Chapter 4: Resurrection
Buffy, Susan and Lucy continued to hide in the bushes with Susan and Lucy huddled into Buffy, their faces still buried into the Slayer's side.
Buffy looked down at the two girls at how similar they were to Dawn as she heard the voice of the Witch calling out, "Now! Follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! It will not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now that the great Fool, the great Cat, lies dead."
The whole of the Witch's army swept off the hilltop and down the slope right past the girls hiding-place.
As soon as the wood was silent again Buffy released the girls. "Stay here," she ordered. She crept out onto the open hilltop. She knew instantly that like Dawn that neither Susan or Lucy had listened as they weren't far behind her. They crossed the hilltop to the Stone table where they saw Aslan lying dead in his bonds. And down Susan and Lucy both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur—what was left of it—and cried till they could cry no more while Buffy watched with tears of her own in her eyes.
Buffy pulled the girls into her arms and held them again as they cried once again.
At last Lucy said, "I can't bear to look at that horrible muzzle. I wonder could we take it off?"
Buffy took a knife she had taken in the camp from her boot and cut the strap. And when they saw his face without it Susan and Lucy burst out crying again and kissed it and fondled it and wiped away the blood and the foam as well as they could.
"I wonder could we untie him as well?" said Susan presently. Buffy took her knife; it was hard work sawing through the ropes. But she eventually had released the great lion's paws.
When Buffy finished Lucy had noticed that the sky in the east was whitish and the stars were getting fainter—all except one very big one low down on the eastern horizon. They felt colder than they had been all night.
Buffy helped the girls to clear away the remains of the ropes. Aslan looked more like himself without them.
In the wood behind them a bird gave a chuckling sound. It had been so still for hours and hours that it startled them. Then another bird answered it. Soon there were birds singing all over the place.
"I'm so cold," said Lucy.
"So am I," said Buffy and Susan.
"Of course, I'm from California where it very rarely gets this cold," Buffy added as Susan and Lucy chuckled slightly. "Let's walk about and try and get warm."
They walked to the eastern edge of the hill and looked down. The one big star had almost disappeared. The country all looked dark gray, but beyond, at the very end of the world, the sea showed pale. The sky began to turn red. They walked to and fro more times than they could count between the dead Aslan and the eastern ridge, trying to keep warm.
Then at last, as they stood for a moment looking out toward the sea and Cair Paravel the red turned to gold along the line where the sea and the sky met and very slowly up came the edge of the sun. At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise—a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant's plate.
"What's that?" said Lucy, clutching Buffy's arm.
"I—I feel afraid to turn round," said Susan; "something awful is happening."
"Stay here," Buffy said as she turned to see what was making the noise. Again, the girls didn't listen as they followed Buffy. Upon reaching the Stone Table they found it broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan.
"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the two girls, rushing back to the Table.
"Oh, it's too bad," sobbed Lucy; "they might have left the body alone."
"Who's done it?" cried Susan. "What does it mean? Is it more magic?"
"Very likely," Buffy said.
"Yes!" said a great voice behind their backs. "It is more magic." They looked round.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"Oh, Aslan!" cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.
"Aren't you dead then, dear Aslan?" said Lucy.
"There is always a way to come back isn't there?" Buffy said as she chuckled.
"Much like you did when you faced the Master," Aslan said nodding. "And like you may one day do again."
"I take it, when giving your life for someone," Buffy started.
"Yes, Buffy," agreed Aslan. "Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward. And now—"
"Oh yes. Now?" said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands.
"Oh," said the Lion, "I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, catch me if you can!" He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he Susan and Lucy as Buffy watched, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs.
Buffy smiled. "I wish Dawn could see this," she said wistfully.
"And now," said Aslan presently, "to business. I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears."
And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind.
Then he said, "We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me."
"Will all three of us fit?" Buffy asked. "Or should I go back to camp?"
