Finding Narnia

A Chronicles of Narnia Fanfiction by Darkened-Storm

Disclaimer: I, Darkened-Storm, own only my plot, ideas and characters. C.S Lewis owns The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Any characters you do not recognise from his series, including Stephanie and Rebecca Pevensie, are my creations.

Chapter Five: The Robin and the Beaver

"This is a pretty good wash-out," said Edmund; "not much good coming here."

Steph shot him a reproachful look as she stepped over the entry. The fauns cave was a mess. Broken cups, plates and cutlery littered the kitchen floor. The entire cave had a damp, musty feeling as though no one had lived in it for days. The fireplace had gone out long ago, leaving only charred sticks behind and snow had drifted in from the open doorway and collected in a pile on the floor by the door.

Lucy's eyes were wet with tears as she looked around at the destroyed house; "who would do something like this?" she asked them.

"Maybe this will tell us," Steph said, pointing to a notice she spotted pinned to the wall. It was written on old parchment, the sort used before with quills and ink bottles rather than pens and pencils. Peter pulled the notice from the wall and read it. The colour drained from his face as he read the first few lines and he looked up, catching Steph's gaze. Wordlessly, she crossed the room to his side and read over his shoulder.

"What's it say?" Becky asked, her brown eyes filled with concern as she caught the worried looks the older two were giving each other.

Peter hesitated, then began to read aloud; "The faun, Tumnas, is hereby been charged with high treason against Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternising with humans, signed Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police."

He handed the notice to Becky and she read it again and saw that in place of a signature at the bottom of the notice there was a large paw print ink red ink. Susan took the notice from her and glared down at it.

"All right," she said in a sharp tone. "Now we really should go back."

"But what about Mr Tumnus!" Lucy exclaimed.

"If he was arrested just for being with a human, I don't think there's much we can do," Susan answered.

"You don't understand, do you?" Lucy said, looking as though she wanted to cry again. "I'm the human, she must have found out he helped me."

She looked helplessly at Peter, wishing he would say something. Peter bit his lip hesitantly, then said; "maybe we could call the police?"

Susan rolled her eyes. "These are the police," she said, brandishing the notice in her brother's face and earning a dry look from him in return before he turned back to Lucy.

"Don't worry, Lu," Peter assured his sister. "We'll think of something."

"Why?" Edmund said quietly from the corner of the room and they all turned to look at him expectantly. He sighed impatiently. "He's a criminal," he insisted. "Why should we help him?"

"Because he helped Lucy," Steph said quietly, seeing her family's sullen looks. Even Susan was looking dejected now. As much as she hated the snow and the cold and she really wanted to go home, it didn't sit well with her leaving the faun to suffer.

Peter seemed to have come to a decision then, because he turned to Lucy and said; "Lu, tell us about the queen."

"She's not a real queen," Lucy said. "She's a horrible witch that put an enchantment over the forest so that it's always winter and never Christmas."

"Oh please, Peter," Becky said, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "We can't leave the poor faun behind – the Witch might do all sorts of nasty things to him – maybe turn him into a toad, or try to bake him into bread like Hansel and Gretel."

Peter looked indecisive. He looked from Lucy, to Becky and back again, his frown growing deeper each time. Finally, he gave a heavy sigh and looked to Steph. "What do you think?" he asked her.

Steph hesitated, feeling Susan's heated glare on her back. "I don't feel right leaving Mr Tumnus in the hands of the this Witch – she sounds really evil, and I think that if we could help him then we should, because that's the right thing to do but I really wouldn't have a clue how to do it. We'd have to find him first, I suppose, and then break him out of whatever prison he's in – but again, I don't know how we'd do that either."

Peter nodded in agreement; "if only we knew where the poor chap was imprisoned," he said.

Lucy gasped suddenly and pointed to a tree outside the door. They all looked and saw a tiny robin perched on the tree. It saw them looking at it and whistled sharply, then fluttered away out of sight.

"Did that bird just 'psst' us?" Susan asked, looking bewildered.

"Don't be stupid," said Edmund. "It's a bird."

"Yes but, we're in Narnia," Becky said, sounding excited again. "Maybe the birds here can talk to humans, just like the faun."

"Do you think it can lead us to the Witch?" Lucy wondered hopefully.

Steph drew a breath. "Only one way to find out," she said, and led the way out of the faun's cave. The bird had flown down to a lower perch on the next tree. Lucy took a step closer and the bird flittered away to land on the next branch. When she moved closer, it flew again, and again until it was only a few trees away.

"It wants us to follow it," Becky guessed. She turned to Lucy with a smile and held out her hand. "Come on Lu, let's go."

"Wait!" Susan exclaimed, but Lucy had already looped her arm through Becky's and the two girls were hurrying after the bird, which had moved on to the next tree. Shooting a fleeting look at her brothers and Steph, Susan went after them.

