"Take hold of my hands," Aslan told Brian and Lois. They obeyed, each clutching one of his front paws. Then Aslan let out an almighty roar. It was so loud that Lois and Brian both had to squinch their eyes shut.

When they opened them again, the snowy woods of Narnia had disappeared. Instead, they were standing in a different forest, one that seemed to be in the midst of summer rather than winter. Giant trees with rich green leaves grew everywhere, and there was a pool of water every couple of yards.

Brian exhaled. "Well, this Charn place doesn't seem half bad!"

"We're not in Charn yet," Aslan told him. "This is the Wood Between the Worlds."

"Wood Between the Worlds?" Lois repeated. "What's that?"

"It's a sort of in-between place. This forest isn't a world itself, but once you've found it you can get into any world you want to. All you have to do is jump into one of these pools." He gestured at one of the pools with his paw. "For instance, if you jumped into this one, you'd find yourself back in Narnia." He pointed at another. "And this one lead back to your own world." He padded over to a pool all the way over at the edge of the clearing, with Lois and Brian following. "But this is the one you must go through now. This is the one that leads to Charn."

Lois stared down into the pool Aslan had indicated. It looked very deep. She gulped nervously. "Once we've found this Rainbow Stone, how will we get back to Narnia?"

"Don't worry about that," Aslan said. "I've prepared for that too." Suddenly, he was holding an envelope in his paw. Lois had no idea where he had produced it from. "This envelope contains two magical rings, one for each of you. They can transport you between worlds. When you find the Rainbow Stone, simply put the rings on your fingers and you will instantly find yourselves back in Narnia."

"Okay," said Lois. She and Brian stood at the edge of the pool and prepared to jump in.

"I wish you the best of luck," Aslan said. "Now, I must return to Narnia."

"We won't fail you, sir," Brian said, hoping with all his heart that he was speaking the truth.

"We'll get the stone," added Lois.

"Here goes nothing!" said Brian and they both dived into the water with a splash!

Oddly, the pool didn't feel wet at all. Down and down, they fell, first through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling shapes which might have been almost anything. Then suddenly they felt that they were standing on something solid. "Boy, what a ride," said Brian.

"Yeah… an' what a dump this place is," Lois replied.

Brian looked around and realized what she was talking about. He saw ruin and destruction everywhere, as if the land had been ravaged by a thousand storms. The ground was laden with rocks and bits of rubble, planks and logs of wood. Even the clouds in the sky overhead were orange and grey instead of white and fluffy.

"I could never plant anything here," Lois said. "I can tell just by lookin' at the ground. My whole garden would die in a second."

Brian agreed. "I thought the witch's castle was the scariest thing I'd ever see, but now that I've seen this world, I can tell why she wanted to leave it."

"Come on. We have a job to do here," Lois reminded him. "We gotta find that stone."

Brian nodded, and they set off along their way. But they found no signs of life among the ruins of Charn. Just more chaos and destruction wherever they went.

"I don't see how we can possibly find one tiny stone in this mess," Lois complained.

"Yeah," said Brian. "This is just like that time Stewie and I tried to find a needle in a haystack."

FLASHBACK

Brian and Stewie are standing in front of the haystack. Just as Brian is about to start searching through it, Stewie lights a match and tosses it at the haystack. In a matter of seconds, all the hay burns away, leaving the needle lying by itself on the ground. Stewie proudly picks it up.

STEWIE: Found it!

END OF FLASHBACK

Brian saw tears come into Lois's eyes at the mention of Stewie. He tried to reassure her. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. We'll find that stone somehow, and then we'll take it back to Aslan and he can use it to stop the witch. Then Stewie will be safe."

But he wasn't sure if Lois believed his words. To tell the truth, he was having a hard time believing them himself.