Rainy days

She felt her nose stiffening up.

In the distance, thunder roared.

The Queen groaned. It'd still take her a while making it to Mr. Tumnus, and if she was confronted with a thunderstorm on her way, she might get her cold back, that hadn't even gone away fully yet.

Maybe this hadn't been a good idea, but turning back now was even more stupid than going on.

Lucy felt the first drops of rain on her hands.
"Oh great", she muttered and pulled her cloak tighter with one hand.

She should have listened to her siblings telling her all the different reasons for why she shouldn't go.

⊱

"Do you think she's already there?", Edmund asked his siblings.

"That's impossible", Susan answered. "She must have ridden exactly into the rain."

"I don't have a good feeling", Edmund said.

"You never have a good feeling."

"No. But here it's especially bad."

"Well, you can't ride after her", Susan said.

"But what if her cold comes back? Worse? What if she has to stop on the way because she's not feeling good? And where's Peter?"

"Probably down at the stable, saddling his horse", Susan said.

"Well then I'm going with him", Edmund said, turning away from the window and walked out of the room.

Susan sighed.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was glad that her brothers went looking for Lucy.
She knew that her sister was able of solving her problems alone, and that she had so many friends, there'd be a house or a cave around every corner she could hide in.

And yet the dark grey clouds made her stomach drop everytime she looked at them.

⊱

The rain didn't start very bad. It was like riding through a soft curtain of water, so soft that it went over her skin like a feather.

But soon the ground became wetter and full with mud from the sides of the way and her horse started walking slower.

Her hair was already wet, and the outside of her cloak was uncomfortably cold and sticky when the rain started to pour heavier.

The cold wet dripped through her hair into her face and came through the smallest gaps in her cloak.

Her fingers hurt from holding the reins and from the sharp raindrops beating on them.

Soon it became hard to see ahead.

Suddenly right next to her, something like a cave opened up. She got down from her horse.

"Come", she said, leading her to the shelter.

The horse seemed to be glad to be out of the beating rain, but so was Lucy. She rubbed her hands in hopes of warming them up, but it didn't work. Then she started wrenching her hair and looked in sad surprise at all the water that came out.

She really hoped the rain wouldn't last long, but she could never know. And it would definitely still last a while.

She quickly checked the ground below her and sat down. This would be very entertaining.

Her nose was running, and she felt a cough coming up and although she wasn't in the rain anymore it was just getting worse.

Her feet and fingers were just getting colder.

But her horse had knelt down right next to her, and her body was warming her, at least a little. Lucy laid her head on the mare's back.

For a moment she thought she heard a voice, but it had probably just been the rain making sounds.

But then she made out movements between the tight rain drops and suddenly she heard the familiar voice of Mrs. Beaver.

"Oh dear", she said. "I thought you had a cold! What are you doing here?"

"I was planning to visit Mr. Tumnus", Lucy said, sniffing.

The beaver came to her under the shelter and shook herself so the water sprinkled to all sides.

Lucy smiled and sniffed again.

"It's not that far to his cave anymore", Mrs. Beaver said. "I can bring you there, you need to warm up."

"You'd do that?", Lucy asked.

"Oh of course, my dear", Mrs. Beaver replied, putting her paw on Lucy's knee.
"Shall we go right now?"

"That would be great", Lucy said and got up, her mare following her and the two of them followed Mrs. Beaver.

It really wasn't far until Tumnus' cave anymore, but still Lucy was soaking wet again when they arrived at his door.

She knocked after she made sure her mare was safe under the small roof next to the door.

"Thank you so much", she said to Mrs. Beaver.

"Don't worry, dear", she replied.
The door was opened.

"Lucy!", the faun said. "You are soaking wet! Oh, and Mrs. Beaver! What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to visit you", Lucy said. "But I didn't know it would rain so much."

They went inside, and Tumnus immediately went to get towels.

"I don't feel my fingers", the Queen mumbled.

Mrs. Beaver tried pulling a chair near to the fire that was burning in the chimney, but Lucy peeled herself out of her cloak.

Mr. Tumnus came back, and first gave the towels to Lucy, then helped Mrs. Beaver pulling the chair, and finally led Lucy towards the chair while getting another cup from his cupboard.

"Thank you", Lucy said quietly and sniffed.

The rain was beating against the windows and the fire was crackling and there was tea and some cookies.

Mr. Tumnus also had a towel for Mrs. Beaver who stayed for a bit, but soon went home again. Not before Lucy thanked her another time.

Then it knocked again.

Mr. Tumnus, who had just sat down, opened the door again, and Edmund and Peter entered.

Lucy giggled and coughed, wrapped in a blanket.

"Were you worried?", she asked teasingly.

"Yes", Peter said, his own hair dripping wet. "And we met Mrs. Beaver on the way and she said you weren't looking well, so we were right to be so."

"You don't look very well either", Lucy said.

Mr. Tumnus got more towels and blankets.

"How many towels do you have?", Lucy asked with a laugh.

"Oh, too many", the faun answered. "I got many of them as presents. But here are chairs, I'll make some tea."

"That's not necessary!", Edmund quickly said and while he kept arguing with Mr. Tumnus about the tea, Peter sat down next to his sister.

"How are you feeling?", he asked.

"It's alright", she said. "It could be worse. At least my hands are warm again." Lucy laughed.

"That's something", Peter agreed.
"Now, if it doesn't stop raining until tonight, you're not going to come home."

"Lucy can stay here", Mr. Tumnus said, looking up from his tea shelf.

"Thank you", Peter answered.
"We'll probably go back sooner or later."

"Oh I'm sure we'll have quite a nice evening", Mr. Tumnus said, smiling at Lucy, who smiled back.

"Yes, I'm convinced it'll be great."