"Should we go?" Steph asked Peter curiously.

Peter just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see that there's much else to do," he said and motioned for her to follow. Edmund huffed crossly and followed after them.

They travelled that way for about an hour, with Lucy, Becky and Susan in front, Steph in the middle and Peter and Edmund bringing up the rear when Edmund said to Peter; "if you're not too high and mighty to talk to me, I've something to say you should listen to."

"I don't know that I should listen to much that you have to say given your record this week," Peter answered coldly.

"Give it a rest, Peter," Steph said. She was cold and hungry and really didn't want to hear any more arguing and most of her anger at Edmund had abated over the course of the past hour. There was no point them being mad at each other now and she figured it would just be better to let Edmund say what he had to say. "What's the matter Edmund?"

"Not so loud!" Edmund said. "I don't want to frighten the others – but have you realised what we're doing?"

"What?" Peter said, lowering his voice.

"We're following a guide we know nothing about, how do we know he's not leading us into a trap," Edmund said.

As much as Steph hated to admit it, she knew Edmund had a point. Still, she wanted to follow the bird because she had a feeling it was the right thing to do. "It's a bird, Ed," she said, trying not to slip in the snow as the ground descended beneath them. "I don't think a bird would lead us into a trap."

"What if it's a bad bird?" Edmund pointed out. "What then?"

Peter frowned. "It's a robin you know. They're good birds in all the stories I've ever read. I'm sure a robin wouldn't be on the wrong side."

"Well which is the right side?" Edmund argued. "Who's to say that the Fauns are right and the Queen – the Witch – is bad? Aren't they each as likely to say that the other one is bad?"

Again, Steph knew he had a point, and she couldn't help but feel annoyed at him for it. Why hadn't he pointed this out earlier, she wondered, before they had trekked another hour into the snow and gotten their feet and clothes soaked. Because none of us would have listened to him, she realised, remembering how Peter him down when he said they shouldn't help the Faun, and she, even before them, had told him time and time again to stop grumbling.

"The Faun saved Lucy," she said at last. "Either way, it doesn't look as though we have much of a choice. We can't remember the way back to the wardrobe, or even that silly lamp post so it's not as simple as turning around and going back."

Peter frowned as he realised their predicament. "Maybe Su was right – we should have turned back earlier."

"Don't tell her that," Edmund muttered. "It'll put her in a horrible mood and none of us will be able to bear it."

Peter gave his brother a reproachful look, but couldn't argue with him. "There's still the problem of the Faun," he mused. Finally, he came to a decision. "All right, we'll keep following and if we see anyone, we'll ask them for directions back to the lamp-post and hope Lucy knows the way home from there."

Up ahead, Lucy gave a gasp as Becky slipped in the snow and landed on her backside. Susan yelled and hurried over to help them. By the time Peter, Edmund and Steph caught up to them and Susan helped Becky to her feet, the Robin was long gone.

"Now what?" Edmund said, giving Peter a look that went as far to telling him 'I told you so,' as he dared.

"Shh!" Becky hissed. "I heard something over there," she said, and pointed to the trees and they all stopped to listen. First they heard a rustling in the trees somewhere to their left and they saw something move.

The girls all crowded behind Peter and he gathered them around him protectively. Lucy, who was the bravest of the lot of them at that moment, walked next to her brother.

Something crawled out from behind a mound of snow. It had a whiskered face and brown fur and a very large tail. It stopped still when it saw them and stood up on its hind legs, sniffing the air.

Lucy was the first to recognise it. "It – it's a beaver."

It approached them on all fours, cautiously sniffing the air as Steph had seen many of them do back home in England. It stopped just short of Peter and twitched its whiskers at them, as though it wanted to say something.

Becky nudged Peter with her foot. "What?" he hissed.

"Go on, see if it's friendly," she urged. Looking as though he'd rather do anything but, Peter inched forward, holding his hand out the way one might approach a stray dog.

"Careful, Peter," Steph said. Do beavers bite? she wondered.

The beaver didn't bite or scratch, but it did something just as alarming – it spoke.

"I ain't going to smell it if that's what you're after."

Steph blinked. Beside her, Becky gave a little cry of alarm and Susan shrank back further. Even Edmund looked astonished. Only Lucy was smiling- she wasn't the least bit surprised to have found a talking Beaver.

Peter, to his credit, managed to looked stunned for only a moment before he pulled his hand away. "Oh, sorry," he said awkwardly. Lucy giggled.

The Beaver inclined his head to her, his whiskers twitching. "Lucy Pevensie?" he enquired.

Lucy grew very still, her smile fading. Letting go of Peter's hand, she took a step closer to the Beaver. "Yes?" Silently, the Beaver reached into his fur and produced a white handkerchief.

