A TWIST OF FATE
Wowser, this is the quickest update on this story since…well, since ever!
Sorry if I seem to copy the action and dialogue from the original movie too much. Basically, I'm re-telling the story in my own individual style, and I'm adding a few tweaks here and there. Overall, I'm writing how it would be if Tumnus and Terence were thrown into the picture. But maybe my story is a tad too similar to the movie.
Well, it will improve as the story progresses. I'll try, anyway. Once again, reviews are expected, and appreciated!
Characters (with the exception of Terence) © Disney (and their original creators)
Tumnus and Narnia © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media
Terence and Story © unicorn-skydancer08
All rights reserved.
Chapter 6: The Golden Afternoon
Alice followed the White Rabbit to a wide patch of flowers, and due to her tiny size, she was lost in no time in a thick, twisted jungle of plant life. "Wait!" she cried after the Rabbit—even though her voice was much too soft and small for the Rabbit to hear. Even if he had heard, he wouldn't have stopped anyway. "Please—just a minute!"
When the girl was finally forced to stop in the end, due to the density of the flower forest, she groaned to herself, "Oh, dear! I'll never catch him while I'm this small!"
"Alice!" Terence's frantic voice called in the distance.
"Alice, where are you?" Tumnus's voice followed.
Realizing she had forgotten all about her friends, Alice quickly turned the other way and started to hurry back. She hadn't gone very many steps before Terence appeared right in front of her! They ended up colliding with each other, and Alice stumbled back and nearly fell over. "Oh, Terence!" she gasped, when she looked up again and recognized the young man.
"Oh, Alice, are you okay?" Terence asked solicitously, reaching out for her and running his large hands lightly along her forearms, as if to make sure she was still made of flesh and blood.
"I'm fine," she said.
A minute later, a panting Tumnus made his presence known as well, struggling through a tangled web of vinelike shoots.
"Terence…Alice…there you are!" he gasped.
"Hey, mate," Terence said, "it's about time you showed up!"
"You just couldn't wait up for me, could you?" Tumnus said testily, brushing his tawny curls back from his forehead.
Terence and Alice weren't exactly sure how to respond to that, so they just said together, "Sorry."
Looking around them, Tumnus demanded, "Well, now what are we supposed to do? It'll take forever to get out of this place, at our size."
Before anyone could say a word to this, or try to think of a solution to their problem, a large flock of butterflies flitted past them just then.
However, unlike the butterflies they were familiar with, these creatures' wings were shaped like big slices of bread, each side coated with what looked very much like fresh golden butter. And when they stood on an overhanging leaf, folded their wings, and positioned themselves close together, they resembled a fine loaf of bread fresh from the oven.
This caught everyone's interest, including Tumnus's. "Oh, my!" said Alice, her eyes widening.
"What curious butterflies," Tumnus marveled.
"You mean, bread-and-butterflies," an unfamiliar voice chimed in.
"Oh, yes, of course," said Tumnus, without really thinking, "I—" But then he stopped and looked about bewilderedly, wondering who it was that had just spoken to him.
Terence and Alice were every bit as perplexed as the faun, and they glanced around the area as well. But all they saw were flowers—and more flowers, and more flowers, and even more flowers. There were flowers everywhere, of every imaginable kind, from roses, to pansies, to daisies, to mums.
"Now, who do you suppose…?" Tumnus murmured.
"Hello?" Terence called out tentatively. "Is anyone there?"
No one said anything, but a small insect-like creature soon came darting up to them.
It looked like a minute horse, with wings; when it hovered in front of Terence, Alice, and Tumnus, it swayed continuously back and forth, on what appeared to be a set of rockers. The unusual yet oddly endearing little thing let out a tiny whinny, and Alice cried joyfully, "Ah, a horse fly!" Then, she hastily corrected herself, "I mean—a rocking horse fly!"
"Naturally," said the same strange voice from before.
The voice seemed to come from above them, and they all promptly raised their heads, with Terence beginning to say, "I do beg your pardon, but, did you just—"
But when they looked up, all they saw was a rose hovering over them, a big, beautiful red rose.
"Oh," said Tumnus dismissively, "it's only a rose."
"You don't suppose, Tumnus," said Terence slowly, "that it was this rose here—"
"That's nonsense, Terence," the faun said, knowing very well what his mate was thinking. "Flowers can't talk!"
But then, to their utmost surprise, the rose began to move. It leaned down slowly toward them, and they could make out a woman's face in the crimson petals.
"But of course we can talk, my dear," she said to Tumnus, speaking softly and very sweetly.
"If there is anyone worth talking to," a persnickety voice piped up from behind.
"Or about!" a third voice trilled, and Tumnus and Terence and Alice looked simultaneously over their shoulders to find a giggling white daisy there, accompanied by a prim purple iris.
Tumnus's jaw dropped in disbelief, while Terence's face broke out into a smile.
