Post by Into Narnia Staff on Jan 17, 2009 15:02:34 GMT -8
Our story begins in the most unlikely of places, on a train platform. Here you see four children -- two boys and two girls -- waiting for the train to take them off to a new year of school. These aren't ordinary children, though. These four children have lived the lives no human has ever dreamed of, in a world few have seen, and fewer have come back to speak of. In fact, no one ever does speak of it, not to strangers anyway. How absurd would it be for someone to tell you that they spent fifteen years in a world of talking beasts, nymphs, fauns, centaurs, dryads and a myriad of other creatures, living as the four kings and queens of a land called Narnia. You would probably laugh at them and go on your merry way. But enough of that.
As we were saying, these four children are the Pevensies: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy (from oldest to youngest). The Pevensies, to any observer, would appear to be normal, all from the ages of fifteen to nine, without one speck of evidence to say otherwise. Yet these four children have held the land of Narnia within their rule, guided that bejeweled land for fifteen years, and yet returned as if they hadn't aged a day. Well, that's quite uncanny, you might say. Uncanny it is. But even more so is what these four children are about to experience next.
It might behoove you to know that, since the Pevensies returned from Narnia, much has changed in that magical country. Thirteen hundred years have passed, while only one has passed on Earth. You see, following the departure of the Pevensie royalty, Narnia descended from its Golden Age to the Dark Ages, a time of uncertainty and instability. And then, a few hundred Narnian years ago, the Telmarines invaded. They quickly subdued Narnia, forcing the Talking Beasts that once roamed the land to retreat to areas not inhabited by humans. Several hundred years of Telmarine rule has produced a very different Narnia, one where an oppressive King, a usurper of his brother's throne, celebrates the birth of his first son, beginning the entire conflict which you are about to witness. But that's getting ahead of the story, so for now, let's return to what is going to happen next.
You see, at this very moment in that land of Narnia, the true Prince of the Narnian throne, a wayward child hardly older than Peter, is about to blow a horn. This is no ordinary horn, in the same way that the four Pevensies are no ordinary children, or that this is an ordinary day. This horn is endowed with magical powers, enough to... well suffice it to say that it's powerful enough to call help when needed, no matter the cost. And this help, as you might have guessed, is waiting on a train platform worlds away from Narnia. Not for long, however.
Ahh, there it is. Can't you hear it? The horn is being blown right now; Susan's Horn it's called. No, you're quite right, it is the same Susan whom we mentioned earlier, who is waiting on a train platform along with her brothers and sister. Well, can't you? It's quite alright, because you need not be able to hear it to know what happens next. There's probably only One, though, who really knows what happens in this exact moment, but He hasn't entered the story yet.
Each one of the Pevensies, by now, has felt a strange tugging sensation at his or her stomach. Now, this is no ordinary tugging, like one would pull on a shirt or skin if it could be grasped. This tugging extends beyond the physical realm, spanning across worlds to a place that these children thought they'd never visit again. To their eyes, at this very moment -- while a train speeds across the station, gradually slowing to align its passenger cars with the platform -- the world around them gives way to a very different scene.
It's not unlike where they just were. This new place is dark, much darker without any artificial lights. It's damp and musky, much like a cave. There's a sweet smell wafting in on a breeze, such a gentle breeze, that's coming in the direction of a faint light emanating from one end of the tunnel. Following that light will lead to a beach which borders a sea, set under the sky of an entirely other world.
And so, our four schoolchildren are off to answer the call of Susan's Horn, to save Narnia in its time of desperate need. But these four brave adventurers will need help. Help that can can only come from you. So come, get out of your chair and step through the door, right