Chapter 1--The Girl At The Lamppost

A/N: Now for a POV switch. Yes, I know that Peter would be thirteen here, according to C.S. Lewis's timeline, but I've changed his age to seventeen. Please don't shoot me...

In his dream, Peter pushed through the mess of fur coats and bracken until he stepped into Lantern Waste. He trudged onward until he reached the lamppost; the lamp still burned heartily as ivy curled around the metal post.

"What am I doing here?" he asked himself.

"I have summoned you here, Son Of Adam."

A wild, familiar voice made Peter catch his breath. From the trees, the Lion emerged, beautiful and terrible.

"Aslan," Peter whispered; he started to walk over to Aslan, but suddenly hesitated.

The Great Lion understood what Peter felt. "Draw near, Son Of Adam. Do what you will."

Then Peter rushed to Aslan and embraced him, stroking his rough mane. "I missed you so much...have you grown smaller?"

"Nay, lad, you have grown larger," Aslan replied. He turned his shaggy head upward to Peter's face. "Now, Son Of Adam, you must be brave, for I have brought you here to give you solemn news."

Peter stood back. "What is wrong?"

"Morgana has died," Aslan answered quietly.

Peter felt his stomach lurch, and his face paled. "M...Morgana?" he stammered. "And the baby?"

"Miscarried."

For a few seconds that seemed like decades, both were silent. Sunlight shimmered through the red and brown leaves overhead. At last Peter sighed. "When?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Eight years ago, in our time." Aslan looked up as Peter turned away, shaking his head. "It is well, Son Of Adam. They both now live in unbridled joy in my own country."

"I know, but..." Peter rubbed tears from his face with a rough wool sleeve. "I just...I just wish I'd been there for her."

"She knew that she had your heart, Peter. Therefore, she was content to move on."

Feeling a sob tightening his throat, Peter swallowed and asked evenly: "What about Victoria?"

Aslan flicked his tail. "Your daughter lives still. I have brought you to this place so that you may see her."

"She's here?"

"Look above you, Son Of Adam."

Peter turned his face upwards and started as he noticed a figure perched on an oak branch directly overhead. It was a girl about Susan's age, maybe a little older. Barefoot and bareheaded, she was protected from the forest's autumnal chill only by a thick gown of brown wool and a burgundy-coloured mantle. Her gold-brown hair, cut short below the ears, was sprinkled with dry bits of leaves. She swung her feet back and forth and gazed quizzically at the lamppost.

"Victoria?" Peter called. The girl did not glance down, or give any indication that she'd heard.

"Victoria cannot hear you, Son Of Adam. We are silent and invisible to her."

The leaves above rustled as Victoria leapt nimbly down from her tree. Was this pensive, athletic girl, Peter thought, really the same person as the wide-open, sociable eight-year-old he had left? "She looks just like Morgana," was all he could say.

Victoria laid her fingertips against the cool metal lamppost and stared up at the flickering light for a moment, then she drew a golden chain out from under her mantle and held it up. Peter squinted at it, and then gasped as he recognised the gold band looped on the chain. "My ring...how did she get it?"

Aslan did not reply, for finally, Victoria spoke. "I don't know where to look for you, Father..." Her voice was low and raspy, as though it were seldom used. "I don't know why you left me. But I will find you. If it takes me until I go to Aslan's country, I will find you."

"Victoria, why would I ever just leave you?" Peter finally sobbed, though he knew she didn't hear.

Her determined "I will find you" echoed dimly through the silence. Lantern Waste wavered and swirled about grotesquely until Peter awakened to darkness and England, with the faint memory of a Lion's kiss on his forehead.

If you liked, review! If you hated, review anyway:D