Narnia:

When Children Cry

My first fanfic, so be merciful, I beg of you!

SUMMARY:

Part One: Basically, Tumnus' story of his friendship with Lucy.

Part Two: Their friendship after Lucy becomes Queen Lucy the Valiant of Narnia.

Part Three: Lucy and Tumnus reunite many years later, and how their friendship progresses into love.

And then we'll have a little Epilogue.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lucy or Tumnus or Narnia. In Book Two, I do, however, own my own character (sort of) who is the Dryad Chrystmay (fashioned after a friend, IridescentEpiphany), and I'm even in control of my own plot-line!

Chapter Thirteen

What Fun They Had!

It is true, dear reader, that Puddleglum does not enter this story. That is quite deeply taken to dismay for me. However, I might remark that on this particular day in the Golden Age of Narnia, Puddleglum would have been in a ridiculous delight. For it was just the sort of miserable day that one such as a Marsh-wiggle would expect.

The previous afternoon, the faun Tumnus had promised Queen Lucy that he would pay a visit to her the next morning at Cair Paravel. Fauns tend to be creatures who keep their word, so you can rather easily understand the sort of groan that escaped Tumnus when he awoke that very day and looked outside. This is what he saw:

Misery.

There is just no other way to put it in a single word. Rain splattered each window so that he could hardly look beyond the glass. When he managed to squint past the squall of water, there was not much worth looking at anyway. The ground was no more green and grassy, but smothered in watery clods of mud. Tumnus shivered as he glanced at the trees. Many of them were leaning due south in the heavy wind, and the remaining leaves on them fluttered with the business of cooks before a feast.

But he'd made a promise to Lucy, and he had full intentions of keeping it. Thus he left the warmth and comfort of his den with umbrella at the ready, and his muffler tighter around his neck than it was on the regular. Certainly he missed his own hearth fire and cushioned chair that he'd left behind, but not nearly enough to change his mind.

It took a rather longer time for Tumnus to reach Cair Paravel, due to his umbrella repetitively turning inside-out and the thick mud at his hoofs. Lucy saw the faun in his struggle at her bedroom window and immediately raced down the stone steps to the Great Hall in all of a flutter. She'd meant to rush out the front gates to meet him, but by the time she was opening the front doors, Tumnus was already there.

'Oh, Mr Tumnus!' cried Lucy, and led him indoors. His teeth were chattering in an uncanny manner and he was cold to the touch. 'Why, you're soaked to the bone, Mr Tumnus!' she exclaimed, and then, 'Come, now. You're shivering. We'll get you warmed up.'

That she did, to be sure. With the aid of Lucy and King Peter, Tumnus was led into the nearest sitting-room with a roaring fire and set directly in front of it. Beside him was, of course, Lucy.

They spent a few minutes in silence, staring only at the billowing flames. Tumnus was warming himself up quite nicely, and Peter had draped a thick quilt over him before leaving the two alone.

'Mr Tumnus,' said Lucy quietly. 'You didn't have to come today.'

Tumnus was shocked, and could say only: 'But– Lucy, I promised.'

'Mr Tumnus,' began Lucy in a very firm and rational voice. 'you should not have gone out today. It was. . . It was very cold, for one thing, and very wet.'

'Yes,' said Tumnus, smiling a little. 'I know.'

'But you came anyway,' Lucy said, slightly confused.

'Yes. I did.'

'Why?'

Tumnus wrung his muffler over the hot hearth-stones. 'Because I promised.'

Lucy moaned in a fretful sort of voice. 'Mr Tumnus, you could have been stuck out there. And you'll probably be ill with a head cold.'

'Perhaps, Lucy. Perhaps I shall.'

'And you risked that to keep a trivial promise!'

'A promise to a friend is never so trivial,' Tumnus said wisely, and when he did this, he stared at Lucy in such a way to confirm this.

Lucy laughed out loud in delight. 'Oh, Mr Tumnus! you are so completely unlike anyone else, it's marvellous!' And she gave her friend an almightily massive hug.

In a considerably more cheerful mood, they spent the whole afternoon like this. Lucy told him of her daily lessons (which rather bored her) that mainly consisted of queenly protocol. But she did very much enjoy her archery lessons. Tumnus smiled as she recalled the boorish subjects she was required to learn: ballroom dancing, dining manners, subject protocol, Narnian laws – then again, there were the not-so-boorish subjects that she rather enjoyed. The instructor of what Lucy called the 'sensible subjects' (these were such things as you can relate to in your very own schooling) was a valiant red fox named Baviar, whom Lucy liked very much. He, of course, had no hands, so he was aided in writing classes with Lucy's archery teacher. This archery teacher was none other than the centaur Glonthelyn, the very centaur that Tumnus had ridden into battle.

It was not long before Tumnus was thoroughly dried of all rain (and very warm besides). It was when the earliest shades of twilight were streaking the sky that Lucy suggested that they stroll by the kitchens for some tea. Tumnus agreed on the spot, for he was very much in the mood for tea.

Perhaps it was because he had tea every afternoon, or perhaps it was a spontaneous theory, but an unpleasant thought flitted across his mind as they were walking down a corridor into the great hall. The thought was that Tumnus was entirely too predictable. He did not much like this thought, conjured from seemingly thin air. When he took a glance at Lucy, he could tell in everything about her that she would grow up to be someone who liked having adventures. Yes, that was for certain. Lucy would one day be a beautiful Queen who paid less attention to courtly affairs, and would be far more interested in riding into battles with a sword poised in her armoured hand. She'd care little for politics and more for people.

