Author's note:
Here it is!  The 1st chapter, but it took me a little longer than expected for me to pull it up.  If you are enjoying this story I would love to recieve your compliments ~ and I'm open to ideas for improving or adding to the story.  Know, though, that I can't change anything that is already posted on the narnia fans site.  You can email me compliments, etc... at narnianqueen@gmail.com .  And I now have a site up dedicated to C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia".  You can visit it at http://mypeoplepc.com/members/mikewhite1/aslanshow/ .  And hopefully soon I'll have a domain name so it'll be much easier to access.  I'll let you know when I have one.  Enjoy!!!
Chapter 1: "It was no Accident"

That evening as Trina was driving home, all she could think about was the mirror that still lay safe within her purse. She tried to concentrate on the road, but found it difficult to do and even though she stared intently in front of her and knew where she was going, she couldn't help but wonder what Old Miss Drauncey had meant.

This mirror held all the proof I needed to believe in what my mother said. All the proof I needed... proof I needed... proof I needed....

"What did you mean, Alice?" Trina asked the air. "What proof? And why do I feel so strangely excited when I look at it?" She shook her head making her brown hair flick her eyes and she lifted a hand from the wheel a moment to brush it out of her face.

Suddenly a deer leapt into the road right in front of her and stood there, staring at the headlights of the oncoming car. Trina slammed on the breaks, swerving severally and flying into the ditch; her car rammed hard into a tree, yanking her head forward onto the steering wheel and knocking her out.

It seemed like an eternity later that Trina lifted her aching head from the steering wheel of her car. Her head throbbed horribly; she lifted her hand to it trying to ease the pain and instead pulled it away with blood on the fingertips.

What happened? Everything is dark outside. It's probably late night, she told herself and looked around the interior of her car. The window shield was cracked beyond repair, but at least it hadn't shattered. Everything in her car seemed alright. She forced her door open and looked at the damage done to the front of her car; the whole front was bashed in. It was a miracle that she hadn't been hurt more than she had.

Where's the deer? I'm sure I hit it.... She struggled back up onto the side of the road, the climb forcing pain through her head. At the top of the ditch she swayed, lost her balance and fell to the ground, her head in an aching whirl. Forcing herself to lift it, she looked up towards the road. There was no deer there and no bloody spot to indicate that it had been hit. That's strange. I'm sure I hit it; I felt the impact before I hit the ditch... She gazed harder at the road, but still there was nothing there. Then she lifted her head to look to the ditch on the other side. At the top of that bank stood a tall and magnificent buck with horns towering high above his head. He was unlike any other deer that Trina had ever seen before in her life.

His coat is bright gold and he's so tall... and his coat is gold! It's gold!!!

She had never seen a deer with such a gold coat; it wasn't brown, it was gold and it was light. It illuminated the darkness around where he stood.

Trina shook her head and groaned. I must be delusional from the crash. I'm seeing things! but when she looked back, the deer was still there. It looked at her with intent eyes, crouched low ~ and leapt! High above the road it soared. And as it leapt its shape began to change, slowly but truly change. When it landed in front of her it didn't look like a deer anymore but a lion: a great, huge, magnificent, golden lion with a mane that flowed down its chest and back. Its tale lashed its side and it stood there, looking at Trina with eyes like she'd never seen before nor would she have expected from the king of the beasts; they were great golden pools of compassion, understanding. She shivered and turned from its gaze.

This is even stranger than the mirror, she told herself. Why does he look at me like that? And yet, I'm not afraid of him....

"Child, do you hurt?"

Trina looked up, her face gaping in open awe, the wound in her head forgotten for a moment. The lion's voice was deep and rich like royal purple and iridescent gold, if you can understand that.

"Are you hurt, child?"

"W...w...what?"

The lion stepped towards her and she drew back, fear of him finally imprinting on her mind. He can talk! What is he? He came towards her 'til she stood trembling right between his forepaws; that was when she noticed his size. She knew he was big, but now he was huge! He towered above her head in all his majesty. Slowly he dipped his head, the golden mane rippling in gentle movement. She clenched her teeth and prepared to feel his fangs but instead all she felt was a gentle puff of wind surround her. Her head suddenly felt better; the pain had eased away.

"If you are not hurt, then are you afraid? Do you fear me?"

For the first time Trina looked the lion straight in the face, his eyes holding hers where they were.

"I... I don't think so. I mean, I was, but I'm not now ~ some how; I'm not now."

He nodded his great head. "It's good you don't fear me. That kind of fear never helped anyone when it came time for them to do the task before them."

"Task?" Trina asked. She now felt quite safe standing between the great paws as if they were a place in which to take refuge and all previous pain in her body had completely disappeared.

"There is a task before you, Trina Davis. It is one you desired and one I appointed."

"But who are you?" The question sounded wrong as if she was asking someone whom she already knew, their name.

"I AM. I am the great Bridge Builder,

(The Voyage on the Dawn Treader; chapter 16) the Carpenter, the Potter. I make ways where there are no ways, ships when the waters rise and dams to hold them. I am the Woodsman, the Whittler, and the Whittled. Do you recognize any of those names, dear heart?"

