Chapter Ten: Disappointment

"Do ye mean ta leave yer sister behind?" Thompkins questioned as they reached the edge of the woods. He felt an almost fatherly protectiveness toward his little daughter of Eve, though whether he was afraid that she would be left behind, or afraid that she would be allowed to come, was more than he could say. Of course he hated for her to be disappointed, and yet if there was any danger he wanted her as far from it as possible.

But David was looking at him in almost offended surprise. "Of course not."

He had often left Jenny behind in the past, not caring to have a small sister tagging along on boyish pursuits, but this was different. He knew well who had brought the dwarves to life, and his sense of fair play demanded that she be included now; it was all the apology she was likely to receive for his earlier teasing.

Even as they spoke, Jenny came running up. "Here I am!" she panted. "Mummy didn't see any of you!"

"Let's go, then," David said. He started down the trail pulling the wagon, and Jenny skipped along next to it at Thompkins' side.

Deep in the woods, they came upon the pile of dirt from which Lady Lobelia had dug the statues, and for a moment they simply stood regarding it silently.

"Do we just climb it, do ye suppose?" Dekhoffyn ventured.

"If all this dirt came through with you, the gateway may be behind it; that's why I brought shovels," David explained.

Dekhoffyn shrugged. "It's as good a guess as any. I still don't see how four statues could come through a gate in the first place."

"Mebbe the whole place caved in, an' the gate opened up under our very feet," Rarmitton suggested.

Thompkins glanced up at the leaf-mottled sky. "In that case the gateway would be above the pile, an' our only way back would be by flying."

"But look at the fall o' earth," Dekhoffyn objected. "I know the gardener disturbed it gettin' us out, but it doesn't look to me like it came straight down. It looks like it poured through from that side."

"Then that's where we dig," David said firmly, picking up a shovel and driving it determinedly into the ground. The two other able dwarves followed his lead, leaving Thompkins, Jenny, and Cuddy to watch.

After half an hour of digging, they came to what appeared to be a door opening into a hillside, choked with more dirt and rubble than they had just dug through.

"This is it," Dekhoffyn whispered in awe, and Thompkins got up and hobbled over to reverently reach through and touch dirt that was in Narnia.

Dekhoffyn and Rarmitton gripped their spades with new determination, but Thompkins pulled David back when he stepped forward to join them. "No, lad. Ye don't know anythin' about minin'; ye could bring it all down on yer heads."

David sighed but stepped back without argument, conceding to the authority of Thompkins' superior age and knowledge.

It took Rarmitton and Dekhoffyn several hours to tunnel carefully through the cave-in, several times pausing to find a suitable branch to shore up a weak spot. When at last they broke through into Narnian daylight, they let out a cheer and came out dancing and capering for sheer joy. "It's Narnia! It's Spring! Praise be to the Lion!"

Thompkins dared not dance, but he threw back his head and laughed long and loud while Cuddy jumped and leapt through the dwarves' legs as only a rabbit could. "Aslan!" he cried in the first word he had Spoken since meeting the Witch.

Caught up in the excitement, David and Jenny joined hands and twirled around and around until they dropped to the ground, dizzy and exhausted. "Narnia! We're going to Narnia!"

At last Rarmitton and Dekhoffyn calmed enough to return to work, enlarging the place where they had broken through until even David would be able to pass without stooping. But though they had of course been in Narnia for some time as they tunnelled through what had once been their cave home, they carefully did not step through into the open. That privilege was reserved for those who in Narnia would always be afforded the highest honour, second only to Aslan himself.

Laying their spades on the ground, they bowed toward David. "Sons and daughters of Adam and Eve before dwarves."

Hand in hand, barely breathing in their excitement, David and Jenny walked slowly toward the opening.

But their hopes were cruelly dashed. Though they could see the tunnel and the golden glow of Narnian daylight beyond, they were stopped short as if by a wall of earth at the very place where Narnia met the World of Men; Jenny even sneezed as some of the dirt got into her nose. "Wh-what happened?"

"We can't get through," David said dully.

"B-but I wanted to go to Narnia!" Jenny cried, tears welling in her eyes.

David shrugged, trying to hide his own disappointment. "So did I, but I guess Narnia doesn't need us." Pulling the bottle of iodine from his pocket, he handed it to Thompkins. "Here," he said roughly. "Put some of this on your knee every night and morning, and make sure you find a healer soon."

"I will, lad," Thompkins promised solemnly. "Here now, little daughter of Eve; don't cry." He held out his arms, and Jenny fell into them, sobbing.

"But I'll never see you again!"

The force of her embrace pushed Thompkins sideways, and he felt something hard in his pocket; putting his hand in, he discovered something he had long forgotten he had. "Here, little one; if ye can't come ta Narnia, here's a piece of Narnia ta keep with you."

Jenny sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "What is it?"

"We were minin' fer coal, but occasionally we found other things; that's a fine ruby, though it don't look like much the state it's in now."

David whistled softly, leaning over to see the stone.

"Ye keep that safe," Thompkins continued, "an' when ye get older ye can take it ta a jeweller, an' it will make a fine ring fer ye ta wear."

"I will," Jenny promised. "And I'll wear it every day, and never forget you!"

Thompkins tried to reply but found his throat too thick to speak, so merely hugged his little daughter of Eve one last time.

Final goodbyes were said to the others, and then the dwarves and Cuddy crossed through the opening. As the last one passed through, the view into Narnia vanished, leaving only a churned-up pile of dirt.

"I still wish we could have gone," Jenny said in a small voice.

"So do I," David admitted. "But I guess Aslan had his reasons. And Peter, Susan, and Edmund didn't get through the wardrobe the first time they tried, either; maybe we'll find our own way into Narnia someday."

Epilogue 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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