Chapter 2
Disclaimer I do not own Narnia, Aslan, or anything C.S. Lewis created. I can only add. It's his work and I'll try my best to make it worthy of being a fanfic of the Chronicles of Narnia.
Only a few days later, I was returning from using the bathroom at around midnight when I saw a candle flame and a pink robe disappear around the corner. I knew it could only be Lucy and so I followed to see if I could tease her about anything else. She had been coming up with the strangest ideas lately.
"Lucy" I walked across the room toward the wardrobe, my slippers making no noise on the wood floor. I reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open with a jerk.
"BOO!"
But she wasn't there. I looked around to see if she had stepped behind the wardrobe to fool me, but no. she wasn't there. I carefully stepped into the wardrobe, calling her name. closing the door behind me, I went further back into the wardrobe. It certainly didn't seem this big from the outside. I reached out with my hands but I could not feel the back. I walked on, brushing by the fur coats that were in my way. Suddenly, I felt something prickly against my hand. I pulled it down to look in the dim light, and saw that it was a tree branch! But how was there a tree branch in the wardrobe? And where was the light coming from? I took another step and I heard a crunch! Snow. I took another step and tripped over something, falling flat on my back in another world.
It was snowing. There were evergreens all around and the sky above me was filled with snow clouds. I got up and looked around. Lucy had not lied. I started calling for her again, but she was no where in sight.
"Lucy! I think I believe you now!"
I walked past a lamp post and thought it odd that a lamp post would be out in the middle of no where. Gradually, I found that I was following a snow covered path, wide enough for at least 3 horses to walk. No sooner had I discovered this than I heard a sound that almost made my heart stop.
Bells.
I looked toward the sound and saw something white moving along the path.
"Lucy?" I asked.
Suddenly, four white reindeer bounded out of the white, pulling a white sleigh. They bowled me over and I lay motionless as they stopped. My eyes grew wide in terror as a dwarf with a beard as long as I was tall jumped out of the sleigh with a bull whip in his hand and started running toward me. Barely able to think, I managed to scramble up and run for my life.
The dwarf swung his whip at me and it wrapped around my legs, pulling me down. I rolled on my back right before the dwarf jumped on me. He pulled a knife out and held it to my throat.
I heard a voice from the sleigh.
"What is it now, Ginarrbrik?"
With my only hope of survival in that voice, I called out.
"Make him let me go!"
The dwarf pressed the knife harder. "How dare you address the queen of Narnia!"
"I didn't know!" I protested.
He raised the knife above his head to strike. "You shall know her better hereafter!"
"Wait!"
The knife lowered and the dwarf and I looked up to see the most beautiful lady I had ever seen standing in the snow. Her hair was blond. Her dress was white like snowflakes. On her head was a crown of ice. In her hand, was a crystal wand. She stood regally like a queen and I realized as I stood that she was a queen. The queen of Narnia. Her voice was like silk.
"What is your name, Son of Adam?"
I gave my name.
"And how did you come to enter my dominion?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was just following my sister and…"
She cut me off. "Sister? How many are you?"
"4. Lucy's the only one who's been here before. She said she met a faun called… Tumnus. Peter and Susan didn't believe her. I didn't either."
Again she cut me off. "You look so cold. will you come and sit with me?"
I nodded and followed her to her sleigh. It WAS cold out, considering it was snowing and all. She sat me down next to her on her sleigh and wrapped furs around me.
"Now, how about something hot to drink?"
I nodded eagerly. "Yes please… Your Majesty."
She nodded and pulled out a metal vial. She flipped it open and a small green drop landed on the snow. I watched in amazement as the snow started to take shape. When it was finished, it formed a perfect metal cup. Ginarrbrik bowed and handed me the steaming cup.
"Your drink, sire."
"How did you do that?" it was the best tasting chocolate milk I have ever tasted in my life!
The queen smiled. "I can make anything you like."
I sipped again. "Can you make me taller?"
The queen laughed. "Anything you'd like to eat."
I looked up hopefully. "Turkish Delight?"
Again, the little metal vial came out and another green drop landed on the snow. This time, a metal box of the same make as the cup appeared. The queen took my drink from me as the dwarf handed me the box. I opened it and to my pure and utter joy, there in the box were several big pieces of Turkish Delight. My favorite!
As I was eating, the queen suddenly spoke.
