The giant wooly creature abruptly froze, staring wild eyed at the three children.

Then, to their absolute shock, English words came out of its mouth. "Who spoke my name?"

The girls quickly pointed to Eddie, shouting in unison, "He did!"

Eddie shivered. "It was me, sir. Hope you don't mind if I call you sir, sir. I don't know what honorific to use, except maybe...your highness?"

The lion-sheep creature purred in a way that sounded almost like laughter, but scary, and in a way that seemed like a joke on Eddie's expense. "You already know the answer to that."

Eddie gulped and nodded.

Michelle stared. "Are y'all hearing the same thing I am? Is that thing really talking?"

Aslan roared. "I am not a thing!"

Michelle shrank back in fear. "Y-yes, sir! I mean, your highness!"

The big lion-sheep's anger quickly passed. "Eddie, you may take food from my booth if you wish. It will give you strength for your journey."

The boy's eyes widened. "How do you know my name?" He paused and thought a moment. "Never mind. I guess I know that too."

Trembling, he crept toward the vine covered hut. "Ummm...what about my friends?"

"If you vouch for them, and they truly are your friends, they came have some too."

"All...right..." Eddie stepped through the doorway, motioning for the girls to follow.

Plates and sealable containers had been stacked next to the mounds of delicious food. Lacking chairs, and wanting to sit out in the grass anyway, Eddie loaded up a container. Aslan had mentioned some kind of journey. Plus, he had questions.

The girls, however, just grabbed regular plates

Filling stuff, cooked, it seemed, by the best chefs imaginable. For drinks they had different kinds of fruit juices, sweet and not from concentrate, nor thinned out with apple juice, like someone had recently squeezed them from plants growing from the roof. None of them had any complaints.

Well, except Trixie. She wanted Tahitian Treat, chips and some Now N' Laters, but sometimes there's no accounting for taste. Sure, they didn't have Nacho Cheese Doritos, but you couldn't have made better seasoned fries or potato salad.

Though fearful of him, Eddie still ate out in the field next to Aslan, mostly because it seemed the polite thing to do. He figured he had to be polite with something that big and terrifying. It was sharing all that food with him.

"You've read all my books."

It wasn't a question. Eddie nodded. "Yes...your majesty. More than once. Honestly, I'm kinda curious about how I could be talking to you and everything. That last book was pretty final."

Aslan gave a dismissive wave with his hoof. "They don't always go in chronological order, or have the same characters in them."

"So there can be other stories."

"Yes."

Terrified of Aslan, Michelle stayed inside the booth and ate there.

Trixie sat in the doorway, gawking at Eddie and the lion-sheep creature. "What do you think that thing is? Some kind of buffalo?"

Michelle stuffed a crawdad into her mouth. "That ain't no buffalo! Buffalo don't got teeth!"

"You crazy! Buffalo do got teeth!"

"Not like that, they don't! That thing looks more like a lion!"

"Don't look like no lion I ever saw! What's with the horns and hooves and everything? And that wool! When's the last time you saw a lion with wool? Not any zoo I been to!"

"Yeah? So what do you think it is?"

"I dunno! Maybe some magical thing, like them unicorns."

"It's ugly, that's what I think!"

They both had a good laugh at that.

After they'd all had a good nibble, Trixie cautiously approached the giant, loaded plate and drink still in hand. "Excuse me...uh...Mister Asian, I mean, Oz-Land? Uh, I got a question..."

"My name is Aslan.'

Michelle set down her food and rushed after her sister, hissing, "What. Are. You. Doing?"

But Trixie kept talking. "Sorry. Ozzzland...You said something about a...a journey?"

None of them expected to be backhanded.

In one quick motion, like a house cat batting the nose of a curious dog, Aslan's arm shot out, and they all went flying.

It wasn't like someone's father hitting them. The strike appeared to have purpose, though none of them could understand why.

The children flew screaming through the air, somehow avoiding contact with the floating islands along the way.

Down they went with the wind blasting in their faces.

