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Northeast Missouri, Present Day

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Once upon a time there were five children, Hayden and Hunter and Piper and Skylar and Boden. They were home on a weekday night, and they were quite bored, for it was storming ever so heavily outside. Their father wasn’t home yet- he was rarely ever home these days, and their nanny had not made it in. The weekdays-only copy of The Sound of Music had given out after the eleven thousandth playthrough. The weekends-only copy which included the scenes where the nuns and the Mother Abbess sing was locked up because Father felt that nuns singing non-religious songs was disrespectful.

It seemed to be storming over the whole of Missouri, and so they could not do any of the things they loved to do. Hayden and Hunter could not hunt, and Piper could not go on long nature walks, and Skylar and Boden could not play in the yard. They tried terribly hard to be good children, for they had been educated in all sorts of manners and good habits during their extensive homeschooling, but tempers were wearing thin.

“Dash it all,” said Skylar, the youngest girl of the four, age 10. “I’d rather be doing anything than sitting here! If only we had some board games!” (They did not, for Father felt that having any fun with dice came dangerously close to encouraging gambling.)

“Boredom is a part of life, and we must all learn to entertain ourselves” said Hunter, the eldest boy, age 17. He spoke with a mocking intonation, as if to quote Father. Then he dropped the pretense- “Though it’d be nice if they’d at least left the liquor cabinet unlocked.” He elbowed Hayden, who snorted in agreement. Though only two years younger, he looked up to his brother.

“Hunter! Don’t say things like that around the children, you’ll give them ideas.” Scolded his sister Piper, the second oldest at age 16. She often felt like the actual oldest, she thought to herself.

“What if we all played hide and seek?” Suggested Boden, the youngest boy of all, at age 9. “I’ll start! Come and find me!” And before any of the others could object, he was off like a shot, disappearing into the depths of their excessively large house.

“Oh great. Gonna spend all night looking for the little bastard.” Said Hunter, who truth be told did not much care for their youngest brother, upon whom, he felt, Father doted endlessly.

“Oh, now we must find him, just in case he gets up to trouble.” Said Piper, and the others got up to follow. Chasing their youngest brother had to be more fun than sitting around the supper table singing hymns, after all.

Boden, hearing the sounds of pursuit behind him, raced through their home. He knew every nook and cranny, of course, all the best hiding spots. But on this night in particular only one was drawing his fancy. At the very peak of the house, past the bedrooms and sitting rooms and drawing rooms and tea rooms, up a rickety old staircase, he found the attic.

It was raining hard outside, and he could hear it lashing against the old attic windows, thunder crashing and lightning briefly turning night to day. Just like in the very best stories , he thought. The attic was unfinished, and smelled of the bare wood of the floor and rafters, and old mothballs and more ancient clothing, and old books. Indeed, here was where the children had found the old books- mostly they were not allowed within the house, for Father said that fantasy encouraged wild thoughts and must be strictly controlled.

But the children had discovered these, tucked in an old steamer trunk in the attic, and they had kept their little cache a secret. Boden still crept up to read them, from time to time, and it was here that his mind had gone as soon as the game of hide and seek had occurred to him. He climbed into the trunk, finding it quite large enough for him, and waited for the others to come looking. From the outside there was a most terrible flash of lightning, so bright it turned the whole inside of the trunk white, and he jumped. But he was determined to be brave now, and besides nothing bad ever happened in the attic anyway , so he stayed the course.

But nothing happened, and presently he began to grow bored. “Surely they’ll be up any time now, but what’s the harm if I look around in here meantimes? It sure is big in here!” He exclaimed to himself, on hands and knees. He could feel the lid of the trunk above him, and the dry leaves of paper beneath him but strangely enough could not feel any one side of the trunk. He reached out his hands to find the edges, and they were simply not there! “How queer,” he thought, “this trunk appears much bigger on the inside! And is that a light?” Indeed it was, far off in the distance, so far he ought to have crawled right out of the attic and off the roof if he went to it! But Boden had no good sense of spatial relationships yet, so off he crawled, and presently found under his hands and feet not leaves of paper, but leaves . And no trunk lid above him but a natural cave!

