𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ✯ 𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑒 ✓

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄 in a blinding manner and the group of teenagers often had to squint their eyes against the bright light while they made their way towards the faun's house. Lucy still led the way and she practically skipped whenever their surroundings allowed it ─ since the layer of snow restricted their movements greatly; even the branches of the massive pine trees bowed down under the weight. The wind howled over the landscape, the icy temperature sending shivers down Lucy's spine, but the youngest Pevensie simply rubbed over the fur coat covering her arms, her blue eyes still sparkling from joy.

'You are all going to love Mr Tumnus,' Lucy said to her siblings and the professor's grandchildren who all walked behind her, their gaze transfixed upon their ethereal surroundings.

'He's the nicest faun I've ever met,' Lucy continued, jumping over the protruding root of a tree. The dark brown coloured bark was covered with swirling shapes of frost, and she could tell by the glistening of ice it would be most slippery.

'Have you met many fauns, then?' Edmund grumbled, casting a longing glance at the two hills that disappeared farther and farther into the distance as they walked.

'Well, no. . .' Lucy admitted, before shrugging off her brother's comment and she continued in her skipping pace with a big smile plastered on her face.

Edmund, though, did not pay any attention to his footing and the sole of his shoe shot away as he stepped upon the slippery root. His breath hitched in his throat and he would have fallen in the snow if it hadn't been for Alexander who quickly caught Edmund's wrist and pulled him back on both of his feet.

'Let go of me,' Edmund growled, swatting Alexander's hand away and shooting the older boy an annoyed glare. 'I don't need your help.'

Alexander rolled his eyes skyward, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his black coat. 'No worries. Next time I'll let you fall face-first and you can make an accidental snow angel, I promise.'

The others laughed at that comment while Edmund grumbled something incoherently under his breath, quickly following in Lucy's footsteps with a heated face.

'How much longer until we get there?' Rosaleen asked, pulling the fur coat a bit tighter around herself, but her toes felt as if they had turned into icicles as her shoes couldn't withstand the cold of the winter. The snow reached till her ankles and her feet stung from the freezing temperature.

'Oh, it's not much farther now,' Lucy said over her shoulder as she led them down the curved path within a crevasse.

The grey and snow-covered rock formation at their left towered far above them and whenever the whistling wind shot past the steep rocks, some tiny snowflakes and larger snow heaps rained down on the group.

As they reached the foot of the hill, turning around the last corner, Lucy stopped midway in her sentence about the warm hearth in Mr Tumnus' cosy house when her eyes fell upon the oaken door in the distance. It was placed in the grey rocks of the cliff and the door hung crooked in its hinges, allowing them to look right into the room lying behind it.

Lucy broke into a sprint, her light brown coat flapping wildly around her while her face drained of all the colour. The others followed her as fast as they could in the snow, Rosaleen almost immediately taking the lead despite her aching feet. She pushed open the oaken door a bit further, the creek not being wide enough for her to slip through, and the hinges shrieked in a shrill tone in protest by the movement. The faun's home was completely ravaged: the ashes of the died down hearth lay scattered over the floor along with the books, pushed roughly from their spot in the bookcase. The circular window above the hearth was smashed in and the pieces of glass lying upon the floor glistened dangerously in the faint sunlight falling through the hole. A heap of snow had made its way inside the small and squared hallway and the icy wind from outside blew just as harsh inside this formerly cosy house.

Lucy stood near an armrest, its once vibrant green colour faded due to its usage, and she cradled a broken tea cup in her hands. 'Who would do something like this?' she asked with a choked-up voice, glancing up at Rosaleen who halted next to her.

Rosaleen laid a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder, but both snapped their heads in the direction of Edmund when he stepped upon a shredded portrait of Mr Tumnus' father.

'Someone should tell him to tidy up his room─,' Edmund remarked, but his voice got cut off as Peter pushed past him, shoving him aside.

'Zip it, Ed,' Peter ordered, keeping a close eye on Lucy whose lip quivered by hearing Edmund's words. Then, Peter's eyes fell upon a piece of paper, nailed against a broad timber that supported the wooden frame of the stone ceiling. He tore the paper off the nail and held it in the light falling through the door opening to make out the letters written in black ink. The others ─ except for Edmund ─ gathered curiously around him as he spoke the words out loud.