"You and your stupid books!" Michelle screamed. "We're all gonna die because of you!"

Trixie flipped over backwards. "Does your book have any winged unicorns in it? Maybe a magical parachute?"

"Uh..."

Seconds later, they felt the hard slap of water.

They'd dropped like rocks into a large lake somewhere.

For a moment, Eddie flailed in the depths, but his lessons at summer camp came back to him, and he made his way to the surface, treading water.

Trixie, likewise, had some swimming experience, making it topside and doggy paddling, but Michelle panicked.

She'd already taken in water on the way down, and when she broke the surface, she cried, "I can't swim! I can't swim!"

Trixie paddled over to help her, but then Michelle, terrified of drowning, clawed and dunked her sister in desperate attempts to stay afloat. The two of them went under.

Eddie swam closer, but then they tried to pull him down.

"Aw, son of a —" someone cried. "If you can swim, back up, I'll get them!"

Eddie could barely see the owner of the voice, on account of all the splashing. He squinted, but could only make out a black and brown shape...oddly shaped arms. A bird, perhaps? Odd that it spoke to him, but then again, he'd just had a conversation with a giant lion-sheep. He followed the stranger's order. "Hurry! They're drowning!"

The black and brown thing grabbed hold of Michelle first, shouting, "Stop struggling! I'm trying to save your life!"

Michelle didn't quite follow the order, but the stranger appeared to have enough strength to keep her under control. "Help the other one!" they barked. "She can..." the next words got lost in noisy splashing. "Help her get..." more splashing. "...air!"

Eddie did what he could to help, doing the backfloat to give Trixie some purchase so she could do the dog paddle again.

That was the theory, at least. She instead clung to him like a piece of driftwood.

At least he had a moment to slow his breath and get his bearings.

No sign of the unearthly place they'd fallen from, only a bright blue sky with light cloud cover. A rocky outcrop ran along one side of the lake, with trees all around. Shag bark hickory, cedar, oak...no buildings anywhere.

Eddie heard the stranger, but didn't see him. He guessed they'd gone off somewhere a few yards behind his head. "Trixie, you okay?"

"Yeah. I think a big goose is giving my sister mouth to mouth."

"What?" Eddie turned his head, but couldn't see it. "Is there a shore back there?"

"Uh-huh."

"You think you can paddle over there?"

"I'll...give it a try. Keep next to me, just in case."

Eddie turned around and crawl stroked a bit. Up ahead he spotted a beach...and a gigantic Canada goose.

Sure enough, it stooped over Michelle, using its wings to do chest compressions and form a sort of airtight tube to push air into the girl's lungs.

Eddie kept swimming. Trixie lagged behind, and he had to float and let her rest again.

At last they hit sand. Eddie groaned and flopped down to rest.

Trixie, gasping, staggered to her sister's side. "Michelle!"

The bird continued doing rescue breathing.

"Michelle! Are you all right? Say something!"

Michelle coughed and sputtered.

Her eyes bugged out when she noticed the feathery head staring back at her. "I've just been Frenched by a bird!"

She crawled backwards to get away from the creature.

Eddie brushed himself off and got up, staring at the goose. "Uh...hello?"

The goose honked and turned to face him. "Hello, child of the Dirt Man! Looks like I came by just in the nick of time, eh?"

"Oh right," Eddie muttered to himself. "That's right. It's Narnia. All the animals talk." He addressed the goose. "Um, thank you. I thought for sure we wouldn't make it...what did you mean by Dirt Man?"

"You're related to Dirt Man, of course. That's what they call him in all the books. That and Adam, but they don't say that one very much. I think it means the same thing."

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's me. But I go by Eddie. What's your name, Mister Goose?"

"Mister Goose."

Eddie rubbed his face in annoyance. "Nice to meet you." He extended a hand, but instead of receiving a handshake, the bird just brushed his hand with its feathers.

Trixie frowned at her Mickey Mouse watch, tapping the glass. "Eddie, did you say this wish ends in twenty four hours?"

