The Call To The Old - An Edmund Pevensie fanfiction

Chapter ten

Lucy remained, shell shocked, on the floor, until her siblings rushed to see if she was alright. The boys held out their swords just in case, and Peter grabbed a hold of his sister.

Trumpkin walked closer to check if the bear was still alive. He poked at it. It did not move.

Lucy turned to Talia, "thanks."

But Talia did not return the gratitude with a smile as she would normally.

"He was wild." Edmund spoke.

"I don't think he could talk at all." Peter agreed.

"Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, that's what you become." Talia huffed walking away from the group. She turned, "You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember." she declared, angrily, before walking over to sit by the river side. She heard Trumpkin begin to cut up the poor animal, and Lucy start to sob.

The siblings angered her; perhaps confused was the more appropriate word. The siblings confused her. She had question after question to ask them, but now the main one was where was their common sense? Why hadn't Susan shot her bow to protect her sister's life? And why on earth would Lucy go up to a wild bear in the first place? She knew that it was because Narnia had changed, but surely, surely it doesn't take a genius-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a figure who slouched down beside her. "Thank you for saving her." the voice murmured.

She turned her head to see Edmund, and frowned, "It shouldn't have had to happen. If she had just left him alone-"

"I only came here to thank you. Not to discuss my sister's supposed stupidity."

"I never-"

"You implied." and the boy walked away. I suppose it took that for the girl to understand, she sighed and got up to join the others- a sorrowful look plastered across her face.

The girl sat down next to the siblings, as they watched Trumpkin light a fire to cook the meat of the bear on. He lit it successfully on the first try, and they all stared in curiosity at the naked flame, dancing in the wind. Talia noticed that Lucy was still crying slightly, and she reached out to squeeze her hand, to reassure her. The younger girl smiled in return, and Edmund noticed that this was her way of apologising for her earlier outburst of anger.

The six friends sat on the beach eating their food, as the sun set behind them. They ate in silence- comfortable silence. When they had finished their food, Talia broke the silence, turning to the siblings, "so where have you been this whole time?" she asked.

Peter sat up tall, "we are from another place; not so unlike here, as in there are still trees, animals, people, water. We still eat and drink as you would, but that being said it's entirely different," the siblings all stifled a laugh, "there is no magic, or sword fights," he said raising his sword.

"Where we are from time moves different. When we return, it doesn't matter how long we spend here, in Narnia, no time passes back home." Susan continued, beginning to describe their home, "we drive around in little moving vehicles, instead of carriages-"

"And we have little doorbells, that ring a little tune, to let people know we have arrived at their houses," Lucy added, with excitement.

"We have trains, which transport us places really fast!" Peter exclaimed, now filled with some kind of child-like excitement.

Talia smiled in curiosity, barely understanding what was going on, "you don't use horses?"

"No, no trains move much faster than horses." Peter laughed.

"Faster than horses?" Talia questioned; eyes wide. Lucy, Peter and Susan laughed at her shock, and continued on with listing all of the amazing things they had at home. Talia noticed that Edmund had kept quiet during the whole conversation, staring off into the distance.

"We should get to bed." Trumpkin declared, noticing that the sun had just set. The six friends prepared themselves to sleep on the beach, using their bags as pillows. It wasn't long before Talia drifted off to sleep, and the others fell asleep quickly too- all were tired from the adventures of the day; well, all bar one.

Talia awoke in the middle of the night, it must have been a bird or something that woke her up, she presumed. She sat upright, to steal some water from Susan's flask; upon doing so she noticed a figure sitting by the waterfront. Anxiety rose in her chest, as she pondered over who it could be. Her eyes scanned over everyone sleeping, and she noticed one missing, Edmund. "Obviously." she tutted, with a slight smile. The girl got up to join him.

She sat down next to the boy, drawing her dress closer to her, to keep warm. The pair sat in silence for a while, gazing into the water, with nothing but the moonlight to help them see.

"I'm sorry." Talia announced, interrupting his silence. The boy nodded. "What's wrong?" she questioned.

Edmund sighed, "Where I'm from it's not all sunshine and roses, as my siblings make it out to be. Plenty of things are terrible, poverty, hunger. That's why we all loved Narnia so, it was our escape, I guess. We lived here, grew up here, and then we were thrown back home- where there was no magic, not even the slightest. Then we're thrown back here, and the Narnia we once knew is destroyed; there's just as little magic here as there is back home."

"I beg to differ. I grew up in a court of oppression and corruption. When I ran away, I've never felt as much magic as I do here. You can still feel it, sense it, see it even- you just have to look harder than perhaps you once did. When I spent my first night in the forest, I was terrified, but I felt the magic of Narnia, I felt it protect me from the night. Narnia is still here, Edmund- the magic never left, at least not completely, and the hope you will bring to the Narnians will only help it to come out." Talia reassured, "besides, magic exists everywhere, Narnia or not."

The boy turned to the girl, "I suppose you're right."

"I always am." she winked, "What's that?" she questioned, pointing at the large, metal object in Edmund's satchel.

The boy laughed softly, "You'll love this." he spoke, bringing the object out, "It's a torch." he flipped the switch on the side of it, and it lit up.

The girl's eyes widened, "It's like, it's like you've stolen a bit of the moon and put it in there. How does that work?"

"I stole a bit of the moon and I put it in there." Edmund said, blank faced. He saw the shock on the girl's face, who believed him, and couldn't help but laugh, "No of course not!"

"You know I actually believed you for a second." Talia declared.

"I could tell." the boy smiled. "I'll explain it to you one day." he said, after seeing how tired the girl looked.

"I'm cold." Talia stated, dragging one of Edmund's arms over her shoulders. Talia was always quite forward. Edmund's arm fit comfortably around the girl's frame, and she rested his head on his shoulder, with a yawn. The pair sat in silence for a while, until they both drifted off to sleep.

Talia dreamt dreams of her mother, they were beautiful dreams of laughter, and sunshine, and flowers but the curious thing was that every time her mother would open her mouth to speak- nothing would come out. It was like she was trying to tell her something important, but she couldn't. And these dreams, they terrified Talia.