When Maggie awoke, the fire had gone out, and not a single candle in the little house remained alight. Slowly, she rose to her feet, looking around for Mister Tumnus, who had disappeared. Beside her, Lucy slowly stirred.
"Lucy," Maggie whispered, catching her attention.
"What's going on?" Lucy whispered back. Just then, she caught sight of the daylight - rather, lack thereof - out the window. "Oh, I should go..."
Maggie followed her gaze and gasped. "My grandmother is going to be so upset with me... I'd better get back too."
"It's too late for that now," came the shaky voice of Mister Tumnus. The two girls found him huddled over on the steps in front of his desk. "I'm such a terrible faun..."
Maggie came over to kneel in front of him, but he very nearly flinched at her close proximity.
"Mister Tumnus, that's not true at all! You're not terrible."
Lucy slowly stood from her chair and came over to them as well.
"Oh, no," Lucy said, "You're the nicest faun I've ever met!"
Tumnus gave them a watery smile and shook his head.
"Then I'm afraid you both have had a very poor sampling..."
"No," Lucy said resolutely. She pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and leaned past Maggie to press it into Mister Tumnus' hand. "You can't have done anything that bad."
Maggie nodded in agreement. "I'm sure whatever it is, it's really something silly that you're overthinking."
"It's not something I have done, Lucy Pevensie and Maggie Halloran... It's something I am doing."
Maggie suddenly became aware of an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She took up Lucy's hand in her own, ready to whisk the younger girl away at the first sign of danger.
"What are you doing?" Lucy asked.
Shamefully, Tumnus looked up at them and whispered, "I'm kidnapping you."
Lucy gave a soft gasp, and Maggie pulled her close.
"It was the White Witch!" Tumnus said through his tears, "She's the one who makes it always winter, always cold. She gave orders... If any of us ever find a human wandering in the woods, w-we-we... we're supposed to turn it over to her."
"But Mister Tumnus, you wouldn't..."
"You're not really going to give her what she wants, are you?" Maggie asked, watching his every move.
"I thought you were our friend..." Lucy whispered sadly.
At that, Mister Tumnus looked up at them, a new fire in his eyes.
"Yes," he said resolutely. "Yes, I am. And now I know what must be done. Come, girls. We must steal you away, back to Lantern Waste, before the Queen finds you."
He stood, offering one of his hands to each of them. Maggie very nearly didn't take it, for she was not so trusting as dear Lucy, but that nasty feeling she'd had had somehow been replaced by a flicker of warmth... a spark of hope, and determination. Something in her heart told her that Tumnus was true.
Swiftly, Tumnus guided the two girls out the door, leading them nimbly through the forest. Poor Lucy had a more difficult time keeping up, but Mister Tumnus never allowed her to stumble.
"Now," he said quickly, "She may already know you're here. The woods are full of her spies." The trio slid down a small slope, and Tumnus gave a wary glance around them. "Even some of the trees are on her side!"
Faster they went, the icy wind biting at their faces and hands, all the while keeping a wary eye out for spies of the Witch. Finally, they arrived back at the lamppost, its soft, orange glow providing some comfort in the void of wintry darkness.
"Can you find you way back from here?" he asked them urgently.
"Yes!"
"I think so..."
"Alright."
Tumnus brought them to a halt, looking around carefully.
"What about you?" Maggie asked.
"Yes," Lucy chimed in, "Will you be alright?"
Tumnus gave a soft laugh, dabbing at his eyes with the handkerchief once more.
"Hey, hey, hey..."
"Oh Mister Tumnus, it's okay..."
Lucy and Maggie both did their best to comfort him. He held each of their hands tightly.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm so sorry..." He gave them both a long, steady look, then pressed the tiny, cloth square back into Lucy's hand. "Here..."
But, she shook her head, nudging it back to him. "Keep it," she insisted. "You need it more than I do." She nearly laughed, but then the somber circumstances caught up to her once more.
Maggie put her free arm around the younger girl, trying to comfort her.
Tumnus smiled solemnly. "No matter what happens... Lucy Pevensie, Maggie Halloran, I am glad to have met you both. You've made me feel warmer than I've felt in a hundred years."
He gently tapped Lucy's nose and gave them one last, sad smile.
"Now go. Go!"
"Goodbye, Mister Tumnus," Maggie whispered softly, before she and Lucy took off running, hand in hand, back towards the wardrobe entrance.
"Is this the same way you came?" Lucy asked her quietly, still wary of the trees.
