There was no stone or shrine to mark this circular clearing on the riverbank as the place where the legendary Tree had stood for nearly nine hundred years, its magic mingling with the blood and breath of Narnia to keep Jadis out. But somehow it was impossible to mistake. A great good had lived here once, and a great ill had tried to obliterate it. The echoes twined and repeated still in the song of the water over the stones of the riverbed, and Susan was torn between gladness and unease.
"I can see why nobody comes here," she said to Lucy, as her sister knelt to press her hands into the violated earth. "It is not a place to be. Look -- all the trees are leaning away, and the green plants are thin and pale, even more so than the approach of winter warrants."
"It shouldn't be this way," Lucy said, digging her fingers into the soil. "Can't you feel it? The Tree was planted out of love, not out of fear. Its shade was a place to come and be glad, not a place to hold in distant awe. Jadis has no right to this taint on its grave."
"She took many things to which she had no right," Susan pointed out. She stroked her hand gently down the nose of her dumb horse, quieting the restless twitching of its skin.
"So she did. And we have taken them back," Lucy said. She rose, determination painted all over her face. "Sister, winter is coming, but when the spring returns, let us go on a great quest to restore this lost heritage of our land. It will do us good to renew our connection to what truly matters."
By this she meant that it would do Susan good to think of Narnia instead of Rabadash, as she had thought all too often since this summer, but Lucy was too kind to single her sister out that way.
"Perhaps," Susan said, but she knew that come spring, she and Lucy would ride out in search of adventure, for just as Lucy loved everyone, all of Narnia loved her in return and would do almost anything to avoid disappointing her.
-----
Then they drag Edmund into helping them research the history of the Tree over the winter, in spring they go on a quest and there's stuff with Aslan, in summer they fix the problem with the Tree's grave... and in autumn you know what happens with the White Stag. *sigh*
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[Fic] "Grass and Silence" -- <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i>
Date: 2011-12-17 04:20 am (UTC)"I can see why nobody comes here," she said to Lucy, as her sister knelt to press her hands into the violated earth. "It is not a place to be. Look -- all the trees are leaning away, and the green plants are thin and pale, even more so than the approach of winter warrants."
"It shouldn't be this way," Lucy said, digging her fingers into the soil. "Can't you feel it? The Tree was planted out of love, not out of fear. Its shade was a place to come and be glad, not a place to hold in distant awe. Jadis has no right to this taint on its grave."
"She took many things to which she had no right," Susan pointed out. She stroked her hand gently down the nose of her dumb horse, quieting the restless twitching of its skin.
"So she did. And we have taken them back," Lucy said. She rose, determination painted all over her face. "Sister, winter is coming, but when the spring returns, let us go on a great quest to restore this lost heritage of our land. It will do us good to renew our connection to what truly matters."
By this she meant that it would do Susan good to think of Narnia instead of Rabadash, as she had thought all too often since this summer, but Lucy was too kind to single her sister out that way.
"Perhaps," Susan said, but she knew that come spring, she and Lucy would ride out in search of adventure, for just as Lucy loved everyone, all of Narnia loved her in return and would do almost anything to avoid disappointing her.
-----
Then they drag Edmund into helping them research the history of the Tree over the winter, in spring they go on a quest and there's stuff with Aslan, in summer they fix the problem with the Tree's grave... and in autumn you know what happens with the White Stag. *sigh*