Chapter 21

Final Surprises, Final Farewells

There was nothing physical about him that could impress a boy who could turn dragon, but one look into the gentle-yet-powerful golden eyes he possessed, and there was no doubt the creature before me knew far more than his appearance would ever let on.

"Aslan!" Lucy screamed, running past me and basically tackling the lion, hugging him tightly as he laughed at the reception, followed soon by Susan. Peter, Edmund and Caspian had slightly less energetic reactions, stepping forward and bowing respectfully. "It's a relief to see you again," Edmund said. "As well it is you," Aslan replied, still chuckling. "You have been very strong to have made it all the way here, and through all you did."

"Well, we probably wouldn't have if we hadn't had a little help," Caspian said with a smile, gesturing to me and the rest of the Vikings and dragons.

"Oh, your Majesty!" I heard from down by my feet. I looked down to see Reepicheep come forward and take off the feather ring he wore on his head in a bow. "Tell me, are we to be honored by standing at the edge of your country?" Aslan smiled. "I know the legends that are told of me in Narnia, but no. I do not have a country, besides those that I protect. This land is one yet undiscovered by most of the world." He looked up at me. "Though you might well recognize it, Hawken."

I blinked, before chuckling myself. "Well, looks like we finally discovered North America," I muttered lightheartedly. By now the Vikings and their dragons had gathered up behind me, drawn over by the curious sight of our conversing with the lion. Aslan looked at them and smiled.

"Welcome, friends," he said. "You have been through a great deal, and I can see you are all stronger for it. It seems I nudged you in the right direction when you came for a visit."

My eyes widened. "So that was you back in the forest," I noted. Aslan nodded. "Indeed. Even the overseers and guardians need a push occasionally."

"So, who are you, exactly?" Ruffnut asked bluntly. Still, it was clear that was a question on the minds of everyone behind me. Aslan chuckled again. "Like your friend here, I am more than I appear. I am Aslan the lion, at least most of the time. I, like your friend Hawken, am a guardian, one of the protectors of Narnia, the ocean and its lands across to here, and the eastern continent upon which we stand. And, as a guardian, I wish to speak with you for a moment, Hawken, alone," he intoned, looking back toward me.

Trusting that my friends would be safe on the beach for now, I nodded, and followed the lion along the sands a ways, before he turned to the "water wall" and raised his paw up to it. As soon as he did so the water rippled outward violently and the falls split, producing an opening wide enough for us to pass through a crystalline tunnel and into the forest behind. Aslan continued on, me following quietly behind, until we reached a small clearing, ringed by ancient trees and decorated with nothing more than a couple rocks high enough to serve as a seat. I sat down carefully as the lion set himself down just across the clearing, facing me.

"Word often spreads quickly when things happen between the gifted of this world," he began, lazily swishing his tail back and forth. "It was barely more than a year ago when I first received news that the Mystique had reached the point where she was ready to pass on her burden." He looked up at the sky, clear blue and warm above. "One year, and yet you've already managed to unlock secrets that took her decades, finding your ability to wield certain physical elements outside the realm of what most would ever deem normal. You have thwarted attacks, demonic or worldly, at least five times already with the help of your friends, and yet you're barely of age." Aslan looked directly at me, a warm smile on his face. "You are a special one, Hawken, even as those of us they call guardians go, as are the friends human and otherwise that surround you."

His speech, short as it was, came as revelation enough to keep me silent for more than a moment before I finally ventured for some clarification. "By that, what exactly do you mean?" I asked. Aslan chuckled. "Hawken, I have been a protector of this place for many, many years. I gave the animals of Narnia the ability to speak like I do through loneliness once long ago, I have battled evil many times, ventured even around the world to meet others like us and explore to learn more. Through all these events, both those that I would consider mistakes and those I would consider destined, I have learned a great deal. Centuries of knowledge and the experience to turn it to wisdom mean I can see many things coming before they happen and I am in tune to the very rhythm of the world more than most, but even that does not mean I can decipher everything I see, hear, or am given.

"Your friend Hiccup ended a catastrophic war between the humans and dragons of the northern regions, and together you have all gone far to quell the final flames of that violence. Camicazi rides one of the few dragons outside of the Shadowracers who can speak the common tongue, and hers won't be the last of your group to do so. The others have their gifts, found already or that will be brought to their attention in due time, and while they may not have had the accomplishments you and Hiccup achieved behind them, altogether you have the attributes of solidifying a team like no other."

