Disclaimer: Here goes:

AnythingthatbelongstoC.S.LewisdoesnotbelongtomeandI'mnotmakinganymoneyfromthissopleasedon'tsueme. Now that's over with.

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Lydia's village consisted of small, wooden houses, most of which were painted gray, white, or violet. There was no meeting place. A boy slightly older than Martha was playing with a ball in front of one of the houses.

"Lydia!" exclaimed the boy. "We didn't expect you home for another week."

Then he saw the group of people following her. He stared for a moment, with his mouth open, then hurried into the house. "I'll tell Mother you're here!"

Lydia's mother invited them inside. Her house was spotlessly clean and full of polished wood furniture. "Will you stay here tonight, and go to the mountain tomorrow morning?" she asked.

"No," said Xerxes. "If we are that close, we should hurry on."

They stopped there only long enough for supper and some hot cocoa. Then they followed Lydia out of the town toward the wall of trees to the east.

There was another hidden path, and Peter noticed with relief that it was only a few feet long. They came out from under the trees into a wide space between the forest and the mountain.

Mount Niol did not look quite big enough to be called a mountain, but it felt it. Peter saw nothing more than a large hill, but he sensed a mountain so huge that it could not be imagined. Xerxes had been right. They knew it when they saw it. Peter would not have climbed that mountain uninvited to save his life, and he knew, somehow, that he was not invited.

Xerxes looked nearly as apprehensive as Peter felt, but he also looked excited. "If I don't go now, I never will," he muttered, and almost ran to the foot of the hill. No one followed.

Peter and the others watched Xerxes begin to climb. There was a steep slope halfway up that he could not scale, so he scrambled around to the other side and was lost to view.

There was nothing left to do but wait. Peter finally tore his eyes from the mountain and saw that there were several rows of benches nearby. It looked like the meeting places they had seen in nearly every town, but there was no podium.

Crystal sat down on a bench and stared at Mount Niol. Peter noticed that she did not seem frightened of it at all. Martha was not, either. She strayed a little too close, and Lydia brought her back and set her next to Crystal.

"Do not touch the mountain," said Lydia.

"Why not?" asked Martha.

"People who do not belong there have been known to drop dead."

That was not encouraging. Peter started to wonder if they should be even as close as they were. Maybe they should go back to the village. He said nothing, though, and sat down by Martha.

It began to get dark. The other boys set up the tents and went to bed. Lydia lay down on a bench and slept. Peter knew he would be unable to sleep, so he didn't try. He sat and waited, while it got darker and darker, and Crystal watched the mountain, and Martha pulled up grass blades and braided them.

Peter fell asleep after all. He woke, still sitting upright on the bench, but he could not get up; Martha was fast asleep with her head on his shoulder. Crystal was wide awake, still watching. Peter looked around and saw the trees, the tents, and the mountain, and Lydia, still sleeping on the bench, lit faintly gray by dawn.

Martha woke up. "Is Xerxes back yet?" she asked. There was no sign of him.

There was more light now. Peter glanced over at Lydia, and was startled to see that she had changed. It had been too dark to notice, but her face was rounder and her hair was purple. Martha saw her, too, and cried out, "Look!" It woke Lydia, who jumped up immediately. She was shorter than she had been, but she was obviously Lydia. Her facial expression was the same, and her new face fit it better.

"What is it?" she asked, then fell silent with astonishment at the sound of her own voice. She recovered quickly. "I am different!" she exclaimed. "Xerxes got there."

"But will he get back?" asked Peter. Lydia did not answer. She called into each tent for the occupants to come out and see each other.

The boys spilled out of the tents. They no longer looked alike. Some had green or orange eyes and blue or red or purple hair, and two or three had gold-brown or pinkish copper colored skin. They let out a great cheer and asked for Xerxes, but he had still not returned. They began to introduce themselves to each other, putting old names with new faces.

Peter gave up on getting Lydia to answer him and asked Crystal. "Do you think Xerxes will come back?"

"I don't know," said Crystal, still watching Mount Niol. "Wait."

Peter sat down again and waited. The sun was just beginning to be visible above the hill when he could see a figure come into view at the top of it. "There he is!" Peter shouted.

Everyone looked up. Peter opened his mouth in horror and then wonder as the figure leaped from the hilltop and unfolded a glittering pair of silver wings.

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fledge: I didn't know what you were talking about until I went out and read The Last Unicorn. When I say 'a huge bull,' I don't mean quite that huge.