Back with another chapter!
The morning light shone through bright and cheery. They could hear the Professor's Mrs. Macready already showing guests around, every so often a few tours would be established and that would greatly limit their ability to move around the house. It was a very historical house, and since it was secluded from the war any families who had fled it was an easy option to go to go see something somewhat like a museum. So despite the fact that he was living there Hiccup's grandfather allowed them in, he had always believed in greater understanding of ones world, or perhaps other worlds as well.
Mrs. Macready had made it very clear to every single one of the children how if they disturbed her tours through the "fascinating" history of a certain book, they wouldn't live to see tomorrow. They didn't feel like challenging her on that.
This meant they were strictly kept outside. They couldn't have hooligans running around the place, destroying precious items.
"Just as if anyone of us would want to spend half the morning trailing round with a crowd of strange grown-ups!" Ruffnut had proclaimed the first time they heard that rule, they were reminded very often.
Because of this Astrid and Hiccup were not able to get into Narnia… yet. It started with a simple ball game in the yard, just a bunch of children slipping and sliding on wet grass. In this case they used an apple instead of a baseball. The "ball" swirled through the air thrown by Dagur, allowing Heather to easily swing it far away. Whizzing all the way home.
While they were doing their game, Hiccup doodling Mr. Tumnus, it was a good drawing, although the lines were a bit wonky and he couldn't quite get his face in the right shape. Meanwhile Astrid was playing the game, but he didn't mind, someone finally believed him, and honestly Astrid kind of terrified him, even if she was pretty, so he was glad she was on Team Narnia.
It was Snotlout's turn. As usual he was ever the problem child. Hiccup and Snotlout still weren't on speaking terms. Dagur pounced the ball up, one, two, three times, before slamming it towards Snotlout who was flirting with Astrid, meaning Snotlout completely failed to hit it. "Dagur!" he cried out.
"Whoops." said Dagur smugly, he didn't exactly have a reason to throw it so hard and it was probably a low blow to throw it while he was distracted, but he just found he didn't care. He'd done worse, it wasn't like Snotlout would keel over and die.
Astrid sighed, this was their 2nd strike. Meanwhile Tuffnut mocked him, "Wake up dolly daydream!"
Fishlegs and Hiccup's relationship had gotten strained over the years but he didn't like the thought of Hiccup being left out, even if it was technically self imposed, since they would let him play. He didn't like baseball either, nor did he like how competitive it got, he at least could look imposing Hiccup just seemed to get the worst of both worlds, and usually left the games feeling miserable. Some days he wished his and Hiccup's relationship had remained stronger but he had shied away from him after it started getting him into trouble. "Hey guys, why don't we play hide-and-seek again?"
It was unlikely they would agree. "No." said Snotlout as if he was the boss of everyone, and in a way he usually was, having a group of kids follow him around simply to avoid being his target, "I told Astrid I was the best baseball player of all.
Behind his back Hiccup rolled his eyes before leaning against the tree again and once again trying to correct the shape of Mr. Tummnus's head. Only Dagur caught it though and let out a snicker.
Snotlout puffed his cheeks up, readying his bat. "It's not funny, Dagur! Just you wait! I'll hit this one so far none of you will be able to catch it until all of us has run 5 laps around!" Dagur threw it once more, slightly softer this time.
This time Snotlout hit it, oh Odin he hit it. It soared into the sky crashing into one of the windows of the house. They were screwed.
"Every man for himself!" cried out Tuffnut almost cheerfully, bolting for the front door, since it was likely she would exit through the back closest to where they were. Just as he was about to get through the door his sister tackled him and dragged him away, he pulled on her hair and they just kept wrestling.
Ruffnut had gotten him a chokehold as they began wrestling on the ground, "Woman and children first!"
The others ran past them nonchalantly, if Ruffnut and Tuffnut were to be blamed it wouldn't affect them. The children climbed the stairs, they didn't really have a plan but they knew she would be around the first or second floor of the mansion today, which means they didn't necessarily have to disturb the visiting parties of people being led around the house.
Even as they reached the fourth floor it sounded like someone was following them, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had come tearing up the stairs when they heard Mrs. Macready getting closer to the front door. Her footsteps hadn't stopped though, and they could hear her continuing on with her tour. Eventually they reached the room where Snotlout had shattered the window.
"Well done Snotlout." commented Dagur.
"You threw it! I wasn't ready!"
Hiccup then ran into the room, he had attempted to circle back around outside only to find her coming this way, in a low whisper he said, "Guys, she's coming!"
Sure enough her footprints were echoing once more. With little choice but to run down the hallway and turn down another corridor only to find it brought them back to the balcony leaving them exposed for when she looked this way, the house was like a maze. They turned around going through a series of locked doors. "When I get those kids I'll…" Macready didn't finish her sentence, trying to clean her glasses.
They had little time and simply went into the only unlocked door that was nearby, it was the one with the wardrobe. Everyone wisely decided to not say anything in fear it would stir up bad memories. Still they feared she would open up the door and Tuffnut and Ruffnut were the first to go into the ominous wardrobe. Meanwhile Dagur had to pull Fishlegs in, who was scared taht there could be poisonous spiders inside as the last person.
The fear of being caught outweighed the need to make sounds, for about 10 seconds. It was nothing but arguing after that. "Fishlegs! Stop stepping on my toe!"
"That wasn't me!"
"Scoot over!" yelled Ruffnut to her brother.
"Why don't you move over!"
8 kids packed in the same tiny enclosed space was a recipe for disaster. Fishlegs was shoved to the back of the wardrobe. Meanwhile Astrid and Tuffnut had to somehow find a way to get tangled up in the coats.
"It's so cramped in here."
"Will you stop shoving!"
Snotlout was snapping at Fishlegs after bumping into him, "Fishlegs there's space behind you, back up for Thor's sake!"
"Ow! Who poked me?" asked Fishlegs feeling something scratch him. Then another scratch came, "It's not funny anymore guys!"
"If there's room, scoot over! It's probably nothing!
So Fishlegs kept moving back, just how big was this wardrobe… the farther he went the colder and wetter it got until he stumbled back into the light of day. He was absolutely befuddled by what he saw his jaw hanging open.
Somehow he had been transported from a sunny day in a dark yet warm and dry closet to the middle of an entire woods. He couldn't believe his eyes. Ruffnut and Tuffnut came stumbling out next. "Woah! This is one big wardrobe!"
When Heather came emerged she just stared in shocked awe. Hiccup was in the back of the crowd and thus popped in last to realize that they were here.
Narnia.
Thank you so much for reading!
