Disclaimer: I do not own any part of C. S. Lewis's brilliant creations, but I do own the will to make a fan fic out of them. XD

Chapter 1: A Most Curious Whistle

Anne Kirke-Patrick was just about to doze off when there came a loud and smart rapping on the compartment door. She opened her eyes just in time to see her eldest sister, Laura, get up from her seat and open the door. The train conductor gave back their tickets and said, "Coombe Halt's next up."

"That's us!" exclaimed John, her elder brother but only three years elder than her, who had been staring out the train window throughout the journey.

"Thanks," said Laura and she kept the tickets in her satchel. "Come on, guys, get the trunk down." William, the second eldest and only one year younger than Laura, shut his history textbook and began to pull the trunk down from the shelf above their heads.

"Can I have Mary with me?" asked Anne. Mary was her favourite doll. Before the journey, her mother had locked it up in the trunk.

"Can I have Mary with me?" mimicked John in a girlish voice, then in a very harsh tone, he said, "Oh, grow up, will you?"

"John," Laura frowned at him. To Anne, she said as gently as she could, "You remember what Mum said about Mary, don't you?"

Anne scowled and folded her arms. "But Mum's not here. Don't be so high and mighty, Laura. She won't know if you don't tell her."

"Hey if Anne can get Mary back, can I have Slocum too?" asked John, his eyes shining with excitement. Slocum was the name of his Swiss army knife that had been given to him on his eighth birthday by his grandfather who had been in the British Indian Army.

"No," said Laura sternly. "Mum said no, so there you go. Live with it."

Anne felt a welling anger rising up in her chest so quickly and so painful that she thought she was burst. "No! No! No! No! I want Mary!"

"Anne!" exclaimed William. He frowned at Laura. "Come on, Laura, just give it to her."

"I want Slocum too!" yelled John.

"Shut it! Shut it both of you!" said Laura crossly. She yanked the trunk out of William's hands as the train slowed down and came to a halt. "We're here. Let's go."

"But Laura - "

"No means no."

Tears stung the corners of Anne's eyes, and if it weren't for the shame of being caught crying, she would have cried with all her might until Laura gave it to her. She wanted Mary. She missed her! William went down first, and then followed by John, who was scowling and clutching his fists tightly, and then an almost-teary Anne, and last of all Laura, the trunk going blamppity-blamp behind her as she dragged it down the train steps.

Coombe Halt was really no more than a halt. It was a mere platform with a dismal-looking bench on it and worn sign saying "COOMBE". The town itself had grown a little since the war, but other than that, everything had been pretty much the same for the past hundred years.

"We've got to keep an eye out for a Mrs - " William squinted at the note that their mother had given him, " – La – Lafferty."

"Wonder who's that?" said John.

"It's Miss Pevensie's housekeeper," replied William.

"Let's sit on the trunk and wait," suggested Laura, and they did. Anne tugged on Laura's arm and said, "I want Mary."

"No."

"I want Slocum."

"No!"

"But I'm so awfully bored!"

"Me too!"

"Read these then," Laura rummaged in her satchel and produced two storybooks entitled 'Treasure Island' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. John groaned. "Ugh! Books!"

"They're not that bad. Come on, try one of them!" Laura said sweetly. She had been trying for a long time to get her two youngest siblings to cultivate a love for reading, like her and William. Anne scrunched her face up. She only liked books with pictures in them. She couldn't imagine how anyone could put up with nothing but line after line after line made up of only words.

They heard a rattling and jingling and the clip-clop of hoofs and a horse and cart trotted into view. A plump woman was driving the cart and she had a pleasant, smiling face that made her instantly likeable. She wore a simple country dress and she had a small, white bonnet over her head. The cart came to a stop beside the platform.

"Hallo there!" she sang out. "Are you the Kirke-Patricks?"

Laura stood, relief written over her face. "Yes, Mrs. Lafferty."

"Good! Come on up here then. Oh, watch that trunk, let the boy handle it. Here, little girl, let me help you up. What a sour face you have, boy!" After they had all settled down comfortably, Mrs. Lafferty set off for the house.

The children introduced themselves to her one by one. "Laura, William, John, and Anne! What perfectly simple names you have! And thank goodness they're easy to remember. Imagine having to deal with all four of you this summer!"

The children laughed. "We promise we won't bother you too much," said Anne. The good cheer of Mrs. Lafferty had erased her anger about not being able to have her doll back. Her laughs and smiles were so infectious that even John had put on a cheerful face.

