Disclaimer: I do not own Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the films, or any of Lewis' work. I hope only to pay him tribute with my small meaningless attempts to appease my obsession. Narnia writers...I salute you!

Chapter Quote: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto."

Chapter Five

Cold

Maybe this door wasn't on the second floor at all...perhaps it led outside. Yes- that had to be it. Tyler looked around, reached out and took a handful of snow...it was cold...he brought it to his tongue. Yes, it certainly tasted like snow. He turned around and -yes- there was the door...it was still open. And, standing there in the doorway, was Elora, rigidly transfixed at the top of the stairs, watching him.

"Tyler...what are you doing?" She asked dazedly.

Tyler and Elora had never been close...mainly due to their age difference of nine years...and neither had sought out the others companionship and rarely talked to each other. But Tyler, just then, felt he had just shared a secret with his older sister...a very important secret. Because he knew she could see the snow too. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"Tyler...what did you do?" She asked, rephrasing her previous question. Her feet remained frozen in the doorway as if she were afraid to touch the pearly white snow.

"I didn't do anything." He said, and quite clearly too. He was starting to shiver and the snow, well above his ankles, was seeping into his boots and dampening his socks. "I just opened the door."

Elora looked slowly at the door beside her, old and decrepit, with some of its paint long ago having started to chip off. And then she looked at him. Now Tyler knew his sister did not like a lot of things. She hated spiders, and she hated being around large groups of people, and standing in crowded elevators or touching wet mittens. But she wasn't really afraid of these things, she just didn't like them. Tyler really couldn't remember seeing his older sister truly afraid of something. But she did just then... he could see the fear drift into her eyes and into her face. She grabbed his arm, yanking him out of the snow and slammed the door shut.

"Hey!" He protested angrily, trying to loosen her iron grip.

"We have to go." She said, pulling him away swiftly away from the door. The rest of the children were beginning to file out of they're hiding places with confused expressions on their faces.

"Something wrong, Elora?" Alysia asked.

"Does this mean I won?" Asked Cecilia, popping her head out of the window seat. Anthony glared at her, then he turned his gaze to his eldest sister. Elora was walking towards the opposite end of the hall where there was a large window which overlooked the front of the property. Tyler had managed to wrench his arm free and was now standing next to his other siblings. Elora was resting her right hand on her leather satchel, which hung on her shoulder, (and also held all her notebooks) as if it were attached to her skin. Her fingers drummed it nervously.

"What's going on?" Grace asked irritably. "Why have we stopped playing?"

"We never play games anymore!" Complained Maria, pushing her glasses further up on her nose.

"We fund sow in the dur!" Said Tyler, who had slipped into talking like his usual self and not at all like he had when he had been standing, shivering, in the snow.

"Why are you all wet Tyler?" Asked Elizabeth, frowning at his shoes and the puddle forming from them on the hard, wooden floor. Anthony turned to them, snapping,

"I've had it! Why'd we stop playing, eh?" He whirled to face Elora. "It was you wasn't it?"

Elora looked at him sharply, her other hand resting on the cool glass of the window. Momentarily speechless, she found she had nothing to say as her younger brother continued his ranting.

"Its always you! You always ruin everything!"

"Shut up Anthony." She muttered, narrowing her eyes.

"I won't shut up! It's true! If you're not having fun then no one else can have fun either!"

"Shh..." Whispered Michelle urgently, "The parents!"

"Shut up." Elora said, louder this time.

"Why? You can't make me. Ever since you started writing you think you're so much better then the rest of us. Well guess what... you can't make me do anything!" He returned angrily.

"SHUT UP!" She yelled, her face darkening as she glowered at him.

"SHOVE IT!" He yelled back. "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME DO ANYTHING!" With that he hurled his ball at her, which Elora dodged, and in the suddenness of the movement, she fell backwards into the window.

If you have never heard a window shatter, then you can't imagine what it must be like. But the Campbell kids all did. First there was the agony of watching the pieces fall to the ground, then horror as you've realized what you've just done, and lastly, the noise. There was a loud roar as the glass shattered and the girls all screamed. Alysia and Michelle darted forward and grabbed a hold of Elora before she could topple out of the window, but the glass fell with a tinkling clatter on the floor in front of them on onto the front porch below.

Elora, Alysia, and Michelle and stood huffing and puffing...Elora was shaking rather badly. And then they heard a door downstairs slam open with a BANG.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" A masculine voice roared.

