Here's the first real chapter- enjoy :-)

I: A forest? In a Wardrobe?

On a small rural train station, little more than a rickety wooden platform really, was empty save for four children, two boys and two girls, each carrying a single small suitcase and a buff coloured gas-mask box. These children, whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie had been evacuated from London to protect them from the German bombs. They were waiting for some form of transport to arrive to take them to the house of Professor Diggory Kirke, their guardian for the foreseeable future.

"The Professor knew we were coming" Susan, the oldest girl who at fourteen was fast becoming a beautiful young woman, frowned as she looked left and right for some sign that they had not been forgotten about.

"Perhaps we've been incorrectly labelled?" the younger of the boys, twelve year old Edmund, suggested, looking at the label affixed to his gasmask box

"Can we play I spy?" the youngest of the four, eight year old Lucy, asked

Edmund and Susan both rolled their eyes at this, but Peter, the oldest at fifteen years of age, smiled at his cute littlest sister and began. "I spy with my little…"

Before he got any further, an old wooden cart, pulled by a pair of beautiful dapple grey horses and driven by an austere looking older lady, clattered into view

"Mrs Macready?" Peter asked uncertainly

"I'm afraid so." The woman nodded, gravely. "Is that all then? Haven't you brought anything else?"

"No, ma'am. It's just us." Peter replied, taking Lucy's hand

Mrs Macready nodded. "Small favours."

Eventually they arrived at a large grand old house, which to Lucy's imaginative young mind looked a little like a castle. As they entered the house Mrs Macready gave them a curt lecture detailing all of the things that they were not allowed to do, after which she led them to the two bedrooms which had been allotted to them.

That evening little Lucy was stricken by a bout of home sickness and it fell to her oldest brother to comfort her.

"You saw the outside." Peter smiled at her, ruffling her dark brown bob. "This place is huge. We'll be able to do whatever we want. Tomorrow's going to be great. Really."

However things were not to turn out that way.

The sky was grey and the rain lashed against the window as the four Pevensies sat slumped in the Professor's library, Susan was reading aloud from a medical dictionary

"Gas-tro-vas-cu-lar. Come on, Peter Gas-tro-vas-cu-lar"

"Is it Latin?" Peter asked, bored

"Yes…"

Edmund sighed heavily. "Is it Latin for worst game ever invented?"

"We could play hide-and-seek" Lucy suggested

"But we're already having so much fun!" Peter exclaimed, sarcasm in every syllable.

"Please" Lucy begged, batting her brown eyes at him. "Please, please."

Peter smirked at his baby sister and began to count. "One...two...three...four..."

The younger three ran from the room to hide as Peter continued to count. He wandered around the library as he counted

"98… 99… 100… Ready or not here I come."

Peter left the library ready to hunt down his brother and sisters

"I'm back!" Lucy cried out, running out of the room she'd been hiding in. "I'm back, it's alright!"

"Shhh" Edmund hissed clamping his hand over her mouth. "He's coming."

At that moment Peter appeared- when he saw them he folded his arms. "You know, I'm not sure if you two have quite gotten the idea of this game!"

"But weren't you wondering where I was?" Lucy asked in obvious confusion

"That's the point!" Edmund told her as if addressing a slow child. "That's why he was seeking you!"

"Does this mean I win?" Susan asked, emerging from her hiding place, inside a bedding box right next to her younger siblings

Peter shook his head saying. "I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore."

"But I've been gone for hours" Lucy frowned, puzzled.

"No Lu, it's only been a few minutes" Peter replied. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" she told them and launched into a wonderful story of how she had gone to hide in a wardrobe and found herself in a forest in the middle of winter. She told them about meeting a Faun and going to his little cave house for tea… and Sardines.

"Oh Lucy" Susan chuckled. "What an imagination, you should write that down before you forget it"

Lucy scowled at her. "Come on, I'll show you"

She led them to the wardrobe, a beautiful antique looking piece which had lovely carvings on its front. Susan opened the door and looked into it. She knocked on the back panel for good measure and shook her head.

"The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe." She told her sister

"One game at a time Lu" said Peter, kindly. "We don't all have your imagination."

"But I wasn't imagining!" Lucy protested, hurt that they didn't believe her

"That's enough" Susan barked

Edmund looked at his little sister. "Well I believe you."

"You do?" Lucy asked, hope filling her voice as she looked at him

"Yeah" he nodded, a smirk curling his lips. "Didn't I tell you about the football field I found in the bathroom cupboard?"

Peter rounded on his brother. "Why don't you just stop it, you always have to make everything worse. Grow up!"

"Shut up!" Edmund yelled, squaring up to the older boy, dark eyes flashing. "You think you're dad, but you're not!"

With that he stormed out of the room

"Well" Susan glowered at Peter. "That was nicely handled!"

"It was really there…" Lucy maintained, staring at the wardrobe, still confused

"Susan's right." Peter sighed, turning to follow Susan from the room. "That's enough…"

She was so tired and so very cold.

Rowan rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm them as she staggered through the deep snow. Growing up in the desert city of Tashbaan had left her little prepared for the endless winter that the White Witch had over Narnia. She knew that she couldn't give up- she'd come so far in the ten days since she'd left home; but, dressed as she was she wouldn't survive much longer if she didn't find shelter soon.

Pulling her thin worn and ragged cloak tighter around her freezing body she staggered on through the snow, tripping occasionally in the deeper drifts

Something dark moved in her periphery. She prayed that it wasn't one of the Witch's cronies- The Lion knows what would happen if she were captured by her. Whichever side he was on there was a Beaver looking up at her curiously.

"You a daughter of Eve?" he asked

"Y-yes" she nodded, stammering through her chattering teeth

"Come with me love" he offered her his paw. "It's not safe for you here- if the witch knew you were here… "

"Thank you Mr Beaver" Rowan smiled. "L-lead the way"

The Beaver escorted her to a beautiful dam which was perched on a lake, he ushered her into a cosy kitchen and took her cloak from her- she relished the warmth on her chilly limbs

"Mother!" Mr Beaver called. "Come here, you'll never guess what I've found"

It was late at night and Lucy Pevensie lay awake, wondering whether she had actually imagined her time in Narnia with Mr Tumnus. She needed to know. Climbing out of bed she wrapped herself in her dressing gown and sliding her feet into her slippers- lit the candle on her bedside table and padded up to the spare room which held the wardrobe.

She opened the door and a gust of frigid wind from within blew her candle out. Her face lit up. She had her proof and she wanted to go and see Mr Tumnus. Setting the extinguished candle on the floor, Lucy ran into Narnia.

Unbeknown to Lucy, Edmund was awake and had followed her to the little room and watched her climb into the wardrobe. He smirked, as an idea came to him- he'd play a little joke on Lucy. Edmund followed her into the wardrobe, saying in a taunting voice.

"Lucy- hope you're not afraid of the dark"

With that he closed the door behind him.

~V~

Well, what did you think?

I know I more or less ripped off the film in this chapter but this chapter is more about building up relationships

Next time: the details of Lucy's second visit to Narnia