Lucy wiggled her toes in the sand, wondering how she had gotten here. The night breeze was warm, carrying a promise of summer. Spectacular summer. The waves were subdued, breaking quietly. Though she was enjoying the scene, she suspected there was a reason for it. The sand, of course, and the sound of the break had been identifying factors to where she was. The salty smell, too. It must be the very deep of night. There were no lights to illuminate the shore besides the stars and moon, which admittedly, were shining rather enthusiastically.

Lucy's eyes were drawn out to the gloom of the waves. She squinted, trying to make sense of her surroundings and puzzle out how she had arrived on the beach to begin with. A strange shape was detaching from the shadowy waves. It grew larger and larger and the moonlight reflected off of it. Beams of golden light tossed through the air.

It was wonderful, marvelous really, to see Him again.

He emerged from the waves and padded onto the shore with his large paws. Her breath caught as he gave a magnificent shake and turned to her.

"My dear child."

She laughed delightedly and ran to him. Her arms clasped around his miraculously dry neck and she buried her face in his golden mane. Her curls mixed with his tawny fur as if they were meant to be together. "I missed you, Aslan."

"I have been here all along."

She pulled back and looked into his deep eyes full of love, "I know that. I'm sorry that I forget sometimes. But it is so very nice to really see you again."

"You have served me well, Queen Lucy."

She ducked her head back into his mane at the compliment, tears filling her eyes.

"I hoped very hard that I was, but I wasn't sure."

"This I know. Yet still you have served me, faithful one. You have brought back love to my people where Jadis destroyed it."

Lucy frowned, "I'm not very good at the politics, Aslan. I get hopelessly bored. I suppose that makes me selfish. I'm not patient about it like Pete, Ed, and Susan."

His only words on the subject, "You will improve."

There was a moment of peaceful silence.

"You wonder about the boy."

Lucy was not surprised. Aslan knew the depths of her heart, and her head always seemed ten times clearer when she was with him. "He is lost, I think. Wandering. But then, sometimes he seems to know precisely who he is. When I first met him, I was certain he was the most self confident person of my acquaintance. How can that be?"

His sad eyes regarded her, "If it is advice that you seek, brave one, know that it is enough that you share his friendship. In this way you shall serve me. I will not answer all of your questions. Some of the answers you must discover for yourself, and others he must give to you."

"Yes, Aslan. In time, though, he will heal?"

Aslan considered her with the light of something that resembled mirth growing in his large, liquid eyes. "In time, you must trust what I will begin to tell you."

Lucy did not understand, but she had not expected to. She did intend to remember, however. She stepped back a step from Aslan and nodded. He likely did not intend to stay long. He was the King of Beasts, after all. "Will you help me trust?"

He dipped his maw toward her and said, "Courage, dear one." He opened his jaws wide and breathed on her.

Then it was dark once more.

She could still smell the salty sea. Something was off about it, though she couldn't put her finger on exactly what. She no longer stood in the soft sand of the Eastern sea. In fact, as she wiggled her toes she found that she wasn't standing in sand at all. Below her feet was rough wood. Startled, she noted that the ground was rocking. An earthquake? Lucy bent her knees and moved so as to widen her stance and give herself more stability. She almost tipped over when she realized she couldn't move her ankles. With it came an awareness of some rough material against her ankles. Not just her ankles! Her wrists!

Lucy didn't think she'd ever been tied up before, but she strongly suspected it was rope that was binding her extremities. Where was she? And how had she gotten here? She craned her head around desperately, trying to find some clue in the darkness about her situation. She couldn't see anything except the pure black that surrounded her. Was she blind?

Rough laughter sounded behind her and she felt pressure on her back. Then she was being shoved forward. She had to concentrate in order not to tread on her own toes.

More sounds began to filter into her consciousness. Loud men. Strange vernacular. A creaking sound. The voice behind her.

"Now, now, there's no way out but down, little girl." Again, the rough voice laughed cruelly. "Out you go." She received another shove.

Stumbling forward, Lucy felt real alarm amidst her confusion as the wood beneath her feet became extremely unstable. She felt as though she were balancing on a tree branch. Several voices called out to her in mocking tones, but she had difficulty deciphering their words.

That same voice close by spoke again menacingly, "A big jump now sweetheart, to the fishies."

Terror streaked through her. What was happening?

Suddenly, she didn't have to wonder anymore. She felt a jolt behind her and then she slipped.

Lucy was falling. She was falling far and fast. She knew she was screaming, could feel her vocals straining. And yet, the rushing air was stealing her voice. No one would hear her, and no one would save her.

"Aslan!" Wasn't it just moments before that she was with him?

"No fear," came the deep rumble around her.

"I don't understand!" she screamed, the fall seemed to last forever. She was certain pain awaited her at the end of it. The wind battered at her, bruising her.

"He will catch you."

The air snatched tears from her eyes.

Desperate, she called out, "Who? No one can catch me! Who is waiting for me?"

"He will. The Way is found."

She rushed away from the stars and dread filled her. She wasn't sure at what point the stars had appeared during her fall. But she could see them now. This was it. She closed her eyes and accepted her fate. The air around her shimmered with a distant unapproachable tune she could not understand. She shivered at its coldness. It mocked her.

She was afraid. She was alone. She was falling. So she screamed out her pain. Fire burned her every particle as she made impact and burst into tiny pieces, her body jolted-

"Lucy!" Susan shouted in her ear.

Susan?

Lucy's eyes opened wide and her mouth snapped shut, as she looked into Susan's concerned face and past her to the ceiling of her bedroom.

"Susan?"

"Lucy!"

Susan gathered Lucy tightly to her, wrapping her arms around her sister.

With a foggy mind, Lucy asked, "What's wrong, Su?"

Susan pulled back and looked at her sister in shock. "Lucy, you were screaming."

"I was?"

"You were." Susan confirmed. She peered at Lucy closely, "Nightmare?"

Lucy's forehead wrinkled, as Aslan and the falling tumbled together in a perplexity, "I'm not sure."

Susan shook her head as if that answer made no sense. And maybe it didn't. Lucy was too overwhelmed to figure that out, too. "Go back to sleep, then, Lu."

Susan waited a moment while Lucy settled back obediently and pulled up her blanket. When she left the room, Lucy sat back up. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep the rest of the night.

"Aslan, help me to trust," she whispered into the still night.

"Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."

Chapter 8

For when they tried to look at Asian's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes;

Chapter 12

Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

"To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that."

"Oh dear," said Lucy.

"But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan.

Chapter 10

Prince Caspian

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