Thanks Rex'sgirl and Rachel!
Chapter Two
"
Snow? In
Summer?" Michael was incredulous.
"That's sure what it feels like." Erin insisted.
"Let me see it." Michael reached over and took some of the stuff from Erin's hand. He quickly shook it off.
"That's...cold!!"
"Told you so."
They just looked at each other for a minute. Then Michael said
"Well, why on earth is there snow in your wardrobe? Inside the house? And in Summer?"
Erin shrugged. "Beats me. Here, let the baby use the blanket."
They wrapped little Katie well and then sat shivering in their short-sleeved shirts.
"Why are we just sitting here?"
"I don't know. It's cold. And...somethings making my pants wet. Brr...I think I'm
sitting on snow!"
They stood up and Erin passed Katie to Michael before bending down to feel the spot that she had been sitting on. "Yep. Snow here, too."
"Maybe the roof of your wardrobe is leaking too..."
"This is just
too weird."
They stood for another moment, dazed.
"Maybe we should go tell mom." Michael said.
"Yeah."
But for some reason it was hard to make themselves go to the front of the wardrobe and open the door again. As they stepped out into the room, they realized that it was much warmer outside of the wardrobe.
"This is crazy. There's no snow anywhere out here!" Michael exclaimed. Erin stepped back into the wardrobe, then came out. Then they talked things over.
"Well, we
were looking for something to do. And we
were pretending it was Narnia in there. So...maybe we should just...play along."
"Michael, that's crazy!! It's dangerous! It's like...it's like we're losing our minds!"
Michael threw open the curtains to reveal a bright, sunny Summer day outside. He turned back to Erin with an odd look in his eye.
"What if...what if we really
did get to Narnia??"
Erin rolled her blue eyes. "Yeah. Right. That's impossible, Michael!"
"I'm not playing around! Maybe...somehow...I know it sounds strange, but..."
There was a crash inside the wardrobe and the two children jerked."KATIE!" they cried in unison. Rushing inside the wardrobe, the knocked the doors together, which remained closed.
Katie was sitting on the pile of snow, crying. A tree branch was leaning up against the wardrobe walls and had almost hit her.
"We should never have let her out of our sight!" Erin moaned, swopping the baby up into her arms. "What if that branch had fallen just a little bit more to the left, it could have hit-"
Suddenly, Erin's eyes were huge with fear. "What on earth is a
tree doing in my ward-"
She whirled around and raced for the doors of the wardrobe. Shut. They wouldn't budge.
"Michael??"
Together they pushed and pried, yanked and twisted, did everything that they could but the door simply
would not open. At last they sank to the ground, breathing hard, thinking. They had to think.
"Call mom!" Erin exclaimed!
They stood up again and hollered at the top of their lungs for their mother, but their voices sounded odd and out-of-doors-y, echoing away into the distance, too quiet to be heard by anyone anywhere.
"I miss mommy..." Erin plopped onto the ground and began to cry. Michael watched her, stunned at the sight of his mature older sister behaving in such an immature manner. Quite the logical one at times, he began to lecture.
"Erin, mother might have just stepped outdoors. She'll be in in a minute, and we can call to her again, and maybe-"
"No, Michael. She's not anywhere near here." Erin sniffled and wiped her eyes.
"Not..near here??" Now the fear was gripping the logical Michael too. "Where...are we?"
Erin shrugged hopelessly. "I just know one thing: we're not at home."
***
7/12/11
Chapter Three
“I think we’re in Narnia.” Michael insisted.
Erin sighed. “Well, wherever we are, we better find out how to get home fast.”
“If we can’t get out through the front of the wardrobe, maybe we can get out through the back.” Michael suggested.
“Ok.”
The children walked to the back, their feet crunch-crunching the snow as they neared their destination. It was difficult to see much past the fallen tree branch. The children stepped over it and stood suddenly blinking in a large, open area, snow falling gently about them. Erin’s eyes were enormous and Michael threw back his head and laughed.
“See? See??” he cried. “Narnia is real! I knew we’d get here someday!!”
