Charles Jones opened his eyes to look at the trees stretching high above him.
Except that couldn't be right. Charles had not gone to sleep in a forest, nor was he anywhere near a forest. No, Charles had been at the library.
Slowly, he sat up and saw that he was in a small clearing, with thick grass and bright daisy's popping out of the moist soil. The air was clear and light in his lungs and Charles could see the slowly waking sun was bleeding pink into the sky. Birds whistled faintly in the distance, and whilst Charles was bothered that he most certainty didn't know where he was, he was more bothered about the lamp post in front of him. It wasn't that he hadn't seen a lamp post before, there was plenty in London, it was that this lamp post appeared to be growing roots.
Charles wasn't sure what to make of it. Charles wasn't sure what to make of anything. Charles had rather been enjoying his book on American history. He supposed that it was his friends idea of a prank, knock him out and drop him off somewhere strange. Charles would admit that maybe he took his April fools' joke a little too far, but really, was this necessary?
So Charles did what any logical boy would do; he stood up and began walking, carefully counting his steps so that he knew how far away he was. He had only been up to two hundred and sixty five when he heard a noise. Peering through the thick branches he saw a hunched man with a blanket over himself. He was talking to some more people with blankets - no cloaks - on.
He stepped further forward and tried to make out what they were saying with their low, raspy voices. Deciding that he ought to just ask for directions back to home he stepped forward when the man turned his head.
Charles had seen some odd things so far, but this was by far the strangest. The man wasn't a man. The man wasn't quite anything that Charles had ever seen before, it was inhuman, and yet it seemed oddly familiar. Charles made a mental note to tell his friends that this was not a funny prank, but he couldn't help but think that the costume, for it only could be a costume, was rather well done.
Charles made to move out once again and speak to these costumed men when he felt a rough hand clamp over his mouth and hold it shut tight. Panic rose through Charles as his hand went to pull at the one covering his mouth, his head reclined to meet the dark eyes of his friend Edmund and waves of relief washed over him. Edmund carefully put a finger to his lip and made a 'shushing' motion before releasing Charles and walking forward, towards the not-quite-human-man.
Unsure of what to do, Charles shadowed Edmund, being careful to imitate Edmund's precise and practised treading over the tree roots and crouched low behind some branches. The men were speaking in their harsh voices, almost in another language. Some words pierced Charles' brain as familiar but they were disjointed and he could make no sense of the situation. This was certainly the most elaborate prank Charles had ever seen.
It was apparent that they were fighting over something - though what Charles wasn't sure. One reached to grab something out of another's hand and for a moment there was a struggle. It didn't last long before a hooded figure approached and snatched it out of their hands, revealing a short stick.
At this point Charles heard Edmund utter a rather unkind word that up until now, he had not known Edmund had known. Clearly, this was not actually apart of the prank, despite the costumes. The men made some more harsh sounds before walking away, and following them was another thirty creatures, all hooded but not all the same, and most assuredly not human. Charles wasn't sure what to make of this, but Edmund appeared to be unsettled by it.
When they were well out of sight Edmund stood and motioned for Charles to follow him, silencing him with a look when Charles made to call him out on his prank. Edmund lead him back to the odd lamp post, where Charles noticed there was an addition to the oddity of the clearing - a dead rabbit.
Charles made to announce his knowledge of the prank once again but Edmund gave him another look and moved to the trees, pressing his ear against them and listening hard. Now Charles had known Edmund for quite some time, since they were about twelve and Edmund had laughed at a rather unfunny joke Charles had made, but Charles had never known that Edmund displayed such interest in trees until now. It appeared that Charles was learning quite a lot about Edmund today.
When Edmund was apparently satisfied he set about making a fire.
"So where are we?" Charles asked, impatient and overly frustrated with Edmund's silencing looks, but deciding to play along with his not-so-funny joke.
"The Lantern Waste. Unless the Lamp Post decided that after several millennia it ought to grow more of itself, in that case I wouldn't have a clue." Edmund replied rather shortly, his sarcasm lost on Charles.
"Your not being funny you know. Is this your idea of revenge for the April Fools' joke?" Charles said loudly, hoping that their friends would pop out from the other side of the trees and laugh at him.
Now done with the fire Edmund turned to look at him making an apologetic expression.
"Look, we're not in London, we're in Narnia, now keep your voice down unless you want them to come back."
"Narni-what?" Charles made an impatient noise. Edmund wasn't one for dancing around the topic, nor was he one to deny the truth. He was blunt and straight to the point, which could only mean that Edmund was trying to avoid telling him something, very badly in a completely unlike Edmund way. Charles had no doubt that Edmund was, very badly, trying to get revenge on his prank.
