Author's Note:Narnia is not mine, nor the Wood Between the Worlds, the magic rings, Susan’s horn, and many other elements that will come in later chapters. Please don’t sue me.
Rated K+ Suitable for more mature childen, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.
Chapter Two
At this point in the story, the elf became quite vague because he knew little about humans and even less about England, so I must tell you what really happened. Gabrielle and Graham had been near their home in London playing amongst the remains of an old train station when Graham’s eye was caught by a sparkle more than thirty feet away from the track. He ran to it and as Gabrielle caught up with him she saw that he’d discovered a very dirty, but clearly green ring.
“What on earth?” Gabrielle said.
Graham wiped in on his shirt and held it to the light. Its shine was surprisingly bright and both children felt that they’d never really seen green in their entire lives before that moment. “I bet there’s more!” shouted Graham as he started to comb through the dirt and rock beneath their feet.
“What do you suppose it is?” asked Gabrielle, “How old is it?”
“How should I know, just help me find more.” And so the two of them began to claw at the ground and before an hour was gone they had begun to dig a hole.
“We must be mad,” interrupted Gabrielle, “it’s getting late and we’ve nearly an hour’s walk home.”
“Just a while longer, I’m sure there’s more here,” answered Graham with his head in a hole, now close to three feet deep. Truthfully, they had stumbled upon quite a trove of treasure, for many years ago there was a train accident at the station and though the site was cleaned very thoroughly, one jacket had been misplaced. Gabrielle stood, holding the remains of that jacket whose pocket housed a young man’s wallet, a set of keys, and the green ring which Gabrielle set inside for safe keeping.
Another hour passed and Graham’s hole was beginning to be quite wet and he could hardly reach the bottom of the puddle inside. “Look! Another green ring!” he shouted and Gabrielle rushed over to fetch it, leaving the jacket behind. “If you’ll hold onto my feet I can reach to the bottom and see if there’s another.”
So, Gabrielle grabbed hold of her brother’s feet and at the same moment Graham found that the puddle grew mysteriously deeper. In fact, his whole head was now underneath the water and he began to be very frightened. While this was happening to Graham, Gabrielle noticed her brother becoming very heavy and she shouted for him to stop playing around and get out of the hole. Finally, both Graham and Gabrielle were pulled completely underwater and as his sister’s eyes connected with his, Graham opened his hand and the two saw a bright yellow ring just before the found themselves surfaced, dry, and standing beside a small pool – not more than ten feet from side to side – with a wood all around them.
“They had a hard time describing that wood to me,” said the elf. “They simply said it was the kind of place you could stay in for years and years and never do a thing, but never get bored, and I said I don’t know if I believe a place like that exists, for elves like me can be bored very easily. Anyway, they somehow managed to use the magic rings to end up in Ensveria, sitting on that yummy mushroom patch right in front and LilyWind and me. And before we knew it, we were all great friends and they came back to my village with me and all in my clan were glad I’d found a boy and a girl and they didn’t even care about squished mushrooms. Gabrielle and Graham told us all about England and even about the stories you told them from another world called Narnia. Graham captivated us all with tales of talking horses, sailing ships, and the defeat of a White Witch. ‘My friend Evan told them all to me when we visited him in the country,’ Graham would say. And soon everyone longed to meet Evan the Storyteller. And here you are.”
“And here you are,” said Evan. “How did you get here? With the rings I suppose?”
“No, you see the children only have one ring, a green one, and it doesn’t appear to work.”
“They left a ring in the Wood!?” shrieked Evan as his face grew very pale and it was about a minute before anything else was said. “I don’t believe this is happening. You can’t really be here and Gabby and Graham aren’t really stuck in another world. I need to wake up.”
Now, you can be disappointed with Evan after I tell you what happened next, but I think you should be reminded that very likely nothing this extraordinary has ever happened to you. You see, Evan knew many stories and he enjoyed them more than anything else on earth, but he never for a moment believed they were true. So presently, Evan plopped onto the floor and began to sob.
“This must be a dream. Wake up stupid! Just like father says, I’ve let my mind go too deep into all that fairy tale rubbish,” scolded Evan to himself.
“It’s not a dream,” said the elf.
“Then what is it? How are you here?” said Evan
“I don’t know, but I know there’s a purpose to all this, Evan the Storyteller.”
“Oh rubbish! What? That you come here and tell me your world is a mess and my friends are stuck in it now too!” said Evan. “Some grand purpose.”
“I don’t know anything more than what I’ve told you, except that for a fleeting moment I thought you might be able to help.” And as soon as the elf had spoken the word help, LilyWind fluttered beside the horn Evan had let fall to the floor. His eyes caught it and immediately he stood.
“That’s it!” he said.
“What?” said the elf.
“That horn was made to summon help,” said Evan.
“What horn?”
“This very horn here, the one I sounded just before you came into my world!” Evan reached and picked it up.
“A magic horn that summons help?” (and in fact this was a magic horn, for once a king from another world was allowed to come to our world for five minutes of our time and while he was here, he mistakenly left the very horn we’re talking about now.)
“Yes, of course, I’ve heard of it before,” said Evan, and then he sat on the sofa with the horn in his lap for a moment. “But I sounded the horn,” began Evan, sounding a little confused again.
“Ah, and yet we are the ones in need,” finished the elf.
“But if the horn is from another world, perhaps here it works backwards!” shouted Evan, standing up again. “Of course, this horn summons help in the world it was born, but here it brings the ones in need of help,” he reasoned. And though this reasoning comforted Evan, he’d have done better to know that when helping others, the helper always receives help as well. “How silly of me,” said Evan feeling rather proud for figuring out the magic, “now please promise me you’ll never speak of my little tantrum to anyone?”
“My name is Avadis Lossëhelin, son of Ereinion Lossëhelin, and I swear on penalty of blindness I’ll never tell a soul,” declared the elf, with a statelier oath than any other Evan ever heard before or after. And just then LilyWind fluttered by the elf’s ear and he added, “LilyWind either.”
Artwork