"I'm a child with a sword, playing king."
Have you ever been to Narnia? Have you ever seen a train station that takes you to a completely different world? Well, she has. She has been to that station.
The Pevensies are ruling Narnia as the rightful...
The very fact that the witch could haunt him in his dreams scared him, however there was no escape. Dreams were like crows filling his head every time he laid his head on the pillow. The crows were vicious, not giving him one calm breath. The worst part about these dreams was that she would always find her way into them; the white witch.
It would always be the same dream, he had it for as long as he could remember. Of course, they would disappear for a while, but then like a cruel joke, they would come back at the least desirable of times.
In his dreams, he would calmly walk on the Dawn Treader greeting the Narnians and sword fight with Reepicheep, his loyal mouse friend. The leader of the mice army would gladly take a match with the master of swords himself, for the mouse was proud of his own sword skills. Edmund, of course, would always win, unless he made it easy for the mouse on purpose. He so hated to see poor Reepicheep lose a fight every single time.
After the sword fight, Edmund would be called on deck to look at the foggy mountains and explain where to go from there. The green fog would reach the ship and always cover the crew until his worst nightmare appeared every time, in the form of the White Witch.
"Edmund," she sneered again, like she always did in his dreams. "I can make you my king, and much more."
He learned to close his ears and shut his eyes every time she came to his dreams. He would always wait for the fog to go away, he would wait until he woke up, but this time was different. Edmund knew the dream like a script for a play, he knew every line, and every move. He would recognize it quickly every time it came, and this time he learned to control it.
Instead of going onto the deck when he was called, Edmund would pull out his sword and be ready to slay the witch for the hundredth time. She would still whisper the same things, tempt him the same way when he was a child, but this Edmund knew her too well.
"Edmund," he heard her vicious voice again. This time through the noise and her whispers and his beating heart, Edmund managed to stand up from his knees and walk up to her. Just as she reached out her hand for him to grab it and follow her, he drew his sword straight into her stomach.
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"I will never be your king! I will never follow you!" Edmund screamed with all his might as her eyes filled with white ice like substance and destroyed her completely for the hundredth time.
Again, Edmund woke up sweating and clenching to the sheets on his bed. Looking into the darkness of his room, he shook his head and stood up, there was no sleeping for him anymore tonight. Only then did he realize that the garden was his safe haven, how he would always run to it because he felt like the witch could never get him there. How he carved his name into the back of the old tree, pretending that if he claimed it, it would surely protect him.
Aslan's presence was always there in the garden. He would watch over Edmund when he was a child, and never stopped since then. It was strange to think that Aslan was at many places all the time, but such was his power. The great Lion could reach anyone at any time if he wanted to.
Edmund, of all people, knew the price of treachery. That knowledge kept him sternly away from doing it again, he only wished others would know of what it takes to serve the white witch, how oblivious one can be doing it. So many souls lost to her power and lies, so many good people turned bad. He was angry at her, he was angry because he couldn't do more to stop it, stop her. His siblings underestimated her, but Edmund knew, evil never sleeps, it only keeps haunting the good.
As he looked at the red flowers in his garden, Edmund couldn't help but feel a strange resemblance between the flower and everyone he knew. They were all like flowers in the night, not suspecting the cold harsh wind which blew on them. He was once a beautiful flower too, but now the wind blew him away to reality and sleepless nights, that is what Edmund felt like.
He had no right to fall in love with Angelina, he couldn't give her the perfect peaceful life she deserved, but yet again, she was in Narnia. There was always a war here, it frustrated Edmund that he couldn't make Narnia a safe place. He put so many responsibilities on his shoulders. As if to answer his prayers, the Lion himself appeared in front of the boy.
"Aslan," Edmund whispered.
The Lion smiled, "hello Edmund. I sense a distress in your demeanor." The Lion walked around the garden and everything seemed to light up in his presence.
"Well, I don't understand-" Edmund hung his head.
Aslan turned around, "oh, what is it you don't understand Edmund?"
"Well for starters, Narnia was supposed to be a safe place, a peaceful place. Then, the white witch comes back." He sat down on the grass and covered his face with his hands.
The Lion joined him, his body falling onto the grass with grace and his mane right next to Edmund's leg. "You see Edmund, everything that happens now is only happening to ensure the future. You might not understand now, but all I do, I do because I love all of you, because I want all of you to be safe."
"But we are not safe! None of us are safe!" Edmund shook his head. "When is this future even going to be, tomorrow? The day after?"
"The future will come when evil is out of Narnia for good, until that day, you have to keep fighting it." Aslan always spoke in riddles, but his riddles gave answers as well.
Instead of asking Aslan more questions, Edmund let his body fall onto the grass and look up at the sky. It had been a while since he turned back to childish ways of dealing with pain, by just letting the world go by. To his great surprise, Edmund felt a smile creep onto his face. He felt exactly like a child again.
The Lion stood up from the ground and made his way slowly from the garden onto the open filed which was connected to the stables. Edmund lifted himself up and looked at the Lion. "What do you say, son of Adam, another run for the good old times?" Aslan leaned a bit to the side and prepared himself to leap and sprint.
With a huge smile on his face and laughter coming out of his mouth, Edmund ran from the gate onto the green field with the Lion right next to him.
The night was filled with sparkling stars and laughs of a child and roars of a lion. It had been a long time since Aslan visited the child he died for, but he finally knew the right time when Edmund needed him most. Even though he would deny it as soon as it was mentioned, Edmund grew up too fast. He didn't have the time to be a child for a while longer with Peter leaving for the war and Susan moving to London, he had to take care of Lucy. However, with Aslan, Edmund could finally let his inner child out. Only the Lion could understand.
The grass felt fresh and greener with Aslan next to it. The trees seemed taller than before, and the moon guided their way around the field as they both ran. Edmund felt ten times faster, as if he could almost fly. They ran for a while through the blue grass which was colored by the dark sky, until Edmund's feet gave in and he felt tired.
As they walked back to the castle, Edmund suddenly fell onto the Lion's mane to hug him. Aslan smiled and pulled him closer with his paws. "I don't think I even thanked you for that day." They both knew what Edmund was talking about.
"Your heart did. It is done, what I had to do. Now go be the king I made you to be." In that moment, the brave and tall Edmund Pevensie shrunk into a little boy in Aslan's eyes. He was a small child again, begging the great Lion for help. When it was finally time to say goodbye to Edmund, the Lion shook His mane, making the boy laugh a little. Then Edmund left, and Aslan looked at the castle and watched the little silhouette of a boy slowly turn into a man as he neared the castle walls. Giving the Lion one last look, Edmund walked back to his room with no dreams bothering him anymore that night. There was a confident sense of calm that Edmund felt around him, as if the Lion's mane shook off some protective magic over the boy. But it was the light, which was Aslan, that gave Edmund protection. The light that followed him warded off the evil shadows that were haunting in the night. No more was he afraid of the darkness which the castle and his room possessed.