"Yeah," Maggie said. Then, she paused, just in front of the right cluster of branches. "But I don't know if it'll work if we both try to get back at once. You'd better go first."
"What? But what if something happens to you?" Lucy asked worriedly.
Maggie shook her head. "I'll be fine. The Witch isn't going to find me in ten seconds. That's as long as I'll wait to go, I promise."
Lucy thought it over unhappily, then finally nodded. Maggie squeezed her hand one last time before she let go, and Lucy suddenly flung her arms around her middle in a tight hug.
"I'm going to miss you, Maggie," she said.
"I'll miss you too, Lucy..." Maggie said. "I'll try to get in again soon, to see you and Mister Tumnus again, okay?"
Lucy nodded, then turned to walk through to the other world, pausing one last time where coats met branches to give her new friend from the future one last wave, then, she darted away, leaving Narnia behind.
She fell from the wardrobe with a thud, landing heavily on her knees. In fact, Lucy was in such a hurry that she didn't even hear Peter counting the final two numbers off in the distance. No, in her mind, all she could think of was how worried they all must be that she had vanished!
Quickly, she rushed from the little room, down the stairs and into the hallway where Edmund had shoved her out of the way. That felt like so long ago, she could hardly even muster the strength to be mad about the whole incident now.
"It's all right!" she called out. "I'm back! I'm all right!"
Edmund poked his head out from the curtains to glare at her sourly.
"Shut up, he's coming!" he hissed.
What? They couldn't possibly still be playing hide and seek after all this time, could they?
Just then, Peter rounded the corner, spotting the pair of them. His expression went from playful to confused. Edmund huffed and stepped out of the nook.
"You know, I'm not sure the two of you have quite got the idea of this game," he said, in that infuriating eldest-brother way.
"Weren't you wondering where I was?" Lucy asked incredulously.
"That's the point," Edmund said, rather condescendingly. "That's why he was seeking you!"
Susan, hearing all the commotion, left her hiding spot and came up to the three.
"Does this mean I win?" she asked.
"I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore," Peter told her.
"I've been... gone for hours!" Lucy said.
That finally shut them all up. She certainly had their attention now.
"What do you mean, "gone for hours", Lu?" Susan asked. "It's only been since Peter started counting."
"Not for me, it wasn't," Lucy insisted. "It must be the Magic... I went to hide in the wardrobe up in the spare room, you see, but when I went inside, I found a great big snowy land! And I met a girl from the future called Maggie Halloran who came through the same wardrobe! Not the Professor's wardrobe, you see, it was a wardrobe in her grandmother's house, but when she described it, it was the exact same with all the carvings and everything. And the two of us went and had tea with a faun named Mister Tumnus! Then he played--"
"Slow down, Lucy!" Peter finally said, cutting off her high-speed ramble. "Why don't you show us this wardrobe..."
Lucy smiled brightly and rushed off to the room, not noticing the skeptical glance that passed between the two eldest siblings.
They all went into the room, and Peter, Susan, and Edmund began to inspect the wardrobe, while Lucy stood to the side, waiting eagerly for one of them to gasp in amazement as they came across the beauty of Narnia. But no such thing occurred. When Susan pushed aside all the coats, even Lucy could see that there were no snowy trees there.
"Lucy, the only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe," Susan said.
"One game at a time, Lu," Peter said. "We don't all have your imagination."
With that, they all began to walk away.
"But I wasn't imagining!" Lucy protested, drawing their attention once more.
This must be magic. Maybe Maggie was over there in Narnia, going home, and that was why it had locked up and become normal...
"That's enough, Lucy," Susan said firmly.
"I wouldn't lie about this!" Lucy said, looking at them all pleadingly.
"Well, I believe you!" Edmund said, grinning.
"You do?" she asked tentatively.
"Yeah, of course! Didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards where I met a man from 1855?"
"Oh will you just stop?" Peter sighed. "You just have to make everything worse, don't you?"
"It was just a joke!" Edmund said defensively.
"When are you gonna learn to grow up?"
Lucy hated it when they fought. It had only gotten worse since their dad went away. Before, it was always brotherly disagreements. Now, every little thing set off a squabble.
"Shut up!" Edmund shouted suddenly. "You think you're dad, but you're not!"
With that, he stomped away, slamming the door into the wall as he went.
"Well that was nicely handled," Susan said, before she walked away.
Peter was the only one left to hear Lucy's soft insistence.
"But... it really was there. I really did meet a girl from the future."
Her brother didn't relent.
"Susan's right, Lucy. That's enough." Then, he too was gone.
