Disclaimer: I'm only going to write this once for the entirety of this month's challenge (what I can do of it): I don't own Narnia's lands, people, or history. I'm just adding to its tales.
1: Tell of a time when music changed things in Narnia—either because it changed hearts or because it held magic.
I had learned not to weep.
Haldruf the Dwarf died when I was eighteen, falling to the Witch's army. I wept, my four hooves stamping the grass, the hair of my face falling to hide the tears. Though he had been short enough to run underneath my horse belly, he had taught me courage. I wondered how my courage could grow when he was gone.
Stormeagle fell from the sky. I cried for mere seconds, scooping up his body and running from the archers. I cried again that night, but less.
My brother, younger by a year, eager and willing—so young. So young. I wept when we could not find his body.
For an hour. But we had to run, and tears make a warrior blind. After my brother's death—pain was familiar.
Death after death. Blow after blow.
It is a fearful thing to have so much to lose. Loss makes the world feel empty of all that is good—until another loss tears away another piece. Until the hole inside gets wider and deeper, until empty is larger than it was. There is always more to lose.
I learned not to weep.
I thought I needed that. I needed to run, I needed to fight, I needed to be calm, collected, efficient. Life does not stop for grief.*
Narnian after Narnian died, and then—
Then the prophecy came. Wrong will be right…
I thought I might weep then. I thought hope might break down my walls. But I had been strong for too long. I did not believe in hope, in strength outside myself.
Till, after the silence fell as the prophecy ended, a Narnian began to sing. One by one, the voices added, singing the song of creation, without its power—but with all its hope. All its memory.
And I began to weep.
*"But the mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop for love, but it does not stop for death and grief, either. After death and grief that (it seems) ought to have stopped the world, the world goes on. More things happen." ~ Wendell Berry
A/N: The Adventures in Narnia writing challenge in September is starting! But I'm going to be travelling back and forth in a 4½ hour trip every weekend while my sister does rehab from a car accident. I'll participate as I can, but please give me grace for posting prompts and posting stories.