"I believe all three of you will, Buffy," replied Aslan.
And he crouched down and the three of them climbed onto his warm, golden back, and Susan sat first, holding on tightly to his mane, Lucy sat behind Susan holding on tightly to her sister and Buffy sat behind Lucy and wrapped her arms around both girls. And with a great heave he rose underneath them and then shot off, faster than any horse could go, downhill and into the thick of the forest.
That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in Narnia.
It was nearly midday when they found themselves selves looking down a steep hillside at a castle—a little toy castle it looked from where they stood—which seemed to be all pointed towers. But the Lion was rushing down at such a speed that it grew larger every moment and before they had time even to ask themselves what it was, they were already on a level with it. And now it no longer looked like a toy castle but rose frowning in front of them. No face looked over the battlements and the gates were fast shut.
"Let me guess this is her home," Buffy said.
"It is," he cried. "Now, hold tight."
Next moment the whole world seemed to turn upside down for the Lion had gathered himself together for a greater leap than any he had yet made and jumped right over the castle wall. Buffy, Susan and Lucy breathless but unhurt, found themselves tumbling off his back in the middle of a wide stone courtyard full of statues.
"What an extraordinary place!" cried Lucy. "All those stone animals—and people too! It's—it's like a museum."
"Hush," said Susan, "Aslan's doing something."
He was indeed. He bounded up to a stone lion and breathed on him. Then without waiting a moment he whisked round and breathed also on a stone dwarf, which. Then he pounced on a tall stone dryad which stood beyond the dwarf, turned rapidly aside to deal with a stone rabbit on his right, and rushed on to two centaurs. But at that moment Lucy said, "Oh, Susan! Look! Look at the lion."
"He's bringing them back to life," Buffy said in realization as she noticed a tiny streak of gold that began to run along his white marble back—then it spread—then the color seemed to lick all over him—then, while his hindquarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come to life.
"Check on them all," Buffy ordered. "All the ones Aslan has breathed on."
The order was not needed as they turned, they saw that the courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd.
Instead of all that deadly white the courtyard was now a blaze of colors; glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, reddy-brown of foxes, dogs and satyrs, yellow stockings and crimson hoods of dwarfs; and the birch-girls in silver, and the beech-girls in fresh, transparent green, and the larch-girls in green so bright that it was almost yellow. And instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang with the sound of happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter.
"Oh!" said Susan in a different tone. "Look! I wonder—I mean, is it safe?"
"I would say it is," Buffy said as she looked at each and every creature there. Not a single one set of her Slayer sense one iota.
A moment later a giant lifted the club off his shoulder, rubbed his eyes and said, "Bless me! I must have been asleep. Now! Where's that dratted little Witch that was running about on the ground. Somewhere just by my feet it was." But when everyone had shouted up to him to explain what had really happened, and when the Giant had put his hand to his ear and got them to repeat it all again so that at last he understood, then he bowed down till his head was no further off than the top of a haystack and touched his cap repeatedly to Aslan, beaming all over his honest ugly face.
"Now for the inside of this house!" said Aslan. "Look alive, everyone. Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber! Leave no corner un-searched. You never know where some poor prisoner may be concealed."
And into the interior they all rushed and for several minutes the whole of that dark, horrible, fusty old castle echoed with the opening of windows and with everyone's voices crying out at once, "Don't forget the dungeons—Give us a hand with this door!—Here's another little winding stair—Oh! I say. Here's a poor kangaroo. Call Aslan—Phew! How it smells in here—Look out for trapdoors—Up here! There are a whole lot more on the landing!" But the best of all was when Lucy came rushing upstairs shouting out, "Aslan! Aslan! I've found Mr. Tumnus. Oh, do come quick."
A moment later Lucy and the little Faun were holding each other by both hands and dancing round and round for joy.
"So, this is Tumnus," Buffy said as she watched the pair. "It is a pleasure to meet you, sir. Lucy has told us much about you."
