[Fanfiction] Once a King or Queen in Narnia
They’d all been messing about the first time it really came up. It was late at night, a few days after their coronation at Cair Paravel, and the girls had collected Edmund from his room before all three of them had snuck into Peter’s to pounce on the High King and tickle him awake. He had woken with a start and reached for his sword before he saw who it was, and the whole thing had eventually ended in a pillow fight between Peter, Edmund, and Lucy while Susan laughed breathlessly in between admonishing them to be quiet. “Why?” Lucy asked her after a few moments, during a lull in the battle. When they’d all looked at her, she’d shrugged and said, “I mean, it’s not as if anyone’s going to tell us not to make noise.”
Peter’s face had grown thoughtful at that. “No,” he said, “I suppose not. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? No one is, so it’s sort of up to us to be quiet, on our own. I mean, it’s not very . . . regal, I suppose, for the kings and queens of Narnia to have a pillow fight.”
“Even when the High King also happens to be your stuffy older brother?” Edmund said with a grin that still looked just a bit hesitant, even as he shoved Peter in the shoulder.
Peter clipped him over the back of the head with the pillow in his hand, but his face was still thoughtful, his eyes far away.
Susan finally managed to catch her breath and leave off laughing. She straightened up. “That’s exactly what I mean,” she said. “I mean to say-what are we going to do about all this?”
“All what?” Lucy asked. She started climbing up onto the foot of Peter’s bed, and he turned to give her a leg up over the edge of it. The bed was big, tall even for Peter, and he had to hoist himself up to sit beside her.
Susan frowned. “All this ruling business,” she said. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked stern.
“What about it?” Edmund asked. He set down his own pillow on the bed and shrugged, leaning against one of the post of the bed.
“Well, we’ve got to figure out some way to handle it, haven’t we?” Susan asked in an exasperated tone.
Lucy looked over at Susan with a bemused tilt of her head. “We just have to do it,” she said. “Aslan left us in charge. He wouldn’t have if he didn’t think we’d do a good job.”
“But what if it’s not that easy?” Susan started. “What if we, well-don’t know what we’re doing?”
Edmund snorted. “Well, we don’t,” he said bluntly. “But I don’t expect anyone else has much of an idea what to do these days, either.” He straightened up, warming to his point. “In fact, in a lot of ways, it has to be us.”
Peter had gone quiet over the last few minutes, but at that he looked over at Edmund. “What do you mean, Ed?” he asked.
“Well, it’s not as if you could put any one group in charge of the whole thing,” Edmund answered. He began to gesture as he spoke. “Of Narnians, I mean. Put the Beavers in charge, say, and they’ll worry most about timber supplies and make, I don’t know, dam incentives. That might irritate the Squirrels and the trees since they live in the forest, but put the Squirrels in power and they’ll be worrying about the timber issue from the other side of things. The Giants have a hard time seeing what’s under their feet and . . . well, so on and so forth. But we’re not from here, and we have sort of, what do you call it, an objective viewpoint, d’you see?”
Lucy made a face. “So you’re saying that just because we’re humans, we’re . . . I don’t know,” she ended, looking uncomfortable. “Better?”
“No, not like that at all!” Edmund said hurriedly. “I don’t think that. But . . . this way we’ll be able to listen to everyone’s viewpoints and decide, without being biased because we’re . . . from here. For example, compromise between the Beavers and the Squirrels, because we know perfectly well that they both have a right to use of the wood. And make certain that the Trees themselves get heard, too. Otherwise it might all just turn into a gigantic row, and a council without a head to it would probably just row endlessly and never get anything done in the end.”
“Thank you, Edmund,” Susan said in what Edmund and Lucy called her ‘mum’ voice, “that’s quite enough, we get the idea.”
Before everything had happened, Edmund might have scowled and kept arguing, but instead he simply deflated a bit. “Well, what do you think?” he asked. “Why else did they want us to be the kings and queens? I mean, we’re no experts.”
“He has a point, Su,” Peter put in. “We are rather different from everyone else here.”
Susan made a face. “And that doesn’t make us qualified to be rulers!” she said.
“No,” Peter agreed. “It doesn’t. But Ed’s right. I mean, I think it does make us more qualified. There probably isn’t anyone in the whole country who is qualified. And besides . . . .” A far-away look came over his face, and he turned his head slightly to look out over the sea. “Aslan left us in charge. It’s not as if we can turn back now.”
