I have given up fighting with this chapter. I'm not entirely happy with it, but at this point I'm ready to wrap this story up and move on. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Thanks to the reviewers!

Chapter 6

Lucy was disappointed but not entirely surprised, when she woke several hours later, to find that Mr. Tumnus had gone.

She sat up and pushed the covers aside for the second time that day, and swung her feet from the bed. Now that she'd finally gotten enough sleep—or at least caught up enough to last the rest of the day—she remembered she hadn't actually eaten anything since mid-afternoon the day before. A glance outside the tent told her it was nearly noon; her stomach gurgled. It was definitely time to find the others, and see about finding some food as well.

And, of course, she would have to find Mr. Tumnus again, and apologize for likely ruining his favorite scarf.

Finding her family didn't actually take as long as she expected. Peter and Susan were already seated at the table on the other side of the tent, and Edmund was standing nearby, talking with Phillip while he removed his tack. The horse was remarkably patient, which was likely the reason he had been selected from the many who had volunteered to bear Edmund, who really knew nothing about riding. But Phillip was gentle as well as patient, and Edmund was learning quickly.

Peter saw her first, and immediately grinned, looking relieved. "Good morning, sleepy!" he teased, reaching out to tweak her nose as he used to when she was little. As she always had then, she giggled.

"Good afternoon, you mean," Susan corrected, but she was smiling too. "Are you hungry?"

"Very," Lucy confirmed.

She sat next to her eldest siblings at the table and surveyed the spread: bread, cheese, jam, fruit—some familiar, some not—and cold turkey. Lucy had been uncomfortable, at first, at the idea of eating meat in a place where animals could talk, but Beaver had assured her that it was not every animal—some were Dumb, which Lucy could only take to mean they were like the animals she was accustomed to back home.

She just hoped they had made sure to ask the turkey.

Deciding this was not the proper course of thought if she didn't want to put off her appetite, she grabbed a slice of bread and took a large bite, surveying her siblings as she did. Peter had returned to watching Edmund fumble with the saddle, and laughed every now and then; Edmund himself cast his older brother annoyed but good-humored glares over his shoulder. Lucy, watching, giggled; it was really astounding, the change that had come over her brothers. Edmund in particular, of course, but Peter too: he was beginning to treat Edmund as a friend rather than a responsibility or a burden, and Edmund was rising to the occasion brilliantly. It was definitely a change for the better, Lucy thought happily, as she sipped her juice. She hoped it would last.

She glanced up, and noticed Susan was watching her. She smiled, and Susan returned it, but it was pensive; clearly there was something on her elder sister's mind.

"What is it?" Lucy asked, wiping the juice from her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Use your napkin, Lu," Susan said automatically, handing it to her; Lucy sighed and made a dramatic show of cleaning her entire face and behind her ears before Susan laughed and swatted her lightly across the shoulder. Peter chuckled at them, and Lucy grinned cheekily.

Susan turned to watch Edmund for a few more moments, then said, casually: "Have you seen Mr. Tumnus today, Lucy?"

Lucy looked up sharply, wondering if her sister somehow knew what had happened earlier.

"Yes," she said slowly. "Just before sunrise."

Susan looked back down at her. "Not since then?" she pressed, and to Lucy her voice seemed slightly urgent.

Lucy frowned. "No," she said. "I thought I'd go find him after I ate. Why? Is something wrong?"

Susan frowned. "I'm not sure, really," she said, and told her sister what had happened that morning at breakfast, then her conversation with Aslan.

"He wouldn't say any more," she finished. "Only that you were the only one who could help him."

"Any idea what he meant, then, Lu?" asked Peter, who had listened to their conversation with interest—he had taken an immediate liking to the faun, likely due to the fact that the first time he met him, he had been bringing an unconscious Lucy safely back to camp.

Lucy frowned, thinking. "I'm not sure," she said.

Edmund, who had joined the group shortly after Susan had begun her tale and caught the gist of it, tilted his head quizzically. "What was it you said before, when you were first telling us about Narnia? Didn't you say Tumnus had been planning to turn you over to the Witch?"

Lucy's eyes widened as she looked at her brother. "Yes," she said. "But…could that still be…could he still be bothered by that, do you think?"

Edmund looked at her with the most serious expression she had ever seen on his face. "I don't know about Tumnus," he said quietly, "but I do know it's difficult to stop being bothered by betraying the people you care about."

He looked down at his plate, and Peter reached across the table to squeeze his shoulder reassuringly. Edmund gave him a half-hearted smile, then looked back at his youngest sister.

"Have you told him you forgive him, Lu?"

Frowning, Lucy thought back, trying to remember exactly what had been said in those hurried, frightened moments by the lamppost. She remembered very clearly Tumnus burying his face in her handkerchief, then looking up with tearful eyes and telling her he was sorry…but she honestly couldn't recall having actually said she forgave him. She frowned. "I…I can't remember," she said. "But I thought he would have known…"

"He may," Edmund said, reaching for a piece of bread, "but it couldn't hurt to tell him. That way he'll know for sure."

Lucy nodded, and stood, suddenly far less hungry than she had been.

"You're right," she announced. "I'm going to go and find him."

"But Lucy—you've hardly touched your lunch," Peter protested. "Surely it can wait a few more minutes…?"

Susan, however, looking up at her younger sister, shook her head. "Lucy's right," she said softly. "You didn't see Tumnus this morning, Peter. The sooner she finds him, the better. But," here she waggled a finger warningly, much more like the old Susan, "as soon as you do, the both of you had better come and have something to eat. I noticed Tumnus didn't touch the breakfast this morning, and only stared at his tea."

Lucy giggled and gave her sister a mock-salute, then ran toward the camp and was immediately lost in the crowd.