The ransacking of the Witch's fortress was ended. The whole castle stood empty with every door and window open and the light and the sweet spring air flooding in to all the dark and evil places which needed them so badly. The whole crowd of liberated statues surged back into the courtyard. And it was then that Tumnus first said, "But how are we going to get out?"
"That'll be all right," said Aslan; and then, rising on his hind-legs, he bawled up at the Giant. "Hi! You up there," he roared. "What's your name?"
"Giant Rumblebuffin, if it please your honor," said the Giant, once more touching his cap.
"Well then, Giant Rumblebuffin," said Aslan, "just let us out of this, will you?"
"Certainly, your honor. It will be a pleasure," said Giant Rumblebuffin. "Stand well away from the gates, all you little 'uns."
Then he strode to the gate himself and bang—bang—bang—went his huge club. The gates creaked at the first blow, cracked at the second, and shivered at the third. Then he tackled the towers on each side of them and after a few minutes of crashing and thudding both the towers and a good bit of the wall on each side went thundering down in a mass of hopeless rubble; and when the dust cleared it was odd, standing in that dry, grim, stony yard, to see through the gap all the grass and waving trees and sparkling streams of the forest, and the blue hills beyond that and beyond them the sky.
"Blowed if I ain't all in a muck sweat," said the Giant, puffing like the largest railway engine. "Comes of being out of condition. I suppose neither of you young ladies have such a thing as a pocket-handkerchee about you?"
"Yes, I have," said Lucy, standing on tiptoes and holding her handkerchief up as far as she could reach.
"Thank you, Missie," said Giant Rumblebuffin, stooping down.
"That's something you don't see much of in my time anymore," Buffy said.
"What?" asked Susan.
"Women carrying a handkerchief," answered Buffy.
Lucy got rather a fright for she found herself caught up in mid-air between the Giant's finger and thumb. But just as she was getting near his face he suddenly started and then put her gently back on the ground muttering, "Bless me! I've picked up the little girl instead. I beg your pardon, Missie, I thought you was the handkerchee!"
"No, no," said Lucy laughing, "here it is!"
This time he managed to get it but it was very, very small for him. So small that he solemnly rubbed it to and fro across his great red face.
"I'm afraid it's not much use to you, Mr. Rumblebuffin," Lucy said.
"Not at all. Not at all," said the giant politely. "Never met a nicer handkerchee. So fine, so handy. So—I don't know how to describe it."
"What a nice giant he is!" said Lucy to Mr. Tumnus.
"Oh yes," replied the Faun. "All the Buffins always were. One of the most respected of all the giant families in Narnia. Not very clever, perhaps, but an old family. With traditions, you know. If he'd been the other sort, she'd never have turned him into stone."
At this point Aslan clapped his paws together and called for silence. "Our day's work is not yet over," he said, "and if the Witch is to be finally defeated before bedtime, we must find the battle at once."
"And join in, I hope, sir!" added the largest of the Centaurs.
"Of course," said Aslan. "And now! Those who can't keep up—that is, Buffy, children, dwarfs, and small animals—must ride on the backs of those who can—that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. Those who are good with their noses must come in the front with us lions to smell out where the battle is. Look lively and sort yourselves." Aslan turned toward Buffy. "Buffy, you shall ride with me."
Buffy nodded. "Okay," she said.
When all were ready, they set out through the gap in the castle wall. At first the lions and dogs went nosing about in all directions. But then suddenly one great hound picked up the scent and gave a bay. There was no time lost after that. Soon all the dogs and lions and wolves and other hunting animals were going at full speed with their noses to the ground, and all the others, streaked out for about half a mile behind them, were following as fast as they could.
Faster and faster they went as the scent became easier and easier to follow. And then, just as they came to the last curve in a narrow, winding valley, Buffy heard above all these noises another noise—a noise she recognized all too well. The sounds of fighting.
