06

OPEN BOOK

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Alexandra glared behind her where the three siblings sat on a rock, talking about the new land that they found themselves in and their missing brother. On the other hand, Alex sat alone. It wasn't until the two beavers joined her side with solemn expressions that she looked up from the blade of the axe that she had been studying for hours on end.

"What's troubling you, my dear?" Mrs Beaver asked and jumped onto the fallen tree that Alex had been resting on for several minutes and playing with the locket around her neck, never once opening it. Both Narnians shared a quick glance at the reluctance from the girl, "You can tell us anything."

"Do you think that Aslan will blame me for everything that I have done in Narnia?" Alex turned to face the beavers that held paws, neither of them wanting to answer the question, "I mean, how could he? I've done things - killed. I wouldn't forgive me, so why should he?"

Mr Beaver placed his paw on the girl's hand, "Everyone in Narnia knows what happened. None of it was your fault. What the Witch did to you has put you under her spell and you couldn't resist the obligation that you needed to fulfil. It caused you pain every time you tried not to listen to her."

"If I had just kept out of that room and away from the wardrobe then none of this would have happened."

"And then we wouldn't have been here either," Peter stepped up to the girl to leave his sisters, "We all have a purpose here, you do too."

Alex watched as the beavers jumped down from the rock to give them some privacy, "Well that's easy for you to say when you are literally part of a prophecy to save the land. But what am I here for? I guess that I should start calling you Peter the Saviour."

"Please, don't," he smirked towards her but she could tell that he secretly enjoyed the name, "I just wanted to come and apologise for me being ignorant earlier, I could see that you wanted to be alone and yet I decided to go against that to talk to you. So for that, I am sorry."

Alexandra just laughed at him, "Is that all what you really think? That I want to be alone?" she took his silence as a yes but the smirk on her face never dimmed, "Peter, I have been alone all these years and now that there are actual humans here to talk to I just have no idea how to react. I've learned to be a closed book."

"You don't have to be," he insisted but got a confused furrow of the brows from the girl, "A close book, I mean. You don't have to be."

"If only I had thought of that sooner," she joked and they both laughed before it slowed down into nothing but silence once again, "I guess I was a closed book because I had no one to talk to."

"You do now."

Alex genuinely smiled at him, "Alright, well. Honestly, I have no idea where to start because this is a story about literally 98 years long."

They both adjusted on the rock that they leaned on so that they were comfortable, behind them the beavers and two Pevensie girls watched as Alex finally opened up about her life. The four thought that it was best to give them some privacy so they went back to talking lightly between them, though Susan would occasionally spare a glance over Lucy's shoulder to watch at them interact.

"Well, as you know, I am Digory Kirk's niece. My mother was his much younger adopted sister but he never treated her that way. They were the closest regardless of the big age gap between them. So when both my parents died, I was sent off to this expensive boarding school far away from London where I would only see my uncle during the holidays. He had every intention to adopt me but just before he could, I found the wardrobe whilst I was staying with him for Christmas.

"As soon as I stepped through those wooden doors... my life changed and I wish that I could say that it was for the better. The White Witch found me. I thought she was kind at first or that maybe she would help me go home. But then she pulled out that wretched wand of hers and struck me with it. Of course, I didn't turn to stone like she hoped. Instead, the Regal that powered her wand took pity on me and did the only thing that she could; freeze my heart.

"I spent many years hating the Regal for what she had done to me but there wasn't a lot that she could do in the first place and a frozen heart was much better than a stone one. Anyway, the ice that is in my chest had its effects on me; my hair went white, my eyes grey but my loyalty... Well, that was a whole different complication. Every time that I was close to the Witch, or before you guys showed up, and she would tell me to do something, I had to do it. There was a piece of me that would always try to refuse it for as long as I could but in the end, it was useless.

"I have done things that I am not proud of and that I will never be proud of. But it's easier to accept it than to have it constantly taunt you day and night," Alex refused to meet Peter's eyes throughout the whole conversation, instead, she found solace in the freshly blooming roses, "But as soon as you all stepped through those doors, my whole life had changed. If I am being completely honest with you, Peter Pevensie, I think that you may have melted the ice in my heart."

Peter lifted his finger to Alex's chin so that she would finally look to him, "In the days that I have known you, Lexi, you have shown more courage than any woman or man that I have ever known and I find it extremely hard to even consider the possibility of there being ice in your chest when it is so full of compassion and bravery."

