♘

            THE NEXT MORNING, it was raining, and they couldn't play outside, much to the siblings' dismay. The five sat in the living room with Dorothy and Lucy sitting at the windowsill, watching the rain softly hit the window, bored out of their minds. Peter sat on a chair while Susan sat on the nearest couch, and they were both playing a game that Susan had made up. Edmund was under a chair, messing with the platform underneath, trying to entertain himself instead of playing Susan's boring match.

"'Gastro-vas-cu-lar,'" Susan read from the dictionary. Peter didn't answer. "Come on, Peter. Gastrovascular."

Sighing, Peter looked over at her. "Is it Latin?"

"Yes."

"Is it Latin for 'worst game ever invented?" Edmund questioned, sitting up from under the chair.

From the window, Lucy and Dorothy both looked at each other, giggling as Peter let out a low laugh. Glaring at her brothers, mostly at Edmund, Susan sighed and slammed the book shut in annoyance.

"We could play hide and seek," Dorothy suggested as she and Lucy both walked over to Peter.

"But we're already having so much fun," Peter sarcastically says, looking over at Susan, who scoffed as she gave him a look.

Lucy, agreeing with her younger sister's wishes, grabbed his arm. "Come on, Peter, please."

"Pretty please?" Both sisters begged, giving their older brother the puppy dog eyes, and Edmund rolled his eyes.

Shaking his head with an amused smile, Peter began to count. "One, two, three, four. . ." Lucy and Dorothy grinned at Peter widely as he continued to count.

"What?" Edmund asked in disbelief.

Susan rolled her eyes before she and Edmund ran to find a hiding spot as Peter counted. Dorothy and Lucy grabbed each other's hands before running to find a hiding spot.

Together, the two sisters ran down the stairs and up more stairs before running forward to find their spot. Edmund didn't see any luck, but Susan hid in a large chest in a hallway.

Finally, the two younger Pevensies found a nearby window curtain they could hide behind. Edmund suddenly showed up as they ran towards it and shoved them out of the way.

"I was here first!" he shouted, hiding behind the curtain.

The two girls huffed in unison before looking for another place to hide together. They tried opening the doors but were locked, except for one. They both grinned at each other, entering the empty room. Only when they entered, it wasn't empty.

Across the room, there was a big piece of furniture, but they couldn't tell what it was since a white sheet covered it. The sisters entered the room entirely, shutting the door behind them, and slowly walked up to the unknown object.

Once they were in front of the large object, Dorothy and Lucy grabbed a handful of the sheets and pulled them sheet off together. An old, brown wooden wardrobe was hidden under the sheet, though it still looked brand new. Dorothy and Lucy stared at the wardrobe in awe before Dorothy opened it, causing little white objects to fall out.

They both shared grins, turning their heads as they heard Peter still counting, and Dorothy entered the wardrobe first, Lucy following her. Lucy closed the door after she entered.

"Move back," Lucy whispered to her younger sister.

Following her sister's orders, Dorothy walked backward, as did Lucy. Suddenly, she felt something prick her hand, causing her to gasp softly.

Hearing Dorothy gasp, Lucy turned to her with a concerned look. "Are you alright, Dot?" she questioned.

The younger blonde girl nodded at her sister's concern before she slowly turned around, gasping at the sight. Inside the wardrobe was a forest covered with blankets of snow.

"Lucy, look," Dorothy said, grabbing Lucy's hand, who gasped as she looked at the snowy forest.

Together, the two sisters walked into the forest and began to explore. They walked deeper and deeper as they giggled when snow fell on their heads. They looked back to see if the wardrobe was still there and smiled once they saw it so they could return.

They continued to walk deeper but stopped once they noticed a lamppost in the middle of the forest. Interested, Dorothy and Lucy both walked towards it.

Dorothy looked up at Lucy. "Where are we, Lu?"

"I don't know," Lucy answered, not knowing herself.

Dorothy looked back at the lamppost, reaching out to touch it. The sound of someone walking caused them to look around. The sound of hooves came closer, and they both looked behind them when a creature came out of the woods.

Both girls screamed as they hid behind the lamppost – well, Dorothy hid behind Lucy as Lucy hid behind the lamppost first – causing the creature to cry as well, hiding behind the tree.

Lucy peeked from behind the lamppost while Dorothy looked from behind, noticing that the creature was hiding in a better spot than they were. The girls slowly walked towards the packages the faun had dropped, and Dorothy bent down to pick one up.