Aslan quieted for a moment as he stood up again, and turned to a tree with a large hollow carved inside it, walking over and peering inside. "Some of those that the people of this world call guardians or protectors are granted nothing more than impossibly long lives to gain wisdom. Many others have been given gifts, great power, like those Coriakin and Lilianda wield. Then, there are the rare few like myself who were given both in some form."

He reached carefully into the hollow of the tree and extracted something with his paw, but I could not see it as he stayed turned away from me. "I don't know what your destiny in such terms will be yet, whether you were simply given abilities or more than that, as only God truly knows the ends of each of our fates, but what I have heard and seen of you yet is good."

I sighed. "So, was this meeting just to tell me I may have a long future, I have great power, use it wisely? Granted some of what you've just told me answers a lot of questions, but a lot of this I already came to figure out." Aslan laughed and finally turned back to me, something catching the sunlight in his grip. "Well I can't say you're not direct. Yes, there is something else, something to strengthen the team you are now stuck with, like it or not." He walked across the grass to me and held out the object in his paw. "This was given to me nearly a millennium ago by good friends in order to keep it safe until they or I found the right person to wield it. I know about the stories you have read back where you come from, and in one of them was a great power one of your close friends holds. I'm sure you will know who this now belongs to."

My eyes felt like they were ready to leave my head when I took in the sight of what the lion held in his paw. Sure enough, I did know exactly what it was, and who it was for. Lying in Aslan's grip was a bow, colored as if it were made of gold but clearly far more precious, and a tight, unbreakable string to match. The object seemed to almost glow with a hidden power, and around the bow itself were etched lines of writing I couldn't read yet, but unmistakably an old Hebraic form, the only thing that really differed from what I'd read.

Aslan dropped it gently onto my lap. "But… this… this is impossible!" I stuttered. "This looks exactly like Framherja, but"- "It is," Aslan interrupted, ending my babbling, "and the story behind it is not terribly different from the one you are familiar with. Forged using the same technique Mjollnir was crafted from, by guardians that have become lost to the realm of myths. When they made their weapons, they instilled a unique property to them designed to allow only one person to use them. Though you, Astrid and Toothless can hold it safely, only Hiccup can use it."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Mjollnir is Norse mythology, its wielder a Norse god. The names are rooted in the old Nordic languages, this shouldn't exist." Aslan smiled. "To the simpler minds of the world, especially when spoken of through corrupted stories and great periods of time, you and I would be called gods because of what we can do. As we both know that's not the case by a long shot as there is only one God, but a great deal can happen to distort the truth." He nodded to the bow I now carefully picked up. "The wielder of the hammer of those legends was no more than another gifted individual among a family of gifted people, a long time ago, but their story was taken by the more easily swayed and twisted far beyond reality."

He turned his head and looked back in the direction we had come from. "It's your decision as to when Hiccup is ready to take on this new responsibility, but I was told he should be the one to figure out how to use it. In the meantime, it is quite near to when you and your friends are to go the way you now must: home."

Needless to say I had plenty of questions arising in my mind, and I sat there trying to process what just happened for a little while longer before I came to my senses. Then, I gingerly picked up the otherworldly looking weapon and followed the other guardian, tucking Framherja out of sight for the time being. As I stood up, though, I realized I had a couple more questions I needed answered.

"Wait, before we go, I need to ask something," I began. Aslan turned to me expectantly. "So, first, I heard that the Pevensies have been here before, and a long time before now. Why is that?" "Time does not flow at the same rate everywhere," he answered. "You know that even dependent on the speed at which you go time changes. The same goes for many of the worlds out there. Yours and this one have been in line as long as time has been, but theirs is only now beginning to sync with ours." I nodded. "Okay, makes some sense. And secondly, why is it that, well, guardians like you and me exist in this world, but not mine, or theirs?" "Who says they do not exist there?"

That chilled me for some reason. "The powers of this world have stayed more out in the open is all it is," Aslan continued. "The path we took has become rather grandly different from those of places like your home, though the general storyline still remains true, but that doesn't mean there aren't others there, who may stay hidden away for reasons unknown. You are the first guardian here in a very long time that has come from another planet, another world, so it may well be that there will be a balancing of the equation again soon. Because of that I suspect you will also be a great target by those who wish to keep such things hidden away. Take care in where you walk."

