towards a great adventure [narnia] [jill]

[bantha_fodder]

Towards a Great Adventure, by Pen.
The Chronicles of Narnia, Jill Pole, G.

This was a sekrit santa present for TRISTOFFER, who loves Jill and Eustace, and has issues with Aslan (...JUST LIKE I DO).


She lies there, her head pillowed by his thigh as she looks up at the sky. The clouds float by, light and fluffy.

"That one's a sheep," she says, and points.

Eustace shades his eyes. "I think that one's a ship." She hums and closes her eyes.

In the shade of the tree, she sleeps.

**

The wheels of the train squeal, and her stomach lurches. "Eustace." She scrabbles for his hand, and he holds tight.

The lights go out.

**

Aslan disappears for days and weeks. "Perhaps he's closing other doors," Eustace says, when she asks.

She has never been a queen of Narnia, but the robes of blue are heavy on her shoulders all the same. "I know this is where Aslan wants us, but Eustace, what of our parents?" Jill leans on the railing; watches Lucy and Edmund laughing in the surf.

He turns his head, his hands cupped around a goblet of fresh mango juice. "I don't know. I had not thought to think of them."

"No," she says. Bites her lip. "Neither did I."

**

The weeks pass, and Aslan does not return. Peter listens to supplicants with Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant, and the faces they turn to her are wise and hurt and like none that Jill has ever seen. Peter takes advice from Aunt Polly and the Professor, and they listen to Lucy's laughter and Edmund's judgments, and all of them are careful to ignore the empty throne beneath the window.

In the darkness, Jill weeps for a queen she never knew.

**

"Scrubb," she says. Rests her hand on his shoulder in the darkness. "I want to find my parents. They must be very worried about me."

"Pole," he says, struggling from sleep. "What are you talking about?"

"I've come to say goodbye. I'm going to be gone for a bit, and I didn't want you to worry."

Eustace blinks. "Your parents think you're dead, Jill," he says, quietly, as though not to scare her. "We died, you know."

"And that's unfair," she insists. "And if we're dead, well, there's no harm to us in adventuring."

Eustace bites his lips and looks at her. "You're right," he agrees. Pushes himself out of bed. "Just let me change."

"No," Jill says. She grabs his wrist and he stills at her touch. "You should stay here."

"And let you off on an adventure without me?" He smiles at her and shakes his head. "As if I would let you do that."

**

They leave a note for Lucy; wrap themselves in sensible clothes and detour by the kitchen. The moon is bright as they head for the mountains, and they have no trouble seeing the path as it lies, golden before them.

Eustace points. "That way," he says. "I recognise that stream." The stream they follow is more than a stream; it is wide and deep, and Jill thinks of the Thames. As they round the bend, Jill thinks she recognises the shape of the rocks and texture of the ground; when they stop to drink from the stream, the ground beneath their feet rumbles.

"What's that?" she asks, and Eustace turns.

"Children," says Aslan. "This is not your path."

Jill turns away, and Eustace reaches for her hand.

Aslan ushers them back to Cair Paravel, and Jill tries not to cry.

She is unsuccessful.



END

Comments

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

Beautiful as always. I wait for the day when you write an extremely long Narnia fic for our enjoyment.

For you, I overcome my allergy to Third Person Present tense :D Thanks so much for sharing.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :o) I would love to write an extremely long Narnia fic. But what is wrong with third person present tense?

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

I don't like it because it comes across as kind of wanky and I feel a bit embarrassed when I read it. There are only about 3 people whose third person present fic I can read without feeling uncomfortable and you're one of them. I know why it's used, I mean I've written it too for immediacy but it's just so easy for it to go wrong :P

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

Creepy and wonderful.

*adores*

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Aslan's a bit of a bitch. There's so much to explore about Aslan, and the way he shapes his world.

[havocthecat]

Ooh, I love this one. And I'd be very curious some time if you wanted to post what your issues with Aslan are. I'd like to see if they match up with mine. (I've always thought that the characters really ought to be able to do more questioning; they're remarkably uncurious, for one, and it's not encouraged by Aslan.)

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I would love to talk about my issues with Aslan! He so strictly controls them: tells them when they can come to Narnia, and when they cannot, and what is right and wrong, and they never, ever question his word, and Aslan cannot be predicted because he's not a tame lion (as if, to be tame is wrong).

Those are my issues, in brief. I have others, but that is a brief summary.

[havocthecat]

I actually always felt bad for Susan, to be exiled from Narnia-and-the-afterlife for daring to grow up, for being (as I saw it) angry and upset that she was exiled from Narnia after Prince Caspian.

While I love the Narnia series as a child, as an adult, I always loved the potential inherent therein, because as I grew older, questioning Catholicism got to be a big thing for me. (S'what I grew up as, Catholic, I mean.)

If you ever do a full-on post on the subject, I'll read gleefully. :)

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

I still love this, o Pennifer!

