Lucy and Sam entered a forest clouded in white and walked up to a lamp post. They admired it and heard what sounded like scurrying about. They ducked behind the lamp post. A creature with a red scarf carrying parcels appeared. The creature, Sam, and Lucy screamed and the creature dropped his parcels.

Moments later, the three of them walked back towards the lamp post. "Were you hiding from me and Sam?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Huh, um, n... n... no. I didn't want to scare you," the creature said.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you?" Sam wondered.

He looked shocked that Lucy and Sam didn't know what he was. "Why, I'm a faun! And you must be some kind of beardless dwarves?"

"I'm not a dwarf!" Lucy cried. "I'm a girl! Sam's a boy. And actually, I'm tallest in my class."

The faun remained confused and asked, "But you're saying you're a daughter of Eve and he's a son of Adam?"

Lucy frowned. "Well, my mum's name is Helen..."

The faun cut her off. "Yes, but you and the boy are in fact, human."

Lucy and Sam nodded and the faun questioned, "What are you doing here?"

Lucy glanced back. "Well, we came from the wardrobe in the spare room, and..."

"Spare Oom," the faun interrupted.

"Spare room. Is that in Narnia?"

The faun seemed confused. "No. This is Narnia. Everything from this lamp post to Cair Paravel on the Eastern ocean, every stick and stone, every icicle is Narnia."

"This is an awfully big wardrobe," Lucy and Sam mumbled.

The faun turned his gaze to them. "Wardrobe? I'm sorry, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus."

Lucy smiled and extended her hand. "Glad to meet you, Mr. Tumnus, Marion. I'm Lucy Pevensie. This is Sam Coulter." Tumnus stared at her hand. "Oh. You shake it."

Tumnus frowned. "Why?"

Lucy thought for a moment and glanced at Sam before she said, "I-I don't know. People do it when they meet each other."

Tumnus shook her hand, then Sam's, and said, "Well then Lucy Pevensie, Sam Coulter, from the shining city of War Drobe in the wondrous land of Spare Oom, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"

Lucy glanced at the wardrobe. "Oh, well, thank you very much, but Sam and I probably should be getting back..."

"Yes, but it's only just around the corner. And there'll be a glorious fire. And toast and cakes. And maybe... we'll even break into the sardines."

"Well, I don't know..."

"Oh, come on. It's not everyday I get to make new friends."

"Well, maybe for just a little while... if you have sardines," Sam said in a lightly hesitant tone.

"By the bucket load," Tumnus answered with a small smile. "Come along."

They followed the faun to his house. When they arrived, they asked, "Can I help you?"

Tumnus nodded and Lucy and Sam both took a couple of parcels and opened the door. "Why, thank you!"

They put the parcels down and began examining the pictures. Tumnus noticed what she was doing. "Oh... that is my father."

"He has a nice face," Lucy said with a smile. "You look just like him."

Tumnus' expression changed almost instantly. "No, I'm not very much like him at all really."

Lucy sighed softly. "My father is fighting in a war."

Sam looked down. "My father is gone."

Tumnus stared at Lucy a moment. "My father went to war too... but that was a very long time ago... before this dreadful winter."

"Winter isn't all bad. There's ice skating and snowball fights. And Christmas!"

"No, there's no Christmas here. Not for a hundred years."

"No presents for a hundred years?!" Sam exclaimed.

"Always winter and never Christmas. But oh, you two would've loved Narnia in the spring. The dryads and the fauns would dance all night... but we never got tired. And oh, the music! Would... Would you like to hear some now?"

"Yes please," Sam and Lucy replied.

The faun pulled out a flute and asked, "Now, are you familiar with any Narnian lullabies?"

They shook their heads and said, "Sorry, no."

Tumnus replied excitedly, "Well, that's good because this probably won't sound anything like one."

With that, he started playing the instrument. Lucy and Sam found themselves staring into the fire, drifting off. A lion's roar woke them and when they looked around, the house was dark and Tumnus was no longer seen.

Lucy whispered, "Oh, Sam and I should go."

From the opposite end of the house, the faun said, "It's too late for that now. I'm such a bad faun."

"Oh, no. You're the nicest faun we've ever met."

"Then I'm afraid you've had a very poor sampling."

"You can't have done anything that bad."

"It's not something I have done, Lucy Pevensie. It's something I'm doing."

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"I'm kidnapping you two. It's the White Witch, the one that makes it always winter, always cold. She told me that if I ever were to come across a human wandering in the woods, that we were to turn it over to her."

Lucy's expression instantly fell. "Mr. Tumnus, you wouldn't. Sam and I thought you were our friend!"

He instantly grabbed her hand and Sam's wrist and rushed them out of his house. "We must move quietly; the woods are full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side."

They reached the lamp post and Tumnus asked, "Can you two make your way back on your own from here?"

"I think so." She handed Tumnus her handkerchief and he blew his nose and tried to give it back to her, but she refused. "Keep it. You need it more than I do."

He laughed and touched Lucy's nose gently. "No matter what happens Lucy Pevensie, Sam Coulter, I'm glad to have met you both."

Lucy and Sam ran through the woods and reached the wardrobe. They heard Peter counting and Lucy cried, "We're back, we're back, it's all right!"

"Shh." Edmund hissed, peeking out from behind the curtain. "He's coming."

Peter sighed. "You know, I'm not sure you've quite gotten the idea of this game."

Lucy frowned. "But weren't you wondering where Sam and I were?"

"That's the point," Edmund retorted. "That's why he was seeking you."

"Does this mean I win?" Susan asked as she made her appearance.

Peter's gaze turned towards the younger two. "I don't think Lucy or Sam want to play anymore."

Lucy and Sam frowned. "I've been gone for hours."

Lucy's older siblings followed Lucy and Sam into the spare room. Susan walked into the wardrobe and knocked on the wood while Edmund did the same to the outside back. She said, "Lucy, Sam, the only wood here is the back of the wardrobe."

"One game at a time, Lu, Sam. We don't all have your imaginations," Peter told them.

Lucy frowned. "But Sam and I weren't imagining!"

"That's enough, Lucy," Susan stated.

"We wouldn't lie about this!"

"Well, I believe you two," Edmund said.

"You do?"

The younger boy nodded. "Yeah, didn't I tell you about the football field I found in the bathroom closet?"

Peter frowned at his brother's words. "Now will you just stop. You always have to make everything worse, don't you? Grow up!"

"Shut up! You think you're dad, but you're not!" Edmund yelled before storming out of the room.

Susan's voice took on a sarcastic tone. "Well that was nicely handled."

"But it was really there," Lucy and Sam replied.

Peter sighed. "Susan was right, Lucy, Sam. That's enough."

He left the room and Lucy and Sam remained where they were, knowing what they had seen was real.