Now I'm ready with the next chapter! I don't have very much to say, only thanks a lot for reviews and ideas.
Clip from next chapter:
I gave Peter a quick hug before I went up to Aslan. He nodded toward the tent, and with a last look at Peter I walked inside. I had the feeling that it could be the last time I saw Peter.
CH. 10 Presents From Father Christmas
After we ate a silent meal, we decided to go to sleep. We cleaned a spot in the middle of the badgers house and made some improvised beds.
I lay close to the door and stared up at the ceiling over me. I was afraid of falling asleep. I was tired, but afraid. What if the nightmares came again? I forced back some tears and stifled a sob.
Right beside the door someone moved and I froze.
"Couldn't sleep?" asked Peter.
"No", I sighed and sat up. Moonlight fell in through a window and I saw his silhouette in the dark room. He wasn't looking at me, but out of the window.
"Are the wolves hunting you?" he inquired. It sounded a bit weird, but I understood what he meant.
"No", I replied. "The nightmares." This time he turned to me. His blue eyes didn't tell my anything, but I remembered that dream which wasn't a dream in the beavers house. How Peter had blushed when Mrs. Beaver asked if he fancied me.
"Just go to sleep", said Peter. "I'll watch over you."
"You sound so grown up", I muttered. "Just like Dad used to."
"'Used to'?" Peter questioned. "Why do you say it like if he... isn't any more?"
I swallowed and my eyes watered. Peter moved over to me and carefully pulled me into a warm embrace. Tears ran down my cheeks. "The d-day we p-played outside", I sobbed. "I-I got a l-letter where i-it was w-written that he d-died!"
Peter didn't reply, only stroke my hair and held me, but that was enough. The warmth and love he showed in the embrace told me the same things like in the dream.
"Is it true that you and Ed are kings, and Susan and Lucy queens?" I whispered after a while. He sighed.
"They say so, and they also say that this Aslan has an army prepared for us near some Stone Table." In some seconds he was silent. "I think we should only get Ed back, and then get home, but what do you think?" I released myself from his arms and saw at him with a small smile.
"Well, it's a strange idea that you can become a king, but I also think it fits you. All of you."
He smiled back at me, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "We can think about it."
I nodded in agreement and saw at him with pleading eyes. His face became softer and he reached out for me. I pulled myself into his arms and closed my eyes.
"It's strange", I muttered, already half asleep. "I feel so safe in your arms." Then I fell asleep, and no nightmares touched me that night.
When I woke up, the sun fell in through the window. Around me the others were talking in hushed voices, and someone's arm laid over my waist.
I turned over on my other side and stared at Peter's sleeping face. Slowly he opened his eyes and smiled.
"Good morning", he whispered so low that the others didn't hear us. In fact they hadn't noticed that we were awake.
"Good morning", I replied with a small smile. He moved his hand up from my waist and carefully stroke some of my hair behind my ear. I closed my eyes by the touch and felt totally comfortable with laying so close to him.
"Do this mean I'm forgiven?" he asked tentatively and I opened my eyes. I smiled at him.
"Well... maybe. I'll think about it." Then I sat up and yawned.
"That was about time", Susan commented from her place beside Lucy where they had been chatting. "Have you two slept well?" Her eyes twinkled and I blushed when I realized how close I and Peter actually had been sleeping.
Peter sat up beside me and quickly moved away to his own place, though he left me the coat we had been covered with. He didn't look at any of us, but I could tell he was blushing too.
Lucy and Susan began to laugh.
After a tasteful breakfast considering of some bread, butter and jam, we got out of the small house and continued our journey toward the stone table.
It was cold, and with a thin blouse, a skirt, soon wet socks and small shoes. I quick got both wet and cold. The only thing that made me keep walking was the Pevensies talking as we went on. They talked about so much different stuff, sometimes about places where they'd been in London, and other times about happy moments they had experienced together.
