Who: Lucy, Peter and Caspian When: 15th December - wish plot Where: Their house What: Making a discovery Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Lucy hadn’t quite known what to make of it when she’d woken up and discovered the wardrobe from her dreams, which she’d happened to wish for on the meteor shower a couple of days before. Telling herself it couldn’t be true she opened the door and saw the same familiar coats hanging there.
Hearing Aslan meowing behind her she sat on the bed and petted him when he saw on her lap. “It can’t be real can it huh?” she said as she stroked his fur, “It’s not possible” She sat there for a few minutes before Aslan got bored and hopping off her lap shot into the wardrobe before she could stop him. “Damn” she said before stepping into the wardrobe to fetch him. when her hand came back covered in snow her eyes widened and after a moments hesitation she ran to the doorway.
“Peter!” she cried out, “Caspian!”
As far as Peter was concerned, the last few weeks had been both good and extremely interesting. First, the good, he had finally proposed to Caspian and they were now engaged. They were planning on telling Peter’s parents on Christmas over Skype and Peter knew that they would be extremely happy for them. When and if they told Caspian’s uncle, Peter didn’t know, but they certainly wouldn’t let him put a damper on their happiness, if they did. Other than that, the rest of the time had been rather interesting. First it had begun to snow in Orange County, something Peter had heard had happened the previous December, not that that helped to make it seem normal of course. Then the dreams had returned the previous evening. Not only had Edmund vanished, but now Peter, Susan and Lucy were being chased by wolves and had fallen into a frozen river. Peter had woken up with a lingering chill from the dream, but it had quickly dissipated.
Now, he and Caspian were sitting on the couch, watching something on TV when they heard Lucy call for them. Frowning, he glanced at Caspian then got to his feet, “That doesn’t sound good.” Turning, knowing that Caspian would follow, Peter went towards Lucy’s room, stopping in the doorway, eyes wide, “Is that…” No, it couldn’t have been The Wardrobe. Could it?
Caspian was feeling pretty comfortable on the couch next to his fiance. Yes, he was still on his ‘high’ from having his lover propose to him and he was pretty much around Peter whenever he was home. He may have been a bit clingy but he knew that it would wear off at some point.
Caspian had started having some odd dreams of his own but he didn’t think much of them yet. It had mainly been of himself being raised by his uncle, which had happened...somewhat. Sure, the setting was different but Caspian chalked it up to his dreams just filtering shows or movies in.
As expected, he got up and followed after Peter to see what the commotion was about. Caspian had been told about the wardrobe but he’d never seen it in his dreams before. So when he saw it, he didn’t think much of it. “Um...what’s going on?” he asked, glancing from Peter to Lucy.
“It’s the wardrobe, like the wardrobe. The one that leads to Narnia” Lucy explained, nodding at her brother. “I haven’t been through yet but well umm Aslan did. I tried to call him back but he wouldn’t listen” she added quickly. They knew she loved that cat as much as they did, especially since he’d started sleeping in her room and getting secret treats from her.
Peter was so mystified by the appearance of the object that had sent him and his siblings to Narnia, in the dreams, that it took him a moment before what his sister had said sunk in. He'd stepped further into the room, his hand hovering near the wood, almost touching it when he turned his head towards Lucy, "Wait, what? Aslan went in there? Shouldn't be too hard to get him out. I mean, he goes in our closet all the time." Peter hadn't quite realized why exactly Lucy was so worried. After all, the wardrobe couldn't really lead to Narnia.
Caspian was still skeptical about the whole thing. Yes, his roommates had both shared tales about the thing but it would be completely absurd for them to have the actual item appear. Not to mention that his own dreams didn’t involve anything of the sort. He looked between the two of them for a couple more moments and then to the wardrobe where the cat had disappeared into. “You know, he’s a cat and will come out when he feels like it...I thought we already learned that he tends to do what he wants...but if you want to follow after him, be my guest…” he said, with a shrug.
“Oh for goodness sake” Lucy said, hands on her hips before she took a deep breath and entered the wardrobe. When her hand hit snow she gathered some up and sent it flying back out the way she’d come having no idea if it would hit either of them. Then she turned back and continued going through finally stepping out into the world of Narnia.
Peter had been about to respond to his fiancé when Lucy stepped into the wardrobe and a moment later a handful of snow hit him in the chest. "What the..." Eyes wide, he glanced from the wardrobe then to Caspian, "You saw that too, right?" He waited another moment or two before taking Caspian's hand and pulling him towards the wardrobe, "Come on."
The snow was definitely a surprise and Caspian wasn’t sure how to cope with all this. He didn’t know if they should explore the place. He stayed put and pulled Peter towards him. “Is that a smart idea? If that place is as big as you’ve said...how are we going to find one small cat?” He felt like there needed to be a voice of reason before entering such an unknown place. Sure, Peter and Lucy dreamt about it, but that didn’t mean things were the same, right?