“I know that,” Susan said. “I just think that . . . they crowned us because we fulfilled that prophecy, and I . . . well, I just don’t know if that’s a good reason to make us into kings and queens.”
“I’ll take your crown if you don’t want it,” Lucy said, grinning teasingly, and Susan flushed, her hand flying up to her hair where her crown might normally have rested.
“I-of course I want it,” she said, and dropped her hand, straightening her nightdress. “It’s just that I don’t know if we’re ready for this, any of us.”
To Susan and Lucy’s surprise, Peter and Edmund exchanged a serious look over Lucy’s head. “I don’t know if we are, either,” Peter said, “but we’re as ready as we’re going to be, I think. I mean, we won a battle to get here. With Aslan’s help, but . . . for most of it we were on our own. Ed almost died.”
Lucy reached out and took Edmund’s hand impulsively, and he squeezed hers back, looking down. “Yes,” he said. “Well.” He blushed, then looked up again. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be completely ready. I think Aslan meant for us to figure it out for ourselves. At least, that seems to be his sort of thing. If it were going to be easy, there wouldn’t be any point.”
Peter nodded and looked back over at Susan. “I know you’re worried, Su,” he said. “So am I, to tell you the truth.” He smiled ruefully. “But we came here for a reason, and I suppose it’s time we started living up to that.”
“I just don’t want to let anyone down,” Susan said, her voice smaller than normal, and she bit her lip. There was a moment of surprised silence-none of them were used to hearing that small uncertain voice, especially not from Susan.
It was Lucy who broke the silence, a moment later. “It’s all right, Susan,” she said. “Aslan has fatih in us. He wouldn’t have crowned us if he thought we couldn’t do it.” She smiled. “We just have to have faith in him back. Everything will be fine.”
Susan smiled at her. “Do you think it’s that simple, Lu?” she asked.
Lucy shrugged. “Mostly,” she replied and looked around at the others. “We’ve got each other, too. But we’re not-I mean, being a queen doesn’t make me not me anymore. I don’t see why we can’t still have pillow fights in Peter’s room, or anything, even if he is the High King.”
“Peter’s too serious anyway,” Edmund broke in with a grin.
“Oh, am I?” Peter retorted, grinning himself, and lobbed a pillow at him over Lucy’s head. Edmund caught it and tossed it back while Lucy ducked, starting to giggle.
“Is that so?” Susan asked, her smile widening as she stepped forward. “So you wouldn’t mind a bit if I started to tickle you, then?” She bent and, true to her word, began to tickle Lucy along her sides, catching her before she had a chance to make good the escape she had started by backing away. Lucy shrieked and squealed with laughter, and before long Peter started to tickle Susan and then another pillow was tossed and the whole thing started all over again. By the time they gave up the battle and called it a draw, Susan’s hair was coming out of its braid and one of the pillows had shed its feathers everywhere.
“I hope you’re all satisfied with the damage you’ve done to my bed,” Peter was saying when there was a knock at the door.
“Your Majesty?” It was the deep, concerned voice of a centaur. “Is there some problem? The others and I heard shouts coming from your room.”
Peter looked at the others and raised his eyebrows. Edmund bit his lip against a smile. Lucy giggled. “Should I tell them I was attacked in my bed with no warning whatsoever?” Peter asked with a grin.
“They’d post a guard at your window every night,” Susan replied with a smile of her own.
“They’d do better to guard my door,” Peter laughed, “unless the window’s how you lot got in.” He rounded the bed from where he’d been standing with pillow in hand on the opposite side, dropping his weapon on Susan as he went to answer the door.
“Is everything all right, sire?” the guard asked.
“Everything is fine,” Peter answered. “I’m just having a discussion with my sisters and my brother. No need to be concerned, I assure you.”
“The king and queens are with you, sire?” the centaur asked with some surprise in his voice.
“As a matter of fact, yes, they are,” Peter replied, smiling. “Sorry if we startled you.”
“Not at all, your Majesty,” the guard said.
“You can go back to your post,” Peter continued, “but thank you for your concern.”
“Of course,” the guard replied, and bowed. Peter nodded formally back and closed the door as the guard retreated down the hallway.
“Good job, Peter,” Edmund said. He smirked. “Almost like a real king.”
Peter pulled a face, then laughed. “Do shut up, Ed,” he said with no venom in his tone.
Lucy smiled. “Well,” she said with a sudden laugh herself, “so much for making as much noise as we like!”
