Essence of Narnia

Chapter 39

"Edmund!" I called out. 

"I'm here--" He responded coming close to kneel beside me. "What happened?"

"I-I don't know."The softened soil where the flower rested was now a scattered mess, the long white petals were bent with invasive veins of brown covering the lily. Some petals were smashed and crumpled within the dirt,  and some were nearly torn off hanging limply alongside the broken stem. 

"Oh," He paused. 

"It's destroyed." I could hear the tremor in my voice, I was fighting to remain calm but a rush of emotions went through me. Most of it was fear, pain, and anger. I held one of the torn petals in the palm of my hand and turned to look at Edmund. "The flower Aslan had told me to take care of is now destroyed."

"I'm so sorry Charlotte. There must be some way to fix this." 

"No," I shook my head, "in this state, it's impossible." 

"There is a way, it doesn't look that bad." 

I looked at him in disbelief. "Seriously now Edmund? Not that bad? I've only been given a simple task by the highest supernatural being in this world and you say this broken mess doesn't look that bad? Sure it doesn't look that bad, but its still bad." 

He lowered his gaze and gently picked up a few petal pieces from the dirt. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help you feel better." 

I took a deep breath as I buried my head in my hands. It was just my luck that of all the flowers in the garden, the lily had to be the only one to be destroyed. To me, the very thought seems to be suspicious. Why? Was this a test of some sort? Was Aslan testing me on how I would react to whatever happened to the flower as opposed to how well I cared for it? 

Why the stupid flower anyway? Why was it so important for me to care for the flower? Why not an animal, like a puppy?  Granted that would be more difficult, but it would be much more fun. 

As much as I loved flowers and gardening, it reminded me too much of home. Too much of mother and my sweet little sister...

In a sense, the flower reminded me of me. Lonely. Different. 

Whatever anger I felt was now replaced by a calm mellow feeling. I took a few more deep breaths just to be sure to get the residual anger away. It was never good to speak when angry anyway. That was one thing my father taught me. Time and time again I always failed to listen though. 

I slowly lifted my face from my hands to see the look of guilt on Edmund's face. "Don't be sorry. This was my fault and I took my anger out on you. I'm just angry. And not to mention terrified." 

"It's understandable. What did you think might have happened?" 

I could feel the anger quickly returning at the thought of the lily being destroyed. "I don't know, maybe some wild animal went up and dug it out. Whatever it is, I don't want to think about it."

"So what do you think we should do then?"

"Well, the stem is broken so I can't put it on crutches. It'll be a bit more difficult but I can try to replant the stem." 

"Well there you have it. I knew you'd find a way." He said patting my head. "What can I do to help?" 

"Well." I stood up patting the dirt off my pants. "You can start with gathering some of the manure."

"Manure? You can't possible mean--"

"Animal poop? Yes, I do exactly." I smiled and punched his shoulder as I walked past him. "Go at it chap." 

"Charlotte-"

"Oh and on another note," I turned around, "don't pat my head like that again. It feels a little... impersonal." 

A scoff escaped his lips as he looked back at me with a raised brow. "Impersonal you say?"

"I know what I said Edmund." I replied. 

"Do you now? Because if so," He took a few more steps, his long legs making it easy to quickly catch up to where I was. His chest was in front of my face and when I refused to look up at him, he lifted my chin with his hand and met his lips with mine. "Did that feel impersonal?" 

He asked me so softly and his brown eyes searched mine waiting for a response. However, the mischievous glimmer in his eye gave him away to what his real intention was. 

The fool was teasing me. 

"Go and gather the manure." I huffed and quickly pulled away from his grasp before he could notice the burning red on my cheeks. 

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I know, I know this was late. Sorry everyone. Well hey, that just means you'll be having two chapters updated this week to compensate for the lack of an update from last week. 

Please fill me in on your thoughts! I genuinely love reading all your comments, predictions, and theories.