Then they came out of the narrow valley and at once she saw the reason. There stood Peter and Edmund and all the rest of Aslan's army fighting desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures. There also seemed to be far more of them. Peter's army looked terribly few.
And there were statues dotted all over the battlefield, so apparently the Witch had been using her wand.
"Get me close as you can," Buffy told Aslan as she unsheathed her scythe.
As Aslan came close enough Buffy leapt and landed in a roll next to Peter. She raised her scythe and smiled as she joined Peter in the battle against the White Witch.
The witch's knife flashed against Peter's sword and Buffy's scythe as they fought.
As Susan and Lucy scrambled off the backs of the creatures that had bore them Aslan gave a roar that shook all Narnia from the western lamppost to the shores of the eastern sea. He then joined Buffy and Peter as he flung himself upon the White Witch. The Lion and Witch rolled over together but with the Witch underneath; and at the same moment all war-like creatures whom Aslan and Buffy had led from the Witch's house rushed madly on the enemy lines, dwarfs with their battleaxes, dogs with teeth, the Giant with his club, unicorns with their horns, centaurs with swords and hoofs. And Peter's tired army cheered, and the newcomers roared, and the enemy squealed and gibbered till the wood reechoed with the din of that onset.
"I wondered where you three had gotten to," Peter told Buffy.
Buffy smiled. "Well after Aslan sacrificed himself for Edmund and was resurrected. We went to get you reinforcements."
The battle was over a few minutes after their arrival. Most of the enemy had been killed in the first charge of Aslan and his companions; and when those who were still living saw that the Witch was dead, they either gave themselves up or took to flight. Then Aslan shook hands with Peter and then Buffy gave the young man a very passionate kiss, which he returned.
"It was all Edmund's doing, Aslan," Peter was saying when the kiss was broken. "We'd have been beaten if it hadn't been for him. The Witch was turning our troops into stone right and left. But nothing would stop him. He fought his way through three ogres to where she was just turning one of your leopards into a statue. And when he reached her, he had sense to bring his sword smashing down on her wand instead of trying to go for her directly and simply getting made a statue himself for his pains. That was the mistake all the rest were making. Once her wand was broken, we began to have some chance—if we hadn't lost so many already. He was terribly wounded. We must go and see him."
They found Edmund in charge of Mrs. Beaver a little way back from the fighting line. He was covered with blood, his mouth was open, and his face a nasty green color.
"Quick, Lucy," said Aslan.
And then, almost for the first time, Lucy remembered the precious cordial that had been given her for a Christmas present. Her hands trembled so much that she could hardly undo the stopper, but she managed it in the end and poured a few drops into her brother's mouth.
"There are other people wounded," said Aslan while she was still looking eagerly into Edmund's pale face and wondering if the cordial would have any result.
"Yes, I know," said Lucy crossly. "Wait a minute."
"Daughter of Eve," said Aslan in a graver voice, "others also are at the point of death. Must more people die for Edmund?"
"I'm sorry, Aslan," said Lucy, getting up and going with him. And for the next half-hour they were busy tending to the wounded while Aslan restored those who had been turned into stone. When at last she was free to come back to Edmund she found him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had seen him look. And there on the field of battle Aslan made him a knight.
"Does he know," whispered Lucy to Susan and Buffy, "what Aslan did for him? Does he know what the arrangement with the Witch really was?"
"No," Buffy answered. "And he doesn't need to know. That's one thing I've learned since giving my life for Dawn. She sadly will live with that knowledge and it will be a great weight upon her heart."
"Buffy's right," agreed Susan. "It would be too awful for him. Think how you'd feel if you were, he."
That night they slept where they were.
Next day they began marching eastward down the side of the great river. And the next day after that, at about teatime, they actually reached the mouth. The castle of Cair Paravel on its little hill towered up above them; before them were the sands, with rocks and little pools of salt water, and seaweed, and the smell of the sea and long miles of bluish-green waves breaking for ever and ever on the beach. And oh, the cry of the seagulls! Have you heard it? Can you remember?