Alexandra simply smiled before leaping of the frog to avoid his glare on her face which held her rosy red cheeks. The girl offered her hand out for him to take, which he did, to help him down, even though he didn't need it.

"Come on, Pevensies, one does not simply keep Aslan waiting."

The two beavers shared a glance before Mr Beaver whispered in his wife's ear, "I have never seen her so happy in my life, what's up with her?"

"Young love," his wife replied with a grin as big as the moon.

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It wasn't long until the forests thinned out into fields and slopes that the four children and two beavers could see the tops of tents poking out between the hills. Narnians of all kinds gathered in crowds at their arrival and one centaur went as far as announcing their arrival by blowing on a horn. All of the new arrivals stared in shock at the sight of so many Narnians in one place as they worked to make armour and weapons.

"Why are they looking at us?" Susan asked her brother in a whisper but Alex heard it, so did a few of the animals around them but they were too busy smiling at the three children who were supposed to save them.

Even Alex was surprised that a few smiles were thrown her way, even after everything that she had done in Narnia. Maybe Mrs Beaver was right, maybe they all know that it was the Witch's influence.

"Maybe they think you look funny," Lucy smirked up to Susan as the others chuckled.

Mrs Beaver started to brush out her fur with her paws before her husband stopped her, "Oi, stop fussing. You look lovely."

Alex just smiled down at them. One day she could only hope to be in love with someone as much as the two beavers were. She wanted love. She needed love. But more importantly, she craved it. After spending so many years alone in the confinement of the castle walls, Alex thought that she would never find someone who would even look her way. But who could love someone as broken as she was?

The group came to a halt, with Alex standing behind the three siblings, in front of what could only be the most glamorous tent out of them all. The red and yellow pattern had much more detail and even had a centaur for a guard that was stationed just outside.

Peter removed his sword from the hilt and held it high to show respect and pride as he talked, "We have come to see Aslan."

The centaur nodded their way before motioning his head to the tent where the curtains of the grand entrance danced in the wind ever so gently. All around her she could sense it, she could sense him. Alex was the first to kneel respectfully as all of the Narnians joined soon behind her which left the three Pevensie children to stand as the great lion exited the tent gracefully.

Aslan himself was the courageous animal that Alex had dreamed off. There were little images of the lion which usually meant that his figure was just a fragment of her imagination; until now. Aslan's eyes were a shade lighter than his golden fur and mane but they still managed to make the children feel inferior.

"Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam," the lion spoke as the three siblings also kneeled beside the beavers out of respect and gratitude, "Welcome, Susan and Lucy, Daughters of Eve. Welcome, Alexandra, Child of Narnia. And welcome to you, Beavers. You have my thanks. But where is the fourth?"

Alex's eyebrows twitched at the title that he had given her. It made sense, Lexi had been in Narnia for much longer than she had been in London. She was a Narnian at heart and she would be until the day that she died, even then she would take her Narnian roots to the grave.

Peter pushed off from his sword to stand to his feet and was followed by everyone else, "That's why we're here, sir. We need your help."

"We had a little trouble along the way," Susan added but faced her brother to let him finish what he was going to say.

"Our brother's been captured by the White Witch."

"Captured?" Aslan asked rhetorically out of confusion and shock, "How could this happen?"

Nobody really wanted to say why. Edmund had betrayed them, plain and simple. But he was still just a child who had no idea what he was getting himself into and they could only hope that he regretted it almost as much as they did.

All attention went to Mr Beaver who spoke up for the siblings that didn't want to, "He betrayed them, Your Majesty"

The crowd broke out in chatter quietly and muttered amongst them about how if they couldn't trust one Pevensie then they shouldn't trust any of them or how the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve who were meant to save them were actually doing more harm than good.

"Then he has betrayed us all!" General Oreius, the centaur that had been guarding the tent, declared.

"Peace, Oreius," Aslan silenced the centaur, "I'm sure there's an explanation."

"It's my fault, really," Peter claimed to take all of the blame but it wasn't his to take, "I was too hard on him."

Peter looked down to his shoulder to see Susan's hand resting there to comfort him, "We all were."

"Sir, he's our brother," Lucy whispered out as if she was too afraid to talk to such an authoritative figure.

"I know, dear one," the lion replied before looking behind the siblings to Alex who stayed silent through it all, "But that only makes the betrayal all the worse. This may be harder than you think."

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