Tumnus frowned. He was unlike Lucy. He cared more for the simple life of quiet afternoons. In a day, he wouldn't do much more than reading, writing, and sipping tea. Ah, but that was in the old days of the Long Winter. Now that it was summer, he wanted to regain his previous life of laughing and dancing in the forests with the Dryads.

With this thought in his mind, he decided on the spur of the moment to do something totally unexpected.

'Lucy,' he said as the two emerged from the corridor and into the Great Hall. 'look outside. It's not windy anymore.'

'No, I suppose not!' said Lucy in surprise, glancing out the window. 'Though it is still as rainy.'

Tumnus stopped in the middle of the room. 'What is it, Mr Tumnus?' asked Lucy, curiously. 'Are you all right?'

Tumnus looked at Lucy for the briefest of moments, then suddenly went running out the front doors.

'Mr Tumnus!' yelled Lucy, shocked. Then, with hardly a thought in her mind, she went racing after him. And there he was, on the edge of the forest surrounding Cair Paravel. Lucy raced to him. 'Mr Tumnus, what are you doing!'

'Dancing!' replied Tumnus, and he was, indeed, dancing. It was an absolutely magnificent and lively dance of the fauns, and it sent him into a ridiculously wonderful happiness. He pounded the muddy earth beneath his hoofs in a wild rhythm and twisted his arms and spine in complex patterns again and again.

Lucy could only gape at the absurdity. 'But – Mr Tumnus, you're getting wet!'

Tumnus laughed. 'I know! Isn't it wonderful?'

'But. . .'

'Oh, Lucy, don't fret! That's no fun at all!' cried Tumnus in a joyous voice, and grasped Lucy's hands. 'It's not every day we get as fine a rain as this, enjoy it while you can!'

'But. . .'

'Dance, Lucy!' shouted Tumnus, and Lucy was so fascinated by his sudden merriment that she grinned and joined Tumnus.

They danced like this for a terrific while, laughing and singing in the gradually fading sunlight until the sky became totally dark. Yet still the rain fell as intensely as ever. Tumnus and Lucy slowly ceased their wild movement. Lucy glanced around about her.

'I can't see a thing,' she said to Tumnus.

'Neither can I!'

'You seem to be happy about it.'

Tumnus thrust back his head and laughed at the starry sky. 'Lucy, absolutely nothing can dampen my spirits today!' He considered what he'd said. 'Though I do seem to be quite dampened besides.'

A tiny giggle escaped Lucy. 'But how are we to find our way back to Cair?'

'Ah.' Tumnus grew a serious tone in his voice. 'Well –' Tumnus paused to think. 'I don't know, really!' And he laughed again. 'But I suppose we'll–'

'Look!' interrupted Lucy in a whisper. 'What's that?'

'What's what?'

'That! I'm pointing to it!'

Chuckling, Tumnus whispered, 'I can't see you pointing. It's dark, remember?'

'Oh! Right.' Lucy giggled nervously. Tumnus felt something bump into his horns as Lucy put her hands on his head, the turned his head to the left. 'That!' she whispered. Tumnus squinted at it. It was a very small pinprick of light from far away, but –

Ah! there was another one, just beside it!

And another one, that way!

Tumnus stared at them in amazement as more and more of the little lights gathered together flitted about through the air around and above him. 'Lucy – They're fairies.'

Together, he and Lucy watched the fairies gather closer and closer to them. Lucy gasped, 'Oh!' when on of them landed on her finger. 'I think . . .' Lucy began, her voice steady. 'I think they want us to follow them.' Tumnus found that he could not disagree.

The fairies provided enough light for the both of them to see the way back to Cair Paravel and up the stone steps leading to it. They arrived in the Great Hall, shivering and drenched in rain, to Edmund's voice shouting, 'Lucy! Where have you been?' Soon enough, the other King and Queen had joined him. 'Where have you been?' they asked. 'We've been looking everywhere for you two! My goodness, you're soaked! Tumnus, haven't you had enough rain for today!'

Lucy and Tumnus were surrounded by the other royals of Cair Paravel and led up the stairs to the parlour by Lucy's bedchambers. Once again, they sat before the fire and shared stories, though they were both exceptionally more cheerful than before. Edmund stayed with them, shaking his head and muttering to himself.

'It's far too late for you to go home now, Tumnus,' remarked the King. 'You'll have to stay here for the night.'

When Tumnus had been dried and warmed for the second time that day, he was welcomed into a guest bedroom. It was, of course, the one he'd had in the days preceding and following the coronation.

The next morning, both Lucy and Tumnus had terrible head colds, Tumnus more so. But that did not hinder them, for they sat together on the perfectly enormous couch in Lucy's bedroom with steaming mugs of herbal tea. They'd had such a lovely time yesterday in the rain, and Lucy declared that she never wanted to forget it. Tumnus (who was rather a bit of an author) suggested that they write it all down, and they did. But once that was finished, it was not enough. So they spent the entire day planning to write an epic novel about their adventures; those they'd had, and those that had yet to come.

'Mr Tumnus,' said Lucy, 'I don't think I've ever had such fun in my life!' So she knew from then on that she would always love the rain.

And from that day forth, I can say truthfully that she always did.