That evening after tea the four Pevensies siblings and Buffy all managed to get down to the beach and get their shoes and stockings off and feel the sand between their toes. But next day was more solemn. For then, in the Great Hall of Cair Paravel—that wonderful hall with the ivory roof and the west wall hung with peacock's feathers and the eastern door which looks towards the sea, in the presence of all their friends and to the sound of trumpets, Aslan solemnly crowned the Pevensies.
Before Aslan could crown Buffy, Peter knelt down on one knee and proposed. Buffy immediately accepted without a doubt.
"With this proclamation," said Aslan. "Let us give the bride the day and tomorrow she will be wedded and crowned.
The next day Buffy stood in front of a mirror. Mrs. Beaver and several others had worked the night making her, Lucy and Susan gowns.
"Buffy, you look so beautiful." Lucy told her, coming up to stand behind her as they gazed into the mirror.
"Thank you." Buffy whispered as she smoothed down her dress, a faint glow on her cheeks. "I am sure I am like you and Susan in dreaming of a fairytale wedding. But I had began to think this day would never come."
"Because of the Slayer thing?" Susan asked as she stepped up on the other side of Buffy.
"Yes," Buffy answered moving to the door to peak out of it.
Lucy and Susan both reached forward and pulled her back. "Wait," they both cried.
Buffy rolled her eyes but took her bouquet of flowers, moving behind both girls. She stood there waiting impatiently as Lucy peaked through the door before finally turning around with a big smile on her face.
"They're ready," Lucy cried, moving to take her place behind Susan.
The doors opened and both Pevensie girls slowly moved through them. Buffy slowly counted to ten in her head before stepping up to the doorway, hearing everyone gasp at the sight of her. She couldn't stop the smile from breaking through. Mrs. Beaver had worked hard on her dress and was left with a strapless mermaid style gown that looked wonderful. And then Buffy's eyes met Peters and everything else faded away as her smile grew and she started walking down the aisle.
Buffy couldn't really tell you what happened next. She knew she was standing beside Peter, unable to take her eyes off of him. She knew she repeated some words, a ring was placed on her finger and she said I do but that was about it because all she saw was Peter's smile as he stared at her. She didn't really become aware of everything again until she and rest of the Pevensies were being led to the five thrones amid deafening shouts of, "Long Live King Peter! Long Live Queen Buffy! Long Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen Lucy!"
"Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen. Bear it well, Sons of Adam! Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!" said Aslan.
And through the eastern door, which was wide open, came the voices of the mermen and the mermaids swimming close to the shore and singing in honor of their new Kings and Queens.
So the five Pevensies sat on their thrones and scepters were put into their hands and they gave rewards and honors to all their friends, to Tumnus the Faun, and to the Beavers, and Giant Rumblebuffin, to the leopards, and the good centaurs, and the good dwarfs, and to the lion. And that night there was a great feast in Cair Paravel, and revelry and dancing, and gold flashed and wine flowed, and answering to the music inside, but stranger, sweeter, and more piercing, came the music of the sea people.
But amid all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn't there they said nothing about it. For Mr. Beaver had warned them, "He'll be coming and going," he had said. "One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down—and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."
These two Kings and three Queens governed Narnia well, and long and happy was their reign. At first much of their time was spent in seeking out the remnants of the White Witch's army and destroying them. They made good laws and kept the peace. And they themselves grew and changed as the years passed over them. And Peter became a tall and deep-chested man and a great warrior, and he was called High King Peter the Magnificent. And Susan grew into a tall and gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet and the kings of the countries beyond the sea began to send ambassadors asking for her hand in marriage, all of which she refused. And she was called Queen Susan the Gentle. Edmund was a graver and quieter man than Peter, and great in council and judgment. He was called King Edmund the Just. Lucy was always gay and golden-haired, and all princes in those parts desired her to be their Queen, and her own people called her Queen Lucy the Valiant.
