And why would that stop you from coming to me?

[nevertame]

Is your faith shaken? Do you need to do some soul searching? Just want a listening ear?

Feel free to dive into action threading here. Just tag with any location of your preference and Aslan will come to you in some way, shape, or form.

Comments

][don't keep appointments with disappointment

[suncolors]

All she wants is to say hello

][don't keep appointments with disappointment

[nevertame]

"Hello," the lion purrs from behind her, having appeared on the silence characteristic of cat's feet. He does not believe he will frighten her, hardly. Aslan's muzzle forms a small smile, small for a lion of his stature anyway. His tail remains low but curved at the end, tuft swaying gently.

][don't keep appointments with disappointment

[suncolors]

"I keep thinking I will find you everywhere," she tells him in all honesty, not turning to face him yet, still captured by the way sun moves in between the treetops like a gold shadow moves between two blinks of the eye.

"How are you?" she asks him, bowing with respect, a bend at the waist that brings her no more deeply inclined than she was however many hours ago, parting temporary ways with a smiling king of Narnia.

][don't keep appointments with disappointment

[nevertame]

"You can if that is what suits you," he nods, padding closer to stand beside her before he tilts his head upward at the sun peeking between the branches. The trees seem to move under his gaze but one can just as easily say that it is the wind that moves them so.

"Well with a heart at rest," Aslan answers, his own head bowing to her respectfully. At his height a lion's bow barely brings him under her own height.

[For I have promises to keep;]

[lionesscouchant]

Lucy runs.

She runs as fast as she can, from the house, unafraid, knowing. She knows she should have told someone, told them with more than a note on the table. She knows that they will worry, but she cannot wait for someone to escort her, she cannot wait for Caspian or Peter or Susan or Edmund to listen to her and believe her.

Reepicheep might not even believe her, after that curse. But she knows Aslan's voice, and she was too cautious already.

So she runs, into the woods, her breath coming to her in ragged gasps. She follows the pathways that her heart knows to be true, and she knows she will find him when he wants her to, but she cannot resist anymore.

She runs.

[For I have promises to keep;]

[nevertame]

She runs and he hears her coming before she has even entered the woods. He has heard the shut of a door, the pounding of feet on a porch then off it, across grass until they crunch on twigs and leaves. She runs and he greets her with a mighty roar that is still soft on her ears, parting the greenery, or maybe it's the trees and the bushes who more for him. In the end, it is Aslan who stands proud and tall on a rock untouched by the melting snow, crowned by golden sunlight. If spring has not fell entirely on the City, it has certainly fallen here in this place.

[For I have promises to keep;]

[lionesscouchant]

She sees him and she freezes, and a smile alights on her face. It is him. Her heart can feel it. This isn't a curse, this isn't a cruel joke, this is Aslan and she knows that everything will be all right.

She cries out his name, and she has tears on her face, but they're not ones of sadness. She moves to give the enormous lion a hug, bigger than the last time she saw him, but that only makes sense. He is bigger because so is she, even though her heart feels too big for her body at just this moment.

"You're really here. Really."

[For I have promises to keep;]

[nevertame]

The lion laughs in that deep manner of his, arm reaching up to circle her. Were she not the Valiant one could easily mistaken this gesture for a lion coming to maul its prey. But it is Aslan and she is Lucy Pevensie. He flops onto his side and purrs, mane brushing against her.

"Yes, I am here, dear one."

gold lion's gonna tell me where the light is;

[wintersking]

He doesn’t stop Lucy, although he watches her bolt out the front door, almost forgetting to put on her shoes as she does so- and Edmund is not so sure that she would even notice if she had, because she’s that excited to see Aslan. But he doesn’t follow her, because he knows that she’ll come to no harm- how could she possibly, with the great Lion himself watching over her?

So Edmund waits, out of respect for Lucy’s privacy because he’s sure she’d want to speak to Aslan alone for a little bit.

He’s had his shoes on for the longest time, waiting to spot her small figure wading its way through the trees. Then- and only then, does he head out for the forest. Edmund does not hope to find Aslan, he knows enough to know that it’s impossible if the Lion doesn’t want to be found.

