*PA noise* This is your Captain speaking. *static throughout* C. S. Lewis... own... I don't... book AU... pre-LWW... questions... reviews... *click as of PA system going off*

"Please, Mum?" The young girl stared up at her with pleading eyes.

Her mother hesitated for another moment before acceding. "All right, I suppose." Beside her, the other three heaved a sigh of resignation.

Lucy's face lit up excitedly as she picked up the unusually large mouse she'd found a few moments earlier. Holding its mouth to her ear, her expression brightened still more. "His name is Reepicheep, Mum. He said so."

Her mother laughed. Peter fidgeted a little. Susan looked uncomfortable. Edmund scowled. Her father didn't say anything because he wasn't present.

"Did he, now?" she said easily. "Well, let's find Reepicheep a home."

Lucy smiled still wider as she listened to whatever the mouse was 'saying'.

A strange mouse, this; unusually dark-furred, standing on his hind legs, and oddly confident with Lucy. And, as mentioned earlier, rather larger than most mice.

Strange.