Chapter 2

When they woke the next morning it took the girls awhile to remember just exactly where they were, but once they did they were happy it wasn't a dream. "Oh," yawned Emily, "I'm glad I didn't just dream that I slept in Narnia! That does sound strange!"

"Yes," agreed Sarah, "I'm glad too! And you're right it does sound strange to say that we slept in Narnia! Come on, let's see if Mr. Tumnus is up." Sure enough he was, in fact, he was making breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! There was practically everything you could ever want or need for breakfast, pancakes, eggs, ham (which Mr. Tumnus called bacon), bacon (which Mr. Tumnus called streaky bacon), waffles, toast, milk, all sorts of juices (some of which you wouldn't find in our world, such as Fireberry juice, which is really quite good—as I've been told. It tastes like...well… I don't know what it tastes like you'll just have to go to Narnia and find out for yourself!) and of course there was tea! Sarah and Emily weren't surprised, "Of course," they thought, "Narnia is based on a British culture and it was created by a British man! So why wouldn't they have tea at every meal?" At last Mr. Tumnus said breakfast was ready and they all sat down at Mr. Tumnus' kitchen table, which was actually very nice. Mr. Tumnus just started eating and Sarah asked, "Mr. Tumnus, do you pray here in Narnia?"

"Do we what?" replied Mr. Tumnus.

"You know pray. Talk to God (or Aslan as the case may be) and thank him for your meals," put in Emily.

"I still don't exactly know what you mean," said Mr. Tumnus sorrowfully.

"Oh, that's okay! Never mind! Let's just eat," encouraged Sarah.

Sarah and Emily both said a prayer silently, because it didn't feel right to them to eat without thanking God first, even if He was a lion. After breakfast the girls asked Mr. Tumnus if they could go out and play in the snow. He said they may if they got dressed warmly. They said they had no other clothes than the ones they were wearing. So he went to somewhere—in his attic or something like that—and brought out the most beautiful dresses the girls had ever seen, though they were only play dresses, (in Narnia everything looks beautiful no matter what it's made for. The rags are even beautiful!). The dresses had matching cloaks to go with them. Mr. Tumnus said they could wear these to go play in the snow. The girls didn't think they looked very warm, but they put them on anyway. They were surprised to find they actually were very warm. They were about to run outside when Mr. Tumnus stopped them and said, "Don't forget these!" He held out their cloaks to them. First before she said anything Emily whispered to Sarah "Is it okay to thank a faun?"

"Yes!" said Sarah giggling. Both the girls thanked Mr. Tumnus and hurried out side. Once they were outside Emily said to Sarah, "I can't believe these things are so warm!"

"Yeah, and you know what's even stranger, these things are also very cool, as in keeping you cool on a hot day!"

"Oh, yeah? How do you know?" questioned Emily.

"Because," answered Sarah, "you are wearing the dress that Lucy wore in Narnia and I am wearing the one Susan wore!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah, really! Look!"

Emily looked down at her dress and saw Sarah was right. "Wow! These must be magic dresses or something, then!"

"Yes, I guess they are!" replied Sarah.