"Yeah, but this is Narnia. Time doesn't work the same here. In one book, the kids went into a wardrobe—"

"What's a wardrobe?" Michelle asked.

"It's like a closet. Anyway, they went to Narnia for something like a year, and when they came back out, they found it had only been a couple hours or something."

"A year! I'm not staying here a year!"

"I don't know if we got a choice right now. We'd have to find a lamp post or something, and I wouldn't know where to look. Plus the books are all set in London, so there's a chance that even if we found a lamp post, we'd come out of Narnia in London. We entered from America. I don't even know if we'll see any castles."

"Who cares about castles? I just wanna go home!"

The goose shivered. "I'd stay away from the castle. The Huruts hate Dirt Men."

"What are Huruts?"

The goose shivered. "Be glad you never ran into them. They're terrible!" He gave no further details. "How did you get here anyway? Did the Great Bird drop you off, or did you use to have wings?"

"Wings!" Michelle grumped. "Why would we have wings, you dumb bird?"

Mister Goose bristled at the insult. "I've only seen your kind in picture books! How was I supposed to know you don't have wings?"

Eddie tried to give the bird an apologetic pat on the head, but it only frowned and waddled away from him. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you're a very smart bird. As to how we got here, we met Aslan. He...kinda threw us down here."

The goose's eyes got really big. He waddled further backwards, and then, with a frightened honk, flapped his wings and took off into the air.

Trixie scowled as she watched the bird quickly become a small speck in the distance. "Great job, Eddie! You scared him off!"

"And why is that my fault? In the books, anytime people drop Aslan's name, animals welcome them into their home and give them tea and crumpets."

"What's a crumpet?"

"I don't know. I guess it's like a cookie or something."

"I don't want a cookie, I want to go home."

Trixie put her hands on her hips, staring at the lake. "Eddie, is that your Tupperware?"

The boy waded out a little, then chuckled. "Guess it's lucky I closed the lid. Don't know when we'll be able to eat again."

"I hope it doesn't need to be refrigerated."

He swam out and got the container.

Michelle kicked a rock. "What do we do now, genius?"

Eddie hiked up the beach a few yards. "I...no idea. I don't have a compass or a map. In the first book they had to run from a White Witch."

"Is there a Black Witch?"

"No, but the White Witch wasn't nice at all."

"Oh. I think I've run into a few of those."

The boy just shook his head. "Anyway, everyone kinda directed them where to hide and stuff. Of course, they had a friend of theirs that got kidnapped...Maybe if we go hiking around a bit, we can find a talking animal who can help us figure something out."

Trixie looked excited. "Like how to get home?"

"Well, I guess anything's possible, especially if we find a beaver or a mouse." Eddie marched up a rocky path he found at the edge of the shore.

Michelle grabbed his shirt, pulling him back. "Oh no, you're not going anywhere!"

"We need to find help."

"I got a better idea. We stay put and wait for someone to come find us."

He looked at her like she were crazy. "Wait for help? Are you listening to yourself? Nobody even knows we're here!"

"That goose does," Trixie said.

Eddie scoffed. "I don't think he's going to help anybody."

"Okay, so how about this: The Samoyed said our wish ends in twenty four hours, so if we stay here for twenty four hours—"

"I told you, time passes differently here! There were sequel books where the children left the wardrobe for a week, and when they came back, something like a hundred years had passed!"

Michelle crossed her arms. "Okay. Humor us. Let's wait here twenty four hours, and if nothing happens, we do it your way and look for help."

"Fine," Eddie groaned, seating himself on a log.

No sounds troubled the air but the wind blowing through, and the soft lapping of water along the shore.

Noticing a thin line of smoke issuing from the nearby treetops, Eddie pointed. "Hey look! There might be someone over there!"

Michelle scrunched up her face. "No thank you! The last time we followed you, we ended up climbing inside that awful tree!"

They sat on the beach for a good hour or so, skipping rocks across the water, watching the wildlife, which incidentally didn't seem the least bit interested in them.

Well, except for a crow that shouted "Dirt Man! Dirt Man!" as it passed.