"Ah... chk... um," the faun stuttered, walking out from behind the tree and slowly towards the sisters. He pointed his umbrella to them towards the package Dorothy held in her hand as Lucy picked up another box.

Dorothy glanced down, noticing the hoofs of the creature before looking back up at him and curiously asking, "Were you hiding us?" as she held out the package to hand back to the creature.

The creature took the package from her hand and took the one Lucy had, shaking his head. "No," he denied, bending down and slowly picking up the other things he had dropped, still staring at the girls. "Uh, well... I just... I... No. No. I-I-I just. . . I was just, um... I didn't want to scare you." He stuttered, smiling nervously, causing the blonde and brunette sisters to giggle softly.

"If you don't mind my asking... what are you?" Lucy curiously asked.

"Well, I'm a... Well, I'm a faun," the faun replied to Lucy's question. "And what about you two? You must be some beardless dwarfs?"

"We're not dwarfs!" Dorothy smiled amusingly and picked up another item the faun dropped, handing it over. "We're girls! But I might as well be one since I'm the shortest in my class."

"But I'm tallest in my class," Lucy bragged with a smile.

The faun grabbed the item Dorothy held out to him and pointed between the blue-eyed sisters. "You mean to say that you girls are both Daughters of Eve?" he asked in an above whisper.

Lucy and Dorothy shared confused looks before Dorothy replied, "Well, our mummy's name is Helen."

"Yes," the faun nodded. "but you two are, in fact, human."

"Yes, of course," Lucy confirmed with confusion laced in her voice.

The faun looked around before looking back at Lucy and Dorothy. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, Lucy and I were hiding in the wardrobe in the spare room, and–"

"Spare Oom? Is that in Narnia?" the faun questioned, interrupting Dorothy.

"Narnia?" Lucy questioned confusingly.

"What's that?" Dorothy added on.

"Well, dear girls, you're in it," the faun replied before pointing at the lamppost. "Everything from the lamppost, " he continued, pointing his umbrella to farther lands. "To Castle Cair Paravel on the Eastern Ocean." He walked to the other side of the sisters. "Every stick and stone you see, every icicle is Narnia."

"This is an awfully big wardrobe," Dorothy muttered to Lucy in awe, who nodded in agreement.

The faun appeared to hear her as he looked confused. "War Drobe? I'm sorry. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus," he smiled down at the girls.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Tumnus," Lucy smiled and held her hand to him. "I'm Lucy Pevensie."

Dorothy also held out her hand to him and smiled at him. "And I'm Dorothy Pevensie," she introduced herself.

In confusion, Mr. Tumnus looked between their hands, and Lucy noticed as she said, "Oh, you shake our hands."

"Uh. . . why?" Mr. Tumnus asked confusingly.

"I... I don't know."

"Mummy says people do it when they meet each other," Dorothy adds.

With hesitation, Mr. Tumnus grabbed Lucy's hand and shook it before moving on to Dorothy and shook her hand. Dorothy then made their hands swing, causing the three to laugh with each other.

"Well, then, Lucy and Dorothy Pevensie from the shining city of War Drobe in the wondrous land of Spare Oom," Mr. Tumnus let go of Dorothy's hand, picked up his umbrella, and opened it. "How would it be if you both came and had tea with me?" he asked them with a smile.

"Well, thank you very much, but we. . ." Dorothy started to decline.

"We probably should be getting back," Lucy finished sadly.

"It's only just around the corner," Mr. Tumnus says, tempting them to make them go. "And there'll be a glorious fire with toast, tea, and cakes. And perhaps, we'll even break into the sardines."

Dorothy smiled, seeming to like the idea, but her smile dropped when Lucy said, "I don't know."

"Come on," Mr. Tumnus begged. "It's not every day I get to make new friends. Let alone two."

"Please, Lu?" Dorothy asked her big sister, who looked at her as she looked up at Lucy. She gave Lucy her puppy dog face. "He has sardines."

Lucy smiled down at her sister and looked back at Mr. Tumnus. "Well, I suppose we could stay for a while," she answered, causing Dorothy to grin widely.

"If you have sardines," Dorothy smiled, hooking her arm with Mr. Tumnus' and Lucy went on the other side.

Mr. Tumnus smiled down at both of them. "By the bucket load."

And with that, the two Daughters of Eve and the faun walked to his house.

♘

Edited on 12/4/2022