Tales of the Narnian Monarchs: Home Wasn't Built in a Day

Epilogue

(And now, a 16 'Years Later' Chapter...)

"I want to play a GAME!" Anna Hayes insisted, wiggling from her mother's gentle grasp, Ben assuring his wife that their daughter had more than enough sunscreen on.

"Why don't you play hide and seek?" 'Cool Aunt Lu', so Carter had deemed her, suggested to her nieces and nephews.

Her siblings shared a small, fond glance to one another as Alec groaned.

Now 17, 5 years older the next child- his sister- of the lot, he'd much rather sit on his phone than socialise- never mind play a game, especially with little children.

Sanya Reza-Pevensie understood him well and only occasionally made him spend time with his siblings and cousins- usually to supervise them.

"Come on!" Samara told her brother in a mollifying way. "I'm sure the woods are HUGE."

"There'll be SO MUCH to explore!" Her cousin, and partner in crime, strawberry blonde Alyssa Pevensie added, her eyes widening.

"No, Al. Play all you want, but stay in the area. The woods'll be dangerous, especially with the younger ones there as well." Peter recognised the look in his daughter's eye.

"I'll make sure they don't!" Brunette Helena spoke up, standing as tall as a 9-year-old could, her hands on her hips as she declared her new mission.

"No, Amma, not the twins too!" Alec moaned in despair as his mother half sheepishly brought her youngest accidents to her oldest. "They're babies!"

"They're self sufficient." Edmund defended his beloved twins. "More than you were at five."

Syed immediately started wailing and clutched at his mother, "Alec- he called me a baby!"

Sanya gave her husband a look, which plainly commanded him to have a vasectomy.

The once-Just King replied with a look which candidly told her that she had been more than a willing participant in the conception.

Syed's spitfire of a twin sister went and hit lanky Alec's waist, the highest point she could reach, before Edmund pulled his daughter away to avoid more bodily harm caused to his eldest child.

"You is-" She started fiercely, now in the comfort of her father's arms.

"Are." Her mother corrected gently.

"An abtholute arthse."

"Sienna!" Lucy was horrified. "Where did you learn that?"

Carter started to back away, knowing what was coming.

"Carter thaid it!" Sienna tattled, epitome of truth- possibly why she was her father's favourite most of the time. "He thpoke it when Unca Ben grounded him!"

"Carter!" Susan turned on her son. "Where did you-"

"Auntie Lilith." He said at once. "She was talking on the phone!"

Lilith bit her lip to stop laughter, ignoring her husband's unimpressed look as she turned back to try to get William to keep his damned hat on.

"Eavesdropper!" Helena gasped- she hated people who were sneaky. "Apologise!"

Alec surveyed this chaotic scene and wanted to kill himself.

He looked at his parents, who, in tandem as usual, seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Why don't you all run along now?" Lucy tried and succeeded to break up this little battle. "We'll call you when food arrives."

Harry, her on and off partner of over 17 years now, was due any time with as much food he could manage.

"Alec-" Sanya started but her son was already nodding, dark bangs falling into his eyes.

"I know, Amma, I know. Don't let them die." He said and took off after the younger ones, Sienna at his side, refusing to hold his hand, and Sy clutching his hand.

"It astounds me how much he's like you, and how much he looks like me." Edmund commented as his wife settled in next to him, in the same spot they had had their first dance in.

"More astounding is that he's actually obedient, considering he's you two's kid." Peter snorted and Ben high fived him.

"Technically, the same could be said for all your kids." Lucy pointed out. "We DEFINITELY weren't as good or quiet or- or you know, as they are."

"Well, they've yet to be Rulers of a fantasy land." Susan joked and everyone laughed heartily at that.

-

"Sam! Al! C'mon now! Game's over, you've won!" Alec called half an hour later, his anxiety rising as he'd found the others behind their various trees, yet his sister and cousin were yet to be found.

He tightened his grip on Sy's and a still reluctant Sienna's hand as the others walked beside them.

"Maybe they ARE dead." William suggested, Anna immediately bursting into tears.

"Shut UP, Will. You're not helping." The eldest scolded the young blond, who made a face at him.

"Of COURSE they're not dead." Carter spoke, drawing a sobbing Anna to his side, Helena glaring at William, who looked slightly frightened.

"C'mon you two! Amma'll kill me if I lose you!" Alec shouted once more. "And Uncle Peter will hang, draw and quarter me, dead or not!"

"And WHY would I need to do such a thing?" The once-High King's voice met the eldest child's ears.

The small group turned to face him, and much to Alec's utter dismay, his uncle was also accompanied by his parents, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Lilith and Aunt Susan.

"1, 2, 34567-" His mother counted them quickly. "2 missing."

"Where're they?" Edmund questioned his son warningly, panic rising in his chest.

"Dead!" William declared, tone of utter seriousness, before Alec could work out an escape route.

"We're not DEAD, silly." Alyssa spoke, making both herself and Samara known as they appeared, hand in hand, not far away.

"And mama would never kill you, she loves you too much, idiot." The second (Reza-)Pevensie child snorted.

"Where did you GO?" Alec replied, in utter relief- it appeared he'd live to see another day.

"Exploring!" Samara replied, both girls erupting into giggles, as Sienna finally managed to escape from her eldest sibling's hold, and immediately climbed up into Edmund's arms.

"Where, exploring?" Lilith asked, wracking her brain back to when she herself had explored these woods, deciding there was nothing she remembered to be as exciting as it needed to be to get the girls so hyped up.

"We found shiny puddles!" Samara explained happily.

"Puddles?" Edmund enquired curiously, sharing a baffled look with his brother.

"You didn't jump in them, did you?" Susan asked, half weary and half teasing- these batch of kids were renowned for getting in as much mud or slime or water as possible. "You're not wearing galoshes, and those dresses are new."

"Puddles in the forest?" Sanya prodded, after it became clear that not one inch of her daughter or her best friend was wet.

Despite a familiar tug in their heart, none of the Pevensies had ever heard of any sort of shiny puddles-

"Yes! They were funny and really SO SHINY! This way!" Alyssa expressed happily, grabbing her mother's hand, the group following without question.

They were used to following people into unknown and often dangerous places, after all.

And they didn't mind it at all.