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 Six: What Happened to Tumnus

"Isn't there anything we can do to help Tumnus?" Peter asked.

Mr Beaver shook his head, looking grim. "They'll have taken him to the Witch's house," he told them, "and you know what they say." They all shook their heads, because obviously they weren't from this world and couldn't possibly know. Mr Beaver lowered his pipe and said in a low voice; "there's few who go through them gates, who come out again."

Steph shuddered involuntarily and Mrs Beaver bustled over to them with a tray of sliced fish and potato. "Fish and chips," she said loudly. She gave her husband a dirty look as she placed it on the table in front of Lucy. She patted Lucy's arm. "But there is hope dear, lots of hope," she went on, nudging her husband.

Mr Beaver choked on his beer and spat it back into his cup. His wife glared at him and he spluttered. "Oh, there's a right bit more than hope," he said, wiping his mouth on his fur. He looked at them all very cautiously and said in a low voice; "Aslan is on the move."

Aslan. The name made Steph feel all funny inside. Not a bad funny, but an excited funny, like the sort of feeling she got when she went outside on the first day of winter and found a beautifully thick layer of snow covering the ground. It was a good feeling, and a safe one and she marvelled at how even though she had never met him, she felt like she knew Aslan.

The look on her sisters face, and on her cousins faces told her they each felt the same – except for maybe Edmund, he looked as though he might be sick again until he shook his head and the look was gone, replaced by the scowl he'd worn since they'd stumbled into Narnia.

"Who's Aslan?" he asked bluntly.

Mr Beaver chuckled and winked at his wife. "Who's Aslan," he repeated, as though Edmund was making a bad joke. "You cheeky little blighter!"

Across the table, Steph caught the frustrated look on Peter's face and Susan's unimpressed pout – Mrs Beaver saw it too and elbowed her husband. Mr Beaver stopped laughing and frowned. "You don't know, do you?"

"Well, we haven't exactly been here very long," Peter told him, still looking rather annoyed.

"But he's only the King of the whole wood, the top geezer – the real King of Narnia." He went on a bit then, talking so fast, much faster than any of the children could keep up with except for maybe Susan, who watched with a deepening frown on her face and Steph caught words like 'Stone Table' and 'prophecy', and she really thought that the Beaver might be a little … strange.

Mr Beaver sighed, his shoulders sagging as he looked at them all. "Look," he said, a little more calmly and began to tick things off on his fingers. "Aslan's return, Tumnus's arrest, the secret police – it's all happening because of you."

"You're blaming us," Susan said, narrowing her eyes at the old Beavers.

"Not blaming," Mrs Beaver said hastily. "Thanking you."

"There's a prophecy," Mr Beaver explained, and lowered his voice once again and they all leaned closer in so that they could hear him. "When Adam's Flesh and Adam's Bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done."

"You know, that doesn't really rhyme," Susan pointed out. Peter levelled her a look to which she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know it don't," Beaver said, forgetting his grammar in his impatience. "You're kind of missing the point."

Mrs Beaver placed a hand on her husband's shoulder and smiled warmly at them. "It has long foretold that two Sons of Adam and four Daughters of Eve will defeat the White Witch and restore piece to Narnia."

"And you think we're the ones?" Peter asked shakily.

"Well you better be because Aslan's already figured out your army!"

"Our army!" Lucy exclaimed.

"We have an army," Becky said, looking sullen. "Why would we need an army? You're not expecting us to go off to war are you?"

Susan nudged Peter with her elbow and he grimaced. "Mum sent us away so we wouldn't get caught up in a war," she said.

The two Beavers, as lovely as they were, were obviously very, very confused, Steph decided, but they looked so excited and glad to have them here that she didn't think it was kind to tell them otherwise. Susan apparently didn't think so, and she nudged Peter again with her elbow. Obviously, she expected him to say something to the contrary.

Peter looked helplessly at the Beavers. "I think you've made a mistake," he told them. "We're not heroes."

"We're from Finchley!" Susan added. The Beaver's both looked at each other – Mr Beaver shrugged his shoulders and Steph realised that they had about as much of an idea as to where Finchley was as the six of them had about Aslan.

"They don't even know where Finchley is," she said pointedly to Susan.

And that was about as much insanity as Susan could take up to the present moment. She politely folded her napkin up, placed it on the table and got to her feet as if to leave. "Thank you for your hospitality but we really have to go," she said.

Reluctantly, Peter stood up as well and Steph felt him gently prod her in the back as he rose and she hastily followed his example.

"But you can't just leave," Mr Beaver exclaimed.

"He's right," Lucy agreed. "We have to help Mr Tumnus."

"It's out of our hands," Peter said firmly, and Steph recognised the tone he'd used on Lucy the day they had played Hide and Seek and knew it could mean only one thing – Peter had switched back to 'responsible brother' mode. "I'm sorry," he said apologetically to the Beavers, "but it's time the four of us were going home. Ed," he turned around to where Edmund had been sitting on the stairs and stopped in his tracks. "Ed?"

Steph looked around and saw the empty staircase, then to the open door and had a horrible feeling. Edmund was gone. "Edmund?"

Shaking his head, Peter said crossly; "I'm going to kill him."

A dark look crossed Mr Beavers face and he said; "You may not have to."

This chapter pretty much came straight from the movie, hence why I didn't like writing it and why it's very short. I just thought I'd put it up because I'm going away on a field camp for 5 days to count frogs as a part of my Zoology major and didn't want you to all have to wait until I returned for an update (you will be getting one when I return anyway because I'll have plenty of time between counting frogs to proof read the next chapter).

A special thanks to HighQueenP, MCH, and anniecarrots1 for being awesome and faithful reviewers.