Well, here's Chapter Two. I hope it's a little more interesting than the last chapter…

I do not own Narnia.

Chapter Two: Mr. Gopher and the News

I blinked, then, exchanged a glance with Greg who had been as baffled as I was. Surly I hadn't lost my mind, and neither did Greg since he had also heard the southern accented voice. We decided to take the voice's suggestion and started looking around the golden-colored grass. Directly in front of us was a copper-brown trail of dirt – the line was so perfect that I thought I could probably walk on top of it and not fall, but it wouldn't be such a good idea. At the front of us stood an impatient gopher that appeared halfway out of the hole.

A gopher? Talking? I looked back to Greg to make sure I hadn't been loosing my head, but he had been just as confused as I had been. But then again, how many kids fall out of the back of a wardrobe every now and then?

"You kids lost?"

"I guess you could say that..." I said. Greg and I really had no idea where we were, and it would seem logical for a gopher to know where it was going, but Greg was starting to get second thoughts. He grabbed part of my blanket that wrapped around me, but the blanket really had no purpose other than the fact that it was soaking in my blood. Since I hadn't passed out from blood loss, it couldn't be too bad, right?

"Have you lost your mind? There's no way I'm following a gopher." He hissed.

"Well do you have any bright ideas? He seems nice enough."

"Are you even listening to yourself? Gophers shouldn't even be talking! They dig and eat dirt."

I looked back towards the gopher for a minute. He was getting impatient, but not as impatient as Greg had. It was driving me nuts, but then again, I wasn't one to talk. I wondered how many times I had made him mad because I didn't like the cold and wouldn't even think about going outside.

"Well Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. And I seem to recall that you don't go into a new dimension – or whatever this is – by falling into a wardrobe."

He sighed.

"This'll only take a minute. Honest." I assured him. By the look of his expression, he wasn't convinced. As we walked back towards the beaver, I heard him muttering something about nothing ever taking a minute, but I shrugged it off.

"Excuse me … um… Mr. Gopher?"

He blurted out laughing, but then he settled down as he realized that we hadn't been laughing with him. "Oh, you were serious? No one's called me Mr. Gofer since… since… well actually no one's ever bothered putting a 'Mister' in front of Gopher. I'm the only one around here, so there's no point, really. But yeah, you're lost right?"

I nodded.

"Well, you two 're in the Golden Hills. There's been new additions to Narnia since the last war."

My jaw dropped in disbelief. I was starting to wonder if I had been going insane. "Did you say Narnia?"

"Yeah, well, what other place is there better 'n Narnia? And if I recall… you two must be human. Not that many of them are around here, actually, everyone's been buggin' out because they think the humans have been extinct. Buncha loonies if you ask me. If you don' have any real proof, then, well there's no point in rumors is there?"

I nodded, agreeing completely. "Wait… you said you were the only gopher around here. Why is that?"

He chuckled. "The other gophers are too scared to go 'round here, but this is were they have the best soil."

Greg raised a brow with suspicion. "Too scared? Of what?"

The gopher shrugged. "Meh. They say that the Serpent King roams around here, but I've never seen 'im. You'd think all gophers would have a good sense of direction, but the Serpent King lives in the South Borders, not north. Nutty neighbors…"

He looked up to the sky and gaped. "Blimy! Is that the time? I'm gonna be late for lunch! Sorry kids. Gotta run… well… dig actually."

Before I could say "bye" he ducked his head under the hole and crawled through his tunnel. Once the gopher's digging was out of sight, Greg stood in front of me.

"All right, you've had your fun. Let's go home."

I sighed. "Fine…"

We weren't really that far from the wardrobe, but it took us longer to climb up the hill (mostly because I hadn't been use to climbing unless it was one of those rock-climbing walls that were usually at fairs), but when we were back in the study, everything seemed to be where we left it. None of my books had been picked up and what baffled me the most was that Greg's friends were still looking for us. As he walked out of the study, I shut the wardrobe doors and started to pick up my untouched paperbacks. His friends looked towards me with puzzled expressions.

"What'd you do, climb a tree?"

"Worse, fell down a hill." I grumbled.

They exchanged glances, much like how Greg and I had when we thought we had gone "loonie."

"She's kidding. I found her hiding on the roof and she fell down." Greg said quickly.

They shrugged. "So we're still going to the bridge tomorrow, right?"