All of a sudden Sarah yelled, "Ow!" Emily asked if she was alright and what happened. Sarah said she was fine and that something had hit her in the face. Then Emily got hit in the face and she yelled, "Ouch!" This time Sarah saw what it was. It was a snowball! She looked around for the person who'd thrown it, but she could find no one. Then again Sarah got hit. She whipped around just in time to see someone dash behind a tree. She knew exactly which tree it was, so she made a big snowball with her hands and slowly walked to the other side of the tree and not waiting to see who it was, she threw her snowball right in his face! "Ow! I didn't know girls could throw so hard!" yelled the stranger. Then Sarah realized who it was. She looked around to see if anyone else was here and this is what she saw, she saw that William Mosley had thrown the first snowball at her, then Skandar Keynes had thrown the next snowball at Emily and then William threw another snowball at her. And the one she threw the snowball at was William. Emily was beginning to wonder where Sarah had gone so she went looking for her, but this time she was armed (with a snowball of course). Finally, Emily found Sarah and she also saw the boys and figured they threw the snowballs. Sarah said they did. Emily was looking around at everybody just standing there and then said, "Well, what are we standing around here for? Let's have a snowball fight!" Everyone agreed. Since there was an even number they decided to do teams. The first time it was boys against girls. And the girls won! The next time it was the two "S's" (Sarah and Skandar) against…well-they couldn't figure out something for the other team so it was just Emily and William. The next time the boys switched places and Skandar was on Emily's team and William was on Sarah's team, but in the end they all liked it best boys against girls so they played like that for most of the time. The girls won more than half the time. Then they all got hot and tired (they were surprised at how hot they got considering it was at least 28 degrees, maybe colder) and decided to take a break. Sarah was getting very curious about this whole thing so she asked the boys what they knew. William said, "We don't know much. Only that some Americans came to Narnia and things got a little mixed up." (Sarah and Emily had started to talk in British accents since they had been around so many British people so the boys didn't recognize them as Americans.) Sarah and Emily started to laugh and Skandar asked what was so funny. Emily answered still giggling a bit, "We are the Americans!"

"You are?" asked the boys in a shocked voice.

"Yes we are," said Sarah dropping her accent. "And Aslan told us that we were called here for a purpose and that we might have partners and they may or may not be you two."

The boys were surprised that Aslan told them that much. And Emily explained that they had asked Him about it. Just as Sarah was beginning to feel as if she couldn't bear it any longer not knowing what was happening she heard something no one else heard, she heard the noise of paws walking across the snow. She turned around to see Aslan standing in front of her. She cried out, "Aslan!" And the others turned to see him too. Emily ran up to him and immediately asked him, "Did you get everything cleared up?" Which is what Sarah was going to ask, but Emily beat her to it. "Yes," answered Aslan, "I did."

"So?" asked an eager Sarah picking up her accent again.

"Well it turns out," replied the Lion, "that I have some good news and some bad news."

"The bad news first, please," said Emily.

"The bad news isn't really all that bad, but it's not all that good either. The Rule of the White Witch is about to end—"

"I don't see how that's bad!" interrupted Skandar.

"Skandar! It's rude to interrupt, especially Aslan!" cried Emily.

"Sorry, please carry on, Aslan," answered Skandar.

"It is bad in this way," continued Aslan, "you are the ones chosen to end it."

"I still don't see how that's bad!" persisted Skandar.

"Well if you'd stop interrupting and let Aslan finish we'd know why it's bad!" said William.

Aslan said it was okay and He started again, "This is why it's bad. One of you will have to be a traitor."

"What?! Great! I was afraid of that!" complained Sarah.

"Who, Aslan?" asked Emily.

"Skandar."

"What? Why me?" questioned Skandar.

"Because," replied Aslan, "you are the right age."

"Right age!" exclaimed Sarah. "If anyone is the right age it's me because I'm older than Emily, but younger than William and Skandar!"

"Ah, yes Daughter of Eve, you are, but I didn't think that you'd want to be a traitor, besides he's been Edmund so he's sort of used to it."

"Well, I don't exactly want to be one, but I would like it to stay in the order that it is in the book. I mean I'd like the second youngest—which would be me—to be the traitor."

"Are you sure Daughter of Eve?"

"Yes I'm sure!"

"Alright then come let me breathe on all you."

"What will that do Aslan?" inquired Emily.

"It will allow you to have the adventure and really feel as the characters are feeling. In other words you won't know what's going to happen next."

"Wait a minute, you mean that we're going to have the adventure of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?"

"Yes, but it won't be exactly the same. One, you will use your own names. Two, it won't start the same way the LW&W starts—with WWII I mean. And three, it will be arranged a little bit differently."

