Pure Heart // Aslan x OC Reader // Chronicles of Narnia

The Children's Arrival

Marigold's POV

Aslan and I pushed through the tent's curtains, revealing ourselves to the crowd. The Narnians bowed respectfully, but the children remained confused until they saw us. They bowed before us, Peter presenting his sword before him. But where was Edmund, was he still missing?

"Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam." Aslan said. Peter looked up at us when he said his name.

"Welcome, Susan and Lucy, Daughters of Eve." Aslan greeted the girls the same, causing them to look up too.

"And welcome to you, Beavers. You have our thanks." Aslan said, both of us bowing to the couple.

"Where's your brother?" I asked the children only for their faces to fall. They all got up and looked at us sadly.

"That's why we're here... We need your help." Peter pleaded, looking at both Aslan and me.

"We had a little trouble along the way." Susan explained.

"What happened, children?" I asked them, scared, only thinking the worst. I recalled Father Christmas saying that he was learning his lesson the hard way...

"Our brother's been captured by the White Witch." Peter said.

"Captured?" I asked him.

"How could this happen?" Aslan followed up.

"He... betrayed them, Your Majesties." Mr. Beaver spoke up.

The crowd around us began to murmur and growl at his comment. I took a deep breath, a symptom of my stress.

"Then he has betrayed us all!" Oreius exclaimed causing Aslan to give a quick growl, pulling everyone's attention back to us.

"Peace, Oreius." Aslan said. "I'm sure there's an explanation."

I nodded to him in thanks before turning back to the children.

"What happened?" I asked them intently.

The three remained silent for a moment, guilty looks on their faces when Peter finally spoke up.

"It's my fault, really... I was too hard on him." Peter admitted. I looked at him with a sad expression, of course, he would blame himself.

Susan reached over and placed her hand on Peter's shoulder. "We all were." She stated, looking at me, signally they all shared the blame.

"Sir, he's our brother. And Miss Mari, you know him - he's just confused." Lucy pleaded to Aslan and me.

"I know, dear one. But that only makes the betrayal all the worse. This may be harder than you think." I told her, stepping one step closer to her. I knew that the deep magic would be weighed in with his treason somehow. My gut stirred and twisted inside me, telling me so.

"There's not much we can do at the moment, children. I'm sorry." Aslan apologized, stepping forward toward them as I did. The children look down, ashamed and afraid for their brother.

"I know the situation's scary, but at least he's alive. And I'm relieved to see that you are all safe too." I told them sincerely and they nodded.

"We have prepared tents for your arrival. Talmon will show you to them. You can change into some fresh clothes and join us again after." Aslan said to them.

"We'll get some food started for you too, okay?" I nodded to the children and they nodded back.

Third POV

Talmon led the three children away from Mari, Aslan, and the crowd. Mari took a deep breath before walking back into Aslan's tent. He wanted to follow her but knew he had to talk to the Beavers first.