Chapter 4 The New Adventure

After breakfast just as the Lion had said he met them in the throne room and told them all about the task they were to do. It sounded pretty dangerous to the girls so they were glad the boys were coming with them. Aslan explained that they were supposed to find this magic jewel that used to be in the treasure chamber of this very castle, but that the Narnians had gotten a little too proud about it and they were fighting over it a lot and the White Witch wanted it so all of a sudden it just disappeared and now that the Golden Age had started it was time to retrieve it. Aslan told them that he would give them four signs and that the adventure would not be like The Silver Chair. Sarah and Emily both breathed a sigh of relief. Aslan told them the signs, "One: As soon as you are coroneted you must speak to one of the centaurs, for they know the most about the jewel. Two: You must journey north to the ruin city of the giants, and no you will not have to worry about getting flattened by giants throwing rocks because the giants are dead. Three: When you find the ruined city there you will find writing, do what the writing tells you. It may or may not say the same thing as it does in The Silver Chair. Four: The first and only person in your travels to ask you to do something in my name, in the name of Aslan, you must do as they say. Note I said person not human so that could mean the beast you find on your travels or it could mean human, but it does not only a human. Now, pack your things and I will take you to Mr. Tumnus who will be your guide."

"Yeah," sighed Emily, "we won't have gloomy old Puddleglum as our guide, not that I don't like him, I just don't think I'd like it very much to have someone like Eeyore around all the time."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." agreed Sarah. So they talked to the centaurs and packed their things, which really wasn't much, in fact, all they took was their gifts. William took his sword and shield, Skandar took his sword and shield, Sarah took her bow & quiver of arrows and her horn, and Emily took her cordial and dagger. They also changed into regular Narnian clothes instead of their royal clothes because they didn't want to ruin their nice dresses and tunics. Aslan took them to Mr. Tumnus and he said he was already packed and he had all they needed. He handed Emily a bow & quiver full of arrows that he'd borrowed from a dwarf and told her, "Just in case. It's always good to be prepared." It was a very nice quiver and bow, but not quite as nice as Sarah's-after all she was the queen, not a dwarf. Then they said good-bye to Aslan and set of on their journey. The first thing Mr. Tumnus asked was, "Do we have any sort of direction?" No one remembered what Aslan had said-even though it was only a few minutes ago- except Sarah and she said Aslan had given them four signs, they had already done the first (which was talking to the centaurs) so the next would be to find the ruined city of the giants. Mr. Tumnus said that to do that they had to cross the River Shribble. So that is the direction that they headed. On the way William congratulated Sarah for remembering the signs. She just smiled and said, "Thanks for the complement. Besides, it was easy, I've read The Silver Chair so many times that I have those signs memorized and these aren't much different."

"True." agreed William. Soon Mr. Tumnus said it was getting late and they must try to find a place to camp for the night. They found a nice camping place, though, with winter coming on, it wasn't very warm. Emily found it very odd because they had just had winter. Mr. Tumnus encouraged them by saying, "If you sit back to back you'll keep warmer." So they tried it Sarah and Emily sat back to back and William and Skandar sat back to back. It kind of worked, but it didn't make a drastic difference. Then Sarah asked, "Mr. Tumnus, whose back will you lie against?"

"My own." answered Mr. Tumnus.

"Oh! You sound like Puddleglum!" remarked Emily.

"Yes, please don't start being pessimistic!" cried Skandar.

"Oh, don't worry I always try to look on the bright side of things." replied Mr. Tumnus.

"Good!" said Emily, with a yawn.

"Oh, and another thing," said Sarah, "you need not say 'just try thinking of how much colder it will be the farther north we get and that will make you feel warmer' because it really doesn't work." Mr. Tumnus just laughed. After he made sure the kings and queens were comfortable Mr. Tumnus got under his blanket and went to sleep.

"Aahh! That's cold!" screamed Sarah. Skandar had just dumped a bowl full of water on top of Sarah to wake her up. "Sarah, we finally made it to the River Shribble. Look!" Sarah looked where Emily was pointing and sure enough not more than two feet away was the River Shribble. Sarah was so excited, now their adventure would really begin! After everything was packed up and everyone had eaten some breakfast they headed for the River Shribble. When they got there, there was no bridge.

"Oh, don't worry," reassured Mr. Tumnus, "it isn't very deep. We can cross it on foot."

"Whew!" thought Sarah. "He really isn't like Puddleglum!" Mr. Tumnus was right about the river, it wasn't very deep. The water only came up to Sarah's ankles. Almost as soon as they had finished crossing the river they had to climb a fairly large hill. It wasn't anything near a mountain, though. Once at the top Emily looked out across the land-it was low enough that she wasn't scared-and said, "I think I might like adventures after

all!"

"We haven't had any, yet!" replied Mr. Tumnus.

They walked down the hill and continued their journey. Soon they came to a ravine where there were very strange rocks. Emily whispered to Sarah, "If you came here at dark you could almost think those rocks were giants!" Skandar overheard them and said, "Emily, you have such an imagination!"

"You're right, Emily, but he has a point." stated Sarah, "You needn't worry, though, because Aslan said that the giants were dead."

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that!" responded Emily.

Winter was getting closer and it didn't really help that they were traveling north. It seemed to be getting colder every minute, maybe it was! The boys and Mr. Tumnus were walking a little ahead of the girls because their legs were longer. Through out the journey they all became close friends. But there became an even closer relationship between Emily & Skandar and Sarah & William. Now I'd like to make something very clear, these were not romantic relationships they just became really good friends!