Thanks to all readviewers!

Not gonna lie, I am definitely struggling with the prompts this year. (No shade against the prompts; I just don't have many ideas.)


Prompt: "The policeman doesn't believe a word I've been saying," she whispered anxiously, "but you do, don't you?" "I do [...] But you see, I can believe a thing without understanding it. It's all a matter of training." ~ Dorothy Sayers


They did not understand. They could not understand, for they were stupid.

Aslan's official said so. They had been silly before. What matter that the stories said otherwise? The stories were from hundreds and thousands of years ago. It had been many decades since Aslan had last come, and now he was here and said these things, so they must be true. Perhaps the stories were only tales after all, or perhaps they had done something terrible and he was punishing them as they deserved.

It was not entirely their fault, those poor little creatures. If they could not see the deception, it was because they were too innocent and goodhearted to conceive of a malice so great as to lie about the very nature of Aslan himself. Who had ever done such a thing before? Who could possibly ever do such a thing and yet be allowed to live?

And they held to their convictions as best they could, doing what they knew was right. In darkness they tended their captive king's hunger and wounds, and shrank back only from freeing him. It was not that they loved Tirian less, but that they loved Aslan more, even an Aslan that seemed to hate them.

They did not understand. They could not understand, for they were honest.