A/N: Wellllllllllllll I had this idea before, but it involved an OC instead of Tumnus and I don't like ocs much anymore so this is what I got!
Disclaimer: don't own any characters from Narnia, all of that is on Clive Staples Lewis!
Enjoy! And please review my loves!
Mr.Tumnus was walking about the woods searching for where Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund had wandered off to, and simply could not find them.
"Oh fiddlesticks…I do suppose those four are off on another adventure of some sort…really now they are getting a bit-." He was about to say old but stopped short upon arriving at a most curious location. He looked up, and squinted being a rather old faun as he was.
"This place, it reminds me of somewhere…" Mr. Tumnus narrated, looking at the tall trees-and then he spotted it. An old lamppost, rusted and gray stood in the middle of the wood. "Gracious me! I do believe…but no…" He wandered forward, and saw a familiar tree grown old, but still twisted about the roots like so many years ago. "Aslan bless me…this is near my old cave! But that also must mean this is where I first met Lucy!" standing still for a moment, Tumnus pondered the site. "Yes, yes it's all coming back now! She has said she lived in the country of Spare Oom, the town of War Drobe if my memory does not fail me! Yes, yes, yes!" He said joyously, giving a little kick as merry old fauns may.
"Lucy! Lucy!" He called and trotted forward, trying to locate where she had gone for he was certain she was still here somewhere. He spotted a thicket, and Lucy's hunting bonnet. Carefully picking the article up he hurried on forward through the thicket-for he was once more certain that she went this way. After twenty paces Mr.Tumnus began to realize the foliage had dramatically changed, the trees seemed to have fur! He stopped and touched one of the soft things, and now saw that the furry trees surrounded him!
"How curious…" He was about to turn back, when he heard a familiar voice.
"Oh Edmund, do try to not be a perfect little beast!" He smiled a faunish smile; it was Lucy! Only, not the voice he had heard for so many years, the voice he had first heard. Perhaps, it was not Lucy after all.
"But nay! She claimed something to Edmund! Of course it's Lucy!" He reassured himself, and once more assumed his trot. The ground was no longer a grassy carpet through the fur trees, but more of rock. He tried to see his hooves, but found himself surrounded in darkness. "Oh drat, I've obviously been out here for hours! And now the sun has set, how perfectly horrible it must be for the queens and kings!"
"Edmund it's true! Little noble Narnian mice helped to chew through Aslan's bonds! Be more considerate and let the little thing go, it only wanted a bite to eat!" Tumnus recognized the speaker as Susan the Gentle.
"It chose to bite me! And besides, those were Narnian mice, this one here is an England mouse, there's quite a difference." And that of course, was Edmund the Just. Even though he wasn't being so just now, he made sense.
"Shhh! Do you all hear a clomping of hooves?" The last and final unknown speaker had to be Peter, Tumnus knew he was nearing them now if he could just get through these trees! Before he had time to call out to them, he had run into something solid-a wall. Oh dear… He thought, and pushed on it, willing the object to move. His will seemed to do some good, for the wall did move! In fact, he was falling forward, off of a step of some sort.
Crashing down, Mr. Tumnus shut his eyes, but re-opened them when he heard laughter and felt tiny arms around his neck.
"Why it's only Mr.Tumnus!" He looked down and saw that he had fell ontop of Lucy, but quickly sprang off. He helped her to her feet, then bowed to the Pevensies who were still in the wardrobe room. Susan gasped when she saw him,
"You are Mr.Tumnus, aren't you?" She asked, with an uncertain look on her face.
"Of course queen Susan, I had only gone out to find your majesties when I had stumbled upon a furred wood. Not knowing where I was, I blundered forward when I heard dear Lucy speaking to Master Edmund. Next as I'm aware of I'm here explaining myself to you."
"But, Mr.Tumnus…" Lucy began, and looked closely at his face. "Why do you look so young?"
"I could ask you the same question!" He said with a merry faun laugh, for the Pevensies had returned to their original age when going through the wardrobe, and it seemed something of the sort had happened to Tumnus. The friends no longer asked questions, but simply embraced each other and had a good laugh about Tumnus' misfortune for a minute before Edmund interrupted.
"Tumnus, do you suppose you should be here? I mean, in our world, it seems unnatural."
"Oh hush Edmund!" Susan reprimanded, but Tumnus answered the question.
"I do believe Edmund is right, I must go back to Narnia. Not meaning to offend your honors of course, but I live in Narnia."
"You really mean to leave us?" Lucy asked, he reached down and ruffled her hair.
"I'm not leaving you, simply going away for a while."
"Oh but Mr.Tumnus!" Lucy began to pout, but Peter silenced her.
"I think if Mr.Tumnus wishes to go back we should let him, and possibly he should go soon, if I remember correctly it was nearing sunset." After Peter had spoken, Lucy crossed her arms and made a sad face, then decided against it and hugged Mr.Tumnus for the third time in ten minutes, burying her face in his thin fur.