' "The faun Tumnus is hereby charged with high treason against her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Empress of the Lone Islands, etc., for comforting her enemies and fraternising with humans. Signed, Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police. Long live the Queen." ' Peter slowly lowered the warrant again, his heart beating rapidly in his throat as he searched for Susan's eyes in the twilight room.

'All right, now really would be a good time to go home,' Susan said, a cracking timbre in her voice revealing her nervosity.

'But what about Mr Tumnus? We have to help him,' Lucy argued with a look of determination as she drove back her tears.

'If he was arrested for fraternising with humans, I fear there's not much we can do, Lucy,' Susan said while Rosaleen fought off her shock of hearing Jadis' name. It was the same name of the villain in the professor's notebook, but that couldn't be right. . . She took a step closer towards Peter and silently asked him to hand over the warrant, which he did without hesitation.

'You don't understand,' Lucy said. 'I'm the human. She must have found he helped me.'

Rosaleen skimmed the paper in her hands, but an awful knot formed in her stomach, it seemed unlikely yet she was sure this would be the same Jadis her grandfather Diggory had accidentally set free and led to Narnia before the beginning of time. She crossed eyes with Alexander, both unsure how they should tell the Pevensies.

'Maybe we could call the police,' Peter suggested after a small silence, and Rosaleen dropped the warrant out of her hands when Susan jabbed at it in frustration.

'These are the police,' she said to Peter, her teeth clenched upon each other and causing her voice to come out in a hiss.

'Don't worry, Lu,' Peter said, crouching down a bit to be at the same height as his little sister. 'We'll think of something.'

'Why?' Edmund wondered, his harsh tone drawing all the attention to him. 'I mean, he's a criminal by the law of this land,' he reasoned.

'You can't be serious,' Alexander started, but an unexpected sound from outside made them all quickly forget the argument.

Susan gaped at the red robin hopping from a branch to another one, and several soft snowflakes whirled from the tree towards the ground by the bird's fluttering.

'Did that bird just say "psst" to us?' Susan asked in a small voice.

Peter and Alexander were the first to leave the faun's house, curiously eyeing the robin that hopped to another branch again. However, as the others stepped outside as well, the bird flew off and an eerie silence descended upon the area. Their hot breath created small clouds in the still air, and Lucy reached for Peter's hand when the thorny bushes in the distance suddenly moved. A loud crack traveled through the air, and in instinct, everyone huddled closer together; Susan grasping Peter's other arm while Alexander pushed Rosaleen behind him in a protective manner. Edmund, though, pretended as if he didn't feel even a sliver of fear and stood at the edge of the group, simply looking on in a condescending manner. Another cracking sound shot up from the bushes, as if a branch snapped under someone's foot, and then. . . a beaver emerged from the bushes.

Peter breathed out in relief, letting out a short chuckle as well as he let go of his sisters. He felt a bit embarrassed he had been so jumpy, just for a harmless beaver it appeared, and he attempted to mask his flustering state by taking a small step closer towards the animal. He crouched down and held out his hand while making clicking noises to lure it closer by.

The beaver cautiously walked towards him, raising itself on its hind legs but then it almost seemed to lift an eyebrow towards the oldest Pevensie ─ if something like that even would be possible.

'I'm not going to smell it, if that is what you want,' the beaver spoke to everyone's astonishment.

'Oh.' The blush on Peter's cheeks appeared in an instance again. 'Sorry,' he apologised, but it felt rather odd to say it to an actual talking animal.

Lucy giggled because of the sheepishness of her eldest brother, but when the beaver turned his attention towards her and spoke her full name, Lucy's giggling ceased. 'Yes?' she wondered, but the beaver held up an all too familiar handkerchief and her eyes lit up in recognition. 'That's mine! It's the one I gave to─,'

'Tumnus,' the beaver finished her sentence, handing her back the embroidered piece of fabric. 'I know, he gave it to me just in time. The poor fellow got wind of the arrest just before it happened. I've been keeping an eye out for you ever since.'

'Is he all right?' Lucy asked, squeezing the handkerchief tight as she awaited the beaver's answer, but his dark eyes shot around their surroundings.

'That's better left for safer quarters,' he whispered, dashing off towards the bushes and after ushering the group of teenagers to follow him. Lucy and Peter were quick to follow the beaver, but Susan pulled her brother back by the sleeve of his fur coat.

'What are you doing?' she asked frantically.

'Yes, how do we know we can trust him?' Edmund sided with her.