"Well, what do you know?" said the white-haired youth. "Flowers that can actually talk, just like people!"
"And we sing, too!" chorused a group of little colorful pansies.
"You do?" said Alice, sounding delighted.
"Oh, really?" said Terence interestedly, cocking an eyebrow. "Speaking and singing flowers, eh?"
"Oh, yes!" gabbed a fast-talking tulip. "Would you like to hear 'Tell It to the Tulips'?"
"No, let's sing about us!" interjected a set of indignant larkspurs.
"We know one about the shy little violets," peeped up a small violet that hid within the shade.
"Oh, no, not that old thing!" said one of the lilies, with apparent disgust.
"Let's do 'Lovely Lily At the Valley'!" a second lily insisted.
Soon, all the flowers were caught up in a big argument about what song to sing for their three guests, about what their guests would like, and what they wouldn't like.
Terence, Tumnus, and Alice just stood by and looked from flower to flower as they listened to them quarrel, until finally the one Red Rose got everyone's attention by rapping her little rosebud baton, and saying loudly, "Girls, girls!" When things finally quieted down, the Rose declared, "We shall sing 'Golden Afternoon'!"
She leaned in toward Alice and the two young men, and informed them, "That's about all of us."
Tumnus looked witheringly toward Terence. "Oh, Terence…do we really have to?"
"Why not?" asked Terence, with a shrug. "It couldn't hurt to watch, and listen, Tumnus. It is the polite thing to do, after all." He added with a grin, "Besides, it's a show free of charge!"
So saying, he settled down next to Alice, who had already taken a seat on a low leaf and spread out the skirt of her dress. The white-haired man leaned back comfortably and crossed one leg stylishly over the other. Tumnus watched for just a moment before sighing, shaking his head, and reluctantly plopping himself next to his companion.
Once all three of them were seated, the Rose began her conducting. "Sound your 'A', Lily!"
"Laaaaaa!" trilled one of the lilies, in a high, clear note.
One by one, all of the flowers proceed to warm up their vocal chords, with a lot of "mimi"s and "lala"s and "bum-bum-bum-bum"s.
Once they were good and ready, they started their song, with the Red Rose leading them:
"Little bread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips,
And the sun is like a toy balloon
There are get-up-in-the-morning glories
In the golden afternoon!
"There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside
Strings of violets are all in tune
Tiger lilies love the dandy-lions
In the golden afternoon!
The golden afternoon!"
While the flowers sang, Alice absently waved her own hands to and fro to the tempo, and Terence drummed his fingers rhythmically against his raised knee.
Even Tumnus had to secretly admit the song was rather catchy, and that for a bunch of flowers, their singing wasn't half-bad.
The flowers sang on:
"There are dog and caterpillars
And a copper centipede
Where the lazy daisies
Love the very peaceful life they lead…
"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers,
For, especially in the month of June,
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All in the golden afternoon!"
Only one voice alone sang the words to that last bit. When Terence, Alice, and Tumnus looked around for the source of that voice, they saw that it belonged to the most gorgeous white rose they had ever seen. The sparkling dewdrops that adorned her and the strands of spiderwebs surrounding her made her appear even more stunning. Terence felt his heart melt into a puddle at the sight of her. Seeing the lovestruck look upon his friend's face, Tumnus scowled and gave the man a none-too-friendly nudge in the ribs to snap him out of it.
Terence could only offer the faun a weak, sheepish smile, as he gently massaged his bruised ribs.
Ultimately, the bread-and-butterflies approached them, and some began pulling on Alice's hair and dress, while others pushed against the girl from behind. Tumnus tried to shoo them off, but then Terence stopped him, whispering, "Hold on a second, mate." It took Tumnus a moment to realize the bread-and-butterflies were not trying to attack Alice, but were instead ushering her toward the flowers. They intended for the girl to actually join the group.
Sure enough, the flowers welcomed Alice with open leaves, and Alice was brought to stand with the pansies, who immediately crowded around her.
"All in the golden afternoon
The golden afternoon—"
Now the Red Rose in charge of this whole ensemble aimed her rosebud baton at Alice. Everyone else instantly fell silent, allowing Alice to take over.
Alice was nervous at first, but when she looked at Terence and Tumnus, and Terence nodded encouragingly and gave her a wink, she smiled and bravely sang, in a high-pitched warble:
"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers,
For, especially in the month of June,
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All—"
Suddenly her voice gave a horrible crack, as she'd hit a note that was slightly too high for her. In embarrassment, she immediately covered her mouth.
But the Red Rose only smiled kindly at her, and the flowers all helped her finish the lyric:
"All in the golden afternoon!"
When it was all over, Terence applauded enthusiastically and whistled, while Tumnus just clapped enough to be polite.
Alice clapped her own hands as well in sheer delight, and gushed to the Red Rose, "Oh, that was lovely!"
"Oh, yes," said Terence, as he stood and moved up to join them, "most splendid, indeed! For plants, you certainly know how to put on a good performance!"