I smiled when Susan started to talk about the library close to our home. The smell of old books and the sound of turning pages filled me fore some seconds, but the I returned to the cold forest.
We had trees around us nearly the whole day, and once when we stopped to eat a bit, Mrs. Beaver looked over my wound to check if it was getting worse or not. To our relief it was getting better, and we could soon continue our long journey.
It had passed teatime when we left the forest and went out on a cliff. From our viewpoint we could see a lake, and on the other side more forest. Behind the forest I could spot mountains and the ocean, and I remembered a trip we once made to the coast of England during the time before the war.
I hoped I would get to see more of the sea later.
"Now", Mr. Beaver said. "Aslan's camp is near the Stone Table", with his paw he pointed across the lake and the forest toward one of the mountains, "just across the frozen river." To my disappointment it was far away from us.
"'River'?" Peter repeated, and to my surprise he sounded nervous. All the years I had known him, he had always been the strong one. I could only remember on time when he was nervous, and that was before some exam he had at school.
"The river's been frozen solid for over a hundred years", Mrs. Beaver said. I began to wonder about how we would manage to cross the frozen lake before nightfall.
"It's so far", Peter whispered and stared toward the place Mr. Beaver had said the Stone Table stood.
"It's the world, dear", Mrs. Beaver chuckled. "Did you expect it to be small?"
"Smaller", said Susan in a hard tone and saw at Peter. I wondered if she was thinking about the fact that we were inside a wardrobe.
By the idea of 'inside a wardrobe' I smiled. This wasn't any longer 'inside the wardrobe'. It was a whole new world, and I was quite sure the wardrobe was much smaller.
I followed the rest when they started to walk around to find a way down the cliff. Mr. Beaver found a small path half hidden by branches.
We were half the way down when Peter got stuck in some branches in front of me.
"You need help?" I asked with a small smile. Peter saw at me.
"No... no I can do – AUCH!" Blood appeared on his finger where he had cut himself on a sharp branch. I laughed lightly and helped him free from the branches. He held them up so I wouldn't get caught in them too, and then we continued our way after the rest of the company.
Suddenly the journey didn't look dark, sad and tiresome any longer. I joked with Susan and Peter, and told Lucy small stories which made her laugh.
When I again started to give the environments some attention, I realized we had nearly crossed the lake. How was it possible? Form the cliff it had looked so huge, but it had only taken us about... how long? One or two hours?
"Come on, humans!" Mr. Beaver called back at us, and it wasn't first time through the last hour. "While we're still young!"
"If he tells us to hurry one more time", groaned Peter, "I'm gonna turn him into a big, fluffy hat." I chuckled when I mental imagined the beaver like a hat.
In front of me, Lucy climbed up on Peters back. I gave Susan a glance and recognized a smile on her lips.
"Hurry up!" Mr. Beaver suddenly shouted. "Come on!"
"He is getting a little bossy", Lucy said from her place on Peters back.
"Yeah, and if you become a queen, you can do something with that", I smiled at her.
"No, behind you!" Mrs. Beaver screamed. "It's HER!"
I gave a quick look over my shoulder, and to my big fear I saw a sleigh pulled by reindeer. It want so fast I didn't thought we would manage to outrun it. I turned back to the rest of them just to see Peter putting Lucy back on her feet. He took her hand and ran. Susan grabbed my hand and we darted after the rest of them.
I couldn't understand why it looked like we had to run for our lives at least once a day. A new quick glance over my shoulder told me that the sleigh was much closer now than before, and I could hear small bells. Something in the back of my mind told me that something was wrong about it, but right then I couldn't think more about it. The wound in my side started to hurt again. I cursed in silence and ran faster.
"Faster!" Peter shouted while he dragged Lucy the rest of the way over the frozen lake.
The beavers passed some trees and disappeared behind a pile of snow. I wondered if they had decided just to leave us to the White Witch.
