GLIMPSES OF THE GOLDEN AGE

Part Six

Lady Alambiel and I got together to do another Golden Age Random Word Challenge. This is what I came up with. Check out hers, too!

GOSSIP

"Hurry! A Deer told me King Edmund's being burnt at the stake!"

Peter tossed down his bow and ran after the Crow to a Deer at the edge of the forest.

"No!" the Deer cried. "The Badger said he was bitten by a Snake!"

The Badger scowled as all three rushed into the garden. "I said he went to the kitchen to find something for a stomach ache."

The four of them found Edmund scraping chocolate icing from his plate.

"Ed." Peter exhaled heavily. "You're all right."

Edmund frowned. "Why shouldn't I be? All I'm doing is eating some cake."

LEG

"Umm, Oreius?" Peter glanced down. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It will teach you to work together as well as improving your strength, balance and endurance."

"Or make us want to kill each other," Edmund muttered.

The Centaur glared. "What was that, How?"

Edmund cleared his throat. "Uh, it will teach us to support each other."

"It will indeed. Now, do you both understand your objective?"

Peter sighed. "We have to get to the top of the north tower with my right leg tied to his left leg."

Oreius nodded. "Precisely. And before the Tigers catch you."

TEST

"I will go to the top," Oreius said. "When I give the signal, you will begin. Once you reach the tower, the Tigers will come after you. You must reach me before they reach you."

At the signal, Peter hooked one arm around Edmund's middle and lifted him just off the ground. With him holding on as tightly as he was able, Peter dashed across the courtyard and up the tower steps. He reached Oreius just as he heard Babur's low growl behind him.

"Not quite how I envisioned it," Oreius said, hiding a smirk, "but you pass the test."

BUTTERFLY

"Come on, Philip! Hurry!"

Edmund galloped forward, chasing the Great Lion back toward the river that had just begun to melt when he'd seen it last. What had happened there was burned into his memory, though much of the rest of his time as the Witch's prisoner was a blur of cold and pain and regret.

"Here!" He flung himself down and scooped something off the ground. "Please, Aslan."

There was a little yip and the stone Fox Aslan had breathed on lived again. Then He breathed into Edmund's outstretched hands.

And the butterfly fluttered into the air, into life.

PRINCIPAL

"The principal concern, My Queen, is that, with your brothers and sister away, the Calormene ambassador will not afford you the respect you deserve."

Lucy looked the Centaur General in the eye, her chin lifted. "Because I'm not the High King. And because I'm only eleven." Her mouth hardened. "And because I'm a girl."

His grave expression did not change. "I fear so, Your Majesty."

Her chin wobbled just the slightest bit. "And what do you think?"

"You are Aslan's chosen. Narnia's Valiant Queen."

She smiled and held her head even higher. "Tell the ambassador we will receive him now."

SKIN

"Like the belly of a fish," said one mellifluous voice.

"White as a pearl," said another.

"Or the sand from our island far out in the sea," said a third, tracing one delicate finger down Edmund's arm.

His face turned hot. Why had he come swimming without a shirt? Now Mermaids bobbed all around him, gawking and probably giggling at him, too. Peter paddled beside him, his smile brilliant against his golden-brown skin, and Edmund scowled.

"Fine. Not everyone is as magnificent as you, High King. No need to rub it in."

"Don't be silly, Ed. They think you're beautiful."

PRIDE

The four of them had been given into his care, so young and inexperienced, so frightened and unsure. Inexplicably, Aslan had called them to rule His kingdom, and Oreius struggled to see the wisdom in the choice.

These children knew nothing of battle, nothing of law or diplomacy, nothing of the kingdom itself or of their subjects. Yet they were eager to learn, to serve, to give all. For this land. For Him.

Already they had shown themselves brave and kind, wise and fair, able beyond their years. And when he looked on them, Oreius could feel nothing but pride.

CHANDELIER

The ball had ended some while ago. The lights on the chandelier were out, the musicians gone, the tables cleared, and all the guests gone to bed, but the ballroom was not quite empty. A plump, dark little woman sat on a chair in the corner, dreaming of embroidered white silk and a grand royal wedding. Dozing at her feet were a pair of Tigers, certain there were no dangers to guard against tonight.

And in the center of the empty room, as if music still filled the air, a young couple swayed together, unaware of anything but each other.

SALT

"Then he has betrayed us all!"

Peter winced at the fury on the Centaur's face, now painfully aware of what Edmund had really done. He had betrayed his own family, true, but there was so much more. There were the Birds and the Beavers, the Faun Lucy had met, this camp full of Narnians, everyone who had looked to the Children of Adam and Eve to break the Witch's hold. Worst of all, there was Aslan, the Great Lion Himself.

Edmund had betrayed them all.

Peter's certainty that he had driven his brother to it was just salt in the wound.

FOG

Peter and Edmund stood back to back among the dark trees, weapons drawn, but there was little hope of escape now. There were too many Wraiths, blended into the night, into the fog itself, invisible until they rose up shrieking and gibbering before their eyes, filling the unnaturally dense air with their fetid stench, blinding and choking and clawing at them, deafening them with the foulest of accusations, with depraved suggestions, naming the tortures they had prepared for those they dragged into their lair.

Peter covered his ears. "Aslan!"

At once there was only silence in the cool, clear night.