#for the-best-bibliophile
THE AUTUMN NARNIAN GIFT EXCHANGE.
for: @the-best-bibliophilefrom@tiriansjewel.
There was a chill in the air, fresh and strange and faint. It came from the North, whispering through withering leaves, and from the sea, salty and frigid and grey, and Lucy knew.
Winter was coming yet again.
Even though the Witch was long gone, there was something eerie about the first signs of cold, the waning daylight, and the newly brown grasses. She had noticed that Edmund seemed stiffer these days, Peter seemed graver, and Susan’s temper was short, and all of it made her sad. Was there no joy to be found in the changing seasons? Would snow always remind them of the ashen face of Jadis and the kidnapping of their dear brother? No, Lucy would not allow it to happen.
She was a queen, now, but she was also still a kid. Peter and Susan handled most of the important things with the help of advisers, which left her a lot of time to frolic about Cair Paravel and the meadows surrounding it. Of all her royal activities, she found that speaking with the Narnians was her favorite. She was learning their lilting speech day by day, how it was English but not quite, how it had mixed with the strange tongue of the spirits of nature, how it felt wild and free and like wild vines encircling everything. She learned their customs and their stories and their folklore, all of it tangible, and she let her hair grow into strawberry blonde curls which flew in her face without abandon as she ran to greet the next talking creature or laugh with the naiads in the streams. There had to be something she could do for her siblings and the Narnians alike to make the onset of winter just a little cheerier.
She was running, running, running, feeling the breeze in her face and in her skirts, allowing the morning air to revitalize her, when suddenly her foot caught on something. She felt her legs go out from under her and soon she was sprawling in the dirt, wondering what on earth she’d tripped on. She sat up and looked behind her only to see that the offending object was a rather plump looking pumpkin. She let her fingers play across the looping ridges and thought about how she’d missed pumpkin pastries and trick-or-treating and… and there it was! Everyone needed a bit of autumn cheer back in their lives! It was time for Narnia to have its first Halloween celebration in 100 years.
The next few days were a bustle of book-reading and decorating and spreading the word. Lucy found that the Narnians had celebrated Halloween, although a little differently than they did in England. Their traditions felt older to her, more mysterious, as for them Halloween welcomed winter and honored the souls of the dead. The fauns would dance in the forest and the tree spirits would sing a solemn song as their leaves left them. Lucy thought it all seemed very nice, so she arranged for pumpkins to be picked and fires to be prepared. She was sure Susan thought her a bit mad to be putting so much effort in for a little holiday, but it was all for a good cause.
When the night came, there was something eerie about it. The tree spirits’ song sent a chill down her spine, or maybe that was the wind. Or maybe both, she couldn’t know. The fauns began their dance, but it wasn’t strictly cheerful, it spoke of change and death and rebirth again, and all the Talking Beasts bowed their heads in reverence as they prayed for their long lost loved ones. Lucy didn’t know if she could call it cheerful, but it was beautiful. This was the Narnians’ own. They were their own again, and that was all that mattered.
And she glanced over and saw the smiles on her sibling’s faces, and knew she had completed a job well done.