"Hey, that's the hanky I gave to Mr –"

"Tumnus," the Beaver said, looking gravely at the white cloth. "He got it to me just before they took him."

Lucy's face fell. "Is he all right?" she asked.

"Further in," he said and he turned and disappeared behind the mound of snow, beckoning for them to follow.

Peter and Lucy immediately began to follow him. Susan hurried after her brother and grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?" she asked, sounding panicked.

"She's right," Edmund said at once, looking alarmed. "How do we know we can trust him?"

Peter looked impatient and motioned towards the Beaver. "He said he knows the faun," he said.

Susan stared at her brother in disbelief. "He's a beaver," she exclaimed, "he shouldn't be saying anything?"

"Fauns and witches aren't supposed to exist either," Steph said pointedly, feeling annoyed with Susan. Why did she take every opportunity to point out logic when clearly, this place wasn't very logical at all. Almost immediately she felt bad for snapping at Susan, but she felt that she really wanted to go on. "Look, we've come this far," she said.

The Beaver popped its head out from behind the mound of snow and beckoned to them. "Everything all right?"

"Yes," Peter said hastily. "We were just talking."

The fur above the Beaver's knitted together, and Steph could only guess that he was frowning. "That's better left for safer quarters," he said, and hurried away.

"He means the trees," Lucy explained, looking wearily around. They were surrounded by tall trees, and none of them had noticed until now that they were completely still, even in the wind and Steph had the bizarre feeling that they were watching her and she suddenly wanted to be very far away from them.

But where are we supposed to go? She wondered. Should they follow the Beaver when they didn't know where he might take them, or should they just turn around now and hope they didn't get lost on the way back?

She didn't much like the idea of getting lost – and Lucy trusted the Beaver, and it was clearly an acquaintance of the faun's. And it's better than trying to find our way back to the wardrobe in the cold when we're all hungry, Steph decided. "Come on," she said. She took Becky's hand and followed the Beaver.

The Beaver kept a surprisingly quick pace through the forest, darting behind trees and hurrying them along as best he could, eager to get them to a safer place before nightfall. They tried their best, but all the children were feeling exhausted from a whole day of walking about. Even Lucy dragged her feet as she trudged silently beside her oldest brother.

"Come on," the Beaver urged them. "We don't want to be caught out here after nightfall." None of them dared to ask why because it took all of their concentration to keep from falling over in the snow as the ground began to descend beneath them.

Suddenly, the Beaver's expression brightened and he stood up on two feet. "Here we are then," he said proudly. They were standing on the edge of a narrow valley over a frozen river. The Beaver motioned to the dam, indicating it was his. In the middle of the dam was a funny shaped house with a chimney that smoked and Steph suddenly became aware of her stomach grumbling. She was starving!

"It's lovely," Lucy said excitedly.

"It's merely a trifle," Mr Beaver said, but he sounded pleased just the same. "Still plenty to do, ain't quite finished it yet. It'll look the business when it is though."

A second Beaver shuffled out of the tiny house as they drew closer, waving its paws sternly. "Beaver? Is that you?" she said in a high, womanly voice. "I've been worried sick! If I find out you've been out with Badger again - Oh!" she said when she saw them, and clasped her hands to her mouth. "Those aren't Badgers," she said delightedly and waddled over to them. "Oh, I never thought I'd see this day!"

Then she turned around to her husband and hissed; "look at my fur," and immediately began brushing her coat. "You couldn't give me ten minutes warning?"

Mr Beaver chuckled. "I would have given you a week if I thought it would have helped," he told her.

Mrs Beaver rolled her eyes at him before looking up at all of them happily. "Oh, come inside and we'll see if we can't get you some food – and some civilised company," she added, nudging her husband, who chuckled.

Susan, at the mention of dinner and warm food was the first into the little house. "Watch your step," Mr Beaver told them, and Peter helped Lucy over the little step into the house. As soon as they were inside, Mrs Beaver began bustling about, fetching pots and a kettle.

"Get us some fish, Mr Beaver," she said. Peter went with him and the girls helped Mrs Beaver fill the kettle and cut the potatoes into chips and Steph almost felt as though she was at home, helping her mother prepare dinner. She spread a cloth over the table and helped Lucy place the forks and knives on the table and by the time they were done, Peter returned with Mr Beaver and a catch of fish so that they all sat down with a plate and a fork and knife each and began to talk.

Sorry for the late update, uni kept me rather busy and I've just booked myself a trip to Sydney to see the Narnia exhibition there! I am going in 11 days, hoorah! Anyway, enjoy the chapter and I will have another update for you soon! Thankyou to all my loyal reviewers.

[EDIT] Oh gosh! I want to say a very big sorry to everyone who reviewed the last chapter... for some reason I am no longer getting email alerts to my phone so I didn't see any of the reviews from last chapter until now! I am terribly sorry and will go and reply to all your reviews now.