“Your own fault for squealing so loudly, Queen Lucy,” Susan said, and tickled her again.
“I’m never getting my room back, am I?” Peter asked, shaking his head.
“Afraid not,” Edmund replied, grinning. “Now get over here again so I can try out that new wrestling move the dwarves were showing us.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Peter said.
Peter’s face had grown thoughtful at that. “No,” he said, “I suppose not. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? No one is, so it’s sort of up to us to be quiet, on our own. I mean, it’s not very . . . regal, I suppose, for the kings and queens of Narnia to have a pillow fight.”
“Even when the High King also happens to be your stuffy older brother?” Edmund said with a grin that still looked just a bit hesitant, even as he shoved Peter in the shoulder.
Peter clipped him over the back of the head with the pillow in his hand, but his face was still thoughtful, his eyes far away.
Susan finally managed to catch her breath and leave off laughing. She straightened up. “That’s exactly what I mean,” she said. “I mean to say-what are we going to do about all this?”
“All what?” Lucy asked. She started climbing up onto the foot of Peter’s bed, and he turned to give her a leg up over the edge of it. The bed was big, tall even for Peter, and he had to hoist himself up to sit beside her.
Susan frowned. “All this ruling business,” she said. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked stern.
“What about it?” Edmund asked. He set down his own pillow on the bed and shrugged, leaning against one of the post of the bed.
“Well, we’ve got to figure out some way to handle it, haven’t we?” Susan asked in an exasperated tone.
Lucy looked over at Susan with a bemused tilt of her head. “We just have to do it,” she said. “Aslan left us in charge. He wouldn’t have if he didn’t think we’d do a good job.”
“But what if it’s not that easy?” Susan started. “What if we, well-don’t know what we’re doing?”
Edmund snorted. “Well, we don’t,” he said bluntly. “But I don’t expect anyone else has much of an idea what to do these days, either.” He straightened up, warming to his point. “In fact, in a lot of ways, it has to be us.”
Peter had gone quiet over the last few minutes, but at that he looked over at Edmund. “What do you mean, Ed?” he asked.
“Well, it’s not as if you could put any one group in charge of the whole thing,” Edmund answered. He began to gesture as he spoke. “Of Narnians, I mean. Put the Beavers in charge, say, and they’ll worry most about timber supplies and make, I don’t know, dam incentives. That might irritate the Squirrels and the trees since they live in the forest, but put the Squirrels in power and they’ll be worrying about the timber issue from the other side of things. The Giants have a hard time seeing what’s under their feet and . . . well, so on and so forth. But we’re not from here, and we have sort of, what do you call it, an objective viewpoint, d’you see?”
Lucy made a face. “So you’re saying that just because we’re humans, we’re . . . I don’t know,” she ended, looking uncomfortable. “Better?”
“No, not like that at all!” Edmund said hurriedly. “I don’t think that. But . . . this way we’ll be able to listen to everyone’s viewpoints and decide, without being biased because we’re . . . from here. For example, compromise between the Beavers and the Squirrels, because we know perfectly well that they both have a right to use of the wood. And make certain that the Trees themselves get heard, too. Otherwise it might all just turn into a gigantic row, and a council without a head to it would probably just row endlessly and never get anything done in the end.”
“Thank you, Edmund,” Susan said in what Edmund and Lucy called her ‘mum’ voice, “that’s quite enough, we get the idea.”
Before everything had happened, Edmund might have scowled and kept arguing, but instead he simply deflated a bit. “Well, what do you think?” he asked. “Why else did they want us to be the kings and queens? I mean, we’re no experts.”
“He has a point, Su,” Peter put in. “We are rather different from everyone else here.”
Susan made a face. “And that doesn’t make us qualified to be rulers!” she said.
“No,” Peter agreed. “It doesn’t. But Ed’s right. I mean, I think it does make us more qualified. There probably isn’t anyone in the whole country who is qualified. And besides . . . .” A far-away look came over his face, and he turned his head slightly to look out over the sea. “Aslan left us in charge. It’s not as if we can turn back now.”
“I know that,” Susan said. “I just think that . . . they crowned us because we fulfilled that prophecy, and I . . . well, I just don’t know if that’s a good reason to make us into kings and queens.”
“I’ll take your crown if you don’t want it,” Lucy said, grinning teasingly, and Susan flushed, her hand flying up to her hair where her crown might normally have rested.