Mr. Beaver's head appeared over the pile of snow and we hurried behind. It was a tiny cave under the pile of snow, and the cave turned toward the forest, away from the river.
"Inside!" the beaver yelled, followed by: "Dive! Dive!"
I collapsed in the snow outside the cave, and Peter dragged me inside where he held me close. I was trembling horrible, and the the wound had started to bleed again. Above us I herd the sound of bells which got louder, and then stopped. I heard steps and asked myself how the Witch didn't find us by the sound of our breath.
Without thinking about it, I held Peter's hand in a death grip when snow suddenly fell from right over the cave. She was practically standing on our heads. I shut my eyes and waited to hear the sound of something, what ever indicating that we were going to be turned to stone, like the small squirrels, the badger and the rest of the animals on the small clearing.
Nothing happened. I opened my eyes carefully.
"Maybe she's gone", Lucy whispered form the other side of Susan.
"I suppose I'll go look", said Peter. Carefully he moved me over to Susan, but I felt a sudden flash of panic when he began to rise. I didn't want him to leave.
Instead of letting go of him, I held his hand tighter.
"No", I gasped and dragged him back down. They all stared at me in surprise and confusion, but Mr. Beaver saved me from any further explanation.
"She's right. You're worth nothing to Narnia dead", he whispered and peered up from the cave.
"Well, neither are you, Beaver", whispered Mrs. Beaver.
"Thanks, sweetheart", Mr. Beaver replied and took her paws in some seconds. Then he climbed up from the cave and disappeared.
Mrs. Beaver whimpered of fear, and we waited. No sound, no shadow. No sign of what happened. I swallowed when it felt as if my heart had moved from it's usual place to the wound. A small gasp came from me and I shut my eyes tight.
I felt Peter's eyes on me, but I couldn't talk. Maybe it was better just to be turned to stone? Then I would at least don't have that terrible pain each time I moved too quick or too much.
Something moved above us. "What's that? What's-" Mrs. Beaver hushed at Susan and we heard footsteps, too big and heavy to belong to any beaver.
A furry head with black eyes appeared and Lucy let out a scream of fear and surprise. If I'd been able to, I would've done it too.
Like through a mist I saw Mr. Beaver's happy grin. "Come out, come out!" he said, but it sounded unnecessary high. "I hope you've been good, 'cause there's someone here to see ya!"
The Pevensies and Mrs. Beaver rose and moved out, but I couldn't. Someone lifted me up, and through the same mist I saw Peter's blue eyes and light brown hair. "It's going to be all right", he whispered, and then I blacked out.
I blinked at the light around me and sat up when I heard a known voice from somewhere in front of me.
"My dear child." I rose, and out of the light the owner of the voice appeared. It was the golden lion. Aslan. I knew it was his name.
"What happened?" I asked him and looked down at myself. I was dressed in a clean and beautiful, white dress with small golden-decorations.
"You're between the death and the live", Aslan replied simple before he led me through the mist.
After walking for a while, we came to a great hall with so many windows I couldn't count them. Aslan stopped and I stared at the hall.
"This, my child, is The Hall of Destinies", he explained. "I give you four different possibilities."
Then he went over to four high windows. In one of them I saw a white winter-landscape, in another a green valley, in the third a strange place which remembered me a bit of Finchley, just in a very town-like way, and in the fourth the silhouette of the Professors house back in England.
"You can return to the life you just cam from. If you choose that, you'll go back to the life you just left. You'll wake up in the snow and continue on your journey with the Pevensies. It will be hard, but there will be small glints of sunlight which will make it easier to live." He saw at me and I swallowed.
"If I choose that, will I meat Peter again?" The lion chuckled.
"Of course you will. In fact, it doesn't matter which of the destinies you choose. You'll meet him anyway." Then Aslan turned to the second window with the valley."You can go to my land, the real Narnia and wait for Peter there, though it will take some time before he meet you, and then he'll be older. About thirty, I think."
