Narnia: Grab bag of other things from the Serpent Scene

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

They all held their breath, for it is not at all nice to be pursued by an unknown something either on land or sea.

"I saw a danger lurk!" (Credit to Tommy Smothers)

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But what it turned out to be was far worse than anyone had suspected.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

"Actually, I did."

"Shut up, Eustace."

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at last they were seeing what so many people have foolishly wanted to see—the great Sea Serpent. The folds of its gigantic tail could be seen far away, rising at intervals from the surface. And now its head was towering up higher than the mast.

And from the head came a soft, sheepish voice, "Could you point me the way back to New England?" it asked in a downeast accent, "I seem to have gotten lost and can't find the way there from here."

(For those who don't know the accent, those last words would be especially pronounced in their non-standardness: theYAH from heYAH.)

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and does anyone want to join my mischievous fan-theory that the Very Hard To Find sea serpent sidled up to this ship not for food but because it was confused and thought the dragon-shaped ship was a kindred spirit? Clearly the whole loop-the-loop thing was the sea serpent trying to hug its new friend.

If this were Star Trek it would either want to mate with the ship or think this ship was its mother.

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now did the first brave thing he had ever done.

He said, "Stop you idiots, it just wants to be friends. And, incidentally, I want to wear lipstick like Edmund."

And once the attacks on it stopped the serