"Gastro Vascular." Susan said while Lucy looked out the window at the rain.
'So much for anything we want.' Lucy thought to herself while her sister tried to quiz her brother with words from the dictionary. Alice was at one of the tables playing solitaire since Lucy didn't know how to play any card games other than go fish, and Edmund didn't want to play with her at all.
"Come on Peter Gastro Vascular." Susan said to her brother trying to make the time go faster.
"Is it Latin?" He asked her, truly not wanting to play the game. And no one could blame him.
"Yes." Susan said smiling that her brother seemed to become interested again.
"Is it Latin for worst game ever invented?" Edmund said from his spot underneath a chair and Alice laughed with a snort finding the comment funny.
Susan however didn't seem to find it funny and slammed the rather large dictionary shut.
"We could play hide and seek." Lucy said coming over from the window, and Alice liked the idea. Who knew all the places they could hide in the manor. Peter seemed to think about it for a moment before looking at Susan.
"But we're already having so much fun." He said and Susan gave him a look that showed how 'amused' she was at her brother.
"Come on Peter please!" Lucy said dragging out the last word, and by then Alice knew they were going to play. Who could say no to such a cute girl as Lucy?
The others just looked at him, Susan waiting and Edmund annoyed before he began top count and Lucy started to run.
"What?" Edmund asked, clearly not wanting to play but was pulled up by Alice and pushed out the door before she ran to find her own hiding spot.
She saw Susan getting into a trunk and soon enough found herself running and seeing a tapestry on the wall. On it was a very big tree with silver looking apples and looking behind it she found a small alcove and dove in to hide and wait though she didn't have to wait long.
"It's all right, I'm back! I'm all right!" This made Alice wonder what was wrong and she poked her head out from the tapestry. She saw Susan coming from her hiding space and soon made to follow her.
"Weren't you wondering where I was?" She heard Lucy asking from around the corner and followed Susan to see Peter Edmund and Lucy standing in the hallway.
"That's why he was seeking you." Edmund told her a bit rudely, but Alice could understand why. Since Lucy was the one who wanted to play, you'd think she would know the rules.
"Does this mean we win?" Susan asked and Alice looked at them with a smile.
"I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore." Peter told them and Edmund looked at her wondering what had happened.
"But I've been gone for hours." Lucy told them, her brows furrowed in confusion.
"What?" Alice asked while she walked up to Lucy and knelt down.
"Lucy we just started play, I just found my hiding spot." Alice told her and Lucy looked shocked.
"But I went to Narnia, it's in the back of the wardrobe!" She said running back to the room she came from.
"Wardrobe? Lucy come back!" Peter said to her as the followed.
Soon they were in a spare room where a massive wardrobe was standing.
'It's really pretty.' Alice thought looking at the designs as Lucy told her siblings more about the land she went to, and the Faun she met Mr. Tumnus.
"It's right through there, the way to Narnia!" Lucy said and Susan went forward looking inside and pushing away the coats, while she and Edmund looked at the back.
As he knocked on the wood she just looked at him and shrugged her shoulders not really knowing what to say. It was just an old, though pretty, wardrobe and there wasn't anything special about it.
"Lucy the only wood in here is at the back of the wardrobe." Susan told her sister. Lucy looked at the wardrobe not believing her ears. It had been there, she knew it!
"One game at a time Lu, we don't all have your imagination." Peter said to her, Alice understood what he meant. Lucy was young, she probably played pretend all the time. Soon they were leaving the room.
"But I wasn't imagining!" Lucy told them starting to tear up and Alice felt for her, but a forest in the back of a wardrobe? That just wasn't possible.
"Lucy that's enough." Susan told her in a stricter voice.
"I wouldn't lie about this!" Lucy yelled at them, she couldn't believe they wouldn't know she was telling the truth!
"Well I believe you." Edmund started, catching Alice off guard.
"You do?" Lucy asked hopefully, but a bit surprised, out of everyone she expected Edmund to stand up for her last.
"Of course, didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboard?" he had only meant for it to be a joke, probably to stop Lucy from crying but it hadn't worked out how he had expected.
"Oh will you just stop? You just have to make everything worse don't you?" Peter asked him, and Alice wanted to stop it right there. She knew they would start fighting so she moved forward only to be held back by Susan who shook her head.
"It was just a joke." Edmund said, and he meant it. He wanted to make everyone laugh and for Lucy to say she was only pretending, but no Peter just had to take everything so seriously!
"When are you gonna learn to grow up?" Peter asked his brother in a patronizing tone.
"Shut up! You think your dad but you're not!" Edmund yelled at his brother before leaving the room and Alice let him past her.
"Well that was nicely handled." Susan said before following her younger brother and leaving the room.
Alice was left with Peter and Lucy, but before she could speak she was cut off by Lucy.
"But it really was there." Lucy said to them, before Peter looked at her with a sorry look.
"Susan's right Lucy, that's enough." And soon he was out of the room leaving Alice with Lucy.
She didn't really know her place here, she wasn't Lucy's sister or even a member of their family but she still felt bad. Lucy really seemed to believe in this world and probably just wanted to tell someone about the world she had imagined so she thought she might as well hear her out.
"Lucy why don't you tell me about this Mr. Tumnus?" Alice asked her, hoping it would put her in better spirits.
"You mean you believe me?" Lucy asked her, wiping away the tears in her eyes.
"Well, I may be a bit skeptical but maybe your story could convince me." She said holding out her hand and leading her to the wardrobe.
"So you don't believe me." Lucy said with a sad look on her face.
"Lucy the world you're talking about sounds marvelous, but a bit farfetched when you think about it. But I would like to hear about it never the less. It sounds interesting." Alice said, so Lucy sat down and told Alice all about Narnia and Mr. Tumnus. She told her about the strange lamppost in the middle of the forest an about the Witch.
"So there's a witch in Narnia?" Alice asked as Lucy told of her escape.
"Yes, she's the one who makes it always winter. She told everyone in Narnia that if humans find their way into Narnia they have to give them up to her." Lucy told her in a low voice. As if speaking a secret, but then again to Lucy it almost was.
"I wonder what she does to them?" Alice wondered aloud but then caught herself as she realized that she was almost beginning to believe her. The way Lucy told her tale so genuinely made Alice want to go to Narnia herself.
"Well she makes it always winter but never Christmas so it can't be anything good." Lucy said using her ten-year-old logic.
"Always winter and never Christmas? That's terrible." Alice said to Lucy, she soon saw that it was getting dark so she stood up. "I think everyone's going to wonder where we are soon. So why don't we wash up and head to supper?"
Lucy nodded and took Alice's hand before they made their way out of the room.
"Oh I'll close the wardrobe. We don't want Mrs. Macready to know we've been here now do we?" Alice told Lucy before she pushed her lightly out of the room.
As she made her way to the wardrobe she felt a cold chill run up her back, and she looked around wondering what had made it. Finding nothing she closed the door and left the room, but not without thinking how the tree on the wardrobe looked similar to the tree on the tapestry.