Chapter Text
Shortly before her birth, a dryad walked into her father’s court and announced she had a message from the local mountain god; when prompted to speak, she told them of a prophecy the god had foreseen, where their child, named Swanwhite, would bring about the doom of Narnia.
“But that's easy to avoid!” her father, the king laughed. “We shall simply not name her Swanwhite. Problem solved.”
There was a good bit of laughs and no one spoke much of it. Three months later, the queen gave birth to child almost as dark as she, but she did not live long enough to name her firstborn. The king, weeping, gave her a normal enough name for the time and promptly forgot the prophecy as he was certain it was averted.
But while the prophecy couldn’t be fulfilled, the king was not at ease, for his daughter never quite recovered from the illness that had taken her mother and brought on her early birth. She was frail and tiny, growing worse every year. Her father refused to lose her like he had his queen, and so focused on saving her. He went to every doctor and healer in Narnia, spoke to every scholar, medicine man, and priest, tried every medicine prescribed and potion made. When human medicine and faith failed him, he turned to the centaurs and dryads, the dwarves and talking animals.
It was a pegasus who reminded him of the tale of the creation of Narnia, as all flying horses liked that story and liked reminding people of their glorious ancestor. She reminded him that at the end of the world was a secret orchard, whose fruit could heal the infirm and revive those near death.
Desperate, the king took his army and marched north until he could reach the end of the world. But, traveling far and wide, he could not find the sacred grove. They fought off vicious giants, they climbed every mountain, but still there was no sight of the garden.
At last, the king laid upon the ground and wept and wept until at last he fell asleep. In his dreams, Aslan came to him, eyes stern as he reminded the king that he had a kingdom to run and his people needed him. But how, the king cried, could he return without a way to save his daughter?
“Your people are also your children. Will you abandon them for the sake of a single child?”
Still the king cried that he could not lose her. In his dream, Aslan shook his head, but the great lion was not so hateful that he would allow the child to die. Instead, he told the king to return home and to go to the Tree of Protection; if he picked a single fruit from its branches, his daughter would live. If he plucked two to feed her, she would grow strong enough to live for forty years. If he plucked three, she would thrive and live forever.
At once, the king woke and hurried his forces back home; he went to the Tree of Protection which still grew beautiful and strong. Climbing up, he picked the first apple and the birds stopped singing. Reaching again, the birds flew to him, begging him to stop, but still he picked another silver apple. At last, he reached out one more time. The birds pulled at his clothes and batted at his hands, but still he picked the apple.
The great tree groaned as if it was struck by an ax. Frightened by the noise, the king climbed down and hurried to his home with his prizes.
He cut the apples into small pieces and held each one to his daughter's lips, begging her to eat. At first, she begged that she was not hungry, but after his piteous cries, she relented and ate. At the first bite, she felt suddenly awake; she ate another and felt as though she could sit up in bed. She ate piece after piece until she tossed off her bed covers and began to dance.
Oh, how the king cried with joy to see his daughter healthy and whole, but his joy turned to shock as her dark coloring began to change before his eyes, her hair going white, her eyes to pink, and her skin hardly look like blood flowed through it at all.
“Why,” a young nursemaid, very newly arrived to the palace from the countryside and ignorant of the prophecy, laughed, “our princess is as white as a swan! Swanwhite!”
The king paled at the woman’s words, and suddenly, he understood what he’d done.
And far to the north, Jadis smiled as she felt the tree weaken and knew her trick had worked. As she ordered her forces come to her, she sent a great storm down from the north, to knock the Tree of Protection down before her arrival.