Then there was Buffy… She loved Peter more than anyone ever, even Angel. With time her memories of home dimmed; Willow, Xander, Tara, Anya, Spike and even Giles seemed to be forgotten. Dawn was the only one she truly remembered. Even though she knew she would never see her sister again. She wrote letters to Dawn nightly, hoping one day somehow, she would be able to deliver them. To let her sister, know how happy she was. And because of all of this she was called High Queen Buffy the Loved.
One year it fell out that Tumnus came down river and brought them news that the White Stag had once more appeared in his parts—the White Stag who would give you wishes if you caught him.
It was on that day; Buffy woke up with a huge headache and a bout of nausea. Since she was about five months pregnant, she thought it might be a case of morning sickness. Peter was hesitant to leave her side to go after the stag, but she urged him to go, promising she would be fine. He tenderly kissed her and as he pulled away, she grabbed his arm, pulling him in for another kiss and hug.
"I love you," she whispered, almost afraid to let him go.
"I love you too, Buffy. Are you sure you want me to go?"
She bit her lip before nodding, shooing him away. "Go have fun."
The Pevensie's wished her a speedy recovery before leaving and she was left alone with her headache. Figuring she might as well rest since she was alone, she fell into a fitful sleep, her dreams filled with visions of Sunnydale.
She awoke hours later, her headache worse and her stomach cramping up. As she became aware of her surroundings, she was hit with a feeling of loss as if something was missing. She sat up, just as there was a knock at her door and called for them to enter.
"Mr. Tumnus?" she asked in confusion.
"My lady," he said with a bow and she frowned at his formal tone.
"What's going on? Is Peter back yet?" She saw the nervous shift of his eyes and she got out of bed, immediately alert. "Mr. Tumnus, what's going on?"
"Your presence is required in the throne room," he told her, not meeting her eyes.
"Close the door," she told him.
He obliged, watching as she grabbed the first dress she could find, moving behind the changing divider.
"I need to know what I'm walking into Mr. Tumnus. Don't lie to me. Did something happen to Peter? Or one of the others?"
"Phillip has returned, alone."
"From where?" she asked. Phillip usually only allowed her to ride him.
"He allowed Edmund to ride him during the hunt." He informed her.
Buffy stilled, before poking her head out around the edge to stare at him. "What do you mean he returned alone, where is everyone?"
"Gone, Buffy," Mr. Tumnus told her, big fat tears rolling down his face. "They're gone."
Her eyes widened as she pulled her head back to finish changing. When she was done, she stepped towards Mr. Tumnus. "What do you mean, gone?" she asked, her tone deadly.
He gulped, knowing she wouldn't hurt him but scared nonetheless. "According to Phillip, they all stopped at the light post and were speaking of Spare Oom. They went to investigate and didn't come back, they vanished. I'm so sorry my lady, but everyone is in the throne room trying to figure out what to do. You are the last remaining Royal."
Her head spun, the pounding returning tenfold as she heavily sat on the bed, trying to absorb everything. Her husband and siblings-in-law were gone, vanished into thin air. The talking of the light post and Spare Oom had Buffy thinking that they had returned to their own place and time. She pushed back the tears. She always knew there was a minute chance of this happening but it was too soon. They couldn't be gone. Not her family. What was she going to do? She couldn't be in charge of Narnia.
She gasped as her stomach cramped more and she doubled over.
"Buffy, are you well?" Mr. Tumnus asked.
"The baby," she whispered. "But it's not time. I'm not due for another four months."
And then she heard a voice, a voice she couldn't quite place, but it sounded familiar, nor could she make out what the voice was saying. Taking a deep breath, she pushed everything down. She had a kingdom to look after, she had to get this sorted out and once that was done, then would she try to figure everything else out.
"Lead the way," she quietly told Mr. Tumnus, standing up and ignoring the wave of dizziness.
