Author's Notes:

I have been wanting to write a Narnia FF for a while now... and when I say a while, I mean, well, a while. The first story I ever read on this site that also got me into FF was "Untamed" by Acey Rey. It was this story and then also watching Prince Caspian that initially made me interested in Edmund, the most complex character in the Chronicles of Narnia in my opinion.

The Horse and His Boy has always been my favorite Narnia story. There was something about the vast amount of lands the main characters explored in the story compared to the others that made me drawn to this particular one: Calormen, Narnia, Ettinsmoor, and Archenland. PC definitely made an influx of FF set with the Telmarines as the main villains, while I think Prince Rabadash was vastly more cruel. In addition, Tash plays a large role in The Last Battle which I always found interesting. I know Shasta and Aravis were not the main characters in this particular fic, but it was their world and lands that I wanted to explore more than anything else.

Sehnsucht is something that was first introduced to me by C.S. Lewis. If you've read my other fanfics, I wrote a Phantom fic where the main character was also German. I also studied music in school and LOVE singing in German. I personally find German to be a beautiful language. I love their culture, music, food, etc. Narnia to me has always fell into this category of "sehnsucht" that Lewis talks about.

Evelyn - Her character was inspired from my immense fascination of WWII. This is also one of the reasons why I have always loved The Chronicles of Narnia because I am a big WWII nerd. The Pevensies, in my opinion, seemed pretty sheltered from the war in the books. I know that they were sent away because of the air raids in London and that their father was away fighting, but C.S. Lewis never really touched upon how these characters felt about leaving the chaos of our world and going to the paradise of Narnia. I always wanted to throw a character into the midst of Narnia who had experienced the war in a way that the Pevensies hadn't. The idea of Evelyn coming to Narnia in the midst of chaos caused by the Allies was something I was dying to write about, especially from the perspective of a child who really has no idea why this war is taking place, what is going on, and then growing up confused and separated from her family.

Peter - Honestly, I always found Peter's character to be a bit strange. It always bothered me in LWW that Peter was crowned High King instead of poor Lucy who had discovered Narnia and discovered Aslan along with Susan at the Stone Table. C.S. Lewis wrote very 2D characters, but I knew there had to be a reason Peter was chosen to be the high king other than the fact that he was a boy and the eldest of the Pevensies. I also loved the direction Peter's character was taken in the 2008 PC film, being conflicted as having been a high king while trapped in a teenager's body. As a little girl, I always saw Peter's character as very black and white, but the older I've gotten, the more there seems to be lurking under the surface as a warrior and someone who not only had to lead his people through The Golden Age, but also restore Narnia in PC and then adapt back to life in our world.

Ira - When I first started writing this story, it was meant to be a completely Peter/OC fic. But I always had "Untamed" nagging at the back of my mind and I'd always found Edmund to be the most intriguing sibling of the Pevensies. It wasn't until this past summer that I just happened to stumble upon Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance and saw Gillian Norris as Morrighan the Temptress in her featured number, "Gypsy." It was this performance that inspired the creation of Ira, a woman with a complicated past, a temptress herself, and drawn to the younger king. Many OCs, such as Evelyn, are often depicted as victims in many FFs, but I wanted to create an OC who is responsible for some of the sorrow she's brought upon herself.

Edmund - The most interesting and beautiful character in The Chronicles of Narnia. I love his story of betrayal and redemption and seeing how he becomes perhaps the most loyal of the Pevensies to Narnia. I loved how C.S. Lewis allowed him to come to Narnia one last time in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and show just how much his relationship with Lucy healed since their bantering in LWW. Just because of Edmund's outward complexity, I wanted to create an OC who would pair well, even if it didn't seem like it at first. There's still so much more to explore with Edmund's character... I would highly recommend checking out many of the other wonderful FFs in the Narnia section if you'd like to get a bit more of Edmund and less Peter. So many writers on here have done a fantastic job with his characterization.

When it comes to my personal writing style, I wanted this story to be a little bit more action-based and shorter compared to my other FFs. If you're a follower of mine, my stories Abendmusik and Breakwater are over 100K words and 40+ chapters. I wanted to write a shorter story that still had a decent amount of character development and action. Some of you might argue that there's not enough character development or not enough action, and that's fine! This is my FF and you are more than welcome to write your own with the edits you'd like to make!

Lastly, there are FOUR songs that I had picked out as "themes" for my OC pairings. They are listed below:

Peter and Evelyn:
"Hold Me While You Wait" by Lewis Capaldi
"The Starling" by The Well Pennies (instrumental)

Edmund and Ira:
"To Each His Own" by Talos
"Racing in Your Heart" by Aaron Krause (instrumental)

As for a sequel, I'm not sure. I purposefully wrote the ending for both Ira and Evelyn open ended. Perhaps some of you may be willing to take a gander at a sequel? We'll see...

Thank you for reading!