A/N::: Hey guys! I finally decided to set aside some time to begin my newest fan fic. This is once again a Narnia story, but is also an actual novel, not just a quick one-shot like my other stories. I really hope you all enjoy this one. It's my first novel-fic, so bear with me, but I'm pretty excited about it. I'll try to update as often as I can. I tried to remain as true to both the books and the movies as possible, but please be forgiving if I make a slight error. Thank you all so much, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and taking you on this little trip of my imagination. xoxox. Tiki.

::::NIGHTFALL::::

THE STORY OF KING EDMUND THE JUST

:CHAPTER ONE:

EYES AND ICE

I've dreamed the same dream as long as I can remember. It's always long, always bright with foggy colors, and always dancing somewhere between a vision and a nightmare. In my life I'd seen a thousand strange and terrible things. I've traveled into the deepest corners of the Western Wood, where the fungi on the trees sparkle in the darkness, their glittering lights stretching up on the trunks hundreds of feet high, like the glowing windows of some thriving city. I've been tied and beaten in the freezing caves of the Barbaric Giants, my mouth gagged with a bloody rag and my nose filled with the reeking stench of the bodies of their latest meals strewn around me. I've visited the prayer gardens of the unicorns, the bowels of a Telmarine ship, and the courtyards of the Archenland palace.

And yet, of none of these things, both wonderful and horrid, do I dream. My polite kisses with beautiful duchesses, nor the look in my enemies' eyes before I ran them through with my blade… my sleeping mind remains unmoved.

It always begins with an explosion. An earth-shaking, bone-shattering burst of sound and light, and the feel of my brother's arms wrapped tightly around me. I don't see his face, but I'm sure it's him. He holds me for a while as glass and ice fall in deadly splinters around us. The sound is still ringing in my ears when all else fades, and nothing remains but a pair of deep brown eyes. They resemble Lucy's, but they're older, sadder, more filled with loving worry. I wish I knew whose they were. They fill up my entire dream for some time, until I see a distant figure in some type of uniform trying to burst through cracked glass. I can't see him very well through the smoke and glass, but his build reminds me of Peter. I keep trying to reach him, but soon I slip off an invisible cliff and fall with a silent scream into the blackness. I can hear my older siblings calling after me, but their voices become muffled as I land into a massive pile of fur coats. I have only one second to breathe a sigh of relief before I am swallowed whole, and begin to drown inside the fur. No one can hear me, as my mouth becomes filled with fur and snow, until an icy but welcome hand pulls me out. I can't see a face, only blinding sunlight bouncing off the snow and a voice as sweet as candy, as her icy breath tingles against my neck. I feel my insides stir, and my stomach growl painfully for more but soon I'm plunged into darkness again.

That pain in my stomach is so real it often wakes me from this dream in the middle of the night, but no matter how long I stay awake, or how hard I try to ease the ache, the dream always picks right back up as soon as I drift asleep once again. I'm always lying face-down on a never-ending expanse of blue ice, but then a heavy, warm paw turns me over onto my back and breathes life into my lips. Red drops of life that spread throughout my entire body. As the warmth spreads, my freezing skin becomes clothed in brilliant fabric, warm and soft, and silver birch leaves grow artfully around my head. Once again I feel Peter's arms around me, and his hot tears against my skin. I keep looking for those older, dark eyes, and that familiar figure trying to reach me through a frame of cracked glass, but instead all I see is His face. Golden and perfect. Dangerous and divine. He's smiling at me from across a field of melting ice. The final ounce of warmth is reaching my heart, and I feel my eyes shut in complete ecstasy as Lucy and Susan's arms wrap around me. I wait for the last drop of life to fill up my heart, but then it always ends the same.

A chilling scream as loud as the dream's beginning explosion and as cold as those bony fingers resounds in my ears and shakes my insides to bits. In the blackness of my closed eyes I see a flash of blue light and a pair of crimson lips against china skin. The last drop of His warmth is chased away, leaving me with a tiny splinter of ice nestled in my heart. It feels even colder surrounded by all the golden light inside, and as I open my eyes to seek His reassuring face, I always find myself staring up at the ceiling of my room.

So no, I wasn't surprised when my eyes shot open to see the strange shadows dancing across my room from my curtains fluttering in the soft moonlight. Aslan was gone, those familiar eyes of brown, and that resounding scream was now just the lullaby of the wind laughing through the trees. I sat up in bed and ran a hand over my face, hot and sticky with sweat. When I was younger, when these dreams first began, I used to make frequent visits to my brother's room just down the hall. I couldn't remember having them as a very little child, but then again I remembered next to nothing of those days anyway. My earliest memories were probably clearest in that dream. But I remembered the night of my coronation—bolting upright in my sheets with a scream and clutching my chest in the darkness. Peter came bursting through the doors just moments later, and the two of us sat out on my balcony, watching the moon hang over the Western Woods as I fell asleep. I had no idea then just how routine that nightly vision would become.

But no longer did I run to my brother for comfort. I may have wanted to, but this was the night before my eighteenth birthday, and as I threw aside my covers and placed my feet on the floor, I shook my head with the acceptance that some things had to change. I knew Peter, even at twenty-two, wouldn't mind easing my fears in the middle of the night, but I had always been different from my brother.

Was it strange that I could smell Narnia's moon? Some nights, when the wind was wild, and the moon at its fullest, I could smell its sweetness in the air. That scent greeted my nostrils as I stepped onto my balcony and ran my hands over the marble railing. My Western Woods sprawled out like a rolling green carpet before Cair Paravel, and I could hear the dull roar of the Eastern Sea, resonating from the other side of the castle. Something shook me harder tonight than usual, and even though the early summer air was warm, I felt a chill take hold. One deep breath of the moonlight, and I felt a little better.

A chorus of wolves was howling not far from the palace, their songs bouncing off the walls and filling up my chest. It's strange how after all that's happened in my past, that sound somehow never gives me anything but excited butterflies. I stood there as their songs faded into the wind, chewing my lower lip in deliberation, until I finally felt a smile tug at my mouth's corners. I turned back into my room, slipping a cloak over my pajamas and sliding into a pair of boots. I grabbed my sword and crossbow from my closet, and cast one last look out my open balcony before exiting my room with a grin.

The wolves were always happy when I opted to join them on warm nights, and I'd be back before my birthday brunch. Besides, I needed this. I needed to take Phillip at full gallop through the whistling trees, smelling the moon, laughing with the wolves, and forgetting those pair of eyes, and the fact that tonight that splinter of ice near my heart felt colder than usual.

******

A/N:::: Ok guys! I know this one was a bit short, but it's really just an intro. Hope this first taste was enjoyable, and look out for the first chapter! Feedback is always welcome. :)

And please take note that CS Lewis mentions that the Pevensies' memories of their past life on Earth became more distant as they continued to rule, which is where I am trying to go with this whole dream. Well... one of the places I'm trying to go... the rest is still in the future ;)