Finding the Queen of Old

Epilogue: Part 2 (Finale)

"Alistair, can you go out to the garden and pick a few fresh flowers for the table?"

Smiling up at his mother, the young boy nodded eagerly. Standing on his tiptoes, the boy peeked into the blanket in his mother's arms, still trying to get a good look at his little sister. She was so tiny!

"Alistair." His mother's voice brought him back to his task. He took one more quick peek and rushed out the garden. 

All the adults were so busy all the time, Alistair thought, that they always had him running tasks for them. His uncle Edmund and Auntie Isabela had finally gotten married, and according to his Uncle Peter it was "about time they finally did things right" whatever that meant, so they were off on some vacation married people take- he hadn't paid attention to the word, just the fact they would be gone for a while. Aunt Lucy was always so sad, he knew, but perhaps he was the only  one who knew how sad his aunt was, because she did smile all the time, but she just wasn't herself. He had always seen her this way, but it seemed to him that she was only acting, like how he acted sad to get sweets sometimes. She and Jill and Eustace were always in the library, recording histories of this and that with the Professor and Miss Polly. Uncle Peter was always with Aslan, discussing something or another, he never really understood anything they talked about when they hadn't yet noticed him in the room. The only thing he took away from it was that their was a bad man named James, but that he was gone for a long long time. As for his mother and father, they were always with his new little sister. They still wouldn't tell him how they got a baby, but he was glad they had decided to give him a little sister. Natalie was so tiny! 

Maybe he should pick a flower for her, and one for Aunt Lucy as well!

Waving at his mother's friend Leah and her husband as he made his way to the garden, the boy was lost in his thoughts of his family. He loved all of them so much, but he still was not sure why sometimes he caught his Uncle Peter studying him, or watching his mother when she played with him. Was he trying to see how much he looked like his mother, and how much he looked like his father? Because he did that too, and he thought he looked a lot more like his mother than his father. Natalie already looked more like their father than he did, but he was glad to look like his mother. She was so pretty! But his father had the brightest and happiest smile, and it was always directed at him, his mother, or his little sister. His father always smiled when he gave his mother flowers... maybe he would pick one for his father too!

The gardens were full of so many different kinds of flowers, Alistair didn't know which ones to pick. There were blue ones, small purple ones, and tall orange ones. The red ones had pokey things on them, so he avoided those ones, but the white ones were pretty!

Grabbing a handful of each, he decided he would let his family pick which ones they wanted. Then, grabbing a few more, he figured he would bring some for everyone. When his arms were full of flowers, he set off to head back to his mother when a noise startled him and the flowers fell.  Looking around and not seeing anything, he began to pick up the flowers, though he was moving quickly, frightened by the idea of something being out there with him when he was alone. He thought he heard two voices, but it could just be dryads whispering to each other. 

"Need some help?" A voice asked, and he froze.

A man-was he human? Or a faun? The man walked like a faun, but he was dressed like a person- and a girl who was probably a year or so older than him walked towards him. The girl looked awed and was glancing around everywhere, though the man seemed at ease. He knew he wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but the man seemed friendly, and their was another child with him...

"My mother says I can't talk to strangers."

"Susan would have taught you that right away." The man spoke.