The morning was quite bright, but even without sunglasses, Gabriella did not feel the need to squint or shade her eyes. She spent a lot of time outside and so she was used to the early rays. However, it was quite hot and she wondered if maybe having a cap on would help keep her cool on her adventure. She had convinced her grandmother to take her to the park today. They hadn't gone in a while since she had to take care of Gabriella's younger cousin. But today he was with his parents and they were free to do more things. The risky thing Gabriella was about to do, was to go down to the creek alone.
She had been here many times before when she was a smaller child. She used to throw stones into the creek with her grandfather. They never aimed across the creek as their goal was to hit the fish. But today her goal was different. There were a few openings in the trees that had a path which led down to the creek, and she quickly chose one while her grandmother was busy talking to a lady she just met. As she slid down the small hill she wished she had worn pants instead of shorts. Her goal was to explore the length of the creek but the embankment was covered in long grass, almost to her hips. There could easily be a dozen snakes in there and she would be none the wiser until they bit her.
She considered the options. She could go to the left and under the street bridge. But there had been bats sighted in the area and she knew they lived under bridges when they didn't have caves. She could go around the grass and walk in the shallow water of the creek. Or she could go up the hill and past the trees back to the park, and come back some other day. Not that there would be a guarantee she would ever have another day to come back. It took only one moment to make the decision. She would walk in the creek and hope no snakes darted out at her.
After only a minute walking upstream Gabriella came to a tiny waterfall. It was easy to climb but near here the water got deeper and there was nothing she could see to grab onto. The other side of the creek had shorter grass so she crossed over and began walking along that shore instead. Once she got past the waterfall and into deeper water she made her way back into the creek. She could see parts of the park through the trees and she recognized where she was at. The creek encircled about half of the park before it completely turned and went towards the middle school, then turned again and went towards another park. But after that, she did not know where she would end up.
Only a few months ago her class read a story about a little boy who wanted to explore his neighborhood. He ended up getting stuck with a younger neighbor-girl following him around and it ruined his adventure. But when Gabriella read of the places they went, images of the park near her grandparents' house popped up. She was determined to have a similar, but better, experience.
Soon after she went all away around the curve of the creek she came across a difficulty. The creek went into a large drainage pipe before turning towards the middle school. Although it seemed large enough to crawl through (she did not get close enough to it to actually tell and she refused to wear her glasses that day) she was not about to do something so dangerous and disgusting. Defeated and a bit angry at wasting her adventure she turned back. Now the park laid on her left side. The hill was very steep here and she knew she'd have to walk all the way around to find a way back up. Recently, the city had even covered the hill with large, pale gray stones to discourage climbers. She walked on the lower part as there were no long grasses here.
Quite a bit of time must have passed since she set out on her journey as the sun was blazing hot. Gabriella felt foolish for not thinking of bringing a bottle of water with her on such an adventure. She felt a bit more foolish when she tripped on a loose rock and fell facedown.
She caught herself, thankfully. But the shock kept her from immediately jumping back up. She was not expecting the fall at all and thought for a moment she hit her face. She closed her eyes, and counted to ten. All her bravery had left her and she felt like an idiot for thinking a clumsy child like her could explore the creek alone. She hoped her grandma had not yet noticed she was gone.
A second before she could open her eyes she realized the air went from near sweating hot to freezing cold. The stones underneath her felt slightly softer and a lot wetter. When she opened her eyes she saw white snow.
She scrambled up as quickly as she could, and looked around. The creek was gone. The tree line on either side was gone. The hills and rocks and drainage pipe were all gone. She had been lying on a pile of snow-covered rocks and all around her was an unfamiliar winter wood. It seemed like a picture one would have in a storybook. She looked up, wondering if maybe, on some slight chance, she had slipped down a rabbit hole like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
Within a minute Gabriella was chilled to the bone. Her thin t-shirt and jean shorts were perfect for a June morning exploration. They would get her killed if she stayed out any longer in this climate. You see, the place where Gabriella lived rarely ever snowed even on its coldest winter days. She had no idea what to do if she found herself in such a situation (although most children wouldn't).
While questions of how she got there flew through her mind, the most important one she could grasp was how do I find shelter? The sun was behind thick clouds. She couldn't tell what direction east and west were in.
She didn't have to worry for long as only a minute or so later she heard footsteps approaching and murmured talking. It was coming from behind her. She spun around, fight-or-flight instincts activated, while refusing to do either. She needed to find someone who could help her get out of the cold and these woods.
From behind a tree, the two figures approached. One was a blonde girl, possibly a few years younger than Gabriella. She was wearing old-fashioned clothes, from what looked like the mid-1900s. Holding her arm and carrying an umbrella was a half goat, half man creature, something she had only seen before in the Disney movie Hercules. When they saw her they stopped in their tracks.
"Another one?" The goat-man asked himself, clearly confused. Then to the girl, "Do you know each other?"
"No," the girl replied in an English accent. "I've never seen her before. How are you?" She called out to Gabriella. "My name is Lucy." They began walking towards her again and she saw the goat-man was carrying packages.