The Children's faces blanched in terror and they all looked around at each other.

"We are so dead." Breathed Maria.

"Quick! Run!" Grace shouted.

They darted down the hall, Alysia dragging Elora with her who was shaking too hard to do anything, their feet pounding on the wooden floors like a herd of elephants. Elora, coming to, was pushing the others along with a wild look in her eyes. As they past the stairwell she shouted, "THE DOOR!" Because she was in the back and the others were beginning to slow down.

Cecilia, who was in the front with Tyler, flung it open and gestured for the others to follow. "COME ON!" She shouted and one by one they all flew into through the old door and, just as the heavy footsteps came pounding up the stairs, they were all inside and Elizabeth slammed it shut with a decisive bang. There they waited, listening for more footsteps...only there weren't any. In fact...it was rather silent now.

Elizabeth glanced down, her eyes searching for the sudden coldness of her feet. "Hey...guys?" She breathed.

"Shh!" Hissed Maria.

"No guys...look!"

Blinking, they all glanced at Elizabeth and then down at their feet. "Snow?" Asked Michelle in shock.

"In the house?" Asked Alysia in a very small voice.

"Can you grow trees in houses?" Cecilia asked.

"No." Elora replied, gulping nervously as she stared at her feet.

"Yes you can." Answered Alysia flatly, her eyes now fixed on the door. "Potted plants...duh."

"No!" Cecilia persisted. "I mean like that!" She pointed up and their eyes all followed her slender fingers.

"I don't think they grow those sorts of trees in houses." Said Elizabeth in awe.

The trees were massive...tall evergreens and trees bare of leaves...all towering twenty feet or more above them. "Me neither." Agreed Anthony, who had been silent up until now.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." Grace said softly (she liked to quote movies).

"We never were in Kansas." Replied Maria dazedly. "We live in New York."

"We're defiantly not in New York." Said Michelle, who was still staring up at the trees.

"But where else would we be?" Asked Elora, looking very upset, her curls starting to cling to her head as they dampened.

"Don't know." Replied Elizabeth, shuddering and then glancing at Elora. "Let's get out of here."

They were all shivering now and nodded in agreement. They turned back to the...but that was strange... where was the-

"The door!" Shouted Alysia frantically. "It's gone!"

"No..." Elora whispered, but Alysia was right. There were only trees behind them now...lots and lots of trees where the door had stood before. And the snow was coming down harder.

"I'm not wearing any shoes." Cecilia said softly to Elora. Elora looked down at her

"What?"

"Mom told up to take our shoes off when we came inside because they were all muddy!" She said hastily, seeing the rage seep onto her older sister's face.

"But nobody else listened!" Elora said hotly.

Cecilia was shivering harder then ever now and tears were beginning to fall from the corners of her eyes.

"You should have damn well thought about that before!" Swore Elora angrily.

"Shut up Elora." Elizabeth said sharply, coming up behind Cecilia. She glared at her older sister and lifted Cecilia's shivering body into her arms. The snow was pouring down, like a white blanket, chilling them all to the bone. "No one expected us to get stuck in some freak-snow-filled forest when we opened that door."

Elora ignored her as she turned to the others. "All right guys, we have to find some shelter. I'll lead...Alysia, you bring up the rear and make sure we have everyone at all times. Everyone else, fall into line behind me, and don't stop moving!" Elora still looked enraged, terrified, and about ready to cry as she said this and she quickly turned away so the others wouldn't see the fear, that was the most powerful of her current emotions, drift into her face strongest of all.

But it was getting colder and the snow was making it more difficult to see as they started walking. They started trudging on, grunting as they fought their way through the snow which was almost knee-deep in some places. Elora, being the tallest, was dragging her feet to make a path for the others as they continued on deeper into the forest. But the snow was so thick that it was difficult to see anything.

Michelle ended up carrying Tyler while Maria and Grace clung to each other in an effort to keep warm. Anthony walked alone out in the middle, too cold to grumble. Alysia was having some difficulties keeping track of everyone, as the snow was coming down harder now.

They all knew they wouldn't last much longer as the snow continued. Elora trudged on, clutching her leather satchel (which she had somehow managed to hold onto even after the window had shattered), continuing to make a path for the others. Bur suddenly, she stopped. The snow swirled around them noiselessly about them, whipping through the trees.