He crawled out into the light and looked back, realizing that he had been moving through some low animal warren all along! “And now I’m outside!” he announced. It was not raining here, which struck him as odd, and best of all it was not night! “A day full of sunshine at last! Oh, wait until I tell the others!” he crowed, quite pleased with himself for this discovery but wanting to share it all the same, for he was a good natured young boy. “Only, where am I? This doesn’t look like woods near our house.”

A deep, resonant voice answered him. “That is because it is not, Son of Adam.”

Boden gasped and spun around. Next to him, towering over him, stood a great Lion. Golden of hair and golden mane, with paws mighty enough to crush a man. But there was a goodness about him, a gentleness, and Boden knew that this lion meant him no harm. “Welcome, Boden.” rumbled the great beast. “Welcome to my country.”

A great lump caught in Boden’s throat and he ran to embrace the creature. “Oh, you are real! I always knew you were real and you are! Aslan!” He sobbed, overcome with joy. All his dreams , what felt like years of longing and speculation, and now it was here! A life of adventure, of fulfillment, of love and peace alongside his brothers and sisters! “Will you take us to Cair Paravel? Must we fight the witch?”

The Lion rumbled in good humor. “No, young one, though I do intend to crown you and your siblings. But the time of Narnia is long past. Now has come the time for me to enter your world. Long have I been known there, by another name. But the people are forgetting, and the great enemy has awoken. We must go and set things aright. But I will need you, and your brothers and sisters, to hold the door for me. Can you do that? Will you go and open the way for me?”

“Of course!” shouted Boden, for he was very eager to please the Lion. He scrambled back down the warren, feeling along the top until it changed from cave into steamer trunk lid once more. Then he pushed his way out, and called to his brothers and sisters. “Hunter! Piper! Hayden! Skylar! I’m in the attic! Come and see!”

Soon they had all assembled, crowding about the steamer trunk in the increasingly crowded space. “Well, asshole? You had us run all over the house, what is it?” Said Hunter, looking a bit put-out over the whole chase. Piper cuffed him on the arm for swearing at their youngest brother, but he did not subside.

“Oh! It is amazing! Aslan is real and he wants to come here! We must all open the trunk to let him in!” shouted Boden, nearly overcome with excitement in the way that only 9 year olds can be.

Skylar, by far the most well-versed in math and science even at age 10, was skeptical. “A lion could never fit in that trunk. Also, those stories aren’t real and you’re full of crap.” She also received a swift cuffing for her swears.

“But they are!” He is! It’s much bigger inside! Help me open it!” He shouted, already straining to lift the lid, which felt much heavier now for some reason.

Skylar relented. “Oh very well, it’ll take much less time to open this and show you than it will to try convincing you.” She reached down to put her hands on the trunk, and the others followed. Soon all five were at least touching it, and with a heave, they lifted the lid.

Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and Aslan was present in the room with them. He did not appear. It was more as if… as if he’d always been there, just over their shoulders, and only now could they see him.

The children cried out in mixed alarm and joy. Boden, Piper, and Hayden rushed to him. Skylar, always the skeptic, was a little slower but did eventually move to embrace that huge tawny mane. Hunter, on the other hand- well, he was always a difficult boy, and his first reaction was to square up his shoulders, stand tall, and look the Lion in the eyes. What he saw there…

Dominance. Utter and total, the dissipation of all freedom. An ironclad will to power, cloaked in golden velvet, soaked in blood. The fire and pain and terror and madness of a million human lifetimes, now subordinated to something greater. The Lion’s eyes did not blink, as they met his gaze. He yelped, fell backwards, scrambled on hands and knees to the other side of his attic, where his father kept the hunting rifles.