Emily looked a bit disappointed and so Aslan asked her what was wrong and she said that she really didn't want to have the adventure of the LW&W even if she didn't know what was going on. So Aslan then turned to everyone and said that if they wanted they could skip right to the Golden Age where they were all four kings and queens and then they could have an adventure that was completely new. "If you don't have the adventure of the Horse and His Boy, that is." the Lion added.

"Aslan if we skip right to the Golden Age will we have to be all grown up?" asked William.

"You can," replied Aslan, "but you don't have to be."

"I'd rather not!" everyone said at the same time.

"But," said Aslan, "you might feel more worthy of becoming kings and queens if you actually accomplish something."

"True," commented Sarah, "we might. Aslan, could you make it so it's the night of your death, and then we go on from there?"

"Yes, I can and I will. But I still should breath on you so you won't know that I'm going to come back to life, because it would kind of ruin everything."

"I should think so!" exclaimed Emily.

So Aslan breathed on them, they closed their eyes and all they saw for a minute was a sea of gold (don't ask me how they saw with their eyes closed, but somehow they did). When they opened their eyes the girls were in their tent and the boys in theirs. They were all confused for a moment, but then they remembered—or at least they thought they remembered—that they had all just heard the White Witch say, "Her blood is my property…that girl will die on the Stone Table as is tradition!" You might be wondering why it says "her" and "that girl". Well, it turns out that Sarah (because of age order) was the traitor. Of course she really never had to betray anyone because they started after she'd changed. Now, before I go any further I must make something clear. Sarah, Emily, William and Skandar were not brain-washed, they could still think and act as they pleased, but they just didn't know what was coming next and it would wear off at the coronation. As I said the girls were in their tent and the boys were in theirs, but the girls couldn't get to sleep. Emily was tossing and turning trying to get comfortable and Sarah was just lying there with her eyes closed listening. Listening to Emily move about and listing to the soft padding of a sad lion's paws going by their tent. At first she thought nothing of this, but then Emily whispered, "Sarah!"

Sarah immediately opened her eyes and saw that Emily was getting up and grabbing her cape and gifts; she got up and did the same. They quietly walked out of their tent and followed Aslan a little ways. Finally Aslan said, "Shouldn't you both be in bed?"

"We couldn't sleep." answered Emily.

"Please, Aslan, couldn't we come with you?" asked Sarah.

"I would be glad of the company for awhile. Thank you."

The girls buried their cold hands in Aslan's warm golden mane. Sarah said afterward that she never thought a lion's mane would be that rough, but it was very smooth and comfortable. All of a sudden (after quite awhile of walking) Aslan stopped and said, "It is time. From here I must go on alone."

"But Aslan!" Sarah protested.

"You have to trust me on this, for it must be done. Thank you Sarah. Thank you Emily. And farewell."

The girls sadly let go of Aslan's mane and let him go on ahead. Emily was about to turn back when Sarah placed her hand on Emily's shoulder and looked at her. Emily knew that look, it meant: "There is no way I'm going to leave Aslan so I'm staying here. Are you with me?" Emily sighed and followed Sarah behind a bush. They sat there watching as all of the White Witch's followers kicked and hit and made fun of Aslan. The girls were horrified; they could hardly stand to watch. Finally Aslan was dragged upon to the Stone Table. And the Witch knelt down beside him. She said something that the girls had a hard time understanding, but they got that the Witch was making fun of Aslan for sacrificing his life for Sarah. The Witch stood up and said in a loud voice, "Tonight the Deep Magic will be appeased, but tomorrow we will take Narnia forever!" The girls gasped and whispered to each other, "I sure hope she's wrong!"

"In that knowledge…despair and…DIE!" The girls did not see the actual moment of killing; they couldn't bear to look so they turned their faces. They heard the Witch yell, "The great cat is dead!" Sarah and Emily looked up and there were tears in their eyes. "General, prepare your troops for battle," she looked down at the dead Aslan, "how ever short it may be!" Otmin gave a great bellowing roar, not half so beautiful and strong as Aslan's!