Nice intelligent discussion of dimension-crossing. I could imagine Bat-Bat having written this dialogue. No glaring boo-boos, but if you're going to express "Okay" with only two letters, you need to capitalize the K.
The only error which jumped out to was "he said a little impatient". It needs to be impatiently or a comma in the phrase.
This is getting so exciting!
This is such a unique Narnia fan-fic, and I can't wait to read the rest!
Okie dokie! Done! Thanks.
This is the latest update. I have more that I wrote the past two days. Now I'll be updating every other day so don't despair!
Part VIII
“Yes. I’m afraid that’s what happened.” Said the hermit looking in my direction but not really looking at me. He seemed to be staring out somewhere beyond me, beyond the cabin walls, out of this very world even, at a place only he knew.
I looked at him and for the first time I felt some sadness, but I also felt a kind of excitement. To think that I might be staring at a being from another place, another wold was an extraordinary feeling. I decided I would stop questioning him about his outlandish claims and go along with his story, at least for the time being.
After a long silence he began. “I came here through one of your portals,” he said finally making eye contact. “The events that led to that moment are part of a very long story. But I’ll tell you that I was banned from that place, the place you’ll do very well to call Narnia. Mind you, it wasn’t any of the good rulers that banned me but others who had usurped their power.”
“Listen,” I interrupted. “Do please call it Narnia. Otherwise I’ll be even more confused. Let’s say you were banned from Narnia.”
“Very well,” he said. “I was banned from Narnia by those who had been entrusted the stewardship of the kingdom, but instead became the de facto rulers. I, along with another group of people spoke up against the stewards declaring themselves the true rulers. Many of those dissenters disappeared one at a time. Some suffered mysterious ‘accidents’ that cost them their lives. I was one of the lucky ones. My punishment was to be banished from the kingdom. Look. I told you it was a long story. If I tell you all the details of it, we would stay here forever. I might as well write a book about it and just give it to you to read... one volume at a time of course.”
“So that’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“No. I will tell you that I was taken way out of the borders of Narnia, to lonely, uninhabited mountains far, far away. I was left there, at the spur of one of those mountains and told never to come back on pain of death.”
“Was it a mountain out to the West or to the North? Can you at least fill in some of those details?”
“It was a mountain ridge far out north. Even farther than the lands of the Giants. What you would normally know as the land of the Giants of the North, by the writings of Lewis.”
“Great, so it was that far out. We don’t know what’s farther north than that. I supposed there has to be something and that the world would extend some more in that direction. Lewis didn’t write anything about that area to the North of the Lands of Giants because it was of no consequence to the overall Chronicles.”
“Yes, you’re right,” he said, and then continued “I was left by one of those mountains with nothing but what I was wearing so I just started walking. I have always been a man of the outdoors, therefore I knew that it was critical to find food and shelter fast.”
“And what happened?”
“It’s like you said,” he replied. “While searching for food and shelter in that mountain spur, I “blundered” into one of those chasms, those portals that you call it.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“But what happened, what did you feel. Did you like, fall off some edge or floated up or what?”
“Why would I fall off or float up?”
“That’s how it happens in movies,” I said as if this was completely natural. “Besides, if I was writing a story of someone transitioning to another world, or another dimension I would do something like that, to make it exciting.”
“Well, I don’t know about these “moovies” you are talking about but has it not occurred to you that you could cross a portal or chasm to another world an never have noticed it until much later?”
“Well, that could happen too, but it would be boring.”
“I see you don’t believe most of what I’m saying, but you are still the joker, aren’t you?”
“It’s just that crossing a portal to another world or dimension is something huge. I can’t believe that nothing would happen. At least some sparks or some shimmering mist, or something.”
“No. Nothing of the sort happened. But I did sense that something had gone wrong. As I was looking for shelter and it was getting late. It was almost night. I did come to a place that seemed a bit darker than the rest of the area. I thought it was because it was a little open field nestled between two big rocks. I don’t know how I ended there but in order to continue on ahead I had to walk in between the two rocks.”
“So it was dark?”
“Not really dark, no. It was at dusk, but the area where I was was a little darker than everything else. I thought it was because the place was shadowed by the rocks so I just kept going. At first I didn’t notice but later I remembered that as I crossed the rocks, the landscape became lighter. It was still about the same hour, the sun had already set, but for some reason I thought the sun had set on the wrong side because the faint shadows were going in a different direction than a few moments earlier. Remember I was still desperately looking for shelter, and by this time I was very hungry too so I didn’t think much about it. It was not until later when I realized I was not in my own country anymore and even much later when I found out I was not even in my own world. After walking for a little more, I found this cabin where we are right now. At first I thought it odd that a cabin was out here in the middle of this desolate place. No one could possibly live around here. But the most interesting part was when I came inside.”
“I see,” I said looking around cabin. I still saw the thing exactly how it was when I woke up earlier. Nothing had changed so I was not sure what he was referring to. So I asked him: “What did you find in here?”
“Had I known then that I was not in my own world, what I found inside would not have been as surprised.”
“What?” I said impatient. “What did you find inside?”
“Food.” He said. “I found food right here on the table.”
“So someone was living here?”
“That’s what I thought at first,” he said staring at some point out in the distance again. “I thought someone was here and had prepared this meal and was about to eat it. I began calling out to whoever was here. I called out for a long while, and even when outside looking, but no one ever came. After a few minutes I could not wait any longer and I sat down and began eating.”
At this point he did look at me straight and asked “Do you believe in miracles?”
“Well.... yes.... I do... I do believe miracles can happen. Nothing like a miracle has ever happened to me but yes, I believe miracles can happen.”
“That ‘Miracles CAN happen’ saying is what people who doubt that miracles happen say. Do you doubt miracles?
“Well, okay, so I have my doubts. I do believe that God can make miracles happen. I suppose God can use his powers to accomplish anything, even things that seem impossible to us. That would be a miracle for sure. It’s just that... well, I’ve never really seen one with my own eyes, and never experienced one. I don’t think I even know one person who has experienced a miracle.”
“I think you might be wrong about that. You should really think about it for a while.”
“Sure. I’ll think about it but I doubt anything sort of miraculous has ever happened to me. But tell me what happened after you ate the food?”
“I think the food was really prepared for me. It contained most of what I liked and some other stuff I had never seen before, but it was delicious nonetheless. No one ever came to live here at all and I’ve been here ever since. But the story of my arrival here and what has happened since then will also take a long time. Enough to say that I’ve been here about 4 years now. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, maybe forever, maybe not.”
“How do you know so much about our world then?” I asked still a little suspicious. “And about Narnia and Jesus and God. How do you know about all those things?”
“You’re not the first person I’ve met from this world,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how many fools get lost around here.”
“So you’ve met others?”
“Yes, I have. And I do believe I’m here for a reason.”
“How so?”
“Because I’ve learned a lot about this world through them. They have told me all about it, in return for me helping them find their way again.”
“Look, this whole story sound fantastic and all, but I’ve been wondering something. After you found out you were no longer in your world and realized you had crossed a portal to here why didn’t you just go back to where the rocks are and try to go back?”