Instead, the legendary Just king of old sits down on an old tree stump in the middle of the forest, and waits in the quiet. He’ll wait as long as he needs to- but Edmund gets the feeling that it won’t be long now.

gold lion's gonna tell me where the light is;

[nevertame]

Will he hear the great lion coming? Walking across the leaves and twigs, the dirt, on massive paws that still manage to remain silent as they approach Edmund Pevensie from behind. It is like a predator who stalks his prey, were he any old lion. Aslan is anything but. He knows the Just will feel his presence at the right moment. When he sits behind the old tree stump his massive size hardly casts a shadow. Aslan is all light and wonderment. He waits too, knowing it will not be long till the younger brother acknowledges him.

][god is a place you will wait for the rest of your life

[oshutup]

As he saw Lucy leave, and Edmund, Peter knows where they are going, to who they run or walk. Waiting until nightfall, waiting even until it is later than he should be leaving, he exits the house. There is a note on the table should his siblings wonder, or Caspian, or Reepicheep. Shadow is not a Talking Cat, but he tries not to assume about any creature in this City. Perhaps the feline can read and might appreciate the notice as well. Maybe not. It doesn't matter much

][god is a place you will wait for the rest of your life

[nevertame]

Unlike Lucy, Edmund, or Luna, Aslan does not approach this one with great announcement or silent footfall. His relationship with Peter Pevensie differs because Peter Pevensie is very different from the rest. He is the eldest, the one who stands first not because of his age but because he has shouldered the responsibility. The fact that the others argue this does not escape Aslan but neither does it change much about the nature of this High King. Questions and a yearning for the truth remain. He would not be gifted, elected, prescripted, and all other titles without it. So Aslan waits for Peter to find him, deep in the wood, where he sits by a cold stream that the first to be knighted Sir Wolfsbane must cross to meet him. When he sees that face, a face he knows so well from his first arrival at his camp to when he walked through a door in the air to a quiet moonlit evening on a beach, the lion can only tilt his head and breathe.

He knows why Peter is here.

He will do his best, what is required of him, to ease the High King.

][god is a place you will wait for the rest of your life

[oshutup]

Upon first spotting the great lion he bows his head before looking up again and peering across the stream that runs with a quiet and steady course--reliable. It takes very little time to cross the water, walking through it and only feeling its cold over a distance. This night is not as cold as others have been.

They will have spring again and soon.

As he knows to do, he kneels, arms at his sides, head lowered again and feeling like a child who has been told it's for your own good one too many times.

][god is a place you will wait for the rest of your life

[nevertame]

"Rise, High King of Narnia," Aslan says in a cool but firm manner that knows decorum and procedure. His tone softens for the second part. "Walk or sit with me at your leisure, Peter Pevensie," he invites the young man, golden eyes full of warmth and a sense of knowing.

You are frustrated. I do not blame you.

Here she comes

[lionesssejant]

She doesn't have a coherent idea where she's going, but Susan follows because she was asked to. From the network and out the door, she stops long enough to find her shoes and a coat.

The forest would be a place for Aslan. Susan runs a short distance, excitement much like she did seeing the beautiful Narnian shore bubbles. That wind at her cheeks reminds her it's not so warm or so carefree. Her pace slows from a full run. What if other unbearable truths are waiting for her? Susan won't turn away. Already she steps into the forest without a glance back.

She has come straightaway. Underneath the joy is an undercurrent of troublesome thoughts. Maybe even a little fear.

Here she comes

[nevertame]

When she nears a particular place in the woods, the cool wind dies down to be replaced by the warmth of the sun. In this place it shines much brighter, more golden, and there appears to be not a cloud in the sky that slowly shifts from blue to the lavender tinge of sunset.

"Susan," says the familiar voice belong to a lion of tawny brown with amber gold eyes emerging from the shroud of leaves. It isn't so much that he emerges moreso than the greenery seems to part for him.

Here she comes

[lionesssejant]

Her jaw drops at the alteration of the forest. It was pleasant before, now it is just beyond the ordinary beauty. This can be done by no other that she could think of. "Aslan," she calls out with wonder before she even sees him.

When the great lion emerges, that impulse once again to run (to him? from him?) arises. She casts it aside. Susan steps closer and kneels carefully in the greenery, her eyes look downward.

Here she comes

[nevertame]

"Rise, Queen Susan," Aslan speaks gently, head bowed to her in a gesture of mutual respect. There is an order of things, a hierarchy, but even so he will always honor those who stand before him.