"Freezing," Gabriella responded, envying the red wool scarf around the goat-man's neck. "And my name is Gabriella."
"Of course you're cold out here." He told her, a puzzled look on his face. "My name is Tumnus and I just invited my new acquaintance Lucy here to my home for some tea. I've never seen a human before, and now I know two. We would like for you to join us."
Gabriella knew of stranger danger, but she thought in situations like this— those that involve deathly cold temperatures and characters from Greek mythology— were exceptions. "Will you tell me where I am?" She asked cautiously.
"All on the way," Tumnus replied, and like that the three of them were off. Lucy offered her other hand out and Gabriella found herself holding it as if they were childhood friends. As they walked Tumnus explained that he met Lucy about five minutes ago while traveling home. He told her how the land they were in was called Narnia and that Lucy was from the land of Spare Oom.
"England," Lucy whispered to Gabriella. She had figured with her accent and all, but Tumnus also had the same accent. It was nice to know that she wasn't the only one from Earth in this strange world. And she knew it was a different world for she never heard of a country called Narnia. Although, there were plenty of countries she hadn't heard of before. There was just something different about this place.
Tumnus continued talking about the food he would have at home and Lucy seemed to be listening intently. After just a few moments the rocks became more frequent and then a hill appeared. It seemed like Tumnus was about to turn and go straight into a rock wall when she saw a sort of cave entrance with a nice door in front. Now she really felt like Alice.
It seemed she had gone into a nonsense world where little girls randomly appeared and casually went to the houses of hybrid creatures. Not that Gabriella was upset about this. She had just spent the past few months crying about not being able to physically escape into the worlds of the books and movies she enjoyed. The past school year had not been kind to her, and what she wanted more than anything to get away from everything. Was this an answer to her wishes? She always made sure to find the first star at night, and ask for something magical to happen to her.
"Now we shan't be long," Tumnus said as he took a tea kettle and put it over the fire. The only tea Gabriella had ever had was green tea, and it was served cold. It was very nice, but she was worried she wouldn't like this kind.
The fire from the fireplace defrosted her and she began to feel better, so she began to look around the house. There was a good-sized bookshelf along one wall. She went over, wondering if they would be written in English too. She saw that they were— and they had some curious titles like "Is Man a Myth?" (You can throw that one out, Gabriella thought) and "Nymphs and Their Ways."
"Oh no," Lucy said, and Gabriella spun around. "There are only two chairs." They were very small chairs, and they were snuggled at a nice distance from the fireplace, next to a small table.
Tumnus began apologizing and went off onto another room to find a third chair, mentioning how he never thought to have two guests at the same time.
"We could have all sat on the rug. It looks comfortable," Gabriella told Lucy.
"Sitting on the floor to have tea?" Lucy asked, very much surprised.
Gabriella shrugged. "I sit on the floor to eat all the time," she moved around to get closer to the fire. "My grandma doesn't like me eating on her couches, so if I want to watch TV in the living room, sitting on the floor is the only way. I do the same thing at home too..." she trailed off, realizing she was talking too much. Lucy was already looking at her strangely.
"Teevee?" Lucy asked.
"Television." Gabriella was confused. Maybe they called it something different in England?
Before anything else could be said, Tumnus came out with another chair and the food. They all sat around the table and began eating. There was a boiled egg for each of them (which Gabriella passed on as she already had eggs for breakfast), sardines on toast (it was her first time eating them, and she ended up wanting more, though she didn't have the toast), then buttered toast (she ate that), then honeyed toast (she passed), and finally sugar-topped cake. It all went quite well with the tea.
After they ate, the talking began. Tumnus began telling stories of life in Narnia. Every question Gabriella found herself wanting to ask, Lucy ended up asking first. There were things called Dryads which were like tree-spirits but at the same time, people. There were Nymphs who were water-spirits but also like people. And finally, there were Fauns which were creatures like Tumnus, half-goat, half-human, although a creature entirely unrelated to either. They would all have hunting parties and dancing parties and treasure-seeking parties. Though all of this happened during the summer.
"Not that it isn't always winter now," he finished and sat still as if saddened. Lucy didn't ask any questions, but Gabriella thought this strange.
"Always winter?" How could a land that once had summer, always be winter?
"Yes," he replied glumly. "And never Christmas."
How could it never be Christmas? To Gabriella that was more shocking than a magical land celebrating the holiday. But before she could ask anything else he got up and took out a box from a dresser that had a small instrument in it. Gabriella looked to Lucy to see if maybe she knew what it was, but Lucy still glanced around the home, eyes full of wonder.
As he began to play, the weirdest feeling began to come over Gabriella. She felt as if she was hearing more than just the music of the flute, but the drums, a harp, a violin, and a few others she couldn't name. She began to feel drowsy, and when her head tipped forward as she fainted the last thing she saw was Lucy's face, full of many emotions. What she didn't know was that the music was having a completely different effect on Lucy; it made her want to cry and laugh and dance and go to sleep all at the same time.
Her head gently hit the table and she went into a deep dreamless sleep.
Author's Note: Thank you all for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!