The High Queen Book One

Chapter 3 - The Wardrobe

Third-Person POV

The Next Day

Unfortunately, the next day is not as great as the children hope. The sky is covered in grey clouds, pouring with rain. Lucy and Tilly watch silently as it crashes down on the green lawns of the estate. Peter and Sue were playing a game; if you could call it that, it is more of a spelling bee.

"Gastrovascular," Susan starts. "Come on, Peter, gastrovascular." She emphasises as if that's going to make it more interesting.

"Is it Latin?" Peter asks, simply answering so she would shut up.

"Yes."

"Is it Latin for 'worst game even invented'?" Ed smugly replies, making Pete and Tilly chuckle while Susan slams the book shut. Ed smiles, justly walking over to Tilly and sitting next to her on the window ledge as Lucy moves closer to the older ones.

"We could play hide and seek?" She says quietly in a sheepish voice. "Come on, Peter, please." Lucy wines while Susan sulks.

"It would be a lot of fun in this house," Tilly speaks up, leaning against Edmund as he groans. Lucy gives her best puppy dog eyes to Peter, and he tries to hold firm, but Tilly comes over to Lu and asks the older boy softly. "Pretty please," she mutters, causing the boy to sigh and give in.

"One, two, three...." Peter starts as the rest run out of the room, rushing through the house to find a hiding spot. Edmund and Lucy come together at one spot, but Edmund pushes Lu out the way, making her huff. Tilly sees the whole thing and goes to Lucy, taking her hand, and they start to run off, not paying attention to the boy yelling her name. They find a small hallway with only a few doors. Lu tries the first one and finds it locked, they try the next two, and both find them open, so they go into their different rooms, both girls shutting the door behind them. The room Tilly is hiding in is quite simple. There's a desk with pens and paper, and a bed and a wardrobe to the side. Tilly looks around and decides to hide under the desk because where it's placed in the room, Peter would not see her when he first walks in. Besides, the wardrobe looked way too small to fit into.

On the other hand, Lucy only had a wardrobe covered in a sheet and dust in her room. With curiosity peaking, she pulls the cover off, dust, webs, and the sheet being thrown onto the ground. Lucy examines the wardrobe with a sense of awe running through her body. Quickly she hears Peter's voice again and jumps inside, leaving the door a crack, knowing never to shut oneself inside. She feels the fluffy warm coats turning into ice-cold prickles on her hand and arm as she keeps walking backwards. A gasp leaves her mouth as she slowly turns around, her eyes widening as she sees the land before her. Slow lightly falling in what must be a forest, icicles hanging from tree branches, and piles of snow growing at her feet. As Lucy goes further into the white forest, she turns back to check she still has a way out, but every time she looks, all she wants to do is run free in the snow. Turning the corner, she comes across a lamppost, going closer to it, fascinated by the illuminating light of the surrounding snow. Behind her, something cracks the branch of a fallen tree, and a faun comes from behind a tree. The half-human half-goat creature has his head down, and when Lucy screams seeing it, the poor faun gets the fright of his life, dropping the parcels. Slowly Lucy lets go of the lamppost, bending down to pick up the fauns' things and handing them to the scared creature. The faun stutters, trying to find his words as Lucy hands him the package, but can find none and slowly takes it instead.

"Were you hiding from me?" She asks, perplexed why a man would have hooves and hide from a little girl. The faun looks cautiously at Lucy, unsure if he should engage with her, but knows the rules and does so anyway.

"No," he mutters, picking up two bottles that had been thrown aside. "Well..." The faun can't figure out what to tell the girl, so he stumbles over his words. "I didn't want to scare you." Is what he settles on, smiling lightly as Lucy chuckles.