Also, I remember thinking the first time that even if I didn't know your writing, I'd still be able to recognize this as yours by the golden path. <3s!

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I THINK THERE IS A DUNE/NARNIA CROSSOVER IN HERE SOMEWHERE.

I am glad that you love it, Tris, as I tried very hard to write about the things in Narnia that interest you the most.

[rosa-cotton.livejournal.com]

I thought this was very well written. I never thought about Jill and Eustace ever wonderong what happened to their parents. Interesting idea. Good job.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

Aslan's Country is so stepford, man! I agree. Don't worry, Jill, soon you'll be unable to feel fear or exhaustion, and you'll be able to run really really fast! Won't that be fun? You'll have no choice but to think it fun!

Shivers.

OH THE EMPTY THRONE. I read somewhere that Lewis said Susan's story wasn't over. I kind of wish he followed through on that before he died, but kind of relieved he didn't? Because now she is the biggest unresolved issue in the books and a good vessel for criticism in fic.

<3 overall.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Aslan's Country is very stepford, and I love that people have been exploring this a bit lately! Aslan is so very controlling, which is actually why one of my favourite lines from Narnia is "What has the lion ever done for you, that you should be his slave?" That I have loved that line so long really says a lot about how I feel about the lion.

I am glad that we get to write about Susan, I don't trust what CS Lewis would have said about her.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

I don't trust what CS Lewis would have said about her.
Oh man. Exactly! I wonder how that would've shaped fandom, if he had ended up writing her. It's interesting writing Narnia characters, in that Lewis meant for everything to be such a symbol, more than in any other canon I've encountered. So it's like writing more message than character, or something.

Anyway, I'm writing Aslan Country's fic for the TV trope fic challenge where my trope is "dead to begin with", and it's relatively lighter in tone than my gut feeling towards the place. It's an interesting change, writing characters that aren't allowed to be sad. Leads to flashbacks. And the parents feature!? Ya, weird. They were just supposed to stick around for a paragraph, but then Mrs. Pevensie is all "Oh my" at Caspian's chivalry, and Mr. Pevensie is all "Conquer any kingdoms lately?", and I let them stick around. Oh, bit parts. I'm still waiting for someone to cough up a movieverse Glozelle fic.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to decide what one would explore in Glozelle fic! He's an interesting character, what little we do see of him.

VOTE GLOZELLE

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

MY GLOZELLE BRAINDUMP LET ME SHOW YOU IT, or Why, It Just So Happens I Have One Right Here. Pardon me while I babble! These images have been knocking around in my brain for a month and I haven't been able to make something satisfactory out of them yet. Glozelle lives it up in his new tropical island paradise (I forget, was the island inhabited when they arrived?) and discovers things within himself and without. Should any of these strike your muse, feel free to grab:

- There are lots of fics that are all like "Oh, Narnia is so much more colorful than England" but I wanna be like a-DUH London is pretty gray especially when compared to whatever South Sea island Glozelle ended up on. Glozelle steps through the door/tree, and the crisp air of Narnia becomes the solid humidity of the tropics. The green of palm and banana trees, the turquoise of the Pacific, the white of the sand, the magenta of the hibiscus: colors all vivid and unrelenting. The way Narnia is more real to the Pevensies than gray England, the Pacific island with its brightness and stickiness is more real to Glozelle than temperate Narnia.
- comparisons and ruminations of endless winter vs. endless summer
- Maybe he begins forgetting Narnia the way the Pevensies forgot England.
- One time, feeling foolish, he asked a bird a question, but the bird didn't say answer of course, and Glozelle felt even more foolish and was glad no one saw him.
- Thick Telmarine clothes are discarded for lighter clothing. Glozelle likes the look and feel of these new clothes, and he likes how Prunaprismia has been smiling at him lately, offering him bites of her fruit.

Or Glozelle mentoring Caspian; he didn't skewer the boy for a reason! Or Miraz/Glozelle mind games.

Re: VOTE GLOZELLE

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

WHY HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING SO MUCH ABOUT GLOZELLE? Though I suppose he is interesting enough, pausing to not kill Caspian in the middle of the battle and so on. I am intrigued by the forgetting of Narnia, though I do wonder if it works the same way - they are going back to Earth, of course.

Re: VOTE GLOZELLE

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

I think Glozelle does Miraz's evil bidding because Glozelle takes orders with dignity, as the military taught him, and also maybe because Miraz might make his life difficult if he doesn't. The military taught him sometimes you have to do ugly things, but he also thinks Miraz is making some Bad Choices. But Glozelle is just doing his job, which he's good at. Like when Miraz tells him to kill those three men after Reep's arms raid -- I don't think Glozelle wanted to do that, but he has to. And at the duel, when Miraz was all "WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOOT" Glozelle was all talking-to-a-superior snarky like, "Oh, well, I thought you had it sorted," because he resents having to compromise his own honor by cheating at a duel. And there were others, though I just can't remember.[/geek

I KNOW, he's not even supposed to be this interesting! D-: