Title: Spring (Seasons Verse)
Author: PhirePhox666
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia
Pairing/Characters: No Pairing. Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None whatsoever.
Summary: Each of the four siblings has a different opinion about spring. One-shot. Complete.
Disclaimer: Not mine. If I owned it we'd be hearing a lot more from Edmund.
Word Count: 1,120
Dedication: To Aslan, always. Also, to all my favorite writers, here's to you.
Prompt: Seasons: Spring(#19)
Excerpt: In England when the first spring rains pour down Edmund takes long, aimless walks throughout the streets of Finchley. He strolls through parks and wanders into shops, looking and buying and finding.
A/N: Sibling Fic mostly. A little Edmund-centric. No Slash or Incest! A little bit fluff. Set after Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There's probably going to be three more companions to this one. Summer, Autumn, and Winter (Duh). If I get the motivation and actually do them. This is one of my self-challenge word fics. Review if you like, Flame if you want to. Never been flamed yet. Hope you like it.
Spring
For Lucy, spring is about life.
In Narnia when the first bloom appeared on the tree outside her window she would go out into the forests around Cair Paravel and dance with the fauns and the forest Animals. She would come back with flowers and grass braided into her hair, more golden then ever. She comes back with stories of Aslan and songs taught to her by the driads.
In England when spring's first flower blooms Lucy goes into her yard and sits enjoying sun and flowers. She thinks of Aslan and sometimes misses Narnia so much it aches deep in her chest. She misses the driads and the fauns and the Talking Animals that were her friends. When she is so lost in remembrance that the tears start to flow, Edmund comes out to her. He stands her up and leads her inside and then he bows to her. Humming old Narnian music he leads her in the steps of old Narnian dances. The dance changes into something less formal and more fluid when Peter joins and they twirl Lucy between them. Lucy loves the spring dances, even more so here with her brothers.
For Lucy, her knew life and her old is in spring.
For Susan, spring is about beauty.
In Narnia when spring came, Susan would gather flowers in the gardens. She would walk with the cats through the castle, long rambling walks where she spoke of all things. She would sit with Lucy in the garden and they would braid flowers into each-other's hair. She would don the lighter dresses that were made in pretty greens and soft purples. She would sing, ever so softly, of summer days coming and winter days gone, in Narnia.
In England when spring came, Susan found herself stuck inside as a proper English lady should not play outside like a little girl. For Susan all spring did was remind her of Narnia and what she couldn't have. In spring Susan goes with one of her many Beaus. In spring are the parties. If occasionally the music makes her want to break out into whirling dances that were never taught in England or she wishes she was sitting with her siblings instead or songs flit through her mind about naiads and dryads and a great lion, no one is to ever know.
For Susan, spring causes regret of all the beauty that she lost.
For Peter, spring is about faith
In Narnia on the first day of spring Peter would sit at the stone table and he would pray. He would speak to Aslan of all the things that he thought he could have done better, letting his thoughts run along darker paths. He would sit until Edmund came and found him right as the darker thoughts seemed so great they would consume him. Then Edmund would come and lead him away from the great stone table. They did not ride directly back to Cair Paravel, Edmund would lead his distaught brother to a small clearing not far from the Stone Table. Together they would sit and Edmund would sing for his brother, his friend, his king. Sing of loyalty and love and of Narnia. When they rode back to Cair Paravel again Peter would be free of his burdens again.
In England on the first day of spring Peter goes to a chapel and kneels and prays. He speaks to Aslan, whom they know in this world as Jesus, and tells him of all his thoughts. Edmund always finds him before Peter can get very far into his list of personal failings. Edmund tugs him to his feet and outside, gentle as he's ever been. Peter finds that little has changed since Narnia. Edmund takes him to a small park that has a stream running through it and sits him down on soft moss beside the stream. Edmund still sings to Peter of Loyalty and love. Now he also sings of finding The Great Lion in England and of joy and life and family. When they walk home Peter is more grateful than ever of his brother
For Peter, faith gets stronger during the spring.
For Edmund, spring is about forgiveness.
In Narnia when the first spring rains poured down upon Cair Paravel Edmund would ride Phillip bare-back through the forests until he was soaked and they would go back to Cair, to Susan who would lecture him about his health, to Lucy who would giggle as she toweled his hair dry vigorously so as to muss it up as much as possible, to Peter who always looked just a little worried and once Edmund was warm and dry would draw him into a long hug. After he was dry he would present the little tokens he had found on his trip. A pretty flower for Susan. A feather from a griffin for Lucy. A gem given to him by a river god for Peter. Little gifts to show his affection. And on these nights Edmund sleeps in his brothers bed to fend off both of their nightmares.
In England when the first spring rains pour down Edmund takes long, aimless walks throughout the streets of Finchley. He strolls through parks and wanders into shops, looking and buying and finding. When he is soaked and chilled to the bone he heads home, to Lucy who still musses his hair with a dry towel, to Peter who now awaits him at the door cheeks flushed from being out in the cold. There is no Susan on these days, Susan has been lost to the world where everything is very Grown Up. When Edmund is dry Peter still pulls him into a long hug, holding him perhaps a little closer than normal. Then Edmund sits with Lucy and Peter and gives them their gifts. Now it is a ribbon or a figurine for Lucy. Now it is a journal or a book for Peter. He still brings home something for Susan but so often she says little about her gift when she receives it other than a passing comment, and flowers no longer interest her unless they are given to her by admirers. At nights, after everyone has gone to sleep, Edmund slips into his brothers room and into his brothers bed. Then together they tell the story of The Defeat of the White Witch. In the spring is when she died and in the spring is when Edmund lived.
For Edmund, spring offers forgiveness.
Finis.