"I say! Has your coat gotten thinner? It sure feels it!" She exclaimed, running her hand along his cheek.
"I'm not entirely sure, it must be this Spare Oom air!" The Pevensies had another good laugh at this, and Mr.Tumnus wasn't quite sure why. After a minute or so they all had said their good-byes and were preparing to send him back through the wardrobe. Lucy helped him get into the door and then followed him it, but didn't shut the door because it is, after all, a very foolish thing to shut yourself in a wardrobe.
"I think I'm beginning to see, the great fur woods was really just a wardrobe?" He said, while they were rooting around for the back of it, the fur gliding along their cheeks.
"Oh Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy laughed, "You really don't see at all, now do you! When we first met, I was under the impression you thought a wardrobe was a city!" Mr.Tumnus nervously laughed.
"You've caught me in that one dearest Lucy!"
"Oh…" She said, disappointment in her voice. "I do believe this is it." She stated, meaning that the end of the wardrobe had come.
"Good bye Lucy, she short extension of our time has been greatly appreciated." They hugged one last time, before he asked, "Now how do I get back to Narnia?"
"Just walk through I would suppose." Mr.Tumnus followed her advice and walked forward, but ran into a wall. He stumbled back, one hand to his head.
"No, I don't think that will work."
"Oh dear…the Professor did say we shouldn't go looking for Narnia! What to do?"
"It must be Aslan. I do not know why he would pay such a little faun like myself any attention, but he has sent me here for some reason!" Tumnus commented, reaching up to rub his beard like he always had, but started when he touched bare skin.
"What is it Tumnus?" Lucy asked, and groped about until she found his shoulder.
"My beard! It's gone!" Lucy looked at Tumnus quizzically, or where she thought he would be-it was too dark to see anything.
"This doesn't seem good-well let us go back and have a talk with the professor. He'll be sure to know what to do!" Tumnus gave an unseen nod, and the two turned and marched back the way they came.
"Oh I wish Tumnus had stayed!" Susan said when she heard Lucy's footsteps.
"It seems your wish has been granted. We can't get through to Narnia!" Lucy told her sister, and jumped out of the wardrobe waiting for Tumnus to follow.
"No way!" Said Peter and Edmund at the same time.
"How wonderful!" Said Susan, clapping her hands.
"Like I had said, I don't know why Aslan would pay a little faun like myself any attention- but I do believe he sent me here for a reason."
"It does appear you're littler than you were before the wardrobe…and where has your beard gone?" Peter asked incredulously.
"How queer…" Mr.Tumnus said softly, and reached up to touch where his beard had been. "Well that's a later worry! Now Lucy, what had you said about a Monefesor?"
"A what? Ohhh! The professor? Yes, I believe we should see him-and right away! He should know how to fix this." The others agreed-but Edmund brought up the fact that Mrs. Macready was hosting a tour and Tumnus' hooves could be heard.
"I'll run and get a washcloth, the bathroom is the next room over I believe-Mr.Tumnus should stand still until I return, we shall wrap his darling hooves in the cloth." Susan stated, talking like a mother.
"Wonderful idea Su!" Said Peter, he watched as she scurried out of the room.
"I do wonder what has happened to your beard-and by jove! Where has your tail gone!" Edmund cried out in wonder, for Mr.Tumnus' tail was no longer on him. The faun turned his head, and tried to see his behind but failed.
"I wonder…do you suppose its England? In Narnia we changed, we were braver and the such. Do you suppose Mr.Tumnus' appearance could change, because you know, a faun isn't normal here?" Lucy asked, the others looked thoughtful at her reasoning.
"I would have to agree. Aslan wanted us to fit in with Narnia as much as possible, he might have reason for Tumnus to fit in here." Peter said, glancing at the wardrobe incase Aslan's head might be poking out. Everyone in the room suddenly got the feeling that what Peter had said was correct, they all shivered but smiled a the same time- Aslan was watching over them. Before the feeling was gone, Susan came into the room carrying two rags.
"I've returned!" She declared with a smile.
"Yes, Su we see that." Edmund replied with his usual cheek, but they all ignored it.
"Mr.Tumnus I must ask you to sit and kick out your legs-and by kick out I mean just to hold them out, I would rather than not be kicked in the face!" She smiled as Tumnus complied, then tied the cloths around his hooves in a fashion that they wouldn't make noise as he walked. Once done, she asked him to stand and try it out-which he did.
"Ms. Susan you are a genius!" He stated, and pranced around the room.
"I suggest we go while Mrs. Macready isn't around, which would be now seeing as she's already moved on from this room." Suggested Peter, who walked to the door, followed by Edmund and Susan. Lucy hooked arms with Mr.Tumnus as they walked forward, and were forced to turn sideways to get through the narrow door.
"Oh Mr.Tumnus I do hope you get to stay a while!"
"So do I dear Lucy, so do i…"
End of Chapter One
A/N: Ok end of chapter one-review and tell me what you think!