Lucy was a lot less cautious and was already at the lamp post in Narnia, “Aslan” she called out, “Oh come on you silly cat. If I get stuck in here because of you I’m not going to be happy” she glanced behind her but there was no sign of her brother or Caspian yet.
Peter stopped when Caspian pulled him back and he gave his boyfriend a smile as he squeezed his hand reassuringly, "It's big, but I think we can find him. I mean, do you want to leave him in there? Besides, Lu is already in there and if we don't go in, she'll tease us mercifully."
There was a part that thought the cat would come back on his own. Aslan was rather pampered and Caspian was certain that it would only be a matter of time before the cat came back for food or attention. Yet, they could exactly leave Lucy in there. “You owe me for this...you and your sister,” he grumbled as he stepped into the wardrobe.
Lucy didn’t move too far from the wardrobe, but continued calling out for Aslan. Grinning when Peter and Caspian joined her, “Finally. Honestly what took you so long” she teased them, now moving out further afield since they’d joined her.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll pay our debt." Smirking, Peter led Caspian through the wardrobe, the floor and walls suddenly changing to snow and pine trees. Once they made their way through the pine branches, Peter smirked at Lucy, "Sorry about that. Have you found Aslan yet?" As he spoke, his gaze wandered taking in the world that his dreams took place in. Never in a million years did he think that he'd actually be in Narnia.
This was definitely something that was very unexpected. Yes, this had been mentioned many times but seeing it was something different. He took a deep breath and let it out. “I was being rational about this matter while you and your brother decided to just wander in without a second thought,” Caspian muttered. “Aslan isn’t the kind of cat that shows up when he’s called. He shows up whenever he wants and when it’s the most inconvenient.”
“Are you not the least bit curious? I mean look at this place Caspian, it’s amazing” Lucy said, she was ridiculously excited to be here and that was obvious from simply looking at her. “We should at least look for Aslan a little right?” she coerced.
“He’d probably come back, yes, but if Lucy leaves the Wardrobe door open for him, it’s possible that anything else from here could get through too.” And Peter didn’t need to try and figure out how to explain to people why there were talking animals. Even as he thought it however, he realized just how quiet things seemed and he turned to Lucy, “Lu, what’s the last thing you’ve dreamt about?” Narnia might have been under the rule of the White Witch in their dreams, but would it be that way here now? Shouldn’t there be Narnians somewhere? Mr. Tumnus or the Beavers or someone?
“Is that even possible for things from this place to get back into the real world?” Sure, they had tossed snow out into the room but could being that were native to this world go into the ‘real’ world? “And yes, this is all very fascinating Lucy but we can’t exactly traipse around. This place is huge...and I don’t know about you but my tracking skills aren’t exactly the best. We need to figure out the best way to try to lure Aslan out, if he’s still hanging around rather than getting lost.”
“The last thing was meeting Mr Beaver” Lucy told her brother, “but I’ve not seen anybody here so far. I thought for sure Mr Tumnus would have appeared by now” But maybe nobody was here, it could just be the land. “Any ideas on how to lure him out?” she asked Caspian, “I don’t think I have cat treats on me” but she checked her pockets just in case.
Peter nodded then turned towards Caspian, “It’s too bad we have one of those cats who isn’t tempted by catnip or anything like that.” Sometimes Peter was convinced that they had an irregular cat, but then there were times when Aslan acted just like any other cat, “We could call him or just hang around here to see if he comes back?” If Peter was honest, he’d been thinking more about actually going to Narnia and less about how exactly they were going to find their cat.
However, before Peter could say anything else, he heard the sound of snow crunching and when he glanced in the direction of it, his eyes widened. He may not have met Aslan, the one from his dream just yet, but somehow he knew. “Guys…” He couldn’t take his eyes off the large lion that had stepped out between two trees. A lion that looked just like a much larger version of their cat and somehow he knew that this was the Aslan that the Beavers had been talking about.
Caspian had been looking at the siblings, as he tried to figure out a way to get them AND the cat back to their home. He hadn’t noticed the large lion that had appeared. Hell, it took him a bit to look up even after Peter had stopped speaking. His eyes fixed on the large creature before he found himself stunned. “Uh….I think...we should...go….back…” he said, softly, not moving.
When Peter and Caspian stopped talking Lucy turned and something in her just knew this was Aslan, not their cat or at least not as they knew him but the Lord of Narnia. And she wasn’t afraid, in fact she was so not afraid that acting on instinct alone she smiled and ran to hug him. “Aslan” she said softly into his fur.
