"Borrowed Seasons" (Fireworks)                                                           
by Mase992


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It was a truly wonderful sensation; locking eyes with him, if only for a split second and Susan was thankful that in this world seconds could last longer than usual. Those seconds would swirl around them teasingly like snowflakes from an endless period of winter. Their surroundings, unknowingly, would turn slow and silly, until Time reckoned the losses brought by that borrowed likeness of drowsiness and amended itself, causing everything to speed up and awaken from its seasonal stupor. Those driven by Time’s temporal hibernation would not remember nor notice anything out of the ordinary and resumed their daily activities without hesitation. Only Susan remembered and she seized those fleeting snowflakes tenderly within herself. She sensed Aslan’s wise eyes upon her and she walked away ashamed of her desire for everlasting winter. His glowing mane melted the ice of her heart and spring rejoiced in his wake, yet Susan coveted that light. The only heat she desired she could not obtain from the Lion or his jocund wishes for her well-fare. She strode down the corridors sulkily, frightened by her own thoughts and caught in a perpetual state of autumn: not quite complete. Soon, she knew it wouldn’t be long before her siblings and she would leave this place, this paradise of shortened seasons and treasured time and she knew deep inside that she would miss it. Narnia was… like summer: warm and it felt just right and she could bask on its rich familiarity forever. Alas, seasons always shift and she knew it was time for her to shrift and wither away…

The patterned stars beamed down at the celebration and Narnia reached them jovially through swirling and flashing fireworks. A myriad of colour rained down on the castle and Time (with Aslan’s permission, of course) was delighted to cast the wonderful illusion of spring over the excited spectators. All except one who remained enveloped in autumn.
Susan looked up in awe. She couldn’t take in the beauty and splendour that graced her eyes at the sight of the heavens’ tides glistening with alternating shades of foreign tints. Stardust rained around her, crowning her ebony tresses with glistening remnants of the aurora borealis and any earthly witness of such display of magic would have marvelled at the heavenly rain of stars on the Gentle Queen’s autumn sky.

“Don’t you want company?”

She tensed and turned around. When she saw him, autumn grew less chilly and started melting into an unknown fifth season, perhaps morphing in a perfect state of whatever preceded winter. What truly dazzled her was the sight of dancing lights inside his eyes as he approached her and the fireworks above slipped unnoticed from her mind, no more beautiful in comparison with him.

She smiled when he took her hand and she could breathe the cold that was suddenly enveloping them only. “I would appreciate that.”

And of course, when he kissed her it was winter forever…