"Thank you, my dears," the Red Rose told both him and Alice graciously.
"What kind of garden do you three come from?" the first Daisy they'd encountered asked them, as Tumnus went to stand next to Terence.
"Oh, we don't come from any garden," said Terence good-naturedly.
The Daisy gasped at that, and said to the high-and-mighty Iris from before, "Oh! Do you suppose these are wildflowers?"
"Oh, no," said Alice, trying to repress a giggle, "we're not wildflowers!"
The Red Rose asked them gently, "Just what specie, or shall we say, genus, are you, my dears?"
Alice paused briefly to think, before she answered, "Well, I suppose you could call me a…genus…humanus…Alice!"
"And," said Terence, "you could call me a humanus Terence."
"Well, I, for one," said Tumnus coolly, "am perfectly content to be simply referred to as a plain, simple Tumnus."
"Ever seen an Alice with a blossom like that?" the Daisy giggled, pointing at Alice with her leaves.
"Come to think of it," said the Iris haughtily, "did you ever see an Alice? Or, for that matter, a Terence, or a Tumnus?"
Now Tumnus, Terence, and Alice found themselves being poked and probed and scrutinized from every side, with the flowers pulling rather irreverently at their hair and clothing, while the flowers passed their remarks to one another. "Did you notice her petals?" the Daisy asked, indicating Alice's dress. "What a peculiar color!"
The Iris held up one end of Tumnus's red muffler and sniffed at it, and said disdainfully, "And no fragrance on this one! He appears rather on the scrawny side, too."
"Now, stop that!" Tumnus commanded, jerking himself free and stepping back.
"Just look at this one's stems!" laughed the Daisy, when she lifted the hem of Terence's frock and examined his long, slender legs.
Now Terence was getting annoyed, like Tumnus. He narrowed his eyes and backed away himself, saying, "Hey, excuse me, madam!"
"Let go!" Alice protested, when she felt the flowers seize hold of her dress and raise it up too high for her liking.
"Get off me!" Tumnus ordered, and he swatted away a set of leaves that were playing with his curly hair.
At last, the faun blurted out, "This is ridiculous! I am not a flower! I'm not a flower of any kind!"
"A-ha!" crowed the Iris. "Just as I suspected!" She leaned over to the Red Rose, as if to share a secret with her alone, but all within the group could clearly hear every word she was saying:
"This one, here, happens to be nothing more than a common mobile vulgaris."
"Oh, no!" the rest of the flowers wailed in dismay, upon hearing that last bit.
"A common what?" said Tumnus incredulously, knitting his brows and quirking his ears.
The Iris bent down to his level, and informed him, "To put it bluntly—a weed!"
"What?!" Tumnus now flattened his ears at her in indignation. He put his hands defiantly upon his hips, and declared, "Why, I am not a weed!"
The flowers didn't seem convinced.
"Well, you wouldn't expect him to admit it!" said one of the tulips.
"Can you imagine?!" one of the lilacs babbled to her other fellow lilacs.
"Well, goodness!"
Then pandemonium filled the garden, as the flowers all began shoving Tumnus along, while at the same time trying to stay clear of him.
"Don't let him stay here, and go to seed!"
"Go on, now; off with you!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Please, girls!" said the Red Rose, but no one was listening.
When Tumnus stumbled at one point and fell among the pansies, they simply shoved him away, chorusing in disgust, "We don't want weeds in our bed!"
And when Terence and Alice protested, the flowers only drove the white-haired man and the girl from their plot as well, clearly taking them for weeds, as well. "Move along, move along!" was their constant refrain. The tiger lilies and dandelions growled and hissed at them, and pawed furiously at them with their claw-like leaves and appendages.
When Tumnus, Terence, and Alice had been steered clear to the other side of the garden, Tumnus looked back at the flowers once, his face burning red. "Well, all right, then," he snapped at them, "if that's the way it's going to be! So help me, if I were my right size right now, I could very easily pick each and every one of you, straight out of the ground!"
"And that would serve you right, too!" Terence said heatedly.
Just as the angry, hurt, and humiliated threesome were about to go their own way, two of the daffodils emptied an entire leaf full of water on them, drenching them thoroughly and creating a small flood that quite literally swept them off their feet. The faun, the girl, and the white-haired man all cried out as one in surprise as they felt the unexpected cascade of water upon them, and as they were all carried away together by the current. They glided a short distance, and when the flood began to recede and they were able to stand again, dripping wet, they could hear the flowers laughing behind them. "Well!" Tumnus fumed, shaking the water from the fur on his legs. "I have never been so humiliated, in all my life!"
"'You can learn a lot of things, from the flowers'," Alice murmured disdainfully, as she wrung out the skirt of her dress. "Hmmph!"
Terence swept back his own wet hair from his face, and added on sullenly, "Seems to me those pretentious plants could learn a thing or two, mainly concerned with manners."