BACK IN 1942

Rain pattered on the window, ruining any plans of exploration. Lucy stared out glumly, disheartened. She heard her sister behind her, drone on, "Gas-tro-vas-cu-lar." Susan looked to Peter, who was lazily staring into space, bored. Susan huffed impatiently, "Come on, Peter. Gas-tro-vas-cu-lar."

Edmund was carving his initials into a chair leg. Peter looked – with boredom – at his sister and drawled, "Is it Latin?"

"Yes..." Susan trailed.

Edmund propped himself up on his elbows to look at her, "Is it Latin for worst game ever invented?"

Peter laughed to himself as Susan huffed and slammed the dictionary closed. Lucy looked at her siblings hopefully, "We could play hide-and-seek..."

Peter looked at Susan as he drawled sarcastically, "but we're already having so much fun!" Susan glared at him.

Lucy pouted as she looked at her brother, "Come on, Peter, please. Please, please, please..."

Peter let a small smile crack as he started counting, "One... two... three... four..."

2003

The next morning Richelle, Jo and Lulu were at breakfast with the others. They all chatted idly when Mrs. Davis' sister asked the girls what they would like to do in the future.

Jo sort of froze in her spot with her fork stuck in the air and her mouth wide open. Richelle giggled before looking to the others, "Well I'd like to do something in film. I like to act."

The old woman smiled gently, "That's wonderful, dear. I'm sure you'd like the hear the stories your great-great-grandfather used to tell. Maybe we'll share them someday." She looked to Jo, "And you, dear?"

Jo faltered, "I'm... actually not sure. I don't really have a calling like my sister. I guess I just have to wait and see until I find something for me..."

Mrs. Davis smiled gently at her, "I know you must feel a little lost but don't worry, dear, you will find your calling. You just have to be patient."

Jo looked down with a half-hearted smile when the old man she'd walked with last night said, "I don't think she'll have to wait much longer."

Jo looked up, half-startled, and looked at the man's wise twinkling blue eyes. She smiled, genuinely, and thankfully before giving a short nod as they all went back to eating.

Later Jo laid in her bed with a book on her lap, while she stared at the ceiling. For some reason she felt some sort of connection to the man with blue eyes. She felt like she knew him from some other time or something. But that wasn't possible. She'd never met him before, she knew. But she felt like she had.

She sighed as she looked back down to her book and started reading again.

Richelle helped Lulu put the dishes away before walking around the halls. She ventured up the stairs when she noticed that the decorative carvings turned from flowers to apples. She found a large wooden door and opened it. It looked like an old spare room, it was empty save for a large old wooden wardrobe.

Curiously, Richelle walked to the imposing wardrobe and ran her hands over the apple carvings. She opened the wardrobe as it began to glow, slightly frightening her. When the glow resided all that remained was a bunch of fur coats smashed together. The glow grew from the back of the wardrobe. Richelle stepped inside and pushed the fur coats to the side, following the glowing light. She walked to the very back when she lost her footing and fell face first into... snow?

Richelle looked behind her and saw a winter wonderland. A snow covered forest of pine trees that went on for miles. Richelle gasped, "Whoa..." She stood herself up and started walking forward. She looked back, kept a trained eye one the way she came in before she kept walking. Just to take a look around.

Soon she heard voices. She heard a man ask, "But you're saying, you're a daughter of Eve?"

She broke the line of trees and found herself in a clearing. She saw the man and a little girl talking beside a lamp post that seemed so out of place, yet like it belonged there. She gasped when she saw the man was half-goat, "What the hell? A faun!"

They both looked startled at her. The little girl smiled, "Hello!"

Richelle smiled, laughing to herself, "Hello."

The faun looked between them, muttering to himself, "Two of them..." He looked at them, worriedly, "Are you both daughters of Eve?"

Lucy pouted in confusion, "Well, my mum's name is Helen..."

Richelle shook her head, "No, hun, he means Eve as in Adam and Eve. The first people on Earth who created the human race. As the story goes."

The goat-man nodded, "Yes.. you are, in fact, human..."

Lucy smiled, "Of course." Richelle nodded in agreement.

The man licked his lips, his eyes darting between them, "What are you doing here?"

