TUMNUS: PART TWO

Here is where his plan nearly unraveled. For the girl was reluctant to follow him despite his kindness. Fortunately, with a little convincing, she decided to come over for a little while. She warned that she would not be able to stay for long.

"We will see about that, Human girl," thought Tumnus. He made no sign of his intentions all the way home and chattered cheerfully as if nothing was wrong. But in the back of his mind he kept saying to himself that the race of the thing on his arm had gotten his father arrested, and that she deserved what she was going to get.

Finally, they arrived at the cave and Tumnus prepared tea for both of them. As he did, he glanced up at Lucy from time to time. She was looking around at his books and then she glanced up at the picture of Father.

"Ah, that – that is my father," he said, proud of the fact despite his inner feelings toward her.

"He has a nice face," she replied, sending a thrill of pleasure through him. "He looks a lot like you."

At this, he stopped.

"No, I'm not very much like him at all really."

What she said next surprised him.

"My father is fighting in the war."

"My father went away to war, too," said Tumnus. These words brought painful recollections of Father taking down his bow from over the mantelpiece when he first went. Before, the threat of war had not seemed so menacing because only other Fauns had come over to their house to talk about a Witch from the North. Something called the Tree of Protection had, strangely enough, fallen right over on a day without even a breeze to stir its leaves.

Some said that the other-worldly child who had planted it had taken one of its fruit back to his own world. If he had planted it and it had grown into a tree also then surely would it not be affected by the same things as the tree which it came from? And would not this tree be also affected by what happened to the tree in the other world like a fierce storm? Father's friends had whispered late into the night that whatever the explanation this did not bode well for Narnia. That tree had been planted as a safeguard against an evil Witch. Now that it was gone, who knew what would happen. No one remembered there having ever been an evil time in Narnia, but then that was because the Tree had always been there protecting the Narnians.

Then came the fateful night when pounding fists hammered at the door. Voices came through, "Camus, the Witch has gathered an army of treacherous Narnians and is attacking us!" Camus wasted no time but grabbed his weapons. Before he ran out the door, he told the frightened Tumnus, "Fear not, son. This is only a temporary menace and when I come back things will go back to the way they were and we will all forget this ever happened."

But it was not as short-lived as Camus had said. He came back from the battle limping and covered with various cuts and bruises all over his body. That was when the first snowflakes had started to fall. It made the Narnians uneasy to see snow in August, but is was only the beginning. The snow continued for days, weeks, and then months. Finally, few people could remember a time when it had not snowed.

Looking at Lucy now, Tumnus saw with a startling clarity a similarity between them. She had also seen her own father take up his weapon to battle evil and what was to stop her from seeing him again as broken and defeated as his own father had come back?

Quickly remembering where he was, he shook himself.

"But that was a long time ago."

He hurriedly changed the subject, all the while wondering how he could distract Lucy long enough to fetch the Witch to take her. It was only as they were finishing their tea that the idea struck him. There was a flute on the mantelpiece from the days of summer, when he and his friends would gather the straw left over from haymaking and make toys from themselves out of them. From a very young age he had loved hearing and making music and he had immediately known what he would make. He fingered the instrument lovingly as he thought of happier days.

He'd play it for hours under the shade of the great trees of the forest, and they in turn would sway their branches in time with the music. When the Tree of Protection had fallen down, Tumnus had only thought of it as one less shade to sit under on hot summer afternoons. Sadly, he now saw how naïve he had been. On the first day of snow, he had composed a tune to entertain his father who was mostly to weak now to go outside. He'd wanted the tune to express the world outside to him which he could no longer experience and make him want to laugh, cry, dance, and go to sleep at the same time.

He played it for Lucy now and it was not long until she dropped off to sleep. While she slept he had time to think over his actions. He realized that by kidnapping her for the Witch, the murderer of his father, he would not only ensure her eternal reign but also Lucy's death. If he kidnapped the only human who had come into Narnia so far in his lifetime, then the prophecy would never be fulfilled. How many more Narnians would have to fall into Jadis' clutches and leave their children fatherless like him?

His mind went back to the wounds of his father after that first battle with the Witch. He had shown his faithfulness to Aslan by not agreeing to kidnapping human children. And Tumnus thought of all the Narnians shivering in their own caves, dens, and holes, whose Christmas presents he had yet to deliver. Now a terrible choice lay before him. Would it not be better to rot in the Dungeon of Ice than to know that he had let all those good people down?

When Lucy finally woke up he still had not made up his mind. The overwhelming oppression of all the past years finally took their toll on him. He broke down and confessed everything to the girl he'd hated so much a while ago. Compassionate and a bit bewildered, she tried her best to comfort him and even gave him her handkerchief to wipe his tears with. In that moment he swore his undying loyalty to her and her people in his heart and to aid them in whatever way he could until they took their rightful thrones.

But there was still the matter of what to do with her. He could not hide her in his cave for that long. Someone would find out and word would eventually reach the Witch. The most sensible idea would be to take her back to wherever she had come from where the Witch could not get at her. Warning her to be perfectly quiet, he led her back to the lamppost where they had first met.

After a whispered goodbye he made sure that she was safely out of sight before he himself went back home. When he got back home he finally picked up his bundles again and headed out into the wood. Fondly, he placed them in inconspicuous places that he knew the persons they were meant for would find them. Mr. Robin's bundle of straw to line his nest with was placed on a hidden branch where he liked to sing in the morning. The package containing Mrs. Rabbit's shawl was placed in her garden and looked like just another cabbage in the moonlight. And so he continued all through the forest always taking care to wipe away his hoof tracks. Then he went back home for the first night in a long time when he felt perfectly sure he had done the right thing.