"She couldn't tell how long she'd been out when she came to, but she knew some time must have passed as the music was no longer playing and the fire was out. The only light came from the gas-lamp by the entrance.
"...to stay for a few minutes," came Lucy's voice.
Gabriella rubbed her eyes (she had, in fact, been out for a few hours) and looked across the table to the others.
"It's no good now, you know," the Faun said as he shook his head. The look on his face was full of sorrow.
"No good?" Lucy asked as she jumped up. "What do you mean? We-" she glanced at Gabriella who saw that even though her voice was calm there was a bit of fear in her eyes, "need to get back home. The others will be wondering what happened to me, and I'm sure Gabriella's family is worried too."
Gabriella thought back to how she left her grandmother at the park without even so much as an explanation. By now, she'd have called her parents and the police and all her extended family. They'd be searching for her at the creek where she no longer was. How would she even get back? She thought she would love to escape her world, and she had been happy until this moment, but now she was worried about those she had left behind.
"Mr. Tumnus! Whatever is the matter?" Lucy asked. He was crying!
He's just like a little kid who doesn't want his playmates to go home. Gabriella thought and cringed, although she did feel sorry for him.
He covered his face with his hands and began to howl. It shocked both girls. "Mr. Tumnus! Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy cried out in distress. "Don't! Don't! What is the matter? Aren't you well?"
Gabriella jumped up when she saw Lucy approach him. "Dear Mr. Tumnus, do tell us what is wrong," she said and put her arm around him. Gabriella felt like she should also say something, but couldn't think what. So she went over to Lucy hoping maybe her presence would help.
Tumnus did not stop crying, however. He continued to sob even after Lucy offered her handkerchief to him. He used it up, until it was soaking and then continued to use it more. Lucy kept patting his arm in the hopes he would soon stop, and Gabriella began to feel embarrassed at witnessing a grown-up— albeit not a human one— cry so much.
"Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy bawled into his ear while shaking him. "Do stop. Stop it at once!"
"Please," Gabriella pleaded with her. "We're sorry if you're crying because we must go, but our families..."
"Oh— oh— oh!" sobbed Tumnus. "I'm not crying because of that. I'm crying because I'm such a bad Faun."
"I don't think you're a bad Faun!" The two girls said in unison. "You've been so nice," they said. "You're the nicest Faun I've ever met," Lucy added, and Gabriella had to hold back a smile. He was the only one they'd ever met. Unless this was not Lucy's first time in a magical land.
"Oh— oh— you wouldn't say that if you knew," replied Tumnus as his sobs tapered down. "No, I'm probably the worst Faun since the beginning of the world."
"But what have you done?" asked Lucy.
"My old father, now," Tumnus said, "that's his picture on the mantelpiece." Gabriella remembered looking at it when she first walked in. It was a very realistic painting, like the ones they have in textbooks of the first presidents. "He would have never done a thing like this."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Taken service under the White Witch. That's what I am. I'm in the pay of the White Witch."
Gabriella felt her gut plummet. In The Wizard of Oz there had been Glenda, the Good Witch of the North. But she had a feeling this White Witch was more of the Wicked Witch of the West sort.
"The White Witch? Who is she?" Lucy asked.
"Why, it is she who has got all Narnia under her thumb. It's she who makes it always winter. It's she that never allows Christmas!"
"How awful!" Lucy empathized.
"Why do you work for her then?" asked Gabriella.
"For most on her side, it was a choice they made. I-I guess it's was a choice I made too, but... oh! They practically made me-" and he started to cry a bit more.
"Don't! You can't be doing anything too bad for her." Gabriella didn't want him to start crying again and tried to reassure him.
"No, that's just it. I'm a kidnapper for her, that's what I am. Look at me, Daughters of Eve."
Daughters of Eve? We're not sisters. Gabriella thought.
"Would you believe that I'm the sort of Faun that meets poor innocent children in the woods, two that had never done me any harm, and pretend to be friendly with them, invite them home to my cave, all for the sake of lulling them asleep and then handing them over to the White Witch?"
She had heard enough. Before he was done talking she had already begun backing up towards the door. Lucy still hadn't realized what he was saying, she was listening intently. She was halfway through the cave when Lucy answered, "No, I'm sure you wouldn't do anything of the sort."
Stupid! He's talking about us! Let's get out while he's still sad about it! Gabriella didn't know what to do. She didn't want to leave Lucy here, but she didn't want to stay any longer either.
"But I have," said Tumnus. He didn't say anything else.
"Well," Lucy said slowly, not wanting to hurt his feelings, "well, that is pretty bad. But you're so sorry for it that I'm sure you will never do it again." Gabriella wanted nothing more than to run out the door. But she wouldn't know where to go afterward.
"Daughter of Eve, don't you understand? It isn't something I have done. I'm doing it now, this very moment." He stated plainly.
"Lucy!" Gabriella staged whispered, trying to get the other girl's attention.
Lucy looked up and Gabriella saw that her face had turned very white. "You mean..." she didn't finish her sentence.
"You are the children," said Tumnus. "I had orders from the White Witch that if ever I saw a Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve" (Could he possibly mean Adam and Eve as in, the first humans? Gabriella thought.) "in the wood, I was to catch them and hand them over to her. And you two are the only ones I have ever met. And I pretended to be your friend and asked you to tea, all the time I've been meaning to wait till you were asleep and then go and tell Her."