Peter shrugged. 'He says he knows the faun.' He tried to sound logical but all it resulted in was Susan giving him a look in disbelief.

'He's a beaver! He shouldn't be saying anything!'

The beaver's head popped up from behind a small, snowy hill. 'Everything all right?' he asked quietly.

'Yes,' Peter quickly answered, turning towards the beaver. 'We were just talking.'

'Better not here. It's not safe. Follow me.'

Lucy suddenly understood his words and peered suspiciously at the pine trees surrounding them. 'He means the trees.' She hurried up the hill, following the beaver, and when the others started to move again as well, Susan saw no other choice than to go after them too.

Rosaleen noticed the anxious look on Susan's face and slowed down a bit until they walked next to each other. 'It's going to be all right,' she said in a quiet tone. 'I do not think the beaver has bad intentions.'

'How can you be sure of that?'

'Just a feeling I have.'

'Besides,' Alexander added over his shoulder, hearing their hushed conversation, but he wasn't as naive as his sister. 'Should the beaver prove to not be trustworthy, I'm pretty sure the six of us can hold off one small animal.'

Susan wanted to argue the beaver could be leading them into a trap, but she swallowed back in the words when the beaver shushed them all once more.

In silence, the group of teenagers followed the beaver over the winter landscape while the sun started to sink towards the horizon. The shadows of the trees that fell upon the snow grew longer and darker, and the first stars appeared in the darkening sky; its colour gradually turning from a stark blue to a deeper, cobalt blue. However, due to the thick layer of snow that functioned almost like a beacon of light itself, they could still easily see where they were going. Lucy, though, hadn't been in this part of Narnia before and she had lost her sense of direction several meandering wild paths ago.

The group stepped out of the tree line and they gazed upon a spacious valley laying farther below them. A broad river had once trickled through it but now it was frozen over. In the middle of the river stood an impressive dam, built out of branches, twigs, moss, and other natural constructions while the snow and ice covered it all as well.

'It's wonderful,' Lucy complimented the dam when she saw the beaver nervously shifting from one hind leg to another ─ just like one would do when they show someone something they're most proud of.

'Merely a trifle, merely a trifle,' the beaver said, but his dark eyes sparkled proudly. 'It's really not even finished.'

He led them farther down into the peaceful valley and he beamed excitedly when smoke started to rise up from the dam, pointing at the wisp of smoke with his paw. 'Ah, looks like Mrs Beaver's got the pot on.'

They crossed the frozen river towards the dam, and a warm, orange light streamed freely out of the hole when the door opened.

'Beaver, is that you?' Mrs Beaver called, stepping out of the dam, drying her paws on the small apron tied around her belly. 'I was worried sick. If I find out you've been with Badger again, I─,' her voice faded away when her eyes fell upon the group of teenagers. 'Goodness, those aren't badgers.'

Mrs Beaver quickly stepped closer towards the humans, but still in a reverent manner while her eyes traveled over them. 'Oh, I never thought I would live to see this day. Look at my fur,' she continued, redirecting her gaze at Mr Beaver, 'couldn't you have given me a ten minute warning?'

Mr Beaver chuckled. 'I would've given you a week if I thought it would've helped.'

Mrs Beaver smacked his shoulder with a glare, but Lucy couldn't contain a giggle and the beaver's eyes softened again. 'Please, come inside. You all must be freezing. I'll see if we've got something to eat, and some civilized company,' she emphasized the last three words, obviously referring to her husband who sheepishly rubbed his neck.

Mrs Beaver led them inside the dam and Mr Beaver ushered for Lucy to go first. 'Mind your step,' he said to all of them as they one by one carefully descended the ─ for the Pevensies and Summers ─ narrow wooden stairs. Inside the dam it was cosy and warm as a gentle fire crackled in the hearth at the far side of the room; the flames effortlessly driving back the starkness from outside. All of the furniture was made of branches; woven, bent, and chewed in the most ingenious ways, and Rosaleen slid her hand over the smooth surface of one of the wooden columns standing next to her.

'You have a beautiful home,' she complimented Mrs and Mr Beaver, the former waving it away with a small gesture but she chuckled lovingly.

'Thank you, dear. Here, give me your coat and make yourself at home.'

Rosaleen took off her black fur coat, but insisted on hanging it away herself when she saw how Mr Beaver already struggled with carrying Lucy's coat. She followed Mr Beaver to the hatstand in the corner of the living room and took the coats of the others as well who appeared behind her. Her fingers brushed against Peter's when he handed her his coat and her heart fluttered against her rib cage as their eyes crossed, both smiling at each other.

