Romeo || Edmund Pevensie

It Ain't Easy

     It was safe to say that Edmund had been the only one of them to take any more of the surroundings in than the seaside aspect to it. Across the hill face, and top of the cliff, were stones ruins scattered like litter. None of the remaining structure remained, except for perhaps a few sets of stairs, all of which were fanciful.

     It wasn't natural. It didn't belong there. It was the exact reason they had to investigate.

     The four siblings made their way to the top of the cliff, and viewed the scenery there instead. This was in hope that they would get more insight into what the building used to be.

     Peter was first. He looked with wide eyes upon the untouched greenery, admiring the crowd of birds and buzzing of insects. The others followed suit in action, and found their own significant things to focus upon.

Edmund, not far behind the rest, looked starkly different after leaving the beach. He had decided that it would be best for his hat, jumper, tie and blazer to have all been left there. Truthfully, he had never been a fan of uniform, and the traditional Narnian garb was much more comfortable and suiting. However, he could not leave behind his satchel. There was something which he loved about it too much: it held everything he held dear. Photographs, practicalities... his copy of Romeo and Juliet.

Even he, who knew very little about architecture, could tell that it was a grand structure, even having lost everything that made it great.

     Whilst split up, Lucy found herself drawn to the edge of the land so that she could look over the ocean. Something about it was familiar, though, she could not put her finger on it. Despondence filled her heart; how could she have forgotten something that was so close to her.

  Lucy signed, unknowingly. "Wonder who lived here."

  Susan, who had made her way over, paused as she kicked something. Then, when she picked it up, it surprised her. A chess piece; a golden knight in the form of a centaur. "I think we did."

     Curiously, the younger sister took the game piece, and let her eyes wash over it. Another familiar thing she couldn't place. This was the trigger for their brothers to join them, and of course, a reaction.

     "Hey, that's mine!" Edmund sounded genuinely surprised at the sight of it. For him, it had been a few years. "From my chess set."

  "Which chess set?" Asked Peter.

  "I didn't exactly have a solid gold chess set in Finchley, did I?" The younger replied, sarcastically. He snatched the item from his sister, and took it with him as he walked.

  Lucy looked around once again, and that was when it clicked inside of her mind. Suddenly, each broken down wall and column made sense. "Can't be." She whispered, barely loud enough for anyone else to hear.

     The young girl ran as fast as she could, weighed down by her eldest brother as they held hands. She dragged him to a platform-like space, overlooking the rest of the greenery.

  "Don't you see?" Her voice was filled with excitement, and joy. She just couldn't understand why they didn't see it the same way she did.

  Peter chuckled. "What?"

  "Imagine walls." She put him into place, to the left of Edmund, and to the right of Susan. "And columns there." It was coming back to them all, more than they might have suspected. "And a glass roof."

  For a moment, Edmund looked to the rest of his siblings as Peter muttered, a sweet sorrow in his words. "Cair Paravel."

     It was the palace of Kings and Queens of a time long passed. It had been their home during their reign, and the home they shared with Aramis. The spirit, lively and elegant in every sense of the words. This felt like their first arrival all over again; spending it completely without Aramis. It had been too long since they had seen him. Edmund thought it might have been like an alcoholic going through withdrawal stages.