Trina thought a moment. "I recognize the Carpenter and the Potter, but where I've heard them before I...." She gasps as the truth struck her. "You aren't Jesus, are you?"

The lion smiled. "I have been called that before, yes, but that is not what I'm called in this form. Some recognize me as a lion from different writings ~ from an ancient text where I am known as The Lion of Judah, to a more recent series of children's fantasy novels where I am referred to as Aslan."

Aslan! Jesus! The thoughts were overwhelming. Were they truly one? Could it be? She had read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and knew all about the great lion who had become Narnia's savior and who was in all of the books, but to have him stand there in front of her and then to think that he might be one with her savior.... Long ago she had interpreted the connection between C.S's books and the Bible but this? She collapsed on the ground in a daze, staring off into space, into another world. This was impossible!

Slowly she shook her head. "You can't be both~" she looked up at him. "Can you?"

Again the lion smiled. "You can call me by one or the other but they both are one in the same."

"Aslan?"

He laughed. "Yes!"

She put her hand to her head as if to stop her thoughts from whirling ~ and that's when she noticed something else: her head had stopped bleeding! There wasn't even an indent; the skin was smooth as if it had never been marred!

Aslan smiled as he saw her face. "You are surprised?"

Trina looked at him with wide eyes and nodded; her tongue felt thick and her voice sounded small. "But the accident... the deer... I hit a tree and...."

"Your accident was not an accident, child."

"What?"

"It wasn't an accident that you hit that deer and then the tree; there are more forces of evil working in your world than in many others. But there are also forces of good. My Father, for instance, and his legions of angels ~ everyday they fight great battles over man kind. But even what was meant for bad can be used for good."

"Like you with the cross ~ or was it the Stone Table?"

"The cross, dear one. The Stone Table is just a way of saying ~ and doing ~ the same thing. Yes, like with the cross and with the Stone Table. And like with the 'accident' that you were just in. Do you remember the silver mirror?"

Trina recalled having stuck the mirror in her purse earlier that afternoon, but where was it now? She leapt from where she was sitting and went over to her car, using the light emanating from Aslan to see what she was doing. After rummaging around for awhile she stood up triumphant, the brown corduroy purse held up in her hand: it had fallen in between the two front seats and had been wedged under the passenger's seat. Quickly she undid the flap and pulled out the mirror; it was still in tacked, the glass wasn't even cracked. She held it up before her face and looked in it. Once more she felt that strange sensation roll over her. It was as if she was looking into a different world. While she was surrounded with darkness ~ night ~ the mirror reflected a green wood: a wood so lushes and green and so quiet that you could almost hear the trees growing. And then Trina realized that she wasn't surrounded by darkness at all. Instead she stood in the middle of the wood she had seen reflected in the mirror. All around her there were pools, cool, clean pools. There was another one every few yards. She was so surprised by the sudden change that she nearly dropped the mirror ~ nearly, but she checked herself just in time. And there was Aslan as big and beautiful as before if not bigger and more beautiful. She turned and saw her car rammed against a tree with the front smashed in.

"What is this? Magic?"

"Magic, yes. A different kind of magic than you are used to perhaps, but it is magic."

"But this is the Wood Between the Worlds! This is supposed to be just a story, the fictitious writings of a man for young readers. This couldn't be right!"

"Couldn't? Do you not see that it is?"

"I... I suppose I do, but I never expected this."

Aslan just nodded his golden head. "What you expect and what are, are two different things. This morning when you talked with Miss Drauncey, you wanted to know what she meant by the mirror being the proof she needed, didn't you?"

This time Trina looked at him as if he were some strange thing she wasn't sure she liked. "Yes, but how could you know?"

"I know Miss Drauncey well ~ in both this form and as Christ." He looked at her staring at him and glanced down at the mirror. "She told you that the mirror gave her the proof she needed and you wondered what she meant. Are you willing to find out?"

Trina looked around her, at Aslan, and then down at the mirror gripped lightly in her hand. Then back at Aslan again. "I... I think.... No! ~ I mean, I don't think; I know! Yes, I want to know what she meant, Aslan. I want to know what proof she got from the mirror."

Aslan smiled and light emanated from it. "Then look into the mirror, small one." Trina looked and saw another wood, one less bright than this one, different by all means, but pretty just the same. She could hear Aslan's voice beside her and slowly it began to fade as if he was getting farther and farther away.

"Look into the mirror and find what you seek

Seek with your heart and your proof you'll behold

To find what you long for, to find your desire

Remember, the meek that are strong are like gold."

With that his voice faded completely and when Trina looked up, she found she was in the other wood she had seen in the mirror ~ and there was her car still smashed against a tree. There was no road, no signs: nothing that would indicate she was in our world. She was in a strange wood that she had never seen before and she knew ~ somehow ~ that she wasn't in our world at all, but another world completely.

This is too strange! she thought to herself. Where am I this time? but at that moment she caught site of something quite ordinary and yet very strange. It was a lamp-post: an old fashioned oil lamp-post lit in the middle of a forest with nothing to be seen around it for miles.

I must be in Narnia!!!!

Author note: second chapter should be up before too long.

© 2006 ~Queen Lucy~

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