Erin’s face paled so that her freckles seemed to pop off of her skin. “That’s impossible, Michael! You being so logical and all ought to be able to figure that one out!”
Michael smirked. “You forget the Susan Ordeal.”
“What??”
“The Susan Ordeal. You know, trying to be all logical so that you can explain Narnia away, when, logically, it’s obviously real.”
Erin didn’t reply, so Michael continued.
“Either we’re mad, or we’re lying, or we’re telling the truth.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Michael.”
“You’re right.” He quickly regrouped. “Okay, in our case, we’re either dreaming, going crazy, or it’s real. We can’t be dreaming, since both of us are experiencing the same thing, right?”
“I guess so.”
“And we aren’t going crazy if we can use good logic, right?”
Erin brightened. “That makes sense…”
“So it has to be real!” Michael beamed, triumphant. The baby began to whimper again and Erin cuddled her close.
“Well, so, we’re in Narnia. But you see, I never really liked Narnia, at least, not nearly as much as you do. I never even read the books, I only saw the movies. Once or twice each. You saw them, like, fifteen times each.”
“And I read the books.” Michael added. “And I wrote my own fan-fiction about some kids entering Narnia in real life. And-”
“Point taken, Michael. You obviously know much more about Narnia than I do.” Erin shifted Katie on her hip. “So, you see, I don’t really know where we are. I mean, I remember something about it snowing in Narnia…”
“Remember that half-goat thing that Lucy met when she first came to Narnia? At the lamp-post?” Michael asked.
“Yeah…I think.”
“How could anyone forget Mr. Tumnus?!”
“To the point, please, Michael.”
Michael smiled. “Well, if it’s snowing, and we came from a wardrobe, then logically, we could be very near to the lamp-post. At least, that’s how it happens in the book.”
“If we’re actually following the book.”
“Right. Well, we’d better start towards the lamp-post. In the book, it was about ten minutes away from the wardrobe. In the movie, it was about five minutes or something. Let’s go.”
“But which way? I mean, north, south, east, west…?”
“Uh…I don’t think the book exactly tells you.”
“Great!” Erin groaned. “So we have no clue how to get to the lamp-post. Wait a minute, what do we think’s going to happen if we do find the lamp-post, anyway??” she demanded. “That Mr. what’s-his-name might not be here! After all, we don’t really know what’s going on, or if we’re following the book, or whatever!”
Michael shrugged. “It’s the best bet so far! Come on, let’s go. I feel it’s this way.” He started walking.
Erin put her hands on her hips as best as she could while holding Katie. “You ‘feel’ it’s that way?”
“Hey, you’re the one who likes Star Wars and the force and stuff.”
Erin rolled her eyes again and followed him.
In about seven minutes’ time they were looking up at the lamp-post. Michael was in complete wonder at this iconic Narnian figure, but Erin was getting cold and cranky, and wishing with all of her heart that they had somehow transported to Naboo instead.
“Okay, now what, Mr. logical?”
Michael just grinned. “Erin, remember this? It’s the lamp-post. It’s the lamp-post. It’s the lamp-post!!”
“Okay, okay, I get it, I get it. Now what?”
“Uh…we wait until we see Mr. Tumnus. Then he takes us to his cave and we drink tea.”
“Oh.”
“What? It’d be warm, and there’d be a glorious fire.”
“I mean…I never really liked tea. Only hot chocolate.”
Michael laughed, then went twirling off in the falling snow. “I can’t believe we’re in NARNIA!!” he cried. Erin just sighed. It was better being at home. At least it was warm there. And Michael was more tolerable slightly cranky and bored than…maniacal.
“Michael, pu-leese!” Erin begged. “Let’s go home now! I do remember one thing about those movies: after Lucy met Mr. Tumnus, she went back home. So…if we do find this half-goat guy…well, maybe we can go back home and forget about the whole thing.”
“Forget about it??” Michael looked up from where he had thrown himself onto the snow. “Forget about coming to Narnia?? Man, this’d make an awesome autobiography! The kid who went to Narnia, by Michael Lonsted.” Michael sighed dreamily. “Oh, boy, it’s so good to be here. I feel like I’ve finally come home.”
