Revolution || Narnia Fanfiction || thecallofnarnia & NaturallyNarnian

Authors' Note

The very first thing I wanted to be in life wasn't a writer, or a video game creator, or a movie director. It was a brave knight.

I wanted to be a hero.

Growing up, I went to this private Christian school. When kids were in first grade, the headmaster (or principal, alternatively) would "knight" them, giving alliterative names preceded by Sir or Lady. Actually one of the few cool things my school did.

When I was in first grade, I was knighted Sir David the Dragon-Slayer. Ever since then, I wanted to be that hero.

Writing this, I am now 24 years old and diagnosed with autism (ASD), alongside anxiety (GAD) and depression (MDD), though I like to think writing with Lea has fought those last two back. Writing this, I wanted to not only create a story where I could finally see myself as a hero, as an actual, close as I could get interpretation of how I'd function and how- or if- I'd live, solely off my mannerisms, knowledge, processes, etc. (to say nothing of all the crazy fantastical stuff that happens otherwise in this)

Writing this, I not only wanted to feel like I could become a hero, but that I could- not some glossy version of me, but truly, vulnerably me- my autism and everything else included.

I believe I've done that.

This is not just for my sake, though- I hope that someone else with autism can feel represented in this book. I hope this, essentially, knights you, and you dream big and live bigger because of it.

I physically cannot thank my incomparable partner Lea for everything- I was gonna say writing partner, but that feels almost an injustice of a descriptor.

It is because of you, Lea, writing this book with you, that I can finally say- and by the end, reader, if you've been wanting to, I hope you can say it proudly, too:

I am that hero.

—David