The Quest for Narnia: The Hidden Queen (Under Construction)

Chapter One

My eyes fluttered open that morning and I lay there, wrapped in my fluffy blankets like a caterpillar encased in her cocoon. It had been a freezing night, so chilly that frost dazzled the trees outside and painted my windowsill a white hue.

My teeth chattered like beads inside a maraca and the tips of my fingers and toes were completely numb to the touch. I shouldn't have been very surprised, though. Living in the upper region of England tended to involve suffering through cold nights.

Slowly, sluggishly, I climbed out from underneath my warm covers and stepped onto the ice-like floorboards below me. I couldn't help but flinch and my toes grew colder as the seconds rolled by. Saying the wood was cold would've been an understatement, and the brown slabs of dead trees sent daggers of shivers up my spine.

Warmth. I needed warmth.

In a rush to get back to the warm safety of my goose-down quilts, I quickly tip-toed over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of socks from the top drawer, then proceeded to sprint to my bed, leaping back under the covers, and pulled the socks over my feet with the speed of a cheetah.

The socks had been a gift one Christmas a few years back. I couldn't recall who I'd gotten them from, all I knew was that they definitely made my life a lot easier to live in the cold months of the year. The two socks were knitted with wool that remained fluffy even after being worn thousands of times and kept every ounce of heat within.

Long-story-short, if my home was on fire, these were the two objects I'd run back inside to save.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips as warmth flooded back into my toes. That was definitely a down side about my bedroom, that no matter what time of year it was, the floor was always twenty degrees less than room temperature. Always.

I wiggled the muscles in my phalanges to get the blood to flow to my feet faster.

"Madeline! Get down here at once!" Mrs. Macready's shrill voice burst through the air like dynamite being blown up.

Another sigh left my lips, this time one of pure frustration, and I changed out of my long, flowing nightgown that kept me warm over night. She was always so darn crabby in the mornings, that Mrs.Macready.

It was time to start my normal morning routine. Effortlessly, I pulled on my long, fluffy, warm ocean blue dress that covered nearly every inch of my body in heat-insulating fabric, except for my face, head, and hands. I then quickly brushed my hair, and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Speed was key in the mornings, or 'the Macready' would have my skin.

"Coming!" I shouted and ran down stairs in an excited flurry of movement.

There was a reason behind this mad dash, trust me. And it was due to Mrs.Macready informing me the previous day that the professor was going to let four other children live with us til the war was over.

I was fine with that, even a little over-joyed by the fact, because Mrs.Macready told me that there would be at least two of them that were close to my age.

It would be nice to have a little company around here. When you grow up with only a woman like Mrs.Macready as your care-taker, you tend to get a little lonely. I never had any real friends my age before since Mrs.Macready home-schooled me, so I was very excited for this new experience. This new chance to make friends.

I carefully leaped down the last three mahogany stairs, my feet slamming and slipping on the ground. You'd most likely think that I would've wiped out if I jumped down two feet and was wearing fuzzy socks, but I had done that so many times that sliding around on the wooden floor was simple for me. It reminded me of ice-skating and always made me feel like a professional figure-skater in some strange way.