He didn't venture any more explanation, and after that last bit I wasn't sure I wanted any, so instead I again quietly followed him back out of the forest and through the water wall, meeting up once more with my friends again. I avoided looking at Hiccup, thinking I didn't want to present the bow in front of everyone right away and not wanting to let on I had something new. However, everyone else was more focused on the Pevensies, who appeared to be expecting something to happen.

"I'm guessing it's time we headed home again as well, isn't it?" Lucy asked. Aslan nodded. "I'm afraid so. Your job here is done today, and it's time you returned to your families." "Will we come back?" Eustace asked, looking down at Reepicheep sadly. Aslan laughed gently. "The future is not known to anyone here, but we may yet have need of you again."

Reep looked up at Eustace, and grasped the boy's hand in his small paw. "Don't worry, you'll come back some day," he reassured. "I can feel it." Eustace shook his head slowly. "But what if you're not here anymore? I may not ever see any of you again." Reep smiled, trying to hide the tears that statement brought to not only his but everyone's eyes. "What a surprising puzzle you are, my friend." He pulled on Eustace's hand, and the boy kneeled down. "I'll see you again, I'm sure of it."

The boy nodded, and slowly stood up, only to be replaced by Lucy. "Can I, just this once?" she asked shyly. Reepicheep sighed. "Well, I guess it would be alright, but just this once-OOF!" He squeaked as Lucy picked him up and hugged him tightly. After a couple seconds, he relaxed and hugged her back, and then Lucy put him down and stood up with the rest of her family again.

All five of them then looked over at us, the Vikings and dragons. "We are often brought here if Narnia is in need of our help, but should you ever require another helping hand, we will find a way," Peter said. I smiled, before a slight chill ran down my spine. "I have a feeling we might too," I whispered quietly, before straightening again and smiling. "Be safe, my friends."

Aslan turned toward the water wall, pulled in a breath, and roared. Visible only to my eyes, faint ripples of energy raced outward and struck the water, the liquid flashing the spectrum of light before rippling as well and collapsing in on itself in a vortex, a once flat surface with hard crystal behind it drawing inward and lighting up in the very center, until the swirling water stretched out into a tunnel large enough to walk through. We slowly waved goodbye as Eustace and his cousins all stepped, one by one, into the passage, and as if on a silent cue, the water collapsed inward again and closed off the tunnel, a bright flash appearing before everything returned to normal, and the five were gone.

Now, we all looked to Reepicheep and Caspian. "I believe it's time we headed back home as well," I said, the teens nodding in agreement next to me. Caspian stepped forward and shook my hand. "I wish you luck then," he said, "in returning home and in any of your future adventures. I am honored to call all of you my friends." His smile grew larger as he looked at each of us. "All of you. I hope we meet again one day." "As do I," Hiccup said, everyone laughing in agreement this time. Caspian stepped back and nodded to us as the Vikings mounted on their dragons again and I morphed to Night Fury. "Farewell all of you, and may God be with you as you return home."

We all turned, and as the three Narnians waved us off one last time took to the air, soaring up high above the sand and waves. Suddenly, it hit me that Reep and Caspian didn't have a way back to the ship, as they'd ridden the dragons here. But when I turned back to look, they were already gone. I hovered for a moment, somewhat lost, before I was snapped out of it by Toothless' irritated, ::What did you forget this time?:: I smiled and shook my head. ::Oh, nothing, just thought something was out of place.::

I caught up with them again and, following both instinct and the landmarks around us, we slowly made our way northward again. Behind us, North America disappeared on the horizon, and we soared onward across the ocean, carrying on all the way about the adventure we had just undertaken, and whether or not all of it was actually real. However, by the time we landed for the night on a small island to make camp, not a one of us doubted: our adventure had been as real as every other, and somehow we all agreed it felt like it was only the beginning. I sat off to the side for the night, smiling as I thought about how little the others knew, just how right they were. As the darkness fell, though, one by one we managed to push our thoughts to the side, saving them all to be worried about at a later date. For the moment, all we really needed was a good night's sleep.

A/N-So, I hope this chapter did a couple of things for everyone: one, answered a few questions and two, brought up even more. There's plenty of room for speculation here, and I want to hear your predictions: what does the future hold? Do you know where Framherja originates from? What tassels are left untied?

Make sure to ask and let me know what you think in a review or two! Also, only one chapter left! It may be out this weekend, or I may pair it next weekend with the prologue to Book 4.