Chapter Text
1799
All I have known all my life are the dirty streets of London. The dark and the damp. I spent sixteen years in this city, nothing in my life changing. The factories adding a sense of repetition to all our lives as we would hear the whistle sound in the morning, calling everyone to their shift, and in the evening, ending the day. Those who were rich enough to avoid going down into the factory filled districts were the only people who loved living in London. Those who were poorer suffered through a living hell. Many of them dying from tuberculosis every day. Yet still workers filled their places.
"Ellie!" I hear a little girl's voice call to me, over the the chattering of the workers streaming from the factory.
"Kitty?" I say in confusion as I see the four-year-old girl running to me through the stream of women outside of my work. "What are you doing here?" I ask her taking her hand and pulling her away from the factory.
"I wanted to walk with you home." She says. "School got let out early."
"Why?" I ask as I start leading her towards our house, if you could even call it a house, that we and a few other kids call home, close to the factory.
"Mrs. Hamilton said that there's an epe-epid." Kitty huffs as she struggles to pronounce the word.
"Epidemic?" I ask looking down at the four year old girl walking with me, smiling at her attempts.
"Yes!" She says. "It's going around and Mrs. Hamilton doesn't want to get sick. Especially since now she knows Tommy has a bad cough."
"It's probably just the flu again." I say. "Did you bring your books back with you?"
"Yes." Kitty says skipping along faster.
"I'll help you keep up with your lessons after work lets me out. At least until your classes start again." I promise.
"Thank you Ellie!" Kitty exclaims before she rushes off ahead of me.
I brush my grimy blonde hair out of my face as my bun starts to fall out and sigh. I'm sure Amber could help me teach the three younger ones but I hated to ask anything of her. She was already battling a severe cough, a consequence of her work in the cotton factory. It was nearly all she could do to walk Kitty, Alice, and John to school each morning. I take off my dirty and nearly disintegrating gray shawl as I enter out little house, if you could even call it that. With four walls nearly falling apart, a leaky roof, and broken windows it was certainly a sight. Amber was sitting on the matt we all shared as she listened to Kitty's story with occasional piping in from Alice and John. I drape my shawl over her as I go to heat up some water over the fire for the cabbage soup we always ate for dinner.
"How was work El?" She asks me as soon as Kitty becomes distracted, a coughing attack taking over the end of her sentence.
"Fine." I say, frowning at her cough. "Same as usual."
"You haven't started coughing have you?" Amber asks slowly as she takes deep breaths to calm down after her attack. She was always concerned that I would develop a cough since I worked so close to the cotton factory. I was lucky that there wasn't much cotton fluff getting into the sewing factory where I worked, but I wasn't lucky enough to get away without inhaling some of it.
"No." I lie to her. I had started coughing but not enough to be a cause of concern. Yet. I could still keep working.
"Elodie." Amber admonishes, as if she knows I'm lying.
"I'm fine Ame. I promise." Another lie. "You're mothering me more than my own mother used to. You don't need to worry about me. You're the one that needs to be worried about." Amber sighs in resignation. I look at her and frown. "We're so close to saving up enough to get a ride out of the city."
"But then what?" Amber asks quietly. "Where would we go? Where would we live? Be realistic El. We only have enough to get out. Not enough to survive."
"It would be better to just get out though. It might help your cough." I plead.
"El." Amber says as sternly as she could with her soft voice. "You and I both know there's nothing, short of a miracle, that would fix my cough."
"Go out on a walk with me tomorrow." I ask impulsively. "It's my rest day and we could go out to the edge of the city."
Amber sighs. "What about Alice, Kitty, and John?"
"I'm sure someone could look after them for one day. Please Ame?" I beg.
"Fine." Amber mutters. I smile in victory. "I'll go ask Mrs. Henderson if she could watch the kids."
***
"Are you ready?" I ask Amber the next morning. She ties on her shawl before taking my arm.
"Let's just go already. We don't have all day." She says despite the smile on her face.
We talk as we navigate our way to the outskirts of the city. I smile more as Amber starts laughing, a rare privilege, her laugh was almost magical. Once we reach the edge of London we start walking out to the moors that were beyond the city's limits. We had been walking for almost an hour when Amber suddenly stops, her hold on my arm dropping.
"Do you see that?" She asks bending down to inspect a strange rock formation.
"What are you looking at Ame?" I ask her trying to see what she was seeing. She doesn't answer, instead making her way into the rock formation. "Ame?" I call as I hurry after her. I look around in the dark, struggling in vain to find her. "Ame?" I call again hoping to get a sense of what direction she's in, the light from the opening of the rocks somehow gone.
"Woah." I hear her quiet exclamation of wonder. I make my way towards her voice before I stop as light fills my senses. I blink my eyes multiple times as I try to make sense of what I was seeing.
"It's a forest." I mutter in confusion. "There are no forests right outside of London." I push away my confusion as I see Amber walking father ahead of me. I sigh in annoyance as I force myself into a run. "Ame! Ame! Wait!" Amber doesn't slow down. "Amber!" I shout. She finally stops at a pool and waits for me to catch up.
"Look at this pool." She mutters.
"What are you doing Ame?" I ask out of breath.
"I just want to walk into it." She says.
"No, you can't get wet. We still have to walk back home. It'll make your cough worse." I tell her. I groan in frustration as she ignores me and walks into the pond. I expect her to stop when she gets waist deep, but instead she keeps going until she submerges herself in the water. "Ame?" I call when she doesn't immediately get out of the water. "Amber, this isn't funny." I wait a few more seconds for her to resurface but when she doesn't I take off my shawl, tossing it to the side as I wade into the water searching for her. I let the water cover me completely as I look for her. I splash the water trying to find her. Panic setting over me when I don't feel her. I try to breath but water fills my lungs. I try to push myself to the surface to cough out the water, but I'm not close enough so I unintentionally breathe in more, before I'm hauled out of the water.
"El?" I hear a voice ask as I'm laid down on the ground. "Ellie?" I could feel something shaking me, trying to get me to spit out the water. "Elodie!" With one final shake I roll over, coughing out the water that was in my lungs.
"Let her breath dear one." A second voice, deep and warm like light, says.
"Will she be alright?" A third voice asks. This one was soft like a summer's breeze.
"Of course she'll be fine Ro. The other girl is fine isn't she?" A fourth voice sasses. This one was cold and harsh.
"I have a name!" The first voice says.
"I know." The fourth voice replies smartly.
Finally, the remaining water is gone from my lungs. I take in a deep breath as I force my eyes to open. I sigh in relief as I see Amber sitting next me, also soaked. Behind her are two other girls. One had blonde hair, nearly white, and eyes, as freezing as ice. The other had black hair that cascaded down her shoulders and warm brown eyes. But the most astonishing thing was what came around the girls and looked at me kindly. A great, majestic, golden lion.
"Hello Elodie." He says softly. His deep voice rumbling like thunder. "I am Aslan."