[A] By the Call of the Lion [Pevensie Plot Part One] [Finished]

"Come on!"

Lucy Pevensie tugged on her older sister Susan's hand. She wanted to go see where they were; right now they were in a cave and could see little but the light shining through the opening. Her mood had changed so suddenly from what it had been a couple of minutes ago. Most people, pulled suddenly into a new place by magic, might be scared or apprehensive, but Lucy's heart was filled with excitement and anticipation. She didn't know where they were -- and it would be really too much to hope that they were back in that place -- but at least they most definitely were no longer in the train station in England.

For that's where they had been just a moment ago: at a train station, headed off to boarding school. It would be Lucy's first time at boarding school, and she was extremely nervous. She had never been away from both her brothers and her parents for such a long time before. Susan would be there of course, but Lucy knew her sister would be living and spending most of her time with girls her own age and would not want to be seen too often with her baby sister.

True, Lucy had at first been excited to be off on a grand new adventure, to get to know a different place and to make another set of friends. But as the day drew nearer, she couldn't help but begin to worry. She loved her siblings and parents, and didn't want to be apart from them. And what if the schoolwork was too hard? Or what if the other girls didn't like her? Peter had fondly teased her when she told him her fears. She was Queen Lucy the Valiant, didn't she remember? By Aslan's grace, she had faced and defeated enemies like the White Witch and the Calormenian army and giants, and yet she was afraid to go to school? Her favorite brother's gentle reminder of Aslan and of her Narnian nickname had strengthened her as he had intended, but it also brought with it a sharp pang of regret. She so wanted to go back to that country, where she had reigned for fifteen years as queen before finding herself back in England, no older than she had left.

And then finally came the big day, the day Lucy would be introduced to life at a boarding school. This morning she had bravely hugged her parents as hard as she could and waved goodbye before boarding the train with her siblings. The first part had not been too bad. All four of them had still been together, and they had been determined to make the holidays last as long as possible. But then they had arrived at the station where the boys were to go off one way and she and Susan another.

Lucy sat down gloomily on a bench with her siblings, wishing with all her might that the trains would never come. Then the tugging started. Susan had been the first to notice it, thinking one of the others had pulled on her. But then they all felt the sensation, the feeling that something was stretching their bodies in all directions. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't pleasant either. Edmund finally recognized it for magic, and yelled at them to grab each others' hands. They had, and the pressure grew and grew and grew -- and then just when she felt she could bear it no longer, it stopped, suddenly and completely.

When the tugging had increased, it had consumed all of Lucy's attentions; she had not paid any notice to her surroundings. But now it was gone, and Lucy realized that Edmund had been right, that the pull must have been magic. For they were no longer in England, but in a cool, dark place only lit by the light of day shining in from an opening directly ahead, too bright for any of them to make out what was on the other side. Lucy's heart beat inside of her with hope and excitement. For a minute she was silent, ignoring her siblings though she still held Susan's hand, as she let the moment sink in. And then she turned her mind to figuring out where they were. What sort of place had they come to? Well, there was only one way to find out, and so Lucy broke her silence to prod her siblings into action.