#by oflucyandlorien

                         THE SPRING NARNIAN GIFT EXCHANGE.

                 for: @l-oh-herainfrom@oflucyandlorien.

determination.

Peter stands in the ruin of Cair Paravel, his palace, his kingdom, and the years come crashing down on his shoulders. A year since he and his siblings went missing, fifteen years as High King, centuries since he last stood where he stands now. Lucy seems near tears, Edmund angry, and Susan just looks sorry.

The treasure room was the last straw; sixteen steps to the bottom and their gifts from Father Christmas hanging on the wall and the “do you remember” of the whole place was almost more than any of them could bear. The thrill of realizing it was Cair Paravel had been dulled by how many years it must have been since they lived there. Their friends must be long gone, even if the apple trees–apple trees they planted, just before the Calormen ambassador came–are still here.

“This is my sword, Rhindon,” Peter says. “With it I killed the wolf.” From his siblings’ expressions he knows that his voice is more that of the High King than of Peter Pevensie from Finchley. There is magic in the air, and even if he looks more or less as he did when they were in the railway station, Narnia’s magic is working on him in other ways.

Sheathing his sword, he follows his siblings out of the treasure chamber and helps Edmund to build a fire without thinking about it. He bids Lucy good night automatically and stretches out with his back to the fire.

They must have been summoned.

Lucy’s finding the wardrobe was not a mistake, or if it was, it was because the wardrobe was a doorway. Railway platforms do not turn into woods all on their own. That had been magic. The woods are silent; something must be terribly wrong in Narnia. Cair Paravel was attacked, but Peter and his siblings were not called when that attack took place, so why now?

As much as he turns it over in his head, he can’t make sense of it. It isn’t logical, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be. It’s not logical that the stars are any different from England, but they’re still more familiar from his years spent studying and watching with the centaurs. Looking up into the Narnian sky, he notes that Tarva and Alambil are in close conjunction. If Peter had to guess, the great conflict indicated has yet to take place, and that is what he and Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are here to aid Narnia in.

Under the stars, on the cold, stony ground that was once theirs, Peter silently vows to put Narnia to rights, whatever necessary.

Eventually, he sleeps.