Dejected and alone, Lucy slowly turned and closed the wardrobe. Even if her siblings didn't believe her, she knew what she saw. She knew she'd met Maggie and Mister Tumnus. It was real, and she would prove it.
-
That night, after all the others had fallen asleep, Lucy still hadn't stopped thinking about Narnia. She had to get back. If she could get back, it meant she could prove to the others that it was all real. After checking to make sure Susan was soundly asleep, she sat up and grabbed her boots. This time, she would be better prepared for walking in the snow. Taking hold of the bedside candle, Lucy made her way back to the spare room. Spare Oom, as Tumnus had called it. She was so focused on getting back, she didn't even notice Edmund coming out of the bathroom behind her.
The moment Lucy opened the wardrobe door, and icy wind rushed from beyond, extinguishing the candle.
Narnia.
She went inside, careful not to shut the door behind her once more. The candle, she discarded just outside where Narnia met the wardrobe, upon realizing that it was daytime in Narnia, unlike back in her world. The lamppost was certainly easier to find than she'd anticipated. She had expected to have to stumble around in the dark to find it. To her delight, standing there beneath it was that head of bright red hair. When she spotted Lucy, a bright smile lit her face, and she rushed to hug Lucy.
"Lucy! I've missed you so much!" she said.
Lucy giggled, returning the hug. "You can't have missed me that much, we only saw each other just this morning!"
At that, Maggie pulled away and shook her head.
"This morning? Lucy, It's been two days for me."
"What?"
"Narnia disappeared from the wardrobe when I tried to tell my grandmother about it. At first, I thought maybe it wouldn't open cause you were using it, but it didn't come back until just now, and you couldn't possibly have been using it for two whole days. But I'm so glad that it let me back! See, last night I had a dream that the wardrobe would work for me again, so I tried, and it did! Did you come to see Mister Tumnus too?"
Lucy nodded eagerly.
"I wanted to make sure he's alright, that the trees didn't tell the White Witch about us all meeting."
"Come on, then," Maggie said, taking her hand. "We'll have to be careful, but let's go check on him."
It was a bit difficult to find their way, since they'd had Tumnus to guide them before, but as it turned out, Maggie had a brilliant memory. At least, that's what she'd said when Lucy asked her how she'd found the way. She had a feeling Maggie wasn't quite telling the whole truth, though.
When they arrived, Lucy stepped forward and politely knocked on the door. After a moment, it slowly creaked open, Mister Tumnus peering out.
When he saw who it was, he relaxed, and opened the door a bit wider.
"Maggie? Lucy? How in the world did you get back?"
"We came to see you," Maggie said.
"To make sure you're alright," Lucy added.
Tumnus waved them in, glancing around. "Come inside. Quickly, quickly!"
Maggie made sure Lucy got in first, then followed. Mister Tumnus shut the door behind them.
"I can't deny, it does my heart good to see you both," he said, "But I do worry so for your safety."
"We're quite alright, Mister Tumnus," Lucy said comfortingly.
Maggie nodded in agreement. "We both just couldn't stay away from this place."
"Come, come," Tumnus said, ushering them to the seat by the fireplace. "Let me fetch some tea and cakes. Though I daresay, the music we might do without this time, eh?"
The girls gave a little laugh at that.
"Now, you mustn't stay nearly as long this time," he continued as he poured cream into their teas. Kind-hearted faun that he was, he'd remembered exactly how much each girl had preferred last time. "The longer you stay, the greater chance you'll be found out, and we can't have that."
"We'll be quick, don't worry," Maggie promised. "But while we're here, can you tell us more about Narnia? About the White Witch and her awful winter?"
Tumnus hesitated, but then nodded, handing a teacup and a cake to each girl.
"I suppose. It's only right that you know. After all, you're..." he trailed off. "But nevermind that. Yes, the White Witch... or, rather, Jadis, as is her true name. She took the throne by force when our monarchy collapsed. Our armies fended her off for years, but eventually, she overcame us, and named herself Queen over Narnia. Her power is terrible... with a wave of her wand, she turns any Narnian creature into stone."
"She sounds horrible," Lucy murmured.
Mister Tumnus nodded. "So she is."
"If only someone could stop her," Maggie said.
Tumnus looked at her with a curious expression.
"Well..." he began, but then seemed to think better of it. "No, I'm afraid I've kept you too long as it is. If you come back to visit again, I shall tell you more."
Lucy set aside her teacup and what little was left of her cake and rose to hug Mister Tumnus. Maggie moved much more slowly, looking very much like she wanted to question him further, but she didn't press the matter. She hugged Tumnus close as well, then he showed them to the door.