"I would very much like to meet your family."
I looked up from my delicious snack. "Why? They're nothing special."
The queen pulled off the dwarf's red hat and wiped the powdered sugar off my mouth.
"Of I'm sure they're not nearly as delightful as you are. But you see, I have no children of my own. And you are exactly the sort of boy who I could see one day becoming Prince of Narnia… maybe even King?"
I looked up at this. "Really?"
"Of course you'd have to bring your family."
I sighed. "Oh, you mean, Peter would be king too?"
The queen laughed and shook her head at the same time. "Oh no! No! But a king needs servants."
The suggestion brightened my mood considerably. "I guess I could bring them."
She took the box of candy off my lap and turned my head so I was facing two small hills.
"Beyond these woods, you seed those two little hills? My house is right between them." She gave me a nudge to get off the sleigh. "You'd love it there. It has whole rooms simply stuffed with Turkish Delight."
I stepped off the sleigh. "Couldn't I have some more now?"
For the first time, she shouted at me. "No!" then her voice went back to a whisper. "Don't' want to ruin your appetite. Besides, you and I are going to be seeing each other again very soon, aren't we?"
I nodded enthusiastically. "I hope so… Your Majesty."
She smiled at me. "Until then… dear one. Oh I'm going to miss you!"
The dwarf cracked the whip and the sleigh took off into the whiteness, leaving me staring after it. No sooner had it gone than Lucy came running up to me. And to my surprise, a boy about 16 came from the other side. Lucy gave me a huge hug which I finally was able to push out of.
"You got in too! Isn't it wonderful?" Lucy squealed as she hugged me.
"Where have you been? And who is this?" I asked.
"This is Justin, my friend. His twin sister Mariel is at Mr. Tumnus's house. That's where I've been. He's fine! The White Witch hasn't found out anything about my meeting him!"
I eyed Justin. "The White Witch?"
For the first time, Justin spoke. He was a tall boy with dark red hair that looked almost brown. It was that shade between brown and red that some call strawberry blond. But depending on what light they're standing in, it becomes brown or red. He had a low voice as if he was almost ready to growl. I was sure that he didn't like me very much and I could tell that he didn't normally sound that way. His eyes were bright blue, and from the way they sparkled, I could tell that he knew much more than he was going to say. There was a depth to those eyes that frightened me, a coldness. "She calls herself the queen of Narnia, but she really isn't."
My heart quickened. The queen of Narnia? The lady I had just met was a witch?! No, it could not be true. She had been extremely nice to me. Besides, all this about a witch was just second hand from a faun that they barely knew. Why should I believe them?
Lucy looked at my worried glance. "Are you alright? You look awful."
"Well what do you expect?" I asked. "It's freezing! How do we get out of here?"
Lucy took my hand and led me away. "Come on. This way. Good bye Justin!"
"Bye Lucy!" Justin called back. I watched him over my shoulder as he ran back the other direction until I almost hit a tree. Lucy pulled me out of the way just in time. We made it back through the wardrobe and before I could stop her, Lucy was in my room on Peter's bed, telling him the whole story!
"Peter! Peter wake up! It's there! it's really there!"
Peter rolled over and yawned as I sat on the edge of my bed. "Lucy what are you talking about?" He asked.
Lucy continued to try to drag him out from under his covers. "Narnia! It's all in the wardrobe like I told you!"
Susan came in, tying her robe. "You've just been dreaming Lucy."
Lucy shook her head. "But I haven't! I've seen Mr. Tumnus again! And this time, he went too!" She pointed at me.
The others stared at me. Peter shook his head in disbelief. "You saw the faun?"
I shook my head.
Lucy rewound and tried to explain what had happened. "Well, he didn't actually go there with me… he was… what were you doing?"
I shook my head again. "I- I was just playing along. I'm sorry Peter. I shouldn't have encouraged her. But you know what little children are like. They just don't know when to stop pretending." I gave Lucy a smug look. She couldn't get out of this one. Besides, I wasn't so sure that we hadn't pretended it all. it was so much like a dream, I almost believed that it had been a dream.
Lucy's face scrunched up and she began to cry. She ran out of the room with Susan on her heals. Peter sighed in frustration and jumped out of bed, pushing me back onto my bed as he ran out the door. I stayed there, not caring what was going on. I was asleep by the time Peter came back into the bedroom.