𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕒𝕘𝕟𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥 - ᵖᵉᵗᵉʳ ᵖᵉᵛᵉⁿˢⁱᵉ

꧁(Tʜᴇ Fᴀᴜɴ)꧂

Lucy backed away into the wardrobe as Katherine hurried out of the room. She left a crack of the wardrobe door open as her mother had always told her it was not practical to close a door without the key in case it locked her in.

As she moved backwards among the furs she began to wonder where the back of the wardrobe was as it had not seemed very deep when she first looked at it. Out of nowhere her hand, which had been outstretched behind her so she did not bump into the back, touched something cold and prickly.

She gasped and extracted her hand as she turned to see a pine branch loaded with snow. Then she looked closer and took a step forward to see it was a snow-filled forest. She looked back at the still-open door to make sure that she wasn't dreaming and upon seeing it smiled in delight moving forward into the snow.

She stared in amazement at the hidden world she had discovered feeling the cold snow land on her cheeks and nose, she stretched out a hand to catch some snowflakes.

She walked forward a bit taking in the wonder of the woods and looked back once again to make sure the wardrobe door was still there. She walked through the trees enjoying the snow and this magical place she had found. She could not help imagining what she would tell her siblings when she arrived back.

She studied every little snow-covered plant she walked past as she continued to amble around with no particular sense of direction. Then she noticed a soft warm light hitting the snow, curious she drew closer to see a tall cast-iron lamppost in the middle of the woods. The fire inside it gave off a soft glow to everything around it and Lucy neared it intrigued.

Lucy stepped into the clearing and reached out her hand to touch the lamppost, recoiling her hand a bit at the icy feel of the iron. Her hands left marks in the frost and she found herself intrigued by the patterns of her fingerprints that stood out against the white sheen on the cast iron.

Suddenly the trees around her rustled and Lucy knew she wasn't alone, she tried to pinpoint the direction the sound came from moving around the lamppost to try and create a barrier between herself and the noise. It hadn't occurred to Lucy until now that there might be animals in the quiet winter woods she had found.

Someone walked out from behind the trees and both her and the person let out a scream before hiding themselves. Lucy shielding herself with the lamppost and the person hiding behind a tree dropping his wrapped packages onto the snowy floor. After Lucy finally dared a look she grew curious at the fact the person seemed to be just as scared of her as she was of them.

She stepped forward slowly as the person peeked out and realized it was a man who seemed to be in his late twenties. He wore a red scarf and no shirt and he had a goatee and quite peculiar ears. She neared towards the packages and the man kept glancing and ducking as though he thought she would attack him.

She carefully bent down to the package that was closest to her, it was a square sort of parcel wrapped in brown paper that Lucy assumed were books from her countless Christmas and birthday wrappings she had done before. As she picked it up the man stepped forward brandishing a snow-covered umbrella.

He stammered as she stood up again not knowing quite what to say and she merely stretched out the parcel to the man stepping forward slightly to give it to him. The girls gaze fell to his legs or lack of human ones and her eyes widened in surprise and shock to see he had what could only be described as a goat's hind legs with hooves instead of feet.

She looked up to him, "Were you hiding from me?" she asked him curiously.

He slowly reached out and took the parcel from her tucking it under his arm before reaching down to pick up another one.