Chapter One
Left Behind
The howl of the wolves jolted Elizabeth awake.
Dazed and confused, with nothing but a significant throbbing pain in her head that was causing everything to appear fuzzy and dark, Elizabeth had absolutely no clue where she was. What was she doing here? What was going on? As she pushed herself up from the ground into a sitting position, her sight slowly began to return and a white, snowy forest started piecing itself together. The teenager gave a cry of pain her head began to feel as if electricity was being shot through it and memories started flooding back.
A castle surrounded by a frozen lake.
Cries from her sister.
The Witch's flashes of white and blue.
The wolves snarling fangs.
A wand encased in ice.
Fatal blood encasing her brother.
Fleeing into the woods.
In a panic, Elizabeth, scanned the woods for any sign of her brother nearby, as he could not have gotten that far. The last thing she could remember was the two of them sprinting away from the Witch's castle, and because of this, the Witch had sent the wolves after them.
No matter how hard she looked, there was no sign of her brother anywhere.
Not only was Elizabeth covered in snow, but the cold was also starting to seep into her clothing. As she tried to stand, the pain in her forehead made it feel as if her head was going to explode, and black spots kept flashing into her vision. Wincing from the pain, she pulled her hand to her forehead and was shocked to see the blood covering her hand. Elizabeth had to have sliced her forehead open on something when she tripped and fell to the ground. That must have been what caused her to blackout in the first place. No wonder after passing out, she couldn't remember where she was.
Even worse, she couldn't remember where her brother was.
Frantically looking around for any clue as to where Digory, her brother, could be or where she was, the panic was quickly starting to set in. There was no telling where Digory was, where the wolves were. Who knows how long she had been unconscious on the ground. At this rate, the wolves could be somewhere nearby, having more than enough time to catch up to her considering she wasn't having any luck finding her brother. She was lucky that she did find a lantern in the corner behind a shroud of trees that struck a familiar chord within her.
Before thinking twice, she bolted in the direction of the lantern. Elizabeth's legs felt as if they were on fire, and her head certainly was not making the situation any better. As she was hitting branches and bushes, she couldn't care less what all she had to endure to make it to the lantern. Once she could at least make it there, hopefully, she could find her way back.
When she first discovered this place, it was by complete accident. After picking a fight with her eldest brother, who was much bigger and stronger than her considering he was five years older, he became so frustrated with Elizabeth that he locked her in the family's handmade wardrobe. The wardrobe didn't have a lock and key. Therefore her brother simply stood in front of the door, trapping Elizabeth inside.
After beating on the door a few times, she concluded that it was impossible to get out on her own. The only way she was going to be able to get out would be when her brother decided to let her out.
Annoyed, and without many options, she went to the back of the wardrobe to sulk in the corner, only to discover the end of the wardrobe had vanished. Instead of the typical wall in the back, there was snow and trees. Without realizing it, she had discovered an entirely new world. There was a lantern located a few trees away from the back of their wardrobe. She probably only spent a couple of minutes in the unknown world, but when she returned to the wardrobe, she found her brother still standing at the door, unwilling to let her out.
Once he did, it was needless to say that none of her siblings believed their fourteen-year-old baby sister had gone to another land and back within seconds.
So she continued coming to this place, despite her siblings' disbelief. Each time she did so she would stay a little longer as she grew more confident and comfortable in this hidden world within the back of their wardrobe. The few times she had come here, she always found the lantern and adventured on from there. Now, as she ran through the snow, she knew that if she could make it to the lantern that she could make it back to the wardrobe from there. The wardrobe would instantly take her back home as it always did and everything that happened within the last few hours would just be a horrible dream.
As she ran, the blonde teenager took a quick moment to look over her shoulder to see if anyone had been following her. She couldn't imagine who would want to follow a fourteen-year-old, but this Queen had already exceeded her expectations. As far as she could tell, the coast was clear. Thankfully, Elizabeth turned around just in time before running headfirst into the lantern. Grasping the lantern, she looked left and right, trying to find the path she could recognize while she took quick breaths of air after sprinting through the woods.
The snow was falling harder now, slightly blurring her vision, but she could just make out the slight curve of the tree and the footprints that were etched in the snow beneath it. The footprints were fresh; they had to be with the heavier snowfall coming down considering that the girl could still clearly see the prints. Digory had been here, possibly only seconds before. Without a moment to waste, she sprinted towards the tree and plunged deeper into the forest. Elizabeth recognized the low tree branches that would conceal her for now and should bring her back through the wardrobe back home.
Without wasting time, she rushed through the branches to where the entrance to the back of the wardrobe should have been. While she hurried through the grove, she felt a slight thud and flew backward. Completely stunned and confused, a frown crossed her face as she stared at the veil of branches in front of her.