Edmund's cheeks reddened a little.
"I'm not very good at this - Lucy is much better at it."
"Your sister?" Charles asked, now wondering what the barely fifteen year old had to do with it.
"Yeah. She's the one who found it first, you see, Narnia isn't in our world, it's in an entirely separate world."
"Oh I see, so we were in the library, and then somehow, we ended up in the middle of the woods in a completely different world. It all makes sense now." Charles spoke louder again.
Edmund appeared distracted, looking at the tree's and eyeing the now bright sky, "exactly," he responded, without thought. "Good to see you taking it so well - now keep your voice down and we'll make it through today alive."
Charles couldn't contain it anymore and laughed, hard. "The joke's over, where are the rest of the boys? Are they in on it too? I bet you got the who school in on it."
Edmund's facial expression did not change. He was serious. Charles didn't understand. Moments passed between them as Charles searched Edmund's features. They boy was a great liar, but Charles knew the signs of an Edmund lie and there were no signs to be found. This was no prank.
"Your serious?" He whispered.
"Yes."
"So Nanania-"
"Narnia." Edmund corrected
"Isn't England, or Earth?"
"No, completely different. Think 1300's England but with magic."
"Magic?" Charles choked.
"Good and bad kinds of course."
Edmund picked up the rabbit and pulled a knife out of his pocket and began preparing it to be roasted, leaving Charles to his thoughts.
Charles was, to be frank, struggling. It just simply wasn't possible. Yet, he knew that it was true. Questions were burning through Charles' eating him up, and he yearned to know more.
Time passed quickly in Charles' preoccupied mind and soon Edmund had cut off some rabbit and handed it to him.
"Not my best work, but it will do for now - at least until we find some actually Narnians." Edmund said before talking brisk bites into the rabbit.
Charles thought back to those hooded men - or at least what he had thought were hooded men.
"You mean, those creatures with the cloaks weren't Narnia." Charles asked, still half-hoping that it was a joke.
Edmund looked startled, "goodness no. They're fell creatures - not Narnia, although they like to think that they are the true Narnians. Believe me, if they saw us you'd be dead and I would be exactly where I was some thirteen hundred and something years ago. If they're this far into the wood then that isn't good news for Narnia. Not that I expected to hear news of Narnia again." Edmund babbled - clearly unnerved. Edmund was being very un-Edmund.
But Charles was too busy choking on the thirteen hundred years comment to notice his friend's disposition. Edmund took that as an invitation to continue.
"You see, when you get too old you have to leave, and you have no hope of returning. So when I walked through that wave at the end of the world I was expecting to never see or hear from Narnia again." It really was unlike Edmund to babble, even when he was nervous or worried.
"Thirteen hundred?" Charles repeated.
"Hmm? Oh yes, at least roughly. Time flows differently between worlds you see. So whilst only a year passed for me, thirteen hundred passed for Narnia." Edmund furrowed his brow, as if he was thinking about a problem that could not be solved, "never is consistent though."
"So what do we do?" Charles asked the question that had been pressing on him.
"We? We do nothing, you happened to be with me when I got pulled in. I'll set about fixing things, once I get you to safety. It's all a mistake - I'm not meant to be here, and neither are you. I'm not even sure if it was Aslan that did it, he was the one to say that I wouldn't be back after all."
"Aslan?" Charles asked, growing more and more confused as it became apparent that Edmund was more thinking out loud. Charles couldn't follow one word to the next at this point.
Something snapped inside Edmund when he heard Charles' question, and he seemed suddenly confident and energetic, as if he had half a mind to go a confront those fell creatures. Edmund's babbly conversation stopped and Edmund became a great deal more like Edmund.
"Look, Charles - until I know the situation better you're on a need to know basis, we can't risk being overheard. You never know with these trees. I love them with all my heart, but they aren't safe to talk around, so I can't risk telling you much."
"The trees?" Charles repeated back, thinking back to Edmund's odd tree-hugging.
"They were spies in the hundred year winter," Edmund hastily continued at Charles' expression, "that doesn't matter right now though. We need to hurry up, find a town and find the King, assuming there is one. If we move quickly we could be at the Telmarine Castle within three days."
Edmund jumped up and stomped out the coals from the dying fire, hoisting Charles up with his rabbit sticky hands.
"We're walking for three days!" Charles protested slightly, still unsure what to make of all this.
"At least it's spring." Edmund chirped back, as he began walking through the trees, unworried and guided by his instincts.
Charles had no choice but to follow him, feeling quite uneasy and wishing dreadfully that he could be reading his book back at the library.