"What is it?" Michelle asked from the back, clutching Tyler tightly to her body.

"Can't you hear it?" Elora shouted back, glancing around nervously.

"Hear what?" Anthony asked. And then...suddenly...they heard it. Howling...and it wasn't too far away.

"It's coyotes...isn't it Lizzy?" Asked Cecilia, clinging to Elizabeth as she spoke. "Coyotes are afraid of people."

Elizabeth and Elora exchanged glances. "Yeah...sure, Cecilia." Elizabeth answered nervously.

"We should keep moving." Elora stated sharply, turning to continue.

"I'm tired Elora!" Anthony called out from behind.

"We can't stop?" Maria shouted in return.

"We're not getting anywhere." He continued. "We should go back."

"Go back to what?" Elora snapped. And, shivering with cold, the other children could only stare mutely at her. "We have to keep moving!"

"Elora...we'll freeze if we stay out here much longer." Said Michelle, shifting Tyler's weight onto her shoulders and looking tiredly up at their leader.

"We'll freeze if we just stand here. We have to find shelter so we have to keep moving." She turned forward again, eyeing a small hill which lay just ahead. She started walking up it, she froze...blinking into the distance with a small smile appearing on her face. "Hey guys- I think I see something!"

"What?" Alysia called back as the kids started to inch hesitantly closer.

"A house! I think I see a house!"

"Where Elora?"

Elora had every intention of answering that question, but suddenly something very hard and furry slammed into her arm with a thud and a howl. She flew down over the brink of the hill, trying to shove the furry thing on top of her away as they tumbled down the icy slope.

"ELORA!" The kids screamed, scrambling up the hill after her. The furry thing snapped and snarled, the snow blinded them but they all knew that the grey thing attacking their sister wasn't a coyote...it was a wolf...a huge, grey, hungry looking wolf...and it had Elora pinned down beneath its large, furry paws.

Elora and the wolf skidded and rolled down the hill, with Elora trying to kick the beast away and the wolf lunging at her flailing limbs. But suddenly, they landed on something very hard and the wolf let out a cry. There was a sharp crack as it landed beside her and it vanished without a trace.

Thoroughly winded and aching everywhere, Elora tried, groaning as she did so, to roll onto her side to see what had happened to her attacker. Gasping as she caught her breath, she could hear her siblings running down the hill after her, calling her name. She fell back onto the ice, closing her eyes and feeling as though nothing in the world could make her move again just now. Gritting her teeth, she rolled over again and examined the surgace that what she was laying on. She heard another crack...and another. Suddenly she realized, with an awful pit growing in her stomach, just where the wolf had gone.

Now Elora usually kept a cool head on her shoulders during emergency situations... but this whole situation wasn't an emergency, it was a nightmare. And as she heard her siblings running towards her, she screamed at them to stop, trying not to move as she did so.

"You all right Elora?" Asked Grace. They were about fifteen feet away, staring anxiously at her.

"Yeah...I'm ok." She yelled back hoarsely. "Don't come any closer!"

"Why not?" Called Elizabeth.

"Because we're on a river!"

The wolf had fallen through...had fallen through and had sunk into the watery depths below. The children froze, then looked down at their feet. She heard the cracking again and began to rise painfully her feet. GET OFF THE ICE! GET OFF THE ICE! Her mind screamed frantically. She heard the cracking noise again and realized the only thing she really needed to do right now was to get herself and all the others off the ice. GET OFF THE ICE! GET OFF THE ICE!

There was just one problem...the ice wasn't supposed to give way under her as she ran and heroically saved all her siblings lives...which it did...and she wasn't suppose to plunge into the icy blackness...which happened as well.

Nope. It wasn't suppose to go that way at all.

A/N: I do so enjoy writing this story and my siblings are really getting a kick out of this. I got a review recently warning me to stay away from too many OC's, as the numbers do tend to lead to confusion. Though she is right, I do have to keep all my OC's. And I do beg forgiveness if you guys can't keep them straight. How about this...I'll do a little name chart at the beginning of every chapter to help you poor souls to who take the time to read my pathetic attempt at humor. :)

I hope that will help. In the meantime, thank to everyone to took the time to read and to review and thanks a bunch for reading my story! And a HUGE thank you to my beta, Kiann, without whom I would be lost. Toodles!

By the Lion's Mane,

Allora

TO BE CONTINUED...