Chapter Eight: Exchanging Stories

"An' so Jenny's kiss brought us back ta life," Thompkins concluded. "An' now we need ta find out how ta get back ta Narnia again."

"I wonder," Dekhoffyn said soberly. "We could find some out-of-the-way spot an' be safe here, I shouldn't wonder; safer than going back ta the Witch's rule, at any rate."

"But the Witch doesn't rule in Narnia anymore!" David said eagerly. "Aslan came and brought Spring, and then he killed the Witch, and Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy became kings and queens. They reigned for years, and it was the Golden Age of Narnia."

The dwarves looked at each other, able to make little sense of his statement or to understand how the happenings of Narnia had come to be printed in a book in the World of Men. But one thing he had said stood out clearly. "You mean," Hopkins said slowly, "that ten or twenty years have passed since we were turned to stone?"

David stopped to consider what he had said. "They must have," he agreed. "And the four kings and queens came back, so I don't know who's reigning now."

"As long as it's not the Witch, we'd better take our chances on finding out," Thompkins said firmly. "That is, if we can figure out how."

"In the book, the characters got back to England at the same place in Narnia they got in," David said, not very lucidly; "I suppose it would work the same the other way around. Do any of you know where in the woods you came through?"

Dekhoffyn gave a derisive snort. "All I saw when I was bein' trundled in that barrow was a patch of sky; I couldn't begin ta give ye directions from it."

The other dwarves murmured their agreement, and David turned to the rabbit. "What about you, Cuddy? Did you see anything?"

The rabbit froze, trembling all over, and then disappeared behind Rarmitton in a single bound, leaving David looking mystified. "What did I say?"

Thompkins and Dekhoffyn, too, looked puzzled, but Rarmitton understood. "Ye asked him if he saw anythin'; he thinks ye mean what he saw the Witch do."

"O-oh," David said in understanding.

"I doubt he saw anythin' more than the rest o' us, anyway," Thompkins put in.

"Granma would know where she found them, David," Jenny pointed out.

"Yes, but if I ask, she'll want to know why," David objected. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Hendrickson!" he exclaimed. "I can get him to tell me!"

"Will ye go now, then?" Dekhoffyn asked.

"If you want me to," David agreed. "Jen, stay and keep them company; I'll be back in a bit." Once more he disregarded the ladder and went running across the lawn.

oOo

"This book a' yers isn't very accurate," Dekhoffyn accused when David returned; the dwarves had spent the time poring over it.

David blinked. "Isn't it?" he asked blankly.

"He hasn't got any idea what a hundred years of Winter would be like; makes it sound like a normal January snowstorm. Any lamppost in Narnia was buried in snow years ago, an' where'd the Beavers get all that good food? If the faun was in the pay of the Witch, I c'n see 'im eatin' well, but any loyal Narnians were near starvin'."

"I don't know…" David said confusedly. "He wrote it for children; maybe he had to make it sound better than it was."

"Hmph!" the dwarf snorted. "Then how c'n we trust it that she's dead; that's what I want ta know."

"We could go back and see — and if it's still Winter come back here."

"If we c'n come back; 'cordin' ta the book it don't seem to work by any rules."

"But you just said the book isn't accurate," Rarmitton pointed out. "An' yer scarin' Cuddy."

"Sorry," Dekhoffyn said gruffly.

David looked from one to the other. "I found out from Hendrickson where you came through — if you still want to try to go back?"

Thompkins looked at Dekhoffyn, who drew a long breath and nodded slowly. "Aye…I guess we'd better. An' even if things didn't happen exactly the way that book says, mebbe at least it's right about Aslan comin' an' what he did."

Next chapter coming next week!

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know! (Note that this story is formatted using British spellings.)

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