the girl from archenland | narnia

Prologue

The boy examined the ruins, making his way around crumbling columns and through thickets and low hanging branches.

It had changed so much.

When he had lived here the castle had stood tall and proud, now it was falling apart, broken and crumbling, a shadow of what it had been, just like him.

He had been gone a single year of his time, but here it had been over a thousand. Everyone he knew was gone. Everyone.

As the boy tramped through the overgrowth he found crumbling gravestones, hastily carved and erected as though in the midst of the battle.

Carved with names he knew, ones he recognized. A battle had been fought here, not long after he had left.

He hadn't meant to leave, only stumbled through a wardrobe back into his own world, the way he had first stumbled into this one.

As much as he dreaded reading each name he kept searching, kept looking, hoping he wouldn't find a certain name.

Surely she couldn't still be alive, mere humans couldn't live a thousand years, but he would like to imagine she lived a long life, found happiness, even if he hadn't been a part of it.

He had loved her, and he hoped she had known.

They had gone off looking for the white stag that day, and when he returned he had planned to tell her again, tell her how he felt, remind her.

There was another stone ahead, this one crooked and chipped more than most of the others, he knelt down in front of it, trying to make out what it said.

"Nenya," he said in a whisper, his voice shaking. He traced the words with his finger, reading them aloud. "Lady and Warrior of Archenland, friend to the Queens and Kings of Narnia"

Then his brother and sisters were beside him, gathered around the small stone, morning their friend together.

"Do you think she knew?" his brother asked, "Do you think she knew I didn't-We didn't abandon her?"

Lucy looked at both boys, "She knew, I'm sure of it."

"She knew." Susan echoed, putting her arms around her brothers.

The four children stood, their hair blowing in the Narnian wind, holding on to each other, memories flooding through their minds.

They had started this adventure together, and they would finish it that way as well.