This was new.
This had never happened before.
She should have been welcomed by the feeling of coats around her, which always let her know that she was back in the wardrobe and, therefore, back home. But instead of finding herself in the back of their wardrobe, she was left slumped over still in the snowy forest. Once she was able to get back on her feet, this time, she etched slowly back to where she had first felt the hard thud. She lifted her arm and tried to feel whatever she ran into or what she hoped would be the fur coats. Instead of coats, she felt a rough boulder blocking her path.
This wasn't right. The boulder was exactly where the entrance to the wardrobe should have been.
The frown on her face deepened as she tried to push the boulder out of the way, but it wouldn't budge. Her heart began to pound in her chest as a pit started to form in her stomach. Something was wrong.
Something was terribly wrong.
Trying again to push the boulder away, with no luck, she began to get frustrated and started beating the rock with her fists. "No!" She cried out in distress. "Digory! Please, let me in!" Her brother wouldn't intentionally lock her out, would he? Out of all three of her siblings, at least Digory wouldn't deliberately lock her out, she hoped.
She took a step away from the boulder seeing as there was still no luck, and her breathing began to quicken. This rock wasn't going anywhere. What if she was trapped? What if she couldn't get back home?
The sound of wolves howling in the distance took Elizabeth's attention away from the boulder for a second. They found her.
Once more and more desperately, she tried to move the rock. But just as before, it would not budge. Another howl of the wolves sent Elizabeth away from the boulder and back into the woods. She couldn't stay put, but where would she go? The only way she knew to get back home was through the wardrobe. What if there was no other way back?
Either way, she couldn't just wait until the wardrobe decided to let her back in, so she continued to run further away. Maybe the wardrobe would open back up later, and she could come back. Until then, she had to get as far away from the wolves as she could. The Queen could not find her; she couldn't end up like her eldest brother and sister. No, she wouldn't end up like her eldest brother and sister.
Everything seemed like a blur. It all looked the same to her. How could she possibly know if she was even escaping the wolves instead of running towards them? Unfortunately, she didn't have time to think it through because another howl let her know that the wolves were advancing on her. As fast as her legs would allow her to run, she took off far away from the howling as she could manage.
After running for about a minute or so, Elizabeth's breathing began to waver. She was too tired to run. The pain in her forehead certainly wasn't helping either. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she could feel it beating in her ears. She started to lose feeling in her arms and legs, and she could hardly even see straight.
However far she had managed to run, she found herself at the edge of a cliff that quickly stopped her in her tracks. Waving her arms out to balance herself, rocks tumbled towards the bottom of a ravine that her feet had managed to kick down in her halt. She quickly backed away from the edge of the abyss. There was no way she was going down there.
She turned around to run back into the woods, but before she could, a wolf jumped out from behind a tree and started creeping towards her, causing her to yelp in fright. The wolf was snarling at her, and Elizabeth could only imagine that he had come to kill her, and indeed he had. This particular wolf was the Captain of the Witch's Secret Police, known as Maugrim, who was entrusted by the Queen with the strict orders of exterminating the remaining Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve. No matter what happened, he could not fail the Queen.
He began to snicker at Elizabeth at her troubled face. She was completely terrified; this might prove to be easier than he previously thought. "Why my lady?" He taunted her. "Why are you running? Surely you didn't think you could outrun us?" As if right on cue, more wolves continued to stalk out of the woods at Maugrim's last words and began advancing on Elizabeth, trapping her on the edge of the cliff.
Elizabeth's eyes were already the size of saucers. While the teenager would like to think she had a fairly brilliant mind and had come to terms that she must have been in some type of another world, the fact that the wolves were yelling at her had her heart practically leaping out of her throat. Not bark or howl like a normal wolf. The wolves were yelling.
But even Elizabeth was smart enough to piece together that talking wolf or no talking wolf, she's sure they would kill her all the same.
The petrified blonde looked from one wolf to the next and so forth. At least a dozen wolves were surrounding her. "This is just a bad dream, this is just a bad dream," Elizabeth frantically whispered to herself like a madwoman trying desperately to convince herself. But if the pain shooting from her forehead and the cold seeping into her skin wasn't enough to convince her, the awful stench flooding her nose from the wolves had her walking as close to the edge of the abyss as she dared. She wondered if the wolves could hear how loud her heart was beating. How could she possibly get away from them?
"Where is your brother? Is he hiding somewhere nearby?" Maugrim sneered with a devilish grin at the blonde who grits her teeth, and her lips transformed into a thin line.
"Why would I tell you," she spat at the wolf, causing him to let out a howl of laughter. The girl had some fight left in her; there was no doubt, but she was running out of options, and it wasn't as if she knew this land anyways.
