TERENCE AND TUMNUS 100 CHALLENGE

Well! It’s about time I updated this thing. After many, many months (almost a whole year, in fact!), I have FINALLY come up with a fresh new story for this. I’m just as amazed as the rest of you are, if not more so. Like I said before, I can be as slow as maple syrup on a frozen day every so often, but I have yet to completely call it quits on a story.

Cookies for those who review this when they are through reading! And you know the rules: absolutely NO flames. You’re free to state your opinion, to tell me what can be improved on, but don’t just go around trashing my stuff, saying “oh, this sucks” or “you’re a terrible writer”. It would only be a waste of your time and breath (or keyboard, in this case).

And remember, what goes around comes around.

Tumnus and Narnia © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media

All rights reserved.

Any copying or reproduction of these stories in any way whatsoever without expressed permission is prohibited. Your honesty is sincerely appreciated.

It was the perfect day for a picnic. And, in fact, that was just what Tumnus and Lucy Pevensie were doing. The faun and the young queen of Narnia were out on one of the sweeping lawns of Castle Cair Paravel, seated comfortably on a large blanket in the shade of some towering apple trees, enjoying a very nourishing lunch.

Terence accompanied them that afternoon. While Tumnus and Lucy feasted on bread and cheese and freshly grown vegetables, along with some sardines that Tumnus had brought just for the occasion, the unicorn stood off to the side of them, nibbling delicately at the cool green grass. Occasionally Lucy slipped him a piece of bread or a bit of carrot, or something else good. And once, Terence slyly snatched up a crisp brown sardine just as Tumnus was about to eat it. “Hey!” was all Tumnus said to the unicorn, who merely grinned down at the faun in return, before tossing the sardine into the air and catching it neatly with his teeth again.

Being a unicorn, Terence very seldom ate meat, but every now and again he would eat a fish or two.

Tumnus scowled up at the stallion, and Terence now bent his head and nudged the faun playfully in the shoulder with his nose. Then it became considerably more difficult for Tumnus to not smile, and as Terence moved his snout all over the faun’s shoulder and neck, past his ear and into his curly hair, snuffling enthusiastically the whole time, Tumnus couldn’t help himself and laughed outright, while Lucy nearly choked on a hunk of bread as she laughed along. “Terence, get off me!” Tumnus cried, pushing the unicorn’s nose away.

Terence obeyed and stood still, but his blue eyes continued to twinkle mischievously, and he made a hearty, rippling sound in his throat was unmistakably a unicorn’s laugh. Tumnus shook his head at his mate, even as he continued to smile. Somehow, it was impossible for anyone to stay angry with Terence, at least for very long.

No matter the circumstance, the stallion always had a way of getting back into someone’s good graces.

When Lucy finished her meal, she looked up at the ripe red apples that grew overhead, and decided those would make a lovely dessert. Unfortunately, the apples were too high. Even when Lucy stood up on her feet, rose onto her tiptoes, and stretched out her hand as far as it would go, they remained far beyond her reach.

“Mr. Tumnus,” she said to the faun, “can you help me, please?”

So Tumnus crouched down on his haunches and allowed Lucy to climb onto his shoulders, and as he stood up on his hooves and struggled to balance her, she again reached out as far as she could, without her arm bursting from its socket. Yet even then, she still couldn’t quite get to the apples. The outermost tips of her fingers barely brushed the skin of the fruit.

“Just a little higher, Mr. Tumnus!” the little girl grunted.

“I—can’t!” answered Tumnus, who was already straining and sweating with the effort of holding Lucy up.

He had apparently forgotten how much Lucy had begun to grow, how much heavier the girl was getting. And he, himself, wasn’t getting any younger.

Then, quite abruptly, Lucy’s foot slipped on Tumnus’s shoulder as they both unwittingly shifted their positions at the same time, and she ended up taking a tumble into the faun’s arms. This knocked Tumnus entirely off balance, and he fell over backwards onto the ground, bringing Lucy right down with him. Their startled cries blended into one as they fell back together. Luckily, they landed on the blanket, and the grass beneath was very thick and soft anyway, so neither of the two got seriously hurt—although Tumnus did have the wind temporarily knocked out of him when Lucy landed directly on top of him.

Terence shut his eyes and shrank back when his friends crashed, and he very slowly opened his eyes again, one after the other, to look down at Tumnus and Lucy as they lay there.

“You two all right?” he asked.

“I’m all right,” said Lucy. Then, realizing she was sprawled on top of Tumnus, the girl hastily rolled off him. “Oh!” she gasped. “Oh, Mr. Tumnus, I’m sorry—I’m very sorry!”

It took Tumnus a minute to answer, and when the faun had regained sufficient breath, he wheezed, “Don’t even worry about it, Lucy.”

“You okay, mate?” Terence questioned, lowering his head to the faun’s level.

“I will be, in a moment,” Tumnus rasped back.

“I’m sorry,” Lucy apologized again. Looking up regretfully at the apples again, she said, “I guess the apples are just too high, for any of us to reach.”

“Oh, really?” Terence spoke up suddenly, giving the girl a shrewd look. “Have you forgotten who is with you, Miss Lucy?”

“But you can’t reach the apples, Terence,” Lucy protested.

“You can’t very well climb that tree,” said Tumnus sardonically, as he rose to a sitting position. “You haven’t even got hands, like the rest of us.”

“This is true,” Terence admitted. “But there is more than one way to skin a cat, you know, mate. Watch this.” And before Tumnus or Lucy could say anything else, Terence crouched down slightly, then made a spectacular spring into the air. Using his long horn, he knocked a good number of apples from their branches, and the apples came raining down onto the grass, one after another. A few leaves came loose as well in the process. Lucy was surprised at first, but then her face broke out into a smile at Terence’s clever trick.

Tumnus just rolled his eyes, and thought in his mind, Show-off.

When Terence stood on all fours again, he said proudly to his friends, “There you are, help yourselves!”

“Thanks, Terence!” said Lucy, and she eagerly began collecting the scattered fruit together.

“Yeah, thanks a heap, mate,” Tumnus said. He added dryly, “Next time I need a helping hand, I’ll get a unicorn to help me.”

Terence bowed elaborately to the faun, and answered grandly, “I live but to serve, my good sir.”