Our Memory Of The Dawn (Narnia Fanfiction)

6 - A Reason To Smile

I'm glad that you're giving me a reason to smile through it all... ~ Florence Joyce

xxxxxx

Amy didn't think she'd be able to startle Edmund like that when what she only did was to ask a question. There was nothing wrong with that, right? Unless, something about her question had resulted to the young king getting surprised like that.

"Uh..."

But it seemed that Edmund didn't have to answer verbally, after all. Not when she saw what had dropped on the floor when she asked the question.

"Ah... That's my adventure journal."

Okay, it might be weird for her to react casually like that. Especially when she just saw someone touching one of her personal belongings.

"Adventure... journal?" Edmund repeated as soon as he was able to recover himself from the shock. He was able to compose himself not long after that and faced Amy. "So is that how you call this book, huh? I must say, this is a fine notebook."

"It was a gift from my grandfather. The last one he gave me before he died when I was young."

Amy soon noticed that Edmund looked down with his gaze darting around the area. She chuckled at the sight of his uncomfortable state. Not that she found it actually funny. But in fact, she was more than glad. She could tell what his actions really meant.

"I'm okay. You don't have to act like that."

"I didn't know. I'm sorry I asked."

Amy shook her head and smiled. "You don't have to apologize. It's alright. But where did you find that? I've been looking for that since I haven't been able to see it in my room."

Edmund pointed at the spot where he found the notebook. "Right there. Though I was able to take notice of it when my foot hit it."

"I must have dropped it at some point while I was hurrying to reach my room."

"Why would you call it an adventure journal, by the way?" Edmund asked, soon changing the subject.

"Well, you've read parts of it, right? It's where I wrote my adventures here in Narnia during my reign. Or at least, the adventures that I was able to remember when I got to my own world." Amy's face became slightly clouded in disappointment, but not for long. "At least I have proof that all that had happened back then was not a dream, even though I know that it would only remain in my mind."

Amy took a deep breath after that, and looked at Edmund. This time, it was her turn to get startled just because she saw Edmund intently looking at her -- again.

"W-why do you have to look at me like that?" she couldn't help asking as soon as she got her wits back.

"You really handled it well."

She could only frown as she heard that. "I don't know what you mean."

To her disappointment, Edmund shook his head and smiled at her. It only made her even more confused, though. What was he trying to say to her?

"Do you mind if I ask you something about this?"

She just shook her head.

He opened Amy's adventure journal to a certain page and showed her a sketch of a flute. She frowned at the sight of it. "What exactly does this flute do?"

If she was going to be honest, it was a question that she never thought he would ask to her. "To call forth the magic that connects the nature's spirits to their respective homes. Specifically, to wake up the spirits sleeping within the trees and even the rivers. It was the last thing that Grandfire made for me... before he was killed trying to protect me."

xxxxxx

It appeared that Edmund had made another blunder. Only this time, it was graver than suddenly saying to Amy that she was beautiful and that her beauty reflected her title. It was about someone that she'd lost a long time ago.

And how was he supposed to make up to that?

"You have to know that it happened a long time ago. But recalling it now, it's starting to feel that it was just yesterday. As if I've never left," Amy said that soon broke the silence between them.

When he looked up to face her, it surprised him to see Amy smiling at him with soft eyes, as if saying that it was okay and that he didn't mean it. Of course, he could only interpret it that way. And at the moment, it was enough to calm him down.

Edmund cleared his throat soon after. "You said that Grandfire made this for you. What was his reason?"

"At the time, the wolves that saved me and protected me from getting killed by an invading army -- or at least one of the soldiers there -- had actually sensed something different in me. At first, they couldn't tell what it was. But as soon as Grandfire saw me, he was able to determine it. It's like magic, only I use my intuition to make it happen," Amy answered and before Edmund knew it, both of them were walking towards the cracked Stone Table.

He soon noticed how Amy eyed the carving of Aslan with an expression that he could only tell as... yearning. But why would he see that on her? "Amy?"

"I only got to use the power of that flute once -- and it was during a desperate time, at that. But perhaps you can say that it was a punishment for me, as my heart became momentarily filled with darkness because of my anger for what happened to my mentor." It took a while before she was able to regain her composure and faced him. "I'm sorry. It still pains me whenever I'd remember that."

Edmund shook his head and approached the young queen. "You don't have to apologize. It appears that we came to a point here that we actually faced a dark time in our lives."

"I just couldn't help feeling that I betrayed Grandfire and Narnia itself, most of all." Amy took a deep breath. "Now that we're facing this, I wonder if it's possible."

"What are you talking about?"

But it seemed that Edmund didn't have to hear the actual answer now that he'd seen a kind of determination in Amy's eyes. And if he was to be honest, he had only seen that in her eyes. "Do you mean... you're going to find the flute?"

"Not 'find it'. I'll just have to retrieve it. I know where it was placed, because I was the one who kept it there before I was pulled back to my world."

"But Amy --"

"I know, Edmund. It's even more dangerous now. But I believe in Lucy, that she could find Aslan and get his help to finally save Narnia. However, it doesn't mean that I have to stay here and wait for things to unfold. The Telmarines won't wait to strike us down, regardless of our number. We have our own ways of beating them and saving the kingdom we once ruled thousands of years ago. We just have to use it. Finding the flute and using its powers is my way of doing just that."

Edmund was speechless, without a doubt. It was this person who ruled Narnia during one of its dark times. This young queen opened up a new path and built new hope for the Narnians during that time. And he couldn't help smiling that he had this chance at the moment to witness the kind of determination that only Amy could show to him.

"Why are you smiling?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. When will you start retrieving the flute, as you put it?"

Amy opened her mouth and was about to say something, until someone called out Edmund's attention. Both of them turned to the source of that voice, only to see a Narnian soldier -- a faun -- approaching.

"Your Majesties, King Peter is asking for the two of you. He said that the raid will commence tonight."

Edmund immediately faced Amy whose expression now turned somber before nodding to the soldier. Soon after, she turned to face him and took a deep breath.

"I'm not going."