Return to Narnia (Edmund Pevensie) (FINISHED)

Now You See Me... Now You Don't

"We're lost," Susan grumbles to Lucy. The young girl smiles at her older sister and Susan laughs.

   "We're not lost," Peter demands for maybe the hundredth time.

   The Pevensies had been busy. They'd found Cair Paravel and explored, exploring the hidden room and all the things inside. They were armed as they once had been and were ready for most things. They were in their old clothes and felt a lot better about being back in a world that seemed completely different than they remembered. They'd run across Telmarine soldiers trying to drown someone and had saved him. His name was Trumpkin and the blonde dwarf had explained he'd been caught when a Telmarine prince invaded his forest and brought his guards. He'd explained all about the Telmarines and, when he'd realized that the four Pevensies were the Kings and Queens of old, had a bit of a fit. Now they were trying to get back to where Trumpkin lived. To his friends, and a woman he referred to as 'her,' who supposedly led them, keeping them safe from the Telmarines. All of this they had handled, and they were almost back into the groove of how things had been what was centuries ago to this land...

   Unfortunately, Peter refused to admit that he was out of his element and that they were lost. He was clinging to the desperate need to still be in charge. For Narnia to be the place where he has the upper hand. Admitting that he couldn't navigate in his own lands - lands he had once had memorized as intimately as the back of his hand - wasn't an option. They'd been gone a very long time and Narnia had changed. A lot. Peter couldn't seem to accept that.

   "I'm not lost..." Peter said after a second, his words trailing off, tone thick with defeat.

   "No, you're not," Trumpkin said, sighing. "You're mistaken. Narnia isn't the same as when you were last here." Peter looked at his sisters. He couldn't admit that, after all his smack talk, they were lost.

   They'd been rowing all the day before and now they were done and really just wanted to rest, but there was no point as Peter was anxious and wanted to get to her as soon as possible, where it was safe. They'd switched to hiking today, moving through the forest. The world around them was lush, green and beautiful, which keeps Lucy in high spirits. No one but Lucy, of course, but their spirits lightened as Lucy's did. Although, the growing dread of the ever pestering fact that in every direction was only ever unfamiliar, long-stretching, dense forest and no 'her' or anyone for that matter in sight. They felt totally and completely alone and it was very scary. The girls had started joking, but under the positivity and cracks about Peter's direction deficiency, there was a tension that had them all a little high strung. The forest was quiet. So quiet it hurt to hear the laughter and the sound of feet stomping through wood.

   So, naturally, when Lucy looked over and saw a bear, she was elated. The animals in Narnia were always so kind and ever helpful. She raced off, approaching the bear. As she got closer, she slowed, remembering her poise. "Hello there!" She greeted, beaming.

   Trumpkin turned, having not been watching the girl. He saw the bear and looked at it closely. "Your majesty, that may not be..." He trailed off, not sure if he should attack or not. The bear finally turned, and when he saw the girl, his eyes sparked. Not with joy or compassion or excitement at seeing another intelligent being, but with hunger. The way a starving man looks at a the best loaf of bread in the shop.

   Lucy heard Trumpkin yell something, alarmed and looked at the bear closer. She noticed how he did not look... human. He looked, well, like a bear. They always had a human look in their eyes, but this one did not. She turned and ran as the bear lowered itself to four feet, truly startling her. As she took off running, she knew that she wouldn't make it back to Peter in time. Susan drew her bow back and Peter yelled again and again for her to shoot, but she couldn't. She was so used to the idea of civilized animals, she felt as one would killing a human, and it bothered her to an extreme extent. She just couldn't.

   Lucy suddenly tripped and turned around just in time to see the bear rear, ready to attack. Then an arrow came whizzing over her and got the bear square in the chest. It fell over, dying. Everyone looked to Susan who still had her bow drawn, the arrow still in place. Then they looked back and saw Trumpkin, bow in hand, hand drawn back to where he must have released the string. The dwarf came over slowly, unsure about these Kings and Queens he'd heard so much about. As much as they tried to hide it, he could tell they were disoriented and it felt odd to see the saviors he'd been promised reduced to children who needed his guidance in the end. Weren't they supposed to be the ones in charge?

   "What happened?" Susan demanded, looking wide eyed at the bear.

   "After so long of being treated like an animal," Trumpkin explains. "You become one." He internally sighed, pulling a knife from his belt as he moved past the siblings to the bear.

   "It was wild," Lucy mumbles, eyes teary. The siblings exchanged looks as Trumpkin finally reached the bear and put it out of its misery quicker than bleeding out would have. At least it wouldn't suffer... Lucy still had to look away though.

   Narnia was different than the last time they'd been here. It was very different. And the Pevensies were not sure if the place they'd missed so much, the place they'd wished to return to, the home they wished they'd never left, was really the home they'd had in the first place. It was like going on a long journey and coming back to find your house ransacked, messy. Someone had invaded and turned everything on its head. It was heartbreaking.

   After they turn the bear into rations (not something pleasant but something Lucy had come to accept quite some time ago), they were on their way again. As they hiked, they came across a gorge and had to stop. Peter looks around. "I know this... There was a bridge here."

   Trumpkin sighed, not wishing to yet again remind the young King that Narnia is different and no amount of refusing to believe it is going to change that. The geography was all messed up and completely changed from what they remembered and they were lost because Peter wouldn't admit it. Still, even after everything they'd been through.

   Lucy gasped, catching everyone's attention. "Aslan!" She exclaimed, pointing as she whipped her head to face her siblings. "He's right there! Don't you see, he's right-" Her excitement vanished as she looked back. Aslan was gone, and no one had seen him except for Lucy. Her siblings all look doubtingly at the girl and she rushes to defend herself. "He really was there," she insisted quietly.

   "I didn't see anything, Lu," Susan, ever rational, pointed out.

   "Well, I did," Lucy threw back. "He was over there." She points up and to the left. "We need to go that way, I'm telling you."

   "The best way is down," Trumpkin finally says. "It's better. Safer and shorter. If you want to get back, let's go that way. I know where we're going," Trumpkin says, looking at Peter sideways.

   Lucy gapes at her siblings. Did they really not believe her? Why didn't they ever believe her?

   Edmund stepped up. He'd been mainly quiet the majority of the trip, thinking about what might have happened to AnnaMarie, the girl he'd left behind, but now he spoke. "Last time I didn't believe Lucy, I ended up looking really stupid." He smiled at her and she relaxed, her eyes warm and thankful.

   "I think we should listen to Trumpkin," Susan voted. "We're out of our element." Lucy shot her a look but Susan wouldn't meet her gaze, her eyes locked solidly on Peter instead.

   "Aslan has been gone a long time..." Peter pointed out slowly, hesitantly. "Let's just follow Trumpkin for now, okay, Lucy?" He eased. She stared at him a long time, then set her jaw and nodded. Peter was finally admitting he was wrong and giving up control, if she pushed him too much he might revert and they didn't have time or energy for that. Edmund took her hand and smiled reassuringly and she smiled weakly back. Everyone else missed this exchange as they'd already turned to go, so when Edmund pushed ahead to join the others and left Lucy behind, no one but her saw as she threw one last, long look to where she'd been so sure she'd seen Aslan.

    And she HAD seen Aslan. She knew she had... Hadn't she?