The Return of the Pevensies (sequel to The Fifth Pevensie)

Chapter 20: This is Goodbye... For Now

"Come on, Kitten, we're going to be late!" Jake said as he dragged me over the bridge. I laughed and made him slow down.

"Calm down, not even Aslan's there yet!" I said. Jake slowed down a little and looked behind me.

"No, but he's catching up," he said. I looked behind me and saw Aslan on the far end of the bridge. In front of him were my siblings and Caspian. I smiled.

"Come on, it's not a competition!" I said. I waited for them to catch up with a chuckling Jake beside me. We then walked together to the city. More exactly, to a part of the town where there was a giant Narnian oak right at the end of the cliff.

Jake and I stood with Trufflehunter, Trumpkin, Glenstorm, Doctor Cornelius and Reepicheep on the right side of the tree. Susan, Lucy, Edmund and Peter stood on the other side. Aslan and Caspian stood in the middle, facing the crowd of Telmarines and Narnians.

"Narnia belongs to the Narnians, just as it does to man," Caspian said. "Any Telmarines who want to stay and live in peace are welcome to."

"Where would they go otherwise?" I whispered to Jake. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"But for any of you who wish, Aslan will return you to the home of our forefathers," Caspian continued and answered my question, even though he probably didn't hear me. What he said caused some people in the crowd to start mumbling.

"It's been generations since we left Telmar," one man in the crowd said.

"We're not referring to Telmar," Aslan said. I looked at Jake and saw that he was just as confused as I was. And he knew more about the Telmarine history than I did!

"Your ancestors were seafaring brigands. Pirates run aground on an island," Aslan said. "There they found a cave, a rare chasm that brought them from their world. The same world as our Kings and Queens."

I looked at my siblings. They seemed just as confused as I was. I looked to my right, where Glenstorm was.

"Did you know?" I whispered. He shook his head. "I thought you knew everything!"

"Not everything, Emily. Not yet," he said and looked at Aslan again. I did too.

"It is to that island I can return you. It is a good place for any who wish to make a new start," Aslan continued. People in the crowd looked at each other, but no one spoke up.

"I will go," someone said. "I will accept the offer."

The person who said it started moving through the crowd towards Aslan, and I saw it was Glozelle.

"So will we," a woman said. She was carrying a baby. She walked after Glozelle and an older man, probably her father, followed her.

"Who's that?" I whispered to Jake.

"That's Lady Prunaprismia, Miraz's wife," he whispered back. My attention was drawn back to Aslan as he began to talk again.

"Because you have spoken first, your future in that world shall be good," he said and breathed on the four people. He then nodded at the tree we stood by, which began to twist, forming an oval opening in it. Some people in the crown actually screamed in fear.

"What's their deal? Never seen magic before?" I said to Jake. He laughed a little.

"Well, that's probably right," he said. I sighed.

"I was sarcastic," I said.

"Oh," he said and went silent. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. This was a very serious situation, after all. I looked back at the tree and saw Glozelle and the others approach it. They walked through the hole and disappeared. It looked like they'd fallen off the edge of the cliff.