Soon, they arrived at a huge manor. Such was the size that the siblings stared at it with their mouths open. It was a very old house, the kind that seemed to have all sorts of delightful secrets to be discovered in every corner. Anne instantly thought of the grand time they would have playing pretend. They could pretend that they were lords and ladies. On one wing of the manor, however, there was some construction work going on. Mrs. Lafferty steered the cart past the messy scene and pulled to a stop at the back entrance of the manor.

They got down from the cart and Mrs. Lafferty helped William to bring the trunk down. They climbed the short, uneven brick steps up the back door with Mrs. Lafferty at the lead. She opened the door and they all trooped into a small, but neat kitchen. On the stove a pot of mashed potatoes was simmering, and a heavenly smell wafted from the oven. Mrs. Lafferty sat on one chair and caught her breath. Then she wiped her forehead with a handkerchief and said to the children, "Come now, I'll show you to your rooms."

They went out of the kitchen into a long, wood-panelled corridor and up several flights of stairs and past many doors until they came to a corridor which was situated just next to the unfinished part of the manor. The house was so big that Anne believed it would take no time at all for her to get lost and never find her room again.

William and John were to share a room and Laura and Anne would share another. There was a fairly-sized bathroom in each room.

"With a tub!" exclaimed Anne. "Oh, Laura!" She ran out of the bathroom to get her sister. "There's a tub in the bathroom!"

Laura laughed as she removed her jacket and removed her barrette. Anne couldn't help but feel a little jealous as beautiful, dark curls fell to Laura's shoulders. In her opinion, her sister was the prettiest girl in the world. And a lot of boys in her school seemed to think the same. Laura never liked that sort of attention. That was a source of admiration and respect for Anne.

"You bathe first," said Laura. "I'll fetch our clothes from our trunk in the boys' room."

"All right!" said Anne excitedly and she ran into the bathroom. She had only ever bathed once in a tub. That was when her mother had brought them to stay in a fancy hotel by a beach for a holiday.

"Not too much hot water or you'll scald!" said Laura before leaving the room.

A few minutes later, Laura returned with their clothes. While Anne bathed and splashed and had super fun in the tub, she arranged their clothes neatly in an antique cupboard that stood beside the bathroom door. After Anne had grown quite fed-up of the water, she climbed out of the tub and ran half-naked towards the cupboard to fetch her clothes.

"Finally!" said Laura. "You took ages to get out of there! Did you drain the water?"

She gasped. "I forgot!" Laura sighed and dashed into the bathroom.

Anne got dressed and combed her hair and, without waiting for Laura, she went to her brothers' room, which was conveniently beside theirs. She entered without knocking and found John reading a comic-book as he lay on his stomach on the bed. She grinned cheekily and jumped on him. "Got you!"

"Augh! Get off! Anne! Argh! You've messed up my page. ANNE!"

Anne giggled and leapt of his back and sat on William's bed. She did so like to disturb and distress John, more so because she found the way boys his age reacted to being disturbed funnier than the way girls reacted. She bounced on the bed, causing creaking sounds because the bed was quite old, and finally, not being able to stand it anymore, John clapped his hands over his ears and bellowed, "STOP – IT!"

"Stop what?" William had just come out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his lower abdomen. Anne's jaw dropped when she saw him like this. "Will!"

He blushed furiously. "Turn around, Anne. I want to get changed."

Anne giggled and shook her head gleefully. "Not a chance. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Anne! You're a girl!"

"I've never seen you without your clothes on before."

"Anne, it's not nice to see a boy when he's, er, without his clothes."

Anne laughed. "But what's wrong with it? You've seen me change hundreds of times."

"That's different. And that was when you were little."

John couldn't stop himself. He laughed so hard that he had to clutch his stomach. What an awkward scene! It was so nice to see his brother this embarrassed. He couldn't wait to tell his friends in school about this.

Finally, Anne relented and she turned around. She heard the handle of the door turn and knew that it was Laura. She turned to see if any commotion would come out of it, but William was quicker than she thought. He was fully dressed as Laura popped her head in.

"Can I come in?"

"Er, yeah, sure," said William.

Laura grinned and came in, shutting the door behind her. She sat on the bed beside Anne and gave her a bear hug. "Oh, don't, Laura! I can't breathe!"

"Too right you won't," said Laura and she released her.