I stared at the lion in shock. "Do you... you think... you think I will go to an undying land, wait there for the man I love, and when he finally comes he'll be fifteen years older than me?!" I nearly shouted. Aslan gave me a stern look.
"You can also go the future. You'll grow up in a land, somewhere called Norway, I think, and when you reach an acceptable age you'll be sent back to the golden age and meat Peter there. Or you can choose to be send back to your room in the Professor's house and you'll be frozen in time until the Pevensies return. It's up to you what you choose."
I didn't need to think about it.
"I'll continue my journey with the Pevensies", I said. Aslan gave me a kingly nod, and The Hall of Destinies changed to mist.
"We'll meat sooner than you might think", was the last I heard him say before everything went black.
"Catty! Catty, wake up!" The voice sounded known, but I didn't know from where.
"Peter... it's no use. She's... gone." That voice too sounded known, like if I had heard it somewhere before.
"No! She can't be!" Someone shook my shoulders and I groaned. In some seconds everything became silent. Then I turned my head and blinked. Over me I saw three known faces. Two girls, one with black hair and blue eyes, and another with red-brown hair and brown eyes. The third face belonged to a boy with light brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. Those eyes were filled with tears.
"Am I still dreaming?" I whispered. The boy, Peter, I remembered, pulled me into a warm embrace.
"Not any longer", he muttered. I closed my eyes and laid my arms around him. The two girls, Susan and Lucy, came from behind and hugged me too.
"We thought you were dead!" Peter exclaimed when he let go of me.
"I thought so too", I said with a small laugh. "What happened?"
"You blacked out, and then Father Christmas here gave us some presents", Susan explained. "He gave Lucy a dagger and the juice of some flower, I got a bow, a quiver filled with arrows and a horn, while Peter got a sword and a shield. Lucy gave you a drop of that juice, and your wound healed. We thought you would wake up but you didn't before now!"
I turned to Lucy who beamed at me. Then I pulled her into a hug.
"Thank you so much", I said. "How can I ever repay for this?"
I let go of Lucy and got to my feet. My hand searched for support and found Peter who laid an arm around my waist. The small girl in front of me smiled.
"It's enough for me that you're alive", she replied.
"Catharina." I turned to the unfamiliar voice. An old, thick man with a red coat a white beard and hair smiled at me. He stood in front of sleigh pulled by reindeer with small bells. The man had a huge sack standing on the ground beside. He smiled at me. "I'm so glad you're alive, 'cause how could I otherwise give you your presents?"
I had to laugh, and so did the rest of us too, included Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.
The man, I guessed he was Father Christmas, turned to the sack and pulled something up from it. Then he reached it to me.
"This", he said and reached me two necklaces of gold, each of them with a heart, "is something you have to take very well care of. One of them you keep, and the other you give to the man you love. It will hold you together forever, and not even the time can separate you. They also consist the deepest magic of them all."
Carefully I took the necklaces. One of them I put around my neck, and the other I slipped into a pocket.
"And this", this time the man handed me a staff, "is a mighty weapon." I stared, first at the man, and then at the staff. It was made of white wood with beautiful, small caverns. "For those who know how to use it. It can take any form you want"
"Wow", I whispered, and then I saw at Father Christmas. "Thank you so much, but... how?"
The old man laughed. "You have to wish", he told me before he glanced at the Pevensies who stood behind me. "These are not toys, but tools", he continued. "Bear them well and wisely. Now I must be off. Winter is almost over!" He picked up the big sack of presents and tossed them into the sleigh. "Things do pile up when you've been gone a hundred years!" He smiled at us and climbed into his sleigh. "Long live Aslan, and Merry Christmas!"
We called our own good byes, and then he was gone.
"Told you he was real", Lucy smirked at her older sister who frowned.
"He said winter was almost over", Peter said. "You know what that means. No more ice."
Finally finished. I can't wait to write about the scene with the wolves and Aslan's camp.
See you around, and please leave a review. Thanks!