Disclaimer: I own nothing of Narnia, none of the characters, none of the ideas, none of the places, none of the anything. The only thing I own is my OC. Everything else is the property of the estate of CS Lewis.

Imagination, Reality, and the Space Between

Chapter Two: Exploration

The next morning at breakfast time, because Marilyn had indeed dragged herself out of bed in time for breakfast figuring that she could talk to the other children and the hours would pass a bit faster, it was raining quite vigorously. The little Pevensie girl looked disappointed; apparently they had planned something that had involved going outside at some time the night before. With breakfast done, all five of the children were leaving the dining room, which was some distance away from the bedrooms and everything else.

The five talked a bit as they walked up the staircase, with better introductions before supper the night before Marilyn at least knew all their names and that she was the same age as the eldest boy, Peter. Once upstairs, the dark-headed one, Edmund shook his head.

"Of course, it would be raining!" He said angrily, slouching back against the wall of the passageway.

"Oh, do stop complaining Ed." Susan said, rolling her eyes even though he wasn't watching. "It isn't all bad. Marilyn says there's a library around here and there's the wireless. And besides it'll likely let up in an hour or so."

Neither Edmund nor Lucy looked thrilled at the prospect of spending the morning in the library, but they didn't say anything. However, they both visibly showed their relief when Peter said: "Well, I'm going to explore the house."

"I suppose that's better than doing nothing." Susan said, knowing that she really was the only one who really enjoyed the prospect of the library.

Lucy, who was quite excited by the idea, turned to Marilyn. "Do want to come with us? You could be our guide."

Marilyn laughed. "I'd most likely be a poor guide. I still get myself lost here, even though I've come to the house every summer for the past six years. That's why I spend most of my time in the library or my room. Those are the places I don't get lost going to."

Lucy laughed, but appointed her guide to the expedition anyway. Though the others walked ahead of her, Marilyn tried to tell them what was in all the rooms before they would open the doors. After awhile she realized that she had altogether forgotten what was in most of the rooms.

They looked in about half a dozen spare bedrooms and after the fourth or fifth, Marilyn sighed exasperatedly.

"I've no idea why there are this many spare bedrooms, there's rarely any company that stays here. It's a bit overdone if you ask me."

They went on, coming through the long room with the suit of armour in it. There were a dozen or so pictures on the walls of the room though the armour itself had four windows at its back, and each of the middle two contained a small stained glass design in the upper part of the pane. The paintings were various landscapes, none of which really went together.

As they passed through the Armour Room, they next came to the Green Room. The curtains, furniture, even the walls had been wallpapered in green. In the far corner of the room sat a large harp, which was a sort of tarnished silver colour.

"Whose harp was this?" Susan asked curiously, walking over to take a closer look.

"I don't really know to tell you the truth." Marilyn said. "I suppose it might be my grandmother's but I never met her so I can't really know."

"Couldn't you just ask the Professor?"

"Well, I suppose so, but it seems a rather pointless question to ask, and besides, I don't think he really knows half of what is in the house anymore. I figure when people come to tour your house one of two things has happened. Either you live in a very boring town or you have enough things to make your house more of an art gallery than a house." Marilyn replied shrugging

The others laughed, and they all headed out of the room. It didn't take too much longer to find the library, which was, in actuality, several interconnected rooms. However, besides the initial interest in the fact most of the books were older than the professor and were larger than any other book they had seen, there was very little to really look at in the library, though Marilyn did make a point to ask them not to touch her sewing basket which was in the third room on the floor beside the window seat.

It wasn't much longer until they came to a mostly empty room that only contained an admittedly, rather large, wardrobe. The wood was a rather deep colour different from any of the other furnishings in the rooms they had come through, but aside from that and the carvings on the front (particularly the door, where a tree was carved in the center) there was little remarkable about it.

"Nothing there!" Peter said, and Marilyn nodded, and they all turned and left. Or so they thought.

Not a moment later (in fact they weren't but a few feet into the passageway) Lucy came running out from the room with the wardrobe shouting "It's alright! I've come back!"

"What are you talking about Lucy?" Susan asked, turning around to look at her sister.

Lucy looked curious for a moment then asked: "Haven't you been wondering where I was?"

Peter laughed. "So you've been hiding then? Poor old Lu, hiding and nobody noticed! You're going to have to hide longer than that if you want people to start looking for you."

Lucy's expression became more confused. "But I've been away for hours. It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe and I had tea and all sorts of things have happened."

Peter, Edmund, and Susan all looked and one another and then at Marilyn, who merely shrugged and lifted up her hands in a sort of gesture as if to say 'She's your sister'.

"Batty!" Edmund said, tapping a finger to his forehead. Susan rolled her eyes at Edmund then shook her head at Lucy.

"Lucy, don't be silly, we've only just come out of that room a moment ago and you were there then."

"You aren't being silly at all, are you Lu?" Peter said, "You're just making up a story for fun, aren't you?"

Lucy shook her head adamantly. "I'm not. It's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood inside and it's snowing. There's a faun and a Witch and it's called Narnia." She grabbed Peter by the hand and tugged on his arm. "Come and see."

So they trooped back into the room with the wardrobe, and they looked at it, pulling back the coats, and tapping on the wood at the back.

"Alright Lucy, you've had your fun. We half-believed you too." Peter said.

"But I wasn't lying. It was there!" Lucy said strongly.

"Lucy, that's really enough. The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe." Susan said.

The disbelief on all their faces was enough to make Lucy go red in the face and burst into tears. Lucy ran out, ahead of the others, and back the way they had come. Marilyn looked after her.

"Does she play games like that often?"

Peter and Susan both shook their heads. "Not usually. She's normally very honest." said Peter.

"Oh. Did you want to see more of the house or –" Marilyn trailed off looking again in the direction Lucy had run off.

"One of us probably should go after her." Susan said, looking at Edmund and Peter.

"It's alright. You all can go after her now. The rest of the house isn't going to get up and leave or anything."

The others agreed, and that was the end of the exploration of the house.

Author's Note: I really don't have much to say at the moment except for if you've made it this far, please review. Thanks and happy reading,

ESG