William came to sit beside John and he sighed and said, "So what are we going to do now?" Anne noticed that his face was still a bit flushed.

Laura shrugged. "I dunno. Read, eat, - " she lay on the bed with a sigh, " – sleep."

"I don't think so," said John. He closed his comic book and sat up straight. "It's sunny outside. It would be a real waste to spend it the afternoon without a game of cricket."

"But we don't know if there's any cricket set here," said William. "And I'm sure we're all quite tired from the train journey."

"Why don't we explore the house?" said Anne brightly.

"That's a fine idea," said Laura, and they all agreed and trooped out of the room. They started with their floor, opening every door there was. Most of the rooms were empty, some with only one or two simple furniture like a rocking chair or a bedside table. When they had finished one floor, they went up one more floor and tried all the doors on that floor too, and floor after floor they went like an endless carnival ride until John said, "Look, this is a complete waste of time. None of these rooms have anything worth to look at. We might as well just ask Mrs. Lafferty if there's any cricket set to play with, or, better still, an electric train set."

"He's right," said William. He was tired from having to open and peek into every room, and furthermore, playing scavenger hunting wasn't really his favourite game. Like a true London teenager, he enjoyed cricket and football and badminton better.

Anne pouted. She was having so much fun even if they hadn't found anything too interesting. Laura noticed the disappointed look on her face. Although she had told herself over and over again to not relent too much to her demanding little sister, she didn't want Anne to be upset either, especially since she had denied Mary to her earlier.

"Oh come on," she said, "let's explore a little bit more. Tomorrow we'll play cricket."

William and John exchanged tiresome looks with each other but they agreed. "You promised," said John, eyeing Laura warily. She nodded firmly and said, "Yes, I promise." Anne gave a small whoop and dashed ahead of them, suddenly finding extra energy. They ran after her.

She found a small staircase to her right and quickly climbed it. At the end of the staircase was a small door. Excited, she fumbled with the handle and stumbled into a dusty, sunny room. She coughed and rubbed her eyes as her siblings followed behind her.

"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed William as he too, coughed. "So much dust!"

"And what smell! Yurgh!" said John.

Laura covered her nose and mouth and was the first among them to get a clear view of the room. It was a small one and there were all sorts of things heaped and thrown there, like a dumping place. Here and there was a broken chair, a rusty-looking gramophone, a wardrobe with a sunken-in door, and a toy wooden horse.

"This place is an absolute mess," she concluded.

Anne managed to steady herself and set to poking about in an intelligible heap. William sat on an old-looking trunk and he was accompanied by Laura. He whispered to her, "This is a bad idea."

"Just let Anne have her way this once."

"But Mum said - "

"Just this once."

"All right."

Anne had gotten to the bottom of the heap and was about to give up on it because it didn't yield anything interesting at all. However, she consented to give the heap a fateful shove, and the faint glimmer of tarnished gold caught her eye. She dug it out and discovered that it was a whistle, a very charming one, and very unlike those that hung around the necks of the sports mistresses in her school. It was shaped like a conch, only it was thinner and longer. It was as thick and as long as a pencil. But she had never seen anything the likes of this before. In her opinion, it was a most curious whistle indeed.

She cleaned the whistle on her skirt and put it to her lips and blew it.

A clear, ringing sound, like the sound of the tinkle of a bell, pierced through the stuffy room and brought with it gladness and mirth. It was a sweet, joyful sound, as happy as the singing of a thrush welcoming the spring. Then the sharp note lowered one notch and became like a low but sweet whistle, bringing with it a sense of something that grew and took life.

Unbeknownst to Anne Kirke-Patrick, or anyone in this world, the sound of the whistle passed the borders of the world and entered a deep, black void. It stirred an ancient magic and trembled ever so gently the surface of a magnificent power that had lain asleep for millenniums, undisturbed like a great, gentle giant. The sound of the whistle awakened the cold, still hearts of sleeping creatures and the dead, gnarled roots of old, wizened trees that had not seen the sun for ages. This was a dead land, a land that had been destroyed and had life taken out of it, but miraculously, a thin thread of it chose to continue struggling in that black darkness. A thread of life that was so fragile that it threatened to snap any moment. But the sound of the whistle, its sweet melody, sent shivers all through that thread and the thread became stronger and stronger until the world stirred.

And in the heart of that Nothing, the light of a very old lamp-post suddenly flickered to life.