Greg nodded, then looked towards me. I blinked, but then I realized why he had even came to the house in the first place. I opened my mouth to say "no", but stopped. I had just manipulated him to explore (to use the gopher's term) Narnia, and even though it hadn't been very long (and I had no idea how right I was), I still owed him that much.

"Can I come?"

"Sure." Greg said enthusiastically. He ignored the shocked expressions of his two friends as he told me the time they were meeting. Once the plan was set, the three left the study and headed out towards the door.

When they had finally left the house, I walked towards the guest room I had been sleeping in, but Auntie personalized it just for me by adding a bookshelf (she knew how much I loved to read by the fire). I placed the books on an empty space, and made my way towards the kitchen. I was surprised to see that my aunt wasn't there, but was a little relieved when I saw her note on the refrigerator. She had gone out to the market for some shopping, which wouldn't take that long, but it would be long enough for me to clean up my pajamas and wounds.

Auntie hadn't been too surprised when she saw me in different pajamas and band-aids all over me. Apparently, Greg had found her in an isle and explained what had happened to me (the same way he had explained to his friends) so I went along with it, acting like I was angry at him (even though I was actually very grateful. I owed him big time).

"Greg says he's sorry."

"Yeah? Well 'sorry' doesn't heal wounds." I grumbled. If I had started acting nice all of a sudden, no doubt my Auntie would have been suspicious, so I had to go along with it.

"Didn't he say he was going to take you to the bridge?"

I stopped, trying to make a way that would give me reason to go to the bridge. "I saw a new book at the bookstore… said that I might see him around because the bridge leads to that part of town." Then I shrugged. "Maybe he was being delirious. You know how boys are."

Auntie giggled at my stubbornness. She found it cute that I didn't even consider having any sort of attraction towards boys, but on the contrary, I did. I just never told anyone about it because I thought it was weird talking about guys all day. The only person I ever talked to about advice was my sister (who my parents had been visiting in Alaska. I would have gone myself, but I can't stand the cold, which was why Auntie's house was the next best thing).

"Well, it's getting late. Good night Aunt Meg."

"It's Auntie, dear."

I nodded with a chuckle, giving her a kiss on the cheek as I headed towards my personalized guest room.

The next morning, I woke up early with the smell of maple syrup flowing inside my nose, causing my mouth to water. Auntie had made blueberry waffles with a pancake mix, which seemed simple enough to not screw up. But Auntie almost always got it right. After all, no one could be that perfect, right?

Instead of immediately going towards the table, I remembered that I was suppose to go to the bridge today, and if I hadn't dressed now it would have taken me forever to get ready. I gazed out in the sky, glad to see that the sun was in view, but it threatened to hide behind one of the clouds at any minute. I rushed towards my dresser, pulling out a long jean skirt, white tights and a white turtleneck. Lastly, I pulled out a brown wool sweater (on the front of the sweater two large poms dangled from string; on the back was a hood).

When I was convinced I was decent enough, I slipped on some high-heeled boots that match with my sweater and walked towards the kitchen. She gave a warm smile as she placed my plate onto the table and went back towards the stove to take her pot and clean it.

"Your mom called last night and she said she had good news."

I bit into the small piece of waffle that hung on the fork. "Oh?" I asked curiously.

"She said that the flight has been canceled due to a blizzard. Your sister decided to go back home once the storm's passed."

For some reason, I wasn't catching on. "So…?"

"You're going home in two days, isn't that wonderful?"

I nearly yelled, but forgot that I had been eating. So instead of yelling, I started choking. Auntie rushed over, telling me to drink the orange juice while she gently rubbed my back. Once the coughing had subsided, she asked me what was wrong. What's wrong? I won't be able to go to Narnia, that's what! And what about Greg?

"I've only been here a week!" I complained.

"But honey, you've been complaining about the cold ever since you've got here. I thought you would be thrilled."

That's beside the point… if Narnia let me go in, then they probably need me! I yelled mentally. Okay, so I was going a little over my head. But hey, Narnia doesn't just go and pop up at the end of every wardrobe. Wait… why am I getting so worked up on it? And how would I even know if that really was the Narnia? The gopher even said that the other ones were nutty. So what was his excuse?

"It's just… never mind. I'm going out."

Before my aunt could call me, I slammed the front door shut, stomping into the snow-covered path, but I didn't really have anywhere to go… not for hours at least.