Author's Note: This was written in partnership with my friend Sibella, and is based off both the book and (more recent) movie versions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. There will also be references to The Magician's Nephew.
The world of Narnia and all associated characters belong to C.S. Lewis and the wonderful people at Walden Media. I happen to own Chloe and Sibella owns Icis and Queen Ara's name. (Icis is pronounced like Isis.)
Chapter 1: Helplessness
Because of the air attacks on London, the 4 Pevensie children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—were sent to live in an eccentric professor's manor. They had never seen the professor since their arrival, but they did have the unpleasant acquaintance with Mrs. Macready. Every now and then they had the company of little Chloe Kirke, who was the professor's granddaughter. She was in between the ages of Edmund and Lucy, the two youngest, and she often corrected any fallacy Mrs. Macready would tell them about the professor—particularly those describing him as an uptight man who did not enjoy the company of children.
One day, all five chose to explore the house. They had just left a room where it was empty apart from an old wardrobe when Lucy scampered from behind, yelling,
"I'm back! I'm back! You don't have to look anymore, I'm right here!"
Her siblings and Chloe turned to look at her. Peter smiled teasingly.
"You're going to have to hide longer than that if you want us to come looking for you."
Lucy had a puzzled look on her face.
"But I've been gone for hours!" she protested.
"Don't be silly, it was only a couple of seconds," Susan scolded.
This sent Lucy off jabbering.
"But I have," she insisted. "I found this place called Narnia inside the wardrobe, and had tea with Mr. Tumnus the Faun, and…oh, come see for yourself."
The other children followed Lucy back into the room, Susan rolling her eyes and Edmund with that unpleasant smirk. Lucy opened the door to the wardrobe.
"See, in there," she said. Susan stepped forward and peeked inside. Finally she snorted and stepped back out.
"You goose," she commented, "the only wood in here is the back of this wardrobe." As she said this, she knocked on it.
Peter laughed nervously. "Good one, Lucy. You almost had us fooled there."
"But I wasn't making it up," Lucy complained. She was rather upset.
"Who ever said there was anything wrong with imagination?" Chloe piped up.
At that, Lucy burst into tears and ran out of the room.
"What'd I…oh! Oh, dear!" gasped Chloe.
Edmund, however, was laughing.
"Hey, Lucy, let us know if you find any more countries—like in the washroom cupboards or something!" he called after her maliciously. Peter, Susan, and Chloe glared at him.
"Stop that," snapped Peter.
"That's not funny," said Chloe simultaneously.
"Come on," said Susan, "let's go, let's drop it."
With that, they walked out, and Peter, after taking one last look at the back of the wardrobe, closed the door.
Elsewhere, in the wardrobe "country" Lucy had just been in, there was a place called Narnia; however, Narnia was not a very pleasant place to visit at this particular time. When Lucy had first entered, she befriended a Faun named Mr. Tumnus who had helped her get back to her own world after telling her of the tyranny of the evil White Witch, Jadis.
Narnia was under an eternal curse of hard winter, where it always snowed, but it was never Christmas. Long ago, before Narnia was created, there was another world known as Charn, where Jadis and her older sister, Ara, shared sibling rivalry. They both craved strongly for power—and were in love with the same lord of their land. Queen Ara, before Jadis' anger had doomed their entire world to ruin and darkness, had an illegitimate daughter by this lord. When Jadis was awakened by a bell and hammer after a long time of a spell in slumber, so was her niece—16-year-old Princess Icis Coia.
When Jadis entered Narnia, she brought Icis to live in her icy palace—but not out of love for the child. Jadis despised young Icis, and kept her with her as her captive. Jadis had always called herself the rightful Queen of Narnia, but 4 empty Thrones in the castle of Cair Paravel waiting to be filled suggested otherwise.
At about the same time Mr. Tumnus and Lucy were hurrying back to the lamp-post to go through the wardrobe, they were spotted from way up in the trees by Icis, who had often come to visit the lamp-post. After watching Lucy and Mr. Tumnus depart, Icis was about to follow Lucy when suddenly, she looked in front of her to see a bright white whirlwind of snow until it formed into what looked like a Tree Spirit. Icis gasped, stepping back on other branches behind her and groping for her saber-like wand.
"You should not be here, Princess!" the spirit growled.
Before she could move, the spirit struck Icis hard in the jaw, knocking her off of her branch almost unconscious, her mouth full of blood. Icis, after bouncing off several branches, fell to the ground in a mound of snow, with more snow from the possessed tree's branches falling on her and covering her completely. With that, the Faun ran away before the young Princess would come out.
For a moment after the Tree Spirit had disappeared, Icis lay still on her back, her arms thrown over her head, her icy blue eyes now only slits, and her silver-blonde hair all messy and almost draping over her face. Suddenly, there were fast footprints followed by the howl of a Wolf. The footprints neared and finally stopped close by until Icis thought she could see black profiles of Wolves in the light of the lamp-post above them.
She could barely feel paws roughly digging the snow away from her until one Wolf dug the snow off of her face. He then bent down and sniffed her, his warm breath tickling her ear, and as she was beginning to regain consciousness, she felt the Wolf lick her cheek. Startled, Icis' eyes popped open, gazing into his familiar golden eyes. The Wolf smiled and laughed, revealing his white fangs.
"Today just wasn't your fortunate day, now, was it, Icis?" he growled, gently pawing away her veil of hair.
Consumed by her hatred for her evil aunt, Icis had always been bound and determined to escape Narnia to venture into the World of Men. Unfortunately, whenever she had come close to that lamp-post guiding her to freedom, the White Witch had always managed to find a way to catch up with her just in time to capture her again. This time, Jadis had Icis followed by her highly skilled secret police of Wolves led by their commander, Maugrim.
Icis glared at Maugrim and tried to sit up, but Maugrim quickly stepped over her so that his front paws were on either sides of her chest, forcing her to lie back down.
"Wait!" he snarled, snapping his jaws at Icis' face. "This means your crown." With that, Maugrim's jaws lunged for Icis' head, ripping her small, silver tiara from her tangled hair, followed by the other Wolves' laughter.
"No!" protested Icis, trying to grab her tiara back, "let go! Stop it!"
When Maugrim pulled it out of Icis' hair, he tossed it up spinning in the air and caught it again in his handsome snout. Maugrim stepped off of Icis and she sat up.
"Didn't the Queen tell you not to try and escape again?" he said casually through gritted teeth.
"Hmph! I could care less what she says!" snapped Icis. "She hates me just as much as I hate her!"
"Oh, you'll care," growled Maugrim, glaring at her with hungry eyes, "when she gives you your punishment and you'll never get to run this far again!"
Icis' eyes flashed. The last time Icis had tried escaping Narnia and was brought back to Jadis' palace, Jadis threatened to turn her into a Wolf. Now fully aware of her end, Icis hung her head in defeat. Maugrim had always been her worst enemy under her aunt, and what was even worse, she lost and was going to become part of his wretched species.
"You should have thought of that beforehand, pet," said Maugrim. "Come, your aunt is waiting."
With that, Icis stood up, reluctantly letting the other Wolves bind her hands to take her back to the castle. As they went away, Icis looked back beyond the lamp-post, and all she could see beyond the trees was just more woods and no one in sight to help her.