A couple times, they spotted some kind of fuzzy gray bodied animal climbing around the cliffs on the other side of the lake, but they paid the children no mind, climbing in and out of a cave.

Eddie kept looking into the trees along a trail. "Can't I go scout the area out or something?"

Michelle slumped on the sand. "Only where I can see you."

Eddie happily obeyed, wandering to a distant area with rapids and shiny jagged rocks along the shore. He pretended not to hear her arguing with Trixie about whether they should charge his father one or two hundred dollars.

A gurgling stream fed into the lake. He hopped a rock, intending to cross over.

"That's far enough!" Michelle yelled, waving him back.

Sighing, he marched back to the girls.

"Find anything?"

"Nope. I haven't found a beaver with marmalade yet."

"What's marmalade?"

"Uh, kind of a jelly with orange rinds in it."

"Gross. The beaver can keep that."

He traveled out the opposite way. A sandbar, trout wiggling through the watery gap. He had nothing to catch them with, but supposed he could try grabbling if he got really desperate.

Distant birds chirped from some hidden location. A sparrow landed next to him, chirping "Dirt Man!" before flying off again.

Michelle did allow him up the trail somewhat, but not far enough to reach the smoke, nor find any talking animals or other signs of civilization.

Although the girls had been chattering loudly behind him, seeming to pay no attention, the moment he gained enough distance to maybe see what had created the smoke, the hushed up and called him back.

He returned to their spot on the shore, satisfied, at least, to have made a semi-thorough sweep of the area.

Eddie stared. A fancy necklace now dangled around Trixie's neck, jade beads and a gold lion's head medallion. "Hey neat! Where'd you get that?"

"Dunno. Washed up on the beach."

"Hope nobody's missing it."

"What, like the goose?"

"I don't know, maybe?"

"Well he can come back and get it then. I don't know where his butt fly off to."

The minutes crept by. The sun, balmy air and sand dried them off somewhat, but damp still clung to their clothing.

Trixie kept checking her watch, but the hands never moved.

Blowing a raspberry, she threw the watch into the lake.

"Pick that back up!" Michelle scolded. "Mama will kill you!"

"Shoot, I'll just tell her it got busted. It is!"

The sun slowly set in the sky, and they didn't have anything with which to start a fire. Their damp clothes would have been a problem if it had been colder, but it seemed to be a late spring or summer there.

A pair of gray things on the cliffs at last noticed the children, pointing and muttering to themselves, but they soon vanished the way they came, and the children saw no more of them.

Michelle and Trixie got hungry, so Eddie shared his container of food with them. The pizza and chicken still tasted fresh, despite being left in the sun all that time.

Trixie and Michelle asked Eddie a few things about Narnia, but when he got too excited about it, their eyes glazed over and it seemed clear they'd had enough.

Trixie hiked around the area a little bit, roving further out than they'd allowed Eddie to go, but it seemed nothing sustained her interest, so she came back down the hill.

The sun set, but nothing changed.

"I told you time is different," Eddie said. "It was evening when we went inside the tree, and it was sunny when we got out."

"It's probably not midnight yet. You probably got to wait `till midnight."

"And I'm telling you we're wasting time."

The stars came out, the moon shining brightly in the night sky. Unfamiliar constellations. Eddie looked for Draco and the Big Dipper, but to no avail.

Owls hooted in the dark, but it sounded more like conversation than animal noises.

Both girls trembled and clutched each other at the slightest noise. Eddie, though, laid flat on the sand, trying to stare a constellation out of the bewildering collection of glowing lights above him, until he passed out.

He awoke to the sound of both girls screaming, and snarling animal noises.

Still dark.

Disturbed by all the commotion, Eddie sat up and rubbed his eyes, only to find a spear poking him in the face.

He looked up, but, in the moonlight, could only make out the hairy outlines of a snaggle toothed face and a pair of beady eyes.

"Eddie," Trixie whispered. "Are these the Hurut things Mister Goose told us about?"

Eddie raised his hands in surrender. "I...don't know."