1When a Soldier Cries

Summary: Edmund learns what it means when a soldier cries after his family has been re-united. Just a little drabble. Edited and re-posted!

The first time Edmund Pevensie ever saw a soldier cry was on a chilly, wet Autumn day. The leaves had crunched underneath everyone's feet as the tears freely poured down every Pevensie's cheek, except Lucy's. The youngest Pevensie sibling was simply too young to understand the magnitude of what was happening to her family.

When a soldier cries, Edmund learned that day, it's a goodbye. The kind of goodbye that isn't just for a few days, but for much, much longer. When a soldier cries, it's the breaking down of all the defenses. It's the start of a long battle in the war against emotions. The first soldier he ever saw cry was his father, and the grief and despair of his face remained with Edmund forever.

The second time Edmund ever saw a soldier cry, he was just a random passerby on the streets of the city. He had been walking home past the train station where he caught a returning soldier reuniting with his family. The soldier's wife went to give the man a hug, but knocked him of his balance, and they all looked down. The soldier was missing a leg, a wooden limb in it's place, barely concealed by the dirty khaki pants. Edmund learned that day when a soldier cries, it means he's lived a nightmare.

The third time Edmund saw a soldier cry, it was his own brother. Edmund was lying across a field, having been stabbed, and he could barely see or hear. He sensed Peter leaning over him as well as his older brother's anguished tears.

"Ed! Ed!" He could barely hear his name being called, as if he was listening through a wall. On that field, Edmund learned that when a soldier cries, it's because he's afraid of losing a friend, a comrade, a brother.

The fourth time Edmund saw a soldier cry was when his father came back from war. Once again, the entire family cried, this time Lucy included. For the first time in years, their family was together again, whole in every which way. Edmund understood the way his father cried at that reunion, because the tears ran parallel to his own. Edmund understood that when a soldier cries, a joy that can only be sensed after blood and death and war is finally being felt for the first time.