The world in the wardrobe

Based on the Narnia stories, with a little inspiration from Harry Potter

Sophia Colleen Black was sitting at the back seat in a British Mini. The driver, her aunt Louisa Black, took her to a large and old house somewhere at the countryside of England. Sophia put her head against the cold window. She was tired, because of the long travel. The young, nineteen-year-old girl, travelled from Utrecht, in The Netherlands, to London by boat and train. Her aunt invited her to come over for a couple of weeks, since it was Sophia’s summer vacation, and offered her to pick her up at King’s Cross railway station. Sophia’s dark gold-blond hair fell over her shoulder in front of her face. After a while the city disappeared and green landscapes appeared. The warm summer sun was making the grass seemed greener than it was. After another 30 minutes of driving, a large, old house appeared in the view from the car’s window.

Aunt Louisa opened the back door of the car, smiling at Sophia. Sophia smiled back and yawned. Uncle Harry walked to the car and opened the boot to get her luggage out. Aunt Louisa showed Sophia her room. A large wardrobe, a one-person bed, a small table and an armchair were in the room. Uncle Harry dropped Sophia’s luggage on the floor of the room and left together with aunt Louisa. Sophia sat down on the armchair and looked around. A mirror hung above her bed. The sunlight, that was shining through the large and old window, reflected in it. The curtains where old and dark green, made of velvet. There were holes in the curtain, made by moths. The wallpaper was red with yellow flowers and the old laminate flooring was made of oak. Sophia stood up and looked in the mirror. Her blue-green eyes looked at her from the mirror. She looked at her round head, her average sized ears, small nose and pink lips. There was no make-up on her face, unlike other nineteen-year-old girls had. She hated to use it. It took too much time in the morning, some of her classmates usually arrived too late in class, because they had to do their make-up. Her small and soft hands grabbed her hair and put it in a tail. Sophia smiled in the mirror and turned around.

She picked up her smartphone from the table and checked the Wi-Fi. Luckily her uncle and aunt installed it in the house. She sent her mother and friends a message on WhatsApp and looked at all her bags and the large, blue trolley. She opened the trolley and started to unpack her stuff. She dumped her extra pair of sneakers in front of the wardrobe and kicked the sneakers she wore off. They ended up next to the other pair. She always wore sneakers, never high heels. She tried to wear high heels once, but stumbled and ended up with her face on the floor.

Sophia opened the door of the wardrobe and started hanging her clothes in the wardrobe. First came her best dress. She knew her aunt loved to organise large and luxurious parties, where you had to wear dresses. Sophia only wore dresses at special parties and with Christmas, because on normal days she felt very uncomfortable in dresses. She dropped her special sneakers, that matched with the dress, under the dress. She picked up a pile of clothes from her trolley and tried to reach one of the shelves in the upper part of the wardrobe. She managed to get the clothes on the shelve, but then stumbled over one of her pairs of sneakers.

She prepared for her head getting to the back of the wardrobe, but instead of feeling pain in her head and lying unconscious at the bottom of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and cold and smelled fresh, cold air and forest. Sophia felt the cold and soft ground wetting the clothes she wore. She opened her eyes and saw a lot of white. ‘Snow? Snow in summer?’ she thought. She stood up and looked around. This was not the landscape around the house of her uncle and aunt. A green and lonely lamppost stood next to the place where she ended up. A creature was leaning against the lamppost. “Are you okay?” it asked. He took a couple of steps in Sophia’s direction. “W-who are you?” Sophia asked the creature, a little bit scared by its sudden appearance. “I’m Magorian, I’m a faun,” the creature said. He held out one of his hands. Sophia took it, a little bit shivery, and shook the hand. “I’m Sophia,” she said, “Why is it snowing here? It’s summer!” “When it is summer in your world, it is winter in ours,” explained the faun. “Ours? Are there more fauns around here?” Sophia asked. “Yes, there are a lot of them. But there are also other creatures and animals. And once a year there are humans, just like you. They are the kings and queens of this kingdom,” said Magorian. “Which kingdom?” Sophia asked. “The kingdom of Narnia of course,” answered Magorian.