Peter shook his head as Caspian spoke as he watched Lucy run to Aslan, “No, Cas, it’s okay.” He glanced over at his fiance again, “It’s Aslan. I don’t know how I know that cause we haven’t actually met him yet, in the dreams, but I just know it. He won’t hurt us.” The sudden appearance of Aslan momentarily caused Peter to forget about cat-Aslan.
Caspian hung back. He wasn’t as trusting of this enormous lion that appeared. Just because the others were trusting, didn’t mean that he wanted to be near such a potentially dangerous creature. “I’m fine...here…” he mentioned as he didn’t move from his spot.
“You don’t need to be afraid” Aslan chose that moment to speak, one great paw patting Lucy’s back where she was clinging to him. “I won’t hurt you Caspian”
“See?” Lucy said with a smile, turning her head to smile at them while continuing to hug Aslan.
Peter couldn’t help but smile as Aslan spoke. He may not have met Aslan yet in the dreams, but somehow he’d known that he was going to reassure Caspian. He could understand why Caspian would be standoffish and he didn’t blame him. He glanced over at Caspian to see what his reaction would be to Aslan talking. Peter and Lucy had both talked about their dreams multiple times and had mentioned the fact that animals seemed to talk in Narnia, so it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise to his boyfriend. “Cas?”
“It’s alright if he is weary.” Aslan said, still watching Caspian.
This was just completing blowing his mind. He’d recalled tales, from his dreams when it came to such things but there was really no preparation for anything like this. Aslan was big...huge! Why wouldn’t he be weary? He continued to hang back, glancing around wishing that cat-Aslan would just return so that they could leave.
Lucy indicated to her brother that he should go to Caspian, he looked worried and a little scared and she thought having Peter close might reassure him. Pulling back a little from Aslan she smiled, she hadn’t had many dreams yet but she knew she would dream of him and that he was a very good friend.
Peter nodded and moved over towards Caspian, taking his hand as he did. "You okay?" Peter knew that realistically, he too should have been surprised about what was happening, but considering the dreams and other things that had happened over the last year, it was hard to be surprised by much any more.
"I'm glad we got this chance to see one another," Aslan said to Lucy before glancing at Peter and Caspian, "But it can't last long."
Caspian gave a slight shake of his head. He needed to sit down and have some time to process everything. While he did have some dreams that related to this place, he had yet to be exposed to something of this magnitude. "I just need some time...you can go and talk to him, I'll be fine." It felt like he was holding Peter back and while he was cautious of the creature, he didn't want to deny Peter this opportunity.
“The wardrobe will disappear won’t it?” Lucy said, knowing that the strange things which happened here usually didn’t last too long. “I’m glad I got to see you too. Do you remember your time as a cat? Do you understand us back home?” she asked, because Lucy wasn’t silly she knew how Aslan was here while no other creatures appeared to be. Peter gave Caspian’s hand a squeeze then went over to where Lucy and Aslan were, “It’s not a normal Orange County thing, is it?” He didn’t know how he knew it, but there was just something about the Wardrobe showing up when it did that told him that it wasn’t the norm. When Lucy asked Aslan about being a cat, Peter’s eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that Lion Aslan was also Cat Aslan.
Aslan laughed and nodded as best as a lion could nod, “I do. I remember it all.” He looked from Peter to Lucy, “And speaking of my time as a cat, I’m afraid we must go back.” Stepping away from the siblings, Aslan started towards the group of trees that would lead to the Wardrobe on the other side.
This made things rather awkward. At least, Caspian and Peter always made sure that the cat was absent during their sexual escapades but it would be weird thinking that the cat was able to remember being kicked out for such reasons. Caspian let the lion pass by him, thinking that at least the lion was being reasonable. They needed to go back and he waited for Peter before going back the way they came.
Lucy walked behind Aslan too as they headed back, linking her arm with Caspian, “You okay?” she asked him in concern, she couldn’t help thinking it was a shame that Caspian hadn’t had more dreams yet. This would all be much more exciting for him if he had.
As Aslan reached the spot where the door was, he turned back to look at the three of them once more before walking through, leaving them alone in Narnia.
Instead of following directly after him, Peter turned to Caspian and Lucy, "Did that really just happen?" He felt like he needed a little confirmation before heading back.
Caspian hoped that he was still asleep but he figured that he wasn’t. “I guess…” he mentioned, still a bit confused by everything. Slowly, he walked towards the ‘exit’ and glanced around, as he held Peter’s hand. At least, his fiance was there to help keep him calm.
“Yes! It really did!” of all of them Lucy was the most excited. She loved the idea that the wardrobe from their dreams had turned up and Aslan, the talking version was awesome. The poor cat was likely to get his ear talked off now that she knew he could understand and remember. Taking their hands she moved forward, back to the real world but with a happy mood and a smile on her face.