He looked at her uncertainly before nodding, leading the way out of the room and into the Throne Room. It was jam packed and everyone was whispering, the news having spread around like wild fire. As soon as she entered, it went quiet, all eyes turning to her as she walked to the front of the room.
"Osiris, keeper of the gate, master of all fate, hear us."
Buffy stopped; her eyes wide as she looked around.
"My Lady?" Mr. Tumnus asked, his hand on her arm.
"Did you hear that?" Buffy asked.
He slowly shook his head, wondering if the news she had received had driven her mad.
"Before time, and after. Before knowing and nothing."
Buffy gasped. She knew that voice. "Willow," she whispered to herself. "No." Then she spotted Aslan as he made his way through the crowd toward her. "Can you stop her?"
Aslan shook his mane. "No, the witch is beyond my control," he said. "She will pull you back into your world. But there is something I can do. I can control the transference, which would allow you to return, safe with your unborn child. If I did not do this you would lose the child as the transference would place you back into your corpse inside your coffin."
It was then the crowd in the throne room realized they were about to lose the last remaining Royal.
"Will I ever see Narnia again?" Buffy wondered.
"There may come a time when you are needed in Narnia again." Aslan said with a roar. "Till then, farewell, High Queen Buffy Pevensie, Daughter of Eve and Daughter of Sineya."
Darkness flowed around Buffy and the next thing she knew she stood on top of her own grave, amidst her friends.
Willow hopped up smiling and hugged Buffy before noticing that her friend was very much pregnant. "How?" she asked obviously confused.
"I don't know where you thought you were pulling me out of, Will," said Buffy as her forgotten memories rushed forth. "But for me it was almost like heaven. For me fifteen years have passed. I fell in love, got married and am having his child."
Willow sighed at the revelation that she had yanked Buffy from somewhere that had been a happy place for her friend. "I'm sorry, Buffy, we didn't know. We thought you were in a hell dimension."
Four Months Later
Buffy lay in a hospital room holding her daughter in her arms, next to her stood Dawn who had been beside her from the moment she had come back. Her sister reminded her so much of Susan, Lucy, Peter and Edmund that she had decided it was past time that she train her sister. And so, Buffy in the final months of her pregnancy had given Dawn a sword and had trained her sister in its use. Dawn had become quite the duelist.
"What are you naming her, Buffy?" Dawn asked looking down at her niece.
Buffy looked at her daughter, at Peter's daughter. "Susan Lucy Pevensie."
"It's a wonderful name, Buffy," Dawn said. She didn't care that her niece was not named after, for she had heard the story of Buffy's trip to Narnia. And she knew the impact that Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy had on her sister, especially Peter.
There came a knock on the door and they looked up and saw a sixty-nine-year-old woman standing in the doorway. "Buffy Pevensie?" the woman asked.
Buffy looked at the elderly woman for several long moments. The only people that knew of her marriage to Peter was the Pevensies, the people in Narnia, her sister and her friends. As she studied the woman's face, she realized she recognized the features that had been distorted by age. "Lu?" she asked.
"Yes," Lucy said as she smiled at her sister-in-law. "Hello, Buffy."
"Would you like to meet your niece?" Buffy asked as Lucy nodded. She handed the older woman her daughter. "I named her after you and Susan. And of course, she has her father's last name as her own. I named her Susan Lucy Pevensie."
"I know," said Lucy.
"I wasn't sure if I would see any of you ever again," said Buffy. "I wanted her to know of her family. Of her brave and wonderful aunts and uncle as well as her father…my fellow Royals…the Kings and Queens of Narnia."
Lucy smiled and looked to Dawn. "Hello, Dawn."
"You know me?" Dawn asked, shocked that Lucy would greet her by name.
"When we were in Narnia, Buffy told us much about you. You were the one person she hated to leave behind," Lucy explained. "The one person she never forgot when all others were forgotten. In fact, I have something for you, Dawn." She pulled out several envelopes, yellowed with age, and handed them to Dawn.
