Title: Enchantment
Author: Evelyn Benton
Rating: All Ages
Date: 08/14/06
Genre: Romance
Fandom: The Chronicles of Narnia (Lucy/Tumnus)
Archive: Stellar Phenomena and fan fiction dot net; all others, please ask.
Disclaimer: Walt Disney, Walden Media, and C.S. Lewis own The Chronicles of Narnia; I own this not-for-profit fan fiction; no copyright infringement intended.
Summary: Although Tumnus loves Lucy for the goodness in her heart, he does admit to having a fixation on the body part one would least expect. Movieverse.

There was nothing quite as comforting in life as having a daily routine with a loved one. They often had tea and shared meals, but those were not securely scheduled due to Lucy's responsibilities as queen. At any given moment, she would have to reschedule her day and remove the more frivolous activities. Tumnus understood why she had to do this, so it wasn't a sore subject with him. In fact, it had the opposite affect on him. It made Tumnus appreciate the one thing that was never subject to change.

Every night, no matter what, Tumnus and Lucy walked down the beach. It was a tradition they began the evening after Lucy became queen. They would retrace Aslan's steps as the sun slowly dropped out of the blue heavens and surrendered its reign to the night sky. In the fading moments of twilight, Lucy and Tumnus would sit on the beach and watch the sun finally set.

When the stars came out, the unconventional pair would recline underneath the sky's stellar glory. They would point to the stars, naming them and laughing at the odd pictures they seemed to form just for Tumnus and Lucy to see. As they lay side by side in the warm sand, they would play a type of hand game, such as lightheartedly hitting the back of their hands together or some kind of mindlessly casual finger wrestling. It was nothing more than a physical reminder that each was in the presence of a dear friend and neither was ever alone in this vast universe.

Although Tumnus saw Lucy every day, he did not always have the opportunity to see her longer than a passing "hello" in the palace. At night, however, under the moon's expansive glow, he was permitted a chance to study her. His observation was a long process, starting when Lucy was a small child and continuing into young adulthood.

When Lucy would become enchanted with the night sky, Tumnus would become enchanted by her luminous appearance.

One would suspect Tumnus would be fixated with Lucy's legs or feet. While it was true that he did find humor in watching her wiggle her toes in the air as they lay in the sand or seeing her wildly kick her legs when the water would reach their spot on the beach and splash her legs, it was not these two oddly shaped parts that fascinated him.

As a child, her toes were cute and different from anything he had seen before, but toes were not particularly interesting. They looked like stumpy fingers on deformed hands, although Lucy's were the best looking imitation of deformed fingers and hands he had ever seen.

As an adult, Lucy's legs did become a more appealing part of her body. She would still walk along the beach with her skirts gathered in her hand as she had during childhood, and she would still sit or lie down with her skirts bunched above the knee so she could feel the warmth of the setting sun and the coolness of the impending night on the pale skin that was seldom revealed.

Lucy's legs looked as bizarre to Tumnus as her toes did. Her adult legs were long and svelte, making the young lady of average height look taller than she really was. They were smooth and powerful, and Tumnus could make out the lines of her muscles. Her legs were extremely feminine, in a human way, but they still didn't hold his attention longer than a few moments.

Although the Daughter of Eve admitted to having a certain curiosity about Tumnus's ears, it was not Lucy's ears that Tumnus found particularly appealing. They were rather small and plain, but like Lucy's odd toes, they were the most attractive small and plain ears he had ever seen. It was quite the puzzle trying to figure out how Lucy's hearing was as keen as it was with those ears, but that was a study best left for another time.

Lucy lacked a tail, fur, and horns, even though he had heard her siblings say on several occasions that her "horns were showing." He sometimes found himself looking for her horns, but he couldn't see them. Perhaps that was another one of the odd sayings they used back in Spare Oom. Tails, fur, and horns were found on most Narnians, and while Tumnus was certain that Lucy would look just as stunning with them as she did without, he preferred Lucy the way she was.

Lucy's lips changed over time, but it was not a change worthy of Tumnus's fixation. The tiny, thin-lipped mouth she had as a child on her round, cherubic face had changed into a wider, slightly fuller mouth as she grew into an adult. It was very becoming on her and it enhanced her already beautiful big smile. Her smile never changed, however. Her eternal childlike excitement could always be seen in the smile that would light up her face brighter than any sun or star in the heavens.

Her face thinned and became the face of a young lady. She became taller, although still shorter than many people. Her voice became the soft, sometimes velvety voice of a woman rather than a child. Her hands, her legs, her toes—they all grew. Her bright and wide blue eyes, however, remained the same. They still pulled a person into her intense gaze and trapped them there until she released them. And yet her eyes were second on his list.

Tumnus was enchanted by the most mundane, perhaps even the most universally unattractive body part, imaginable: her nose. Noses were rather ugly things and almost no one could lay claim on having one that was genuinely attractive. Lucy's nose was of no consequence to her—she took it for granted like any other ordinary body part that one would never think twice about having. To Tumnus, however, it was absolutely enthralling.

His own Faun nose was layered and lined, and it rested out of proportion on his face. Most noses were proportionally too big for the individual, but not Lucy's. The symmetry of her nose was perfect. It was not too big or small, not bent or crooked, not overly pointed or round, not blotchy or differently colored. It was as smooth and flawless as the rest of her skin. It was so different from Tumnus's own nose and so much more perfect than any other nose he had ever seen that it became the target for most of his unnoticed observation.

Tumnus hadn't known Susan or Peter as children, so it was impossible to say if they had ever possessed such a nose. Edmund, whom Tumnus had first met during a growth spurt, possessed this nose during his childhood. It was how Tumnus identified him as Lucy's brother. After Edmund started to drastically grow and change, however, his nose changed to resemble Susan and Peter's noses.

Lucy was the only Pevensie to have this nose during childhood and keep it as an adult. Granted, her nose grew and changed with her maturing features, but it did not change negatively. It was essentially the same as it had been when Tumnus had first met her.

When they had said goodbye at the end of their first meeting in Lucy's childhood, Tumnus couldn't resist reaching out to good-naturedly poke her precious nose the way a father or a favorite fun-loving uncle would do. He tried not to do it too many times in her childhood because it would border on being condescending. He never talked down to her or treated her differently because she was a child, so it made no sense for him to tease her like a child.

Lucy's nose as an adult was the subject of the dream Tumnus would occasionally dare to dream. He imagined himself as a husband to this extraordinary Daughter of Eve. He would kiss her lips goodnight and they would sleep in one another's arms until dawn drew them from their slumber. In the morning, he would place a feather light kiss upon her nose, tickling her so she would awaken with her usual big-eyed wide smile.

Alas, that would never happen.

Tumnus lay alone on the beach underneath the stars, Lucy's handkerchief in his hands. The royal guard had reported finding it just outside the entrance to Spare Oom. Perhaps she had accidentally dropped it. Or perhaps she had intentionally dropped it. He was still stunned, but he knew his tears would come soon enough and they would most likely never stop.

He wasn't sure how long he had been lying on the beach. It felt late. It seemed colder than ever before. Tumnus attempted to focus on the stars. He looked for a cluster that could possibly resemble his dear Lucy.

The thought that Lucy was lying on the ground enchanted by the same stars in this same night sky made him feel warmer than he had felt in the hours since she had left his world.

END