“I-of course I want it,” she said, and dropped her hand, straightening her nightdress. “It’s just that I don’t know if we’re ready for this, any of us.”
To Susan and Lucy’s surprise, Peter and Edmund exchanged a serious look over Lucy’s head. “I don’t know if we are, either,” Peter said, “but we’re as ready as we’re going to be, I think. I mean, we won a battle to get here. With Aslan’s help, but . . . for most of it we were on our own. Ed almost died.”
Lucy reached out and took Edmund’s hand impulsively, and he squeezed hers back, looking down. “Yes,” he said. “Well.” He blushed, then looked up again. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be completely ready. I think Aslan meant for us to figure it out for ourselves. At least, that seems to be his sort of thing. If it were going to be easy, there wouldn’t be any point.”
Peter nodded and looked back over at Susan. “I know you’re worried, Su,” he said. “So am I, to tell you the truth.” He smiled ruefully. “But we came here for a reason, and I suppose it’s time we started living up to that.”
“I just don’t want to let anyone down,” Susan said, her voice smaller than normal, and she bit her lip. There was a moment of surprised silence-none of them were used to hearing that small uncertain voice, especially not from Susan.
It was Lucy who broke the silence, a moment later. “It’s all right, Susan,” she said. “Aslan has fatih in us. He wouldn’t have crowned us if he thought we couldn’t do it.” She smiled. “We just have to have faith in him back. Everything will be fine.”
Susan smiled at her. “Do you think it’s that simple, Lu?” she asked.
Lucy shrugged. “Mostly,” she replied and looked around at the others. “We’ve got each other, too. But we’re not-I mean, being a queen doesn’t make me not me anymore. I don’t see why we can’t still have pillow fights in Peter’s room, or anything, even if he is the High King.”
“Peter’s too serious anyway,” Edmund broke in with a grin.
“Oh, am I?” Peter retorted, grinning himself, and lobbed a pillow at him over Lucy’s head. Edmund caught it and tossed it back while Lucy ducked, starting to giggle.
“Is that so?” Susan asked, her smile widening as she stepped forward. “So you wouldn’t mind a bit if I started to tickle you, then?” She bent and, true to her word, began to tickle Lucy along her sides, catching her before she had a chance to make good the escape she had started by backing away. Lucy shrieked and squealed with laughter, and before long Peter started to tickle Susan and then another pillow was tossed and the whole thing started all over again. By the time they gave up the battle and called it a draw, Susan’s hair was coming out of its braid and one of the pillows had shed its feathers everywhere.
“I hope you’re all satisfied with the damage you’ve done to my bed,” Peter was saying when there was a knock at the door.
“Your Majesty?” It was the deep, concerned voice of a centaur. “Is there some problem? The others and I heard shouts coming from your room.”
Peter looked at the others and raised his eyebrows. Edmund bit his lip against a smile. Lucy giggled. “Should I tell them I was attacked in my bed with no warning whatsoever?” Peter asked with a grin.
“They’d post a guard at your window every night,” Susan replied with a smile of her own.
“They’d do better to guard my door,” Peter laughed, “unless the window’s how you lot got in.” He rounded the bed from where he’d been standing with pillow in hand on the opposite side, dropping his weapon on Susan as he went to answer the door.
“Is everything all right, sire?” the guard asked.
“Everything is fine,” Peter answered. “I’m just having a discussion with my sisters and my brother. No need to be concerned, I assure you.”
“The king and queens are with you, sire?” the centaur asked with some surprise in his voice.
“As a matter of fact, yes, they are,” Peter replied, smiling. “Sorry if we startled you.”
“Not at all, your Majesty,” the guard said.
“You can go back to your post,” Peter continued, “but thank you for your concern.”
“Of course,” the guard replied, and bowed. Peter nodded formally back and closed the door as the guard retreated down the hallway.
“Good job, Peter,” Edmund said. He smirked. “Almost like a real king.”
Peter pulled a face, then laughed. “Do shut up, Ed,” he said with no venom in his tone.
Lucy smiled. “Well,” she said with a sudden laugh herself, “so much for making as much noise as we like!”
“Your own fault for squealing so loudly, Queen Lucy,” Susan said, and tickled her again.
“I’m never getting my room back, am I?” Peter asked, shaking his head.
“Afraid not,” Edmund replied, grinning. “Now get over here again so I can try out that new wrestling move the dwarves were showing us.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Peter said.