovely and precious gifts.

The best gift by far, though, was Edmund's gift to her. For the first time, he seemed to be accepting the fact that she was growing up and had presented her with a brand new friend: a horse. Whenever they had gone somewhere, he'd always insisted she either take the carriage or ride with another person.

"Oh! Thank you, Uncle Edmund! Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"The pleasure is all mine, little Princess" the Horse said with a bow. "I was honored when His Majesty came and asked me to be of service to you."

"His name is Lorrein," Edmund informed her, returning her hug tightly. "He's very smart and intelligent, and will make sure you stay safe, and teach you the best way to ride. But remember, he's not a pet or a servant. He's a friend."

Angel nodded and ran over to the horse, hugging his neck and feeling his soft fur beneath her cheek. "You're coat is so dark!"

"He's a chocolate color," Lucy observed, "like your eyes."

"Oh!" Angel realized and her eyes widened even more excitedly. "We're like twins!"

"Yes we are," Lorrein gave a laughing whinny, tossing his main slightly. Angel hugged him tightly once again; glad to have made a new friend.

That night, once many of the guests had left and darkness was beginning to creep over the horizon, Angel was once again in her bed, only this time, Edmund was tucking her in. Once finished he sat on the edge and smiled down at her.

"Comfortable?" he asked her with a grin.

She nodded, hugging her bear tightly to her. "Will you tell me a good night story?" she pleaded with innocent eyes.

"Haven't you had enough stories for today?" Edmund reminded her, laughing. "Your Aunt Lucy told you the entire story of the White Witch just this after noon."

"But I love stories!" Angel protested.

"How about the story of the girl who got tickled because she loved stories," he suggested, darting his hands to her sides and tickling her. Angel let out a squeal of laughter before Edmund let go an instant later, tucking her in again.

"Uncle Edmund?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you think I'll ever have an adventure of my own?" When he didn't answer her, she continued. "They sound like so much fun, and Lucy was younger than I when you defeated the White Witch."

"True," Edmund replied, "but those adventures are dangerous. We risked our lives to protect Narnia—"

"For Aslan!" Angel finished, giggling slightly.

Edmund looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but instead let out a sigh. Grinning to himself, he leaned forward and kissed Angel lightly on her forehead. "Go to sleep now, Angel."

"Do you think I ever will go on an adventure?" she asked him again.

"I couldn't say," Edmund replied, with a half smile. "But if you ever do, I pray Aslan keeps you safe. Goodnight, Angel."

"Goodnight, Uncle Edmund."

Edmund silently closed the door behind him, leaving Angel in her room with the stars' light to keep her company. If an adventure meant one that put the young girl's life in danger, he sincerely hoped that she would never find herself in one.