TERENCE AND TUMNUS 100 CHALLENGE

Presenting story four, as well as another story that takes place at Christmastime! This is a little like my first story, only with a few tweaks here and there. Hope ya like!


Terence © unicorn-skydancer08

Tumnus and Narnia © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media

All rights reserved.

Any copying or reproduction of these stories in any way whatsoever without expressed permission is prohibited. Your honesty is sincerely appreciated.


STORY FOUR:
SNOWBALL FIGHT

It was Christmas at Castle Cair Paravel.

The air was crisp and chill. Nearly everything was covered in a solid blanket of sparkling white snow. Long, clear icicles hung from the branches of the trees that surrounded the castle.

King Peter the Magnificent, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Susan the Gentle—the renowned Children of Adam and Eve, and the regal monarchs of Narnia—all opted to stay in the warm, dry castle. But Queen Lucy the Valiant, the youngest monarch, was out and about, enjoying the snow and the refreshingly cold air.

And she wasn't the only one.

A considerable number of young Narnians—young fauns, young nymphs, young satyrs, unicorn foals, and centaur colts; as well as baby rabbits, baby foxes, baby raccoons, baby beavers, leopard cubs, puppies, and many other furry four-legged tots—were scampering here and there in the snow, shrieking and laughing and having a marvelous time.

They wrestled playfully with one another, they chased one another about, and they helped one another build snow figures and snow forts.

Some of the little ones hiked up snowy mounds and enjoyed a thrilling slide downhill, right into a big yet delightfully soft bank of snow at the bottom.

And not everyone who was outside that day was a child.

Tumnus the faun, who was quite grown-up, was also enjoying the wintry weather. His red woolen scarf hung jauntily about his neck and shoulders, and he leaned casually against a frost-encrusted tree and watched with fondness as little Queen Lucy participated in a game of tag with a centaur filly, a young vixen, and a couple of rabbits.

While Tumnus kept an eye on the girls, Tumnus's best friend Terence, a young unicorn who had been recently turned into a young human with silvery white hair, came strolling by.

Terence stopped abruptly when he saw Tumnus, and a wicked idea popped into his head. Without making a sound, the white-haired youth crouched down and scooped up a double handful of snow, packing it into a tight ball.

And then he silently wound up and hurled the ball at Tumnus with all his might. His aim was perfect, and he scored a direct hit on the back of the faun's head.

"Hey!" Tumnus exclaimed, startled.

He immediately whirled around, and Terence deliberately looked away from his stag-legged friend, whistling a casual tune, as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.

Tumnus frowned at him. "Don't go acting all innocent around me, Terence," he said sternly, "I know it was you who did that!"

"Did what?" asked Terence, feigning ignorance.

"You know very well what," the faun retorted. "I got pelted by a snowball just now, and I know snowballs don't simply fly out of nowhere."

Terence cocked an eyebrow at his best mate. "Oh, really? Did the snowball look anything like this?" And so saying, he chucked a second snowball he'd just packed together at Tumnus.

This time, he hit Tumnus squarely in the face, nearly knocking the faun off balance.

Tumnus merely brushed the snow out of his eyes and spit out from his mouth a small chunk of ice that had become imbedded in the ball, saying, "Yes. Yes, it did."

Terence just burst out laughing.

Tumnus leveled off his ears. So, that's how he wants it to go down, he thought to himself. Out loud, he said, "Okay, mister—time for a little dosage of your own medicine."

And before Terence could react, Tumnus had scooped up a handful of snow and made a snowball of his very own. Tumnus pitched the snowball at Terence as hard as he could, and ended up striking his mate squarely in the chest.

Rubbing his sore chest, Terence declared to the faun, "You have just delivered a counterattack, goat-foot! Then it's officially war!"

"You're going down, graybeard!" Tumnus shot back, getting into the gig.

And within seconds, the friends had launched into a full-blown snowball battle.

The faun and the silver-haired human pursued one another about, occasionally taking shelter behind a tree or a bush, and assaulting one another mercilessly with snowballs.

Once Terence threw a snowball at Tumnus, but failed to hit him, and Tumnus gloated, "Ha, ha! You missed me, you old gray—" But then the young faun was instantly silenced when a fresh snowball from Terence clobbered him on the side of the head.

Now it was Terence's turn to gloat. "Score one for the big man, goat-foot!" he proclaimed.

The snowball war between the two continued, growing progressively wilder and more hedonistic by the minute, until eventually Lucy showed up.

"Mr. Tumnus, Mr. Terence, what are you—" she began, but the rest of her sentence was cut off when Tumnus ducked to avoid yet another snowball that Terence hurled at him, and the snowball ended up pelting Lucy instead.

The unexpected blow caused the young queen to stumble, and she lost her balance and fell over into a pile of snow. "Oomph!"

When Tumnus and Terence saw this, they both ceased fire at once and fled to her side. "Lucy! Oh, my gosh!" Terence gasped, fearing he might have injured the little girl in his recklessness.

"Oh, Lucy, are you all right?" Tumnus asked anxiously, falling to his knees in the snow next to her and gathering her gently into his arms.

Luckily, Lucy wasn't hurt—baffled, but not hurt. She simply blinked away the little flakes of snow that clung to her eyelashes and gazed up into Tumnus's worried face, inquiring, "What's going on, Mr. Tumnus?"

Seeing that she was uninjured, Terence and Tumnus both heaved a deep sigh of relief at the exact same time.

"I'm sorry, Lucy," Tumnus said, helping the child to her feet and brushing the snow from her.

"No, Lucy, I'm sorry," interjected Terence. "That last shot came from me, so it's my fault. We were engaged in a little snowball fight, and I…sort of got carried away."

"A snowball fight, eh?" Lucy sounded genuinely interested.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Tumnus asked, resting his palm alongside Lucy's cheek and surveying her with gentle concern.

Terence added sheepishly, "I suppose I ought to do something to make up for laying into you like that, Lucy."

"Yes, you should, Mr. Terence," said Lucy. She bent down to dig up some snow, packed it all together to make a circular shape, and then she lobbed the whole thing into Terence's face.

"Hey, what the—?!" Terence cried, taken aback.

"Now we are even!" Lucy said gleefully.

As Terence bemusedly wiped the bits of snow from his face, Tumnus chortled, "Ha! She really got you good, Terence!"

And then the faun jumped a mile as Lucy smacked him with a snowball.

"Score two!" Lucy laughed.

Her friends both looked at her shrewdly. "Oh, so you want to play dirty, do you?" Terence commented. He turned to Tumnus. "What say you, Tumnus, old mate?"

Tumnus gave a nod of concurrence and pronounced, "It's war!"

Lucy giggled and promptly took off running in the opposite direction.

"You're in deep trouble, missy!" Terence called roguishly, as he and Tumnus simultaneously launched themselves after her.

"Only if you can catch me, first!" she called back.