However, when Edmund rolled his eyes and loudly cleared his throat, Rosaleen quickly broke the eye contact, put Peter's coat away and sped towards the fireplace to warm herself up ─ while Peter shot his younger brother an annoying glare, who in return stuck out his tongue.

Rosaleen crouched down next to Lucy, already sitting in front of the hearth. The flames cast dancing shadows over Rosaleen's face and the orange light gave Lucy's auburn hair an even more fiery glow.

The youngest Pevensie stared with unblinking eyes in the fire as her hands fiddled with the embroidered handkerchief once again.

Rosaleen wanted to say something to try and lift the young girl's spirit, but her mind echoed with the question if she should tell the Pevensies that professor Kirke had been here before. She moved her hands closer towards the fire and sighed with content, absorbing the heat as she drove back the thought of the cold outside to the back of her mind. She had always been better at withstanding the heat than the cold, the winter being her least favourite season.

A few minutes passed in silence until Mrs Beaver called that the tea was ready, and the group of teenagers squeezed around the dinner table. The round table could only precisely fit the two beavers, but while the others managed to make it work, Edmund decided to sit on the stairs.

'Isn't there anything we can do to help Mr Tumnus?' Peter asked the beavers while Susan offered to pour the tea, taking the pot over from Mrs Beaver.

A gloomy expression shot over Mr Beaver's face by hearing Peter's words, his snout scrunched and his eyes shimmered as the dark thoughts fell over his mind. 'Tumnus is imprisoned in the Witch's castle, and those who set a foot inside, rarely make it out alive again. . .'

'What?' Lucy squeaked fearfully, and Mrs Beaver scolded her husband for his thoughtlessness.

'But there's hope, dear. Lots of hope,' Mrs Beaver added, turning her attention back to Lucy who squeezed her oldest brother's hand tightly.

Mr Beaver almost choked in his beverage ─ which he preferred over the tea. 'Oh, there's right a bit more than hope! They say Aslan is on the move.'

As soon as the name rolled through the air, a pleasant feeling spread through the Summers' and (three out of the four) Pevensies' bodies, as if they could actually sense the spark of hope lingering in the air.

Rosaleen and Alexander crossed eyes when none of the Pevensies spoke up. The two siblings knew who Aslan was thanks to the professor's notebook, but it felt strange that the others didn't wonder who he was, until. . .

'Who is Aslan?' Edmund asked, rising up from the stairs and once again, an unpleasant feeling traveled down his spine when he spoke the name.

Mr Beaver stared at him, perplexed, but then he cackled loudly. 'Who's Aslan,' he repeated between fits of laughter. 'You cheeky, little blighter.'

Mrs Beaver nudged him, though, when she noticed all the other Pevensies exchanged curious looks with each other.

'What?' Mr Beaver wondered but then he observed them a bit closer. 'You don't know, do you?'

'Well,' Peter said in a defensive tone, 'we haven't exactly been here very long.'

'He's the real King of Narnia,' Mr. Beaver explained. 'He's been away for a long time, but he just got back. He's waiting for you by the Stone Table.'

'Waiting for us?' Lucy asked to clarify.

'You're blooming joking!' the beaver exclaimed, his whiskers almost standing up straight. 'They don't even know about the prophecy,' he complained to his wife, who gestured at the six humans.

'Well, then. . .' she encouraged him.

'Look,' he started, summing up the things on the nails of his paw. 'Aslan's return, Tumnus' arrest, the secret police: it's all happening because of you!'

Susan shot him a look in disbelief. 'You're blaming us?'

'No, no,' Mrs Beaver quickly said. 'Not blaming, thanking you.'

'There's a prophecy,' Mr Beaver began, lowering his voice a bit and glancing around the table as he built up the tension before reciting the ancient prophecy.

' "Misfortune threatened Narnia before it could thrive,
but six daughters of Eve and sons of Adam shall arrive.
Their destiny has long been foretold,
the foe will tremble and behold.
The humans' hearts are filled with infinite loyalty,
though two of them are not meant to be royalty,
still, following in their forefather's plight,
they will stand tall and fight.
When Eve's flesh and Adam's bone,
sits at Cair Paravel in throne,
the evil time will be over and done." '

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