Buffy's eyes went wide as she recognized her own handwriting on the envelopes. "The letters. I thought…"
"We don't know how they ended up in our possession," Lucy admitted. "At first, we thought they were so we could remember you, Buffy. Especially since we knew you were from our future. And as we read them, we realized they were never meant for us. That we were only meant to hold on to them for their rightful recipient." She looked to Dawn and smiled. "For you."
Dawn looked at the letters and then at Buffy and smiled as she placed an arm around her sister. "You told me you had written them. And now I have them, thank you."
"Don't thank me," Buffy said as she smiled at her sister. "Thank Lucy. After all I had thought they had been lost forever in Narnia."
"Thank you," Dawn said as she looked at Lucy. "So, you're my sister's sister-in-law?"
"I am, but only in Narnia," Lucy replied as she looked at her sister-in-law and smiled. "Peter once told me, Buffy, that if he had been able to, he would have stayed with you instead of returning with us."
"Then he would have lost me also as I was pulled out by my friend Willow not long after you all returned," Buffy said with a sigh. "It's better that he returned with you. So how is Peter?"
"He died a long time ago, Buffy, in a train crash," Lucy told the blonde Slayer reluctantly. "Long before you were ever born. He had made plans that on the day of your birth that he would come to America and look in the nursery window at his future wife. He never got to fulfill that promise, I did though for him."
"You saw me on the day of my birth?" Buffy asked surprised as Lucy nodded.
"I did, I went to the hospital in Los Angeles and there I looked at my future sister-in-law and smiled," Lucy said as she smiled at Buffy. Her smile slowly faded with her next words, "Out of my brothers and sister, I am currently the only one left."
"Currently?" Buffy asked confused by the choice of word.
"You will find out in time, Buffy, what I mean," Lucy replied with a small glance at Dawn.
Buffy nodded as she looked at her daughter still held in Lucy's arms. "Peter won't get to see her then."
"Actually," said Lucy. "In a way he will. Sometime before her second birthday you and Dawn will return to Narnia." She pulled out a picture faded with time and handed it to Buffy. Buffy could make out herself, her daughter and Dawn and from the look of the three of them it was taken in the coming days. "You will give that to Peter. When he died, I took it and kept it. You told Peter, Susan, Edmund and I when she would be born. That's how I knew to come today."
"I get to go to Narnia?" asked Dawn as she looked at Buffy and smiled. Ever since Buffy had told her of Narnia she had wanted to go.
"Yes, you do," said Lucy as she smiled. "You will even meet your true love there. And unlike Peter and Buffy your true love will return from Narnia with you." She then handed her namesake back to Buffy. "As far as Little Su is concerned I am her great aunt. It will be easier than trying to explain Narnia and the age difference between you and I. Well at least till she is old enough to understand."
Buffy nodded. "Still she will at least get to know you," she said as she handed the picture back to Lucy. "So, tell us, Lucy. What have you been up to since last I saw you?"
Author's Note: I know that in canon Peter, Edmund and Lucy are the ones that died and Susan was the one that survived. The reason Lucy survives in this story is because if I do the sequel, "Narnia 2: The Dawn Chronicles," I wanted a pairing for Dawn and Susan and Edmund are the likely possible candidates due to the modified ages. The ending where Lucy tells Dawn that she will find her true love, was actually rewritten for Dawn herself. I had always planned a sequel. Originally Dawn was only said to go with Buffy back to Narnia for Prince Caspian. But since I gave Buffy a pairing, and sort of a happy ending since she gave birth to hers and Peter's daughter. I thought I wanted to give Dawn a happy ending if I did go ahead and do the sequel. I thought about the pairing long and hard and came to the conclusion I wanted Susan and Dawn more so than I wanted Edmund and Dawn. So that is why Lucy replaced Susan in surviving.