As the wolves watched the girl on the edge of the cliff, Maugrim noticed her eyes frantically searching the woods behind them, and his face turned into a scowl. She had no idea where her brother was. Which meant the boy could be on the opposite side of the country by now. "You five," he growled at a group of wolves nearest to him. "Go and search for the boy. He could be miles away from here!" At his command, the five wolves let out a howl and quickly departed through the woods in search of the other teenage boy. A small smile hinted across his face as he turned back to face Elizabeth, soon enough they would have her and her brother back in the Queen's clutches.
"Please just give up; it would certainly make it easier for the both of us. There's nowhere for you to go," Maugrim explained in a tone hinted with false pity.
But he was wrong. There was somewhere to go. The only way away from the wolves was down.
"Why does the Queen want us? What have we ever done to you?" She begged the wolf for answers. She didn't understand any of this. Why was this happening? Ever since coming to this land, she had done nothing wrong. It was almost like they were after her family for another reason that she was simply unaware of. Part of her felt guilty because if Digory was still in this forest, she had practically just sent the wolves back after him without meaning to.
Maugrim just laughed at her question, and his laugh made her shiver. She could only watch the wolves continue towards her. She turned around to look at the bottom of the ravine, knowing she would have to jump and gulped. She had never been very fond of heights. Not to mention, there was a river at the bottom of this ravine, and the teen was terrified of water. Elizabeth seriously doubted she would even gain the courage to jump. Maybe the wolves should just kill her.
A creature then swarmed through the ravine, letting out a shrill call that seemed to have the wolves cowering back away from the edge in fear. The creature looked to have the head and talons of an eagle with the body of a lion. It was covered with feathers of a golden-brown color and a yellow beak with a black tip on the end. The creature was magnificent to look at and she believed it was a gryphon. But was it here to kill her as well and just trying to beat the wolves to it?
Maugrim heard the creature's cry and began snarling at it; no doubt, Aslan was behind this. They were trying to get a hold of this Daughter of Eve before the Queen could successfully kill her. If there were any chance of obtaining the girl before those that still served Aslan caught her, they would have to attack now.
He howled at the wolves to get their attention, and once the wolves stopped cringing at the gryphon and turned to Maugrim, he barked out the order at them. "Get her!" He commanded, and as soon as the words were out, the wolves snarled and raced towards Elizabeth.
At this point, the wolves were so close Elizabeth could smell them, and the scent was not a scent that was extremely pleasant. Before second-guessing herself, and avoiding the bites from the wolves, she jumped off the cliff right before landing onto the back of the gryphon. Instead of attacking her, it swooped up the ravine past the wolves that were barking and snarling at her knowing they had lost any chance of obtaining her.
Holding onto the gryphon, they soared through the air, managing to get further and further away from the clutches of the Queen and the wolves.
"No!" Maugrim howled as they watched Elizabeth sail off with the gryphon. He had lost her, his only order given by the Queen, and he had failed. After losing the Daughter of Eve, the Captain knew all too well he would be in a world of hurt if he could not find the Son of Adam as well. He doubted his punishment would be anything pleasant. Finding the Son of Adam was his only chance at retaining some sort of mercy from the Queen.
As Elizabeth flew through the air on the gryphon's back, she couldn't believe they had escaped the wolves. She was out of the Queen's clutches, at least for now. For the time being, she was safe. She only wished she knew how much longer that would last.
Elizabeth didn't realize she was crying until she felt the teardrops fall onto her arms. Placing one hand on her cheeks, she discovered her face was soaked. She tended not to cry, she liked to focus on the brighter side of things considering she was a pretty optimistic person, and so this came as a shock to her. No matter, the tears wouldn't stop coming. She cried until her shoulders shook, and her breathing became heavy.
It had only been a few hours since she had lost her eldest brother, killed by the Queen herself moments after arriving at her castle. As well as her sister only seconds before to protect Digory and herself. Now, her only brother seemed to have vanished as well. She could only hope he had made it to safety. For now, she was the only one left. Going from four to one is a significant change in a short amount of time. Not only did she lose all of her family since arriving in this mystical land, but now she was trapped in it with no idea how to get back home.
Elizabeth didn't know how long they were up in the air or even how far they traveled. All she knew was that she had just lost everything, and now she was alone.
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A/N:
Hey everyone!!
I am just writing to say that I just came up with the idea of this book because I was watching Narnia the other day (I love those movies!) and decided I should tell my story I came up with!
Be sure to leave me comments, I read every single one of them and it helps me know whether or not I should continue writing or forget about the story. I'd really appreciate it if you clicked the star in the top right-hand corner or the bottom right corner to vote for this chapter :)
If not many people enjoy the story, I'll probably just end up taking it down.
THANKS FOR READING!!! PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT Y'ALL THINK!!!