Prompt: Tumnus, the Beavers, Aravis, Cor, Corin, someone else—write one or more reactions when they hear that the Pevensies are gone.
Corin stared at the letter, eyes echoing the incomprehensibility of the words before him for but a split second, before -
"No. They just haven't searched hard enough."
He sprung up from his chair, heading for the door, flinging it open and marching down towards the stables. The sound of his hurried footsteps filled the corridor.
Think, think! They couldn't have gotten themselves lost, Edmund and Peter are excellent navigators. Perhaps they were kidnapped by some creature pretending to be the stag? Or accosted by some other danger in the Lantern Waste?
He was so absorbed that he almost crashed into Cor, who was climbing up the narrow staircase. He looked up just as Cor cried - "Whoa, brother!"- reaching out his hands to steady his twin. Unfortunately for the both of them he underestimated the force of Corin's downward trajectory and became unbalanced himself. The two tumbled down the stairs in a tangle of limbs, landing in a heap at the bottom with a solid THUMP!
"Ow! Getoffme!"
"No, you get your arm-"
"Move your leg-!"
"Stop elbowing-!"
Finally Cor managed to extricate himself from Corin and Corin from Cor.
"Whatever is the matter? You came down those stairs in such a rush that-" Cor paused, bending down to pick up the fallen letter, "Oh, here - you dropped something."
Corin quickly pulled the letter from his brother's fingers, then paused. Someone was going to have to tell him. He hated responsibility. It settled on his shoulders like a vulture, distastefully heavy, dark and looming with the probability of messing things up beyond repair, as Corin had been want to do.
"Corin? What is the matter? It is not like you to be silent?"
He hesitated for a second longer, tension weighing more with every second. "Here-," he thrust the letter into his brother's hands, quickly spinning and beginning to stride away, as if to run from the oncoming vulture, as he had done for most of his life. But before he could get more than a step, Cor's hand was firm upon his shoulder.
"If you run away before I read this, I'm going to box your ears."
"As if I'd let you-" Corin began, turning on his heels, but the threat died half-baked on his lips as he again caught sight of the letter. That dreaded awful letter. Bringer of the worst news.
It told him he'd never again tell Susan about his adventures, never again plan a prank with Lucy, never again share a joke with Edmund, never again have his swordsmanship corrected by Peter. That letter told him his friends were gone. Disappeared. Never to be seen again. Lost to the woods from whence they came.
Cor finished reading, looking up to meet the eyes of his twin.
"They're gone?" He asked blankly, searching for answers Corin didn't have.
"That's what it says."
"Does Father know?"
"No. I was holding off telling him until we knew for sure."
"The Narnians seem very sure."
Corin slumped, head falling to rest on his brother's shoulder. "I know." His voice cracked.
A/N:
So, blame BrokenKestral and two much needed extensions. Also, multiple late nights and two blocks of chocolate which made me think that writing a fanfiction prompt at 10:00pm at night (instead of actually getting some much-needed sleep) was somehow a good idea. It is now an hour later and I'm sure the word 'quality' was last seen so long ago that nobody remembers where it went, least of all me, so yeah.
However, if you've survived to read this author's note, then it can't be half as bad as I'm making out, so thank you, I guess? I'm glad I got the chance to write something for this challenge because I've been very bad at sitting down to write anything lately (apart from the dreaded essays).
Well, it's time to bid you all adieu and hopefully fall into the blessed depths of slumber!
Happy weekend!
BellatrixTheStar