Narnia: Daughters of the Sky

What's Narnia?

My sister and I had been abandoned at an old orphanage at the edge of town. We had no one but each other. Sure there were other kids, but they'd come and go, we always stayed. There were a few couples who thought they might want us, but something always changed their minds and we were left here to wait. We were turning twelve this year, we were reaching the age that we'd be too old to be adopted. Too old to be wanted. All we ever wanted was a permanent family like in the storybooks. A mum, a dad, two people who loved us. We came to terms with our misfortune and took what was handed to us. We were very well taken cared of. We were never abused or mistreated. We were lucky. But one day, that would all change with a simple touch of the hand...

It was summer, my favorite time of year. I had been out in the woods wearing my favorite red and gold jacket taking a mid-morning stroll. I was going to my favorite place in the whole world. A little meadow at the top of a ridge that overlooked the orphanage I grew up in. The only way up, was to climb.

I had made it to the foot of the ridge and looked up. It was about thirty feet up, a pretty easy climb when I've been doing it for the past five years, I barely noticed the cuts and scrapes I got from climbing. I took hold of the rocky cliff side and started my ascent. When I reached about halfway, the wind that was whipping my ponytail around my face had stopped blowing from the east, and everything went silent. There were no chirping birds, no leaves rustling, I couldn't even hear myself breathe. It was an eerie stillness. I looked around but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I had stopped for a second, there wasn't any way I could go back down now, the only way down was by a rope I hung between two trees, one at the top, one at the bottom. It had served me well for five years.

When I started up again, the wind started to blow from the west, and it was awfully cold for a summer breeze. I took my right hand and brought my jacket closer around me.

When I finally made it to the top, I put my hand on the ledge so I could pull myself up, my hand met something freezing cold. I almost lost my grip in shock and surprise. I brought my hand back and looked at it like something funky was growing on it. I wiggled my fingers before attempting once more.

I reached up and felt again, that's when I realized it was snow. Snow in the middle of summer?

I hoisted myself over the ledge and sure enough, everything was covered in snow, but this was not my meadow. It was like another woods entirely. I stood there in wonder before I started to walk through the trees. It was awfully chilly and I was wearing a pretty thin jacket. I wrapped it tighter around me. My breath was coming in little clouds and my teeth chattered a bit.

I had walked for several minutes and saw nothing, heard nothing. All I could hear was the crunch of my footsteps on the snow.

After a few more minutes, I saw a dark figure in the distance. I walked over towards it cautiously, hiding behind trees as I went.

As I got closer I could make out that it was a horse. A beautiful brown horse with a mane to match. Her eyes were bright and mischievous as she turned her head to look at me. At first, I was frozen in shock. But then I slowly made my way up to her and put my hand on her flank. She moved away uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," I said as I dropped my hand back to my side.

"You better well be," the horse said back. "Don't you know it's rude to go up to people and touch them without asking? Same rule applies to animals, thank you very much!"

I gasped in shock. "I'm sorry, but did you just speak?" I asked with wide eyes.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Of course," she said, "all the animals in Narnia can talk."

"What's Narnia?"