"Shall I accompany you back to the lamppost?" he asked kindly.
"No, thank you," Maggie said. "I can get us back."
Tumnus nodded, then glanced around one last time. "Be safe, the both of you."
With that, they parted ways. Maggie and Lucy hurried back to the lamppost, silent for the most part. Just before they reached the little exit to the wardrobe, Maggie noticed a figure off ahead of them and pulled Lucy to the side.
"There's someone here," she whispered urgently, but when Lucy caught sight of the stranger, she smiled.
"Edmund?"
The boy turned around, and Maggie noticed that he was just about the same age as she was. This must have been one of the brothers Lucy had mentioned.
"Oh, Edmund!" Lucy exclaimed, running over and throwing her arms around him. "You got in too! Isn't it wonderful? Here, look! You simply must meet Maggie!"
Maggie followed along, though she didn't hug him. Edmund didn't really seem to want to hug Lucy.
"Where have you been?" he asked, pushing her away. He gave Maggie a rather funny look, no doubt wondering about her clothes as Lucy had.
"With Mister Tumnus," Lucy replied. "He's fine. The White Witch hasn't found out anything about him meeting me."
Maggie was watching Edmund with an unreadable look on her face, and he didn't like it. The odd girl hadn't said a word to him yet, and he thought it rather unnerving. It was as if she knew what he'd been doing, like her gray eyes could see into his soul.
"The White Witch?" he asked, genuinely confused, though he had nasty feeling in his stomach.
"She calls herself the Queen of Narnia," Maggie finally spoke, "But she really isn't."
Edmund looked at her, and she looked back.
"Are you alright?" Lucy asked. "You look awful."
Edmund quickly seized the opportunity to change the subject.
"Well, what'd you expect? I mean, it's freezing." He wrapped his arms around himself. "How do we get out of here?"
"Come on," Lucy said, grabbing his hand. Edmund didn't seem too pleased about that, but he didn't pull away. With her other hand, Lucy quickly took ahold of Maggie, taking her along too.
"Here we are," Lucy said. She looked at Maggie with a smile. "Now I know Peter and Susan will believe me! I'll have to bring them to meet you next time."
Maggie smiled and hugged Lucy quickly. "I'd like that. Go on, you first again. I'll see you next time." She paused, then waved at Edmund. "It was nice meeting you, Edmund."
Edmund didn't say anything.
"Come on, Ed," Lucy said softly, pulling back towards the exit. He took one last look at the land of Narnia before he followed his sister back into the wardrobe.
As soon as they'd gotten back through, Lucy took off running, no doubt to tell Peter and Susan. Now, Edmund found himself faced with a dilemma. If he admitted to finding Narnia, Peter and Susan might think him childish and crazy too, and he simply couldn't have that. Peter already treated him enough like a child as it was. On the other hand, if they believed him, then he would have to confess to what he'd been up to while Lucy was having tea with a faun and a future-girl. He wasn't quite sure which would be worse.
"Peter, Peter, wake up!" Lucy said, jumping onto her brother's sleeping form. "Peter, wake up! It's there, it's really there!"
"Shh!" he said sleepily, rolling over to face her. If the Macready heard this racket, there would surely be hell to pay. "Lucy, what are you talking about?"
Behind them, Edmund and Susan came into the room.
"Narnia!" she replied. "It's all in the wardrobe, like I told you!"
"You've just been dreaming, Lucy," Susan scolded.
"But I haven't!" she protested. "I saw Maggie and Mister Tumnus again! And this time, Edmund went too."
Peter paused at that, turning his attention to Edmund.
"You... You saw the faun? And the girl?"
Edmund shook his head. It was true, he hadn't seen the faun, so technically, it wasn't a lie.
"Well, he didn't actually go there with me. Maggie and I found him..." She paused, then turned to face him. "What were you doing, Edmund?"
Edmund had two very good reasons not to tell the truth, and so, despite the expectant looks from Susan and Peter, he made a most cowardly decision in that moment.
"I was... just playing along," he said. "I'm sorry, Peter. I shouldn't have encouraged her, but you know what little children are like these days." He tried to ignore the way Lucy's face bunched up with tears. "They just... don't know when to stop pretending."
Lucy began to cry, rushing from the room. Susan rushed after, and Peter snatched up his robe before following, though he did pause long enough to shove Edmund roughly.
So there he stayed, trying to ignore the pit in his gut. He had done what was best for him. That was all that mattered... right?