The Lion rumbled a warning. “Careful, child. These are strange times, and you must think twice. Do not raise your hand to me, lest you suffer the consequence. Think of your brothers and sisters.” The remaining four hugged him all the more closely.

“Come on, Hunter.” Said Piper, rubbing her face against the golden fur. “The greater your wisdom, the greater he seems, and children are the wisest of us all. You and I, we’re almost too old to really know him, but this is our chance! Come be a Prince of the World with us.”

But Hunter was unswayed. The scales of the world had fallen over his eyes, and he was in the grip of that greatest enemy of faith- skepticism . “What the fuck Piper, that’s a load of crap. Children aren’t wise, they’re innocent, and that thing preys on innocence. It’s a monster. Get away from it.” He levelled the rifle, worked the bolt to chamber a round. But his siblings were in the way. He would not, could not, shoot through them. As wicked a child as he was, even he had his limits. “Get away!”

The Lion rumbled again, and took a step forward, clearing his line of sight. The other children yelled and cried, but Hunter was not dissuaded. He pulled the trigger, and events after that happened too fast to process. There was a flash, and a roar, and a bloody mess dropped to the ground. Then the Lion turned to them, and they knew it had not been him that had fallen. “Poor Hunter…” said Boden, mourning his brother. It felt as though it was all happening through a veil, as though he should be far more upset. But, well…

“Do not mourn.” Said the Lion. “Not all are able to accept the choice offered now, and time has run out for this world. We shall mourn when the golden age has begun, under your rule. But for now, the Conquest must proceed.” And they turned as one and followed him. Only dear Skylar hesitated on the threshold, to glance back. Then she too followed, all thought of their brother left behind, in that attic in the rain.

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Tel Megiddo, Israel, 6 hours later

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Stepping through the doorway, Skylar, Piper, Boden, and Hayden shaded their eyes against the glare. It had been about 3 am in Missouri, which made the transition to nearly-noon here exceptionally jarring. “Did we travel through time as well as space?” asked Boden, who had not been taught that the earth was round and constantly illuminated in his homeschool yet.

“No, silly, it’s just the other side of the planet. Israel, the Holy Land! Oh, I always wanted to see it.” Said Piper. It was far greener than she’d pictured it. Tel Megiddo was a ruin, standing slightly elevated above the plains around it. She could see plowed fields and neatly spaced orchards within walking distance, and far off on the horizon… “Is that smoke? Are those flashes? Oh! A battle is taking place!”

The Lion rumbled in agreement. “Yes. You are looking at the city of Haifa, currently under attack. Israel, and this ancient battleground, will be occupied within the day. Must be occupied.”

Hayden breathed heavily. They were treading in the footsteps of the mythological, as he understood it. “Revelations 16:16. And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

The Lion nodded. “This is that place. But the battle shall not take place here. We hunt the Dragon, and She has not made this her battleground. Yet. Still, we have business here.” He turned to face a convoy of men and vehicles, approaching up the lone path. As they approached, he intoned solemnly. “A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great Dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. Its tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the Dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that it might devour her child as soon as it was born.”

Skylar chimed in, excited to know something relevant. “We were always told the child was Israel, and the Dragon was Satan. Oh, how exciting! Are we going to fight the Devil, then?” Boden clutched the hem of her skirts nervously. He’d heard enough about the Devil to be more than a little frightened at the prospect of fighting him! Skylar patted his head.

The Lion rumbled in good humor. “Only if it comes to that, which it well might. But you will have devilry of your own, brave Skylar. Welcome, Walter.” The lead truck in the convoy stopped, and a man in a black hoodie and bluejeans got out. He was wearing a cowboy’s hat, and a smiley-face pin on his jacket. He didn’t look like a soldier- his face had a nasty grin on it, and brought to mind all the warnings Father had given Boden over the years about strangers. He sketched a mocking salute at Aslan. The Lion and the man spoke in Hebrew, which none of the children knew. Boden stood on tiptoes and whispered into Hayden’s ear, “What do you think they’re saying?”