Gabriella thought of how she had fallen asleep and felt ashamed for not knowing what would have happened. Her parents had taught her to not go into strangers' houses, now she knew it should apply to a stranger of any species.
"Oh, but you won't, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy.
"We need to leave," Gabriella told Lucy. She was by the door now.
"And if I don't turn you over," the Faun began to cry again, "she's sure to find out. And she'll have my tail cut off, and my horns sawed off, and my beard plucked out, and she'll wave her wand over my beautiful cloven hooves and turn them into sorrid hooves like a wretched horse's. And if she is extra and especially angry, she'll turn me into stone, and I shall be only a statue of a Faun in her horrible castle until the four thrones at Cair Paravel are filled- and goodness knows when that will happen, or whether it will happen at all."
Lucy's voice became stronger and more stern than before, but still not unkind. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Tumnus, but please let us go home."
"Of course I will," said the Faun, and Gabriella sighed with relief. "Of course I've got to. I see that now. I hadn't known what Humans were like before I met you two. Of course I can't give you up to the Witch, not now that I know you. But we must be off at once." He stood up and looked at Lucy. "I'll see you back to the lamppost. I suppose you can find your own way back to Spare Oom and War Drobe?'
"I'm sure I can," replied Lucy.
He turned to Gabriella. "Will you be able to get back if we take you to where we found you?"
"No. I-I don't know how I even got here. I just fell over and then, I was- I was in the snow." She felt silly saying it aloud.
"You can come back with me," Lucy said approaching her.
"You think I can get back to America from there?" Gabriella asked.
"Well, we can find a way," Lucy said, not entirely sure herself.
In a moment they were heading out, Tumnus with his umbrella in hand and the girls holding hands. "We must go as quietly as we can," said Tumnus as he opened the door. "The whole wood is full of em style="box-sizing: border-box;"her/em spies. Even some of the trees are on her side."
"The trees?" Gabriella whispered.
"Perhaps the Dryads?" Lucy suggested. There was a sincerity about her that made Gabriella feel sorry for calling her stupid, even if it was only in her mind.
It was dark outside, but plenty of light from the full moon above spilled down past the leaves and reflected off the snow. It only took a few moments for all the warmth to leave the girl's bodies. Gabriella hoped their destination was not far. They walked at a quicker pace than they did before and hid in the dark patches, beneath the trees. Eventually, they made it to a small clearing where a lamppost stood, its fire flickering in the glass. There was no road, or even a path nearby, so Gabriella thought it strange for it to be there.
"Do you know the way from here, Daughters of Eve?" asked Tumnus.
"Yes," Lucy said. "I can see the wardrobe door." She pointed off into the distance where, hidden by trees and bushes, there looked something like sunlight.
"Then be off as quickly as you can," he replied. "And can either of you... ever forgive me for what I meant to do?"
Without hesitation, Lucy said, "Why of course I can." She held out her hand for him to shake. "And I do hope you won't get into dreadful trouble on my account." They shook and then he turned to Gabriella.
"If you can, stop working for the Witch. Or at least ask for a job that doesn't involve kidnapping." She awkwardly held out her hand. "And then I'll forgive you too."
"Of course, of course," he assured her and shook hands. "Farewell, Daughters of Eve. Perhaps I may keep the handkerchief?"
"Rather!" Lucy replied and the two girls began to run towards the light. Lucy began running first so Gabriella was behind, pushing the branches out of her face that the other girl was small enough to run underneath. She got tangled up in one particularly strong branch and tripped. In another clumsy move, she landed on the ground again.
She blinked and she was in the heat of a June morning with the same rocks underneath her from hours before and the creek running steadily to the right. She scrambled up. Her shirt still felt wet from the snow, her face still a bit numb. Even though it seemed like the same time of day she left, she knew it had to be a different day. As she ran back down the creek, she didn't see any search parties. Had they already given up this area?
She reached the path between the trees and climbed up the small hill like a mad child. The first thing she saw was the same children playing on the monkey bars that were there when she left. They were wearing the same clothes and everything.
"Gabby!" She heard her grandmother call out. There was panic in her voice. Gabriella ran towards the sound and saw she and the lady she had been talking to were there, looking around the playground. They also had on the same clothes.
"I'm here!" She yelled.
Her grandma proceeded to get after her for disappearing without telling her where she was going. It seemed like the only time that had passed was the time it took to walk to the drainage pipe, fall, and then run back.
"Where did you go off to?" her grandmother demanded.
"I went down to the creek to skip stones. You don't like climbing down so I didn't ask you to come. I'm sorry," she apologized again.
She managed to calm down her grandmother after getting yelled at for another few minutes. They didn't leave the park for another half hour, but the entire time Gabriella wasn't able to enjoy it. She knew she had gone to another world, it wasn't some weird dream. She had had the physical proof! But how could it have taken no time at all? Stranger still, she felt the desire to go back. Sure she had almost been kidnapped and the land was ruled by an evil witch, but, she em style="box-sizing: border-box;"had/em set out that day to experience an adventure.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! As you can see, I pulled direct quotes from the novel. I DO NOT claim those parts as my own, obviously. This is something I will be doing for the next few chapters. I want this part of the story to be like my original character fell exactly into the book I grew up with. So lines that don't need to change, won't be changed, although I will NOT copy an entire page, and I will even try to edit any paragraphs to be shorter and in my own words.