Penny came tumbling out of the wardrobe. She was back in the spare room in England, where it was still daytime and raining outside. Peter's voice could still be heard from the hall, still counting.
"...ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred! Ready or not, here I come!"
Penny ran out of the empty room into the hallway to assure her siblings that she was safe. "It's all right! I'm back! I'm all right!" she announced.
Mowgli peeked out from the curtain he pushed Penny out of earlier. "Shut up! He's coming!" He hissed.
Penny blinked, confused that her brother did not look worried about her, at all. She looked to see Peter coming down the hall, ready to seek the others.
He spotted Mowgli and Penny, and Mowgli sighed in irritation at Penny for blowing his hiding place before coming out.
"You know," Peter said, "I'm not sure you two have quite got the idea of this game."
"Weren't you wondering where I was?" Penny asked, narrowing her eyes.
"That's the point! That was why he was seeking you!" Mowgli stated.
"Does this mean I win?" Eilonwy asked, as she too came trotting down the hall.
"I don't think Penny wants to play anymore," said Peter.
Penny was absolutely confused. It was as if time had hardly passed at all while she was in Narnia. "I've been... gone for hours..." she revealed.
The other three stared at her oddly.
Penny told them about her experience in Narnia. But when they didn't believe her story, she led them into the spare room with the wardrobe. She opened the door and told them to see for themselves.
Eilonwy pushed the coats aside and stepped in. But all she found in front of her was the back of the wardrobe. Narrowing her eyes, she knocked on it.
Mowgli examined from behind, knocking on it as well.
Peter took a peek inside behind Eilonwy's shoulder to see the wooden back, himself.
Penny was shocked. It was now a completely ordinary wardrobe. No snow, no woods, and no land within.
Shaking her head, Eilonwy stepped out and looked at her sister. "Penny, the only woods in here is the back of the wardrobe."
Mowgli joined with her and Peter.
"One game at a time, Pen. We all don't have your imagination," agreed Peter.
The three began to leave the room.
"But I wasn't imagining!" complained Penny.
The others stopped and turned back towards her.
"That's enough, Penny," Eilonwy simply said.
Penny couldn't believe this. No one believed her. "I wouldn't lie about this!"
"Well, I believe you," Mowgli responded, with a smirk.
"You do?"
"Yeah, of course. Didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards?"
Penny pouted at Mowgli's sarcastic remark, while Peter rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Oh, will you just stop?" he scolded him. "You just have to make everything worse, don't you?"
Mowgli shrugged. "It was just a joke."
Peter glared at him. "When are you gonna learn to grow up?"
"Shut up!" Mowgli shouted angrily in his brother's face. "You think you're Dad, but you're not!" With that, he stormed out of the room.
Eilonwy watched as Mowgli disappeared down the hallway. Then, she gave Peter a look, not pleased by this at all. "Well, that was nicely handled," she told him, before following Mowgli out of the room.
"But..." Penny said softly, trying to convince Peter, "...it really was there."
But Peter looked at her rather firmly. "Eilonwy's right, Penny. That's enough." Then, he left the room, as well.
Penny stood there, feeling hurt and defeated. She looked back at the wardrobe, and its ordinary backside. What happened? Why did the wardrobe suddenly turn ordinary and for Narnia to mysteriously vanish? With no other option, she closed the door. She slowly backed away, with her eyes still on the wardrobe. Then finally, she left the room, herself.
That night, Penny couldn't sleep. She laid there in bed, watching the candle on her nightstand. I just don't understand, she thought to herself. Was it really all just her imagination? Or was Narnia for real. And why wasn't it there when she tried to show it to her siblings?
Making up her mind, Penny decided to go back and see for herself. So she crept out of bed. But instead of putting her slippers on, she reached for her boots which were nearby, and slipped her feet into them. Putting her pink night robe on over her yellow nightgown, she took the candle and quietly stepped out into the hallway. With no one in sight, Penny began to make her way back to the room with the wardrobe.
At that same time, the sound of a toilet flushing came from bathroom. Mowgli came out, wearing a red night robe over his pajamas. Just then, he spotted Penny wandering down the hall. He realized she was probably going back to her imaginary country. Snickering, Mowgli followed her to tease her about it.
Penny slowly approached the wardrobe in the dark spare room. She reached her hand out to open it, but then hesitated.
Please, she prayed to herself. Please be there. She took hold of the doorknob, and pulled the door open. Inside, were the same coats still hanging.
Suddenly, the flame on her candle blew out from a gush of wind inside.
Seeing her blown out candle, Penny grinned and climbed inside. Like last time, she did not close the door all the way as she disappeared inside and only left it ajar.
Mowgli entered the room, narrowly missing his sister. All he could see was the wardrobe, with the door left ajar.
"Penny?" He murmured, pretending to wonder where she could be. "Where are you?" With a smirk, he yanked the wardrobe door open without any warning. "Boo!"
But to his surprise, he did not find Penny right away. Only the racks of coats hanging up. He briefly looked back to make sure no one was listening, Mowgli slowly climbed into the wardrobe, himself. "Pe-nny..." he said in a sing-song tone. "Hope you're not afraid of the dark." He grinned mischievously, and shut the door completely.
He expected for Penny to reveal herself in only a few seconds and complain. But there was still no sign of her.
"Penny?" He asked, now really wondering where she could be. He pushed himself past the coats to find her. At one point, he discovered a tree branch, much to his confusion. "Penny?" He kept pushing past the coats, along with more tree branches.
The wooden floor of the wardrobe began to fade, and was replaced with the sound of soft, crunchy snow.
"Penny!" Mowgli began to complain. Until finally, he stepped out from the shadow of some thick dark fir trees, and fell back-flat onto a snowy ground into an open place in the middle of a wood. Noticing it was now cold, he slowly got back up on his feet and looked around in amazement.
Overhead there was pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees on a fine winter day in the morning. Everything was perfectly still, as if he were the only living creature in that country. There was not even a robin or a squirrel among the trees, and the wood stretched as far as he could see in every direction.
Penny was right. Her imaginary country turned out to be not so imaginary at all. There really was a land within the wardrobe.
Mowgli continued further into the woods to look for Penny. "Penny? Where are you?" He called, hoping she did not go very far.
No answer.
"Penny. I think I believe you now!"
Further steps within the snowy forest, Mowgli came upon the lamppost. He looked at it and its burning light in wonder and confusion. He continued on, now shivering from the cold. Uncomfortable being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place; he shouted again. "Penny!"
Still, there was no answer.
Mowgli continued to look around, now unsure what to do and how he'd ever find Penny. Just then, he heard the sound of sleigh bells coming from a distance. He turned around and listened, as the sound grew louder and closer.
"Penny?"
From the foggy path, came the pounding hoofbeats of six white reindeer in a row pulling a sleigh; the reindeer were about the size of Shetland ponies. Their hair was so white that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them; their branching horns were gilded and shone like something on fire when the sunrise caught them. Their harness was of scarlet leather and covered with bells. On the sledge, driving the reindeer, sat what looked like a small strange looking creature. Behind him, on the actual sleigh, was another person.
But Mowgli didn't get the chance to see who it was, however. He heard the creature shout "Yah! Yah!", and cracking a whip at the reindeer. Mowgli quickly dived out of the way into the snow. The sleigh swept right past him, but then came to a sharp halt. Mowgli looked up over the back to see the tip of a gold crown peeking up. He took a look at the reindeer, and then at the driver's seat to see a goblin with green skin. He was dressed in a purple cowl and brown skirt. His right eye seemed to be half-closed. But he mostly looked creepy, especially by the way he glared at Mowgli.
The goblin hopped out from the sleigh, and growled as he began to charge at the boy. Now frightened, Mowgli hastily got back up on his feet, and tried to make a run for it. But the growling goblin threw his whip around his legs, making him fall down again.
The creature pulled out a knife. He jumped right on top of Mowgli to ensure he could not escape, and put the knife to his throat.
"Leave me alone!" complained Mowgli.
"What is it now, Creeper?" A woman's voice came from the sleigh.
"Make him let me go!" Mowgli exclaimed to the person in the sleigh. " I didn't do anything wrong!"
"How dare you address the Queen of Narnia!" snarled the Creeper.
"I didn't know!"
"You will know her better hereafter!" The goblin raised his knife up, ready to kill Mowgli, who braced himself.
"Wait!"
The Creeper stopped and looked back. Mowgli looked up to see who it was.