Hayden did not rightly know, but he did so love to appear wise in front of his only younger sibling, so he drew himself up and said “Aslan is telling them how to fight, and where, and that they are very brave and good to fight for him.”

The Lion finished his conversation and returned to the children, chuckling. “You are not far from the mark, young Hayden. I’ve known him in other times and places. I asked his accompaniment to the final battlefield, as many men as he can spare, and he agreed. I also asked him to produce the things I have had made ready for the four of you, the Princes and Princesses of the World.” From the back of the first truck, several men unloaded a pair of crates. At this the children grew very excited indeed.

“Oh my, presents!” said Piper. “And it’s got to be half a year or more until Christmas!”

“Presents to help you in the coming days,” said Aslan, “until you sit your thrones in peace and plenty.” The soldiers set the crates down and opened them. From the first of them, Aslan withdrew a bow of deep red wood, and a quiver of fearsome black arrows, alongside a hunting horn. “For you, Princess Piper, a weapon of terrible power. Be careful whom you take aim at, for these arrows do not miss. And this horn. Blow it in time of great need, and you shall find the help you seek.” Piper accepted the items with reverence, carefully testing the bowstring and feeling the arrows.

Aslan turned to her younger brother. “For you, Prince Hayden, a sword that will never tarnish, whose edge will never dull.” Boden, looking over his shoulder, gasped. “Is that King Peter’s sword? Look! It even has the inscription on it!” Indeed, down the length of the blade, the words “When Aslan bares his teeth, winter meets its death” were etched in gold. Hayden bowed his head and accepted the weight of the weapon with gratitude.

Aslan turned to Skylar. “For you, brave Skylar, a gift and a burden, for you of all your siblings are the most beset by skepticism, which you must shed.” He presented her an amulet, a pair of twined dragons, which bound itself fast to her arm as soon as she put it on. She shook it, but did not feel any different. “What does it do?”

Aslan sighed heavily. “It will help you to grow, soon enough. But now, for young Boden, first and closest to me.” He took out of the chests a simple wooden cup, that of a carpenter perhaps. “I’m afraid I do not have Lucy’s cordial, but this may do you as well. A drop of liquid spilled from this will heal any wound, even those most mortal. Use it to keep your brother and sisters from harm. And this,” he removed the last item, a simple silver dagger, “will slay any enemy with the slightest of pricks. Use it to keepyourself from harm.”

Boden gave his best impersonation of a courtly bow, which caused all the others to laugh. They all thanked the Lion, and morale was high all around, though Skylar still had doubts. A question that had always bothered her. “But Aslan- what about the otherreligions? If your kingdom is here on earth, what about the muslims and hindus and shin-toe-ists and the Russians?” Skylar was unclear on which were religions and which were simply other , but she was very clear that her Father thought they were all bound for the hot place. “Surely they can’t all be sinful and wicked, can they?”

The Lion frowned, and she flinched to see his displeasure. “No, brave Skylar. They can’t all be. I will take the truly righteous among them into my service and country, after their deaths, for they were rendering service to me the whole time, and their hearts shall be filled with joy to know it. After their deaths. The Kingdom on Earth will be a realm for those who knew me in life. Now, let us away.” Skylar was not entirely satisfied with this answer- it seemed a little dismissive of something like seventy percent of all human faith- but held her peace lest she risk his further displeasure, even as the Lion turned and let out a mighty roar that caused another doorway to shimmer into existence.

“But where will we go now, Aslan?” asked Skylar, itching at her new bracelet.

“We will return to Missouri. The Mormons believe it to be the site of the Garden of Eden, you know. Not entirely inappropriate that what began there, might also end there. We will gather our army, to add to these ranks. And then- we will hunt the Dragon.”