“Yeah, well, I still consider earth my home. And I want to go back. Right now. So would you hurry up and find this Mr. Tumnus guy??”
Michael sighed, stood up and brushed the snow off of himself. “Okay, okay. He should be right around…”
A scream pierced the woods around them and everything went black.
***
Chapter Four
“Michael?” Erin’s head throbbed and it hurt to try to sit up. She took a deep breath and just lay there. Where was she? And where were Michael and Katie?
“You got hurt pretty badly, young miss.”
Erin screamed. Bending over her was a short, stout dwarf holding a tray laden with soup. He had a scratchy red beard and bright eyes. He didn’t jump or act surprised at the sound, but rather, he looked at her with compassion in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, young miss. Perhaps I should introduce myself to you.” The dwarf set down the tray on a small table beside Erin’s bed and smiled. “My name is-”
Suddenly, something clicked. “Trumpkin. Your name is Trumpkin, isn’t it?” Perhaps they had gotten into Prince Caspian instead of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The dwarf looked puzzled. “Um…no. My name is not Trumpkin. I am a Red Dwarf, and Trumpkin is a fitting name for a Red Dwarf, so perhaps you met one of my kin?”
“I’ve never ever met a dwarf before. I only just got here.”
The dwarf looked even more confused and shook his head sadly. “The girl is shaken up.” he muttered to himself. Then, shaking his head:
“My name is Triffin. And I know who you are. Only, I dare to venture that my guess is surer than yours. You see, there are many dwarves, both Red and Black, in the land of Narnia; however, there are precious few little girls in these parts. Let me see, you are an older looking girl. Have you a younger sister?”
“Y-yes.” Erin stuttered.
“I thought you were the older one.” Triffin smiled. “Then, surely, you are Queen Susan.”
“Queen…who?”
Triffin was baffled. “Queen Susan. Kings and Queen Peter, Edmund and Lucy are your family, are they not?”
Erin’s thoughts raced. Susan, Peter, Edmund, Lucy…wait, wait, those were the names of the children who-
“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m Erin.”
“Hm, I must have heard it wrong, I was sure that it was Susan. Hm…well, my hearing is fading, you know; I’m growing to be a rather old dwarf, you know. Perhaps…hm…Susan, Erin…hm…”
“No, no, you didn’t mishear! See, Susan is one of the Queens. And I”-
“’Am her little sister’? Aha, well, you grew up fast, my girl. Why, it was only a year ago that you were a small little thing- your hair has grown much since then, too- and it’s a different color, hmm…”
Erin fingered her blond hair, terribly confused. Triffin puckered up his eyebrows.
“You…you are a Queen, aren’t you?”
Erin shook her head. Triffin frowned.
“Well, then…who are you? And however did you get to be in Narnia?”
“I…I don’t exactly know.” Erin admitted.
“Hm. This will never do.” Triffin handed her a bowl of soup and a spoon and waddled out of the small room in which Erin’s bed was. Erin, thoroughly confused and rather hungry as well, simply ate spoonful after spoonful of the warm, delicious soup, until her spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl and she sat back and sighed in content. Triffin came back shortly afterwards with a knowing smile on his face and a mug of something warm in his hands.
“I’ve figured it out, now, Erin. You are the Kings’ and Queens’ little sister! Are you not?”
“Well…”
“You come from their world, don’t you? Are you a daughter of Eve?”
“I…” Erin, having not gotten into Narnia much, didn’t know what to say. She said the only thing that she could think of at the moment.
“My mom’s name is Lydia.”
“Yes, but…aren’t you a human, like them?”
Erin nodded.
“Then…I suppose you are related to them one way or another. Well enough.” And he handed her the mug, which she found much to her delight was to the brim with hot chocolate.
“Thank you.” she murmured, then she was lost in it. And after that, sleep, oh, precious sleep…
***
Subject: Another Journey 
Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:21 pm
I can't wait to read more!