Lucy frowned to herself, "Well, I came in through the wardrobe in the spare room, and-"

Richelle interrupted her, "Really?... Me too."

Lucy looked at her more clearly before frowning, "What are you wearing?"

Richelle looked down at her jeans and long sleeve blue thermal self-consciously, "Clothes." She took a closer look at Lucy and frowned in confusion, "What are you wearing? It looks like a 1940s costume." She recognized the dress because it looked like one her grandmother saved from her childhood when World War II was going on. Richelle pursed her lips, "I'm guessing it's a World War II costume but... hun, you missed Halloween."

Lucy frowned, "It's 1942... I'm not wearing a costume!"

Richelle laughed, "No, it's 2003..." She trailed off for a moment. "OMIGOFS, WE'RE IN A TIME TRAVELING WINTER WONDERLAND!" Lucy and the goat-man frowned and jumped at her outburst but Richelle just shook her head.

Lucy gasped wide-eyed at her, "So you're really from the future..." She perked up, "Wow!"

The goat-man interrupted, "umm.. Es-excuse me, but.."

Lucy shook her head, as if to clear it, and said, "Oh, of course, sorry. Glad to meet you, Mr. Tumnus!" She extended her hand out to him, "I'm Lucy Pevensie." Mr. Tumnus looked down at her hand in major confusion. Lucy giggled, "Oh, you shake it!"

Mr. Tumnus laughed at the absurdity of it, "Why?"

Lucy frowned, "I don't know! People do it when they meet each other."

Mr. Tumnus gingerly took her hand and started shaking it from side to side as if simulating vibrating. Both Lucy and Richelle giggled as the little girl showed him how to do it properly. He grinned when they let go, "Well fair ladies, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"

Lucy grinned excitedly, "Oh! Well, thank you very much!" Then her spirits drooped, "But I probably should be getting back..." She cast a look back, towards where she came from.

"Yeah, I should get back to the house..." Richelle agreed.

"Oh, come on!" Mr. Tumnus egged on suspiciously, "It's not every day I get to make a new friend! And there's a..." He trailed off, grasping at straws to get her to come with him, "roaring fire! And toast and cakes! And maybe... we'll even break into the sardines."

Lucy thought for a moment. Richelle was reserved about this Mr. Tumnus' fishy behavior. But if this little girl wanted to go... she was going to go with her to watch her. Lucy relented, "Well, maybe for just a little while... if you have... sardines."

Mr. Tumnus grinned, "By the bucket load."

They both looked to Richelle for she had not said anything. She sighed and nodded, "Sure. For a bit."

Mr. Tumnus breathed a sigh of relief, "Come along."

IN TUMNUS' HOUSE

Lucy pealed off her sweater and looked to Mr. Tumnus who was balancing two trays, "Can I help you with that?"

"Why thank you!" Mr. Tumnus smiled as the girl took a tray and set it down. Lucy caught sight of a picture on the book shelf. Mr. Tumnus noticed her looking at it, "Oh... that is my father."

Lucy murmured, "He had a nice face. You look just like him."

Only Richelle – who kept her eyes trained on Mr. Tumnus' every move – noticed his falter and frown as he said, "No, we're not alike at all really."

Lucy looked sad for a moment, "My father is fighting in the war." Richelle felt her heart break for her. Even though she lost her father, she didn't ever get to know him. Lucy knew her father and missed him and didn't know whether he was safe or alive.

Mr. Tumnus looked at the girl in somewhat understanding, "My father went away to war too... but that was a very long time ago... before this dreadful winter."

Lucy sighed, "Winter isn't all bad. There's ice skating and snow ball fights. Oh!" She grinned, "And Christmas!"

Mr. Tumnus sighed, "We haven't had Christmas in a hundred years here."

Lucy gave a scandalized gasp, shocked beyond anything, "No presents for a hundred years?"

Richelle's eyes narrowed, "You've lived long enough to know that personally?"

Mr. Tumnus nodded distracted and looked hopefully at Lucy, "But, oh, you would have loved Narnia in spring! The Dryads and the Fauns would dance all night... but we never got tired. And oh, the music! Such music. Would you... like to hear some now?"

Hours later, Lucy had fallen asleep on Richelle's lap. She gave Mr. Tumnus – who looked about to cry – a stern look, "What are you really up too?"

Mr. Tumnus frowned at her, but didn't make any claim to defend himself. Lucy groggily woke up when she noticed how dark it was outside, "Oh I must go."

Mr. Tumnus sighed, "It's too late for that now... The White Witch, the one that makes it always winter, and never Christmas. She told us that if we were ever to come across a son of Adam or daughter of Eve, we were to turn them over to her!"

Lucy looked so heartbroken, "I thought you were my friend..." Mr. Tumnus looked heartbroken for Lucy and for hurting her this way. For betraying her. He got a look in his face then; determined.

IN THE WOODS

Mr. Tumnus tugged Lucy on as he lead her and Richelle quickly through the woods. "We must move quietly. The woods are full of her spies, even some of the trees are on her side."

Richelle looked up at the trees in wonder. They found the lamp post and Mr. Tumnus started crying in his guilt. Lucy handed him a handkerchief. He took it gratefully and dotted his eyes with it and blew his nose. He started to return her handkerchief, but she gave it back to him, "Keep it, you need it more than I do."

Mr. Tumnus laughed and touched Lucy's nose...

Richelle half-carried Lucy over to the wardrobe. When they found the entrance Richelle looked down to Lucy, "I think when we go in there, we'll go back to our separate times."

Lucy cried and threw her arms around Richelle's waist. "I don't want to go..."

Richelle sighed, "Oh, Lucy," she knelt down to look the girl in the eye, "We'll see each other again, this place is magical like that. And hopefully you'll get to meet my sister. I'm sure you'd like her very much."

Lucy smiled.

BACK IN ENGLAND. 1942

"98, 99, 100... Ready or not here I come."

"I'm back, I'm back, I'm alright!" Lucy called as she raced downstairs.

Edmund peeked out of the curtains, "Shh, he's coming."

Peter walked into the room. Edmund huffed and came out of the curtains. Peter smiled, "You know, I'm not sure if you two have quite gotten the idea of this game."

Lucy frowned confused, "but weren't you wondering where I was?"

Edmund glared at her, "That's the point! That's why he was seeking you!"

Susan trotted into the room, smug, "Does this mean I win?"

Peter frowned, "I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore."

Lucy whispered, "But I was gone for hours..."

Susan looked in the back of the wardrobe before coming over to Lucy, "The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe."

Peter sighed at his sister, "One game at a time Lu, we don't all have your imagination."

Lucy gasped indignantly, "But I wasn't imagining!"

Susan huffed, "That's enough."

Lucy shouted, "I wouldn't lie about this!"

"Well I believe you!" They all looked shocked at Edmund.

Lucy squinted at him, "You do?"

Edmund grinned, "Yeah, didn't I tell you about the football field I found in the bathroom cupboard?"

Peter groaned, "Why don't you just stop it?"

Edmund frowned, "It was just a joke."

"You just have to make everything worse, don't you? Grow up." Peter said.

Edmund glared at him and got right up in his face, "Shut up! You think you're dad, but you're not!" He stormed out.

Susan looked after him before giving Peter a reproachful look, "Well, that was nicely handled!" She walked away.

Lucy had a tear trail down her face as she whispered desperately, "It was really there..."

Peter looked at her and sighed, at a loss, "Susan's right. That's enough..."

2003

Richelle stumbled out of the wardrobe. She looked back inside in wonder and noticed that the winter wonderland was gone. She turned and walked down the stairs and looked around. She noticed that it was still bright outside. But she had been gone for hours... hadn't she? It was dark when she and Lucy had left.

Richelle found Jo's room and went in without knocking. She saw Jo reading on her bed, just like she was when Richelle went on her exploration. Richelle cleared her throat. Jo snapped to look at her and took her ear buds out, "Hey."

Richelle gave her nod, walking in, "Hey..." She glanced around the room before looking at her twin, "What time is it?"

Jo's brow furrowed at her before she took out her cellphone and looked at it, "Eleven... forty... seven... Why?"

Richelle ran a hand through her hair and shook her head to clear the thought whizzing through her head, "I had the strangest dream..."

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