A/N: I have no words to pardon my tardiness. Instead, read on and enjoy.
Soundtracks:
Crown – Myrkur
Gudernes Vilje – Myrkur
The stale, mouldy bread crumbled in Lucy's dry mouth, and she coughed at the powdery consistency coating her tongue. She had not had a drop of water since she was captured. Her dry lips cracked as she coughed out the pieces of bread – she winced in pain.
Lucy's current living conditions were harsh, and any hope of survival for the coming days were absent. The young woman's mind was fogged over, her eyesight blurry. Her head pounded from dehydration; her joints ached from lack of activity.
The little drink she had to survive was the condense gathering on the cobblestones underneath her, and she had even less to relieve.
Her body would fail her in not too long. She regretted eating the bread that had been lying there since the moment she was thrown in the tiny cage, but she had little choice if she were to survive. Not that it mattered much to her now.
She had faith in her family, she did. They would come, come for her, and come for Talulah. Lucy knew there was a reason why Talulah had taken her, and her alone. If Talulah were to end the prophecy, she would have taken them all, if not killed them all back at the ambush at the banquet.
No, she had use of her. What for, Lucy pondered. She had spent days imagining what for. But that "what for" often ended in cries in despair and attempts to break out of the iron cage. She had bruised fingers, hands and feet to prove the tale. An undead minotaur had shoved the pommel of his battle-axe into her abdomen to push her back against the cage not too many nights ago.
She had not seen Talulah after she had taken her. Lucy sometimes wondered where she had gone off to. The only creatures present were Talulah's undead lackeys. It mattered not, for Lucy was grateful not to see the sight of that horrid half-jinn-half-giant woman. She had thought Jadis to be gruesome, when in truth, her sister was the one more befitting of such a word.
Lucy had stopped feeling hunger half a day ago. She knew her body would weaken more and more as time went by.
She grew faint-headed and did not know whether she wanted to throw up or defecate.
Luckily, she did neither – instead, she fainted, and fell on her side to the cold cobblestone floor. She could not remember even hitting the floor.
. . .
Lucy treaded on bare feet along a field of barley, her Narnian dress of burgundy rippled behind her as a wind carried itself across the barley. She carried out her hands to feel the straws of golden wheat running past her fingers. Cicadas cried their song in the distance, a black bird flew over her head, its song echoing. The golden sun kissed the barley horizon, the sky now shrouded in a hue of violet. Orange clouds dotted the sky.
A warm breeze kissed her cheeks – it was a promise of summer.
Continuing her idle walk along the fields, a rustle at her left caught her attention.
Lucy whipped about, but she soon sighed out relieved.
By her side walked a lion. A lion larger than what she had ever seen. A lion larger than life.
Aslan.
The great lion's mane glittered softly in the descending sunlight. He kept along with her pace, not looking at her, simply walking along with her. Only when the mere whisper of his name escaped her lips did he look at her with sable, wise, calm eyes. A soft rumble escaped the great feline's chest as he greeted her.
The girl halted her walk and turned to the lion oh so great. A beam crossed her lips, and she flung her arms around the lion's neck as a choked laugh escaped her.
Tearing the girl he had known since the dawn of time down onto the bed of barley along with him, he laughed heartedly as she clung to him. The lion rolled down onto his back and around to his side with the giggling girl hugging him still.
"Aslan…" she muttered as she lay down on her stomach before the lion. He folded his paws before him and flicked an ear. A smile graced his face.
"Dearest heart," he greeted her with a voice so pure and deep.
"I never thought I'd see you again…" Lucy explained teary-eyed as she looked at the great vision before her with large cerulean eyes.
"Why is that, little one?" the lion asked. Lucy looked to the ground, almost embarrassed to say what she was about to say.
"For I…We… I was beginning to lose hope. I never thought we would make it. I never thought… I would see the sky again," the girl said, gazing up to the lion who looked at her back intently.
"Hope does not define your belief, your faith, dear one." Aslan explained. Inside her, Lucy was already annoyed with herself for not knowing the Lion's lesson quite so well as she felt she ought to have known it. She grew silent for a while, and when she once again spoke, she sat up with crossed legs:
"Did all of this have to happen?" Lucy asked desperately.
"The circle of life? Or the forever change in our world, our current of time? To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan.
"No. Nobody is ever told that."
Lucy remembered that the Great Lion never had subtle answers to her questions. His answers were always lessons or another question to her question.
"This is the way it has to be, isn't it?" Lucy asked, more to herself than to the Great Lion. Aslan sighed, and sat up.
"It is a way, yes - there is always a way. However, the way we see now, shan't always define our fate."
Lucy had no reply to offer him. Understanding this was difficult for her, Aslan stood up, and nudged her cheek with his muzzle.
"Come. Walk with me."
Lucy stood up, straightened her dress, and walked beside the lion with a hand entwined in his mane. His thick mane gave her strength.
"We're all trying to change fate. But we have lost so many, and so much by doing so…" Lucy explained, her eyes tearing up.
"Dear one, grief is great. You and I in this land know that yet. Alas, grief can teach us much. What has it taught you thus far, Lucy?" Aslan asked her as they walked idly along. Lucy had yet again, no reply.
"No fear of that, little one… Allowing you to grief, one realise, it never ends. It simply changes. It is a passage, not a place to stay. Grief, Lucy, does not equal weakness, nor a lack of faith. It is the price of love." Aslan explained in a soft, calm voice.
"I hope to be able to say my farewell's someday."
"That is indeed the last act of love to those and that we loved. Where there was deep grief, there is deep love. Love never falters, Lucy. That Love never leaves you, and one should pass it on." Aslan explained as he stopped to look down at her.
"Never forget, dear one: in moments of darkness consuming that we are and what we know, love shall never prevail. Love and light, always."
"Love and light…" Lucy repeated, and leaned in against the lion's face. She basked in his warmth. The unexplainable magical properties surged into her, and a certain lion-strength passed into her. Opening her eyes, Lucy straightened up quite suddenly. She turned towards the Great Lion who looked at her with his golden orbs. She was ready to go back now. For she knew all along, that his vision was only that: but it was enough.
"I'm ready now," Lucy told him.
"Now you are a lioness," said Aslan proudly and pushed out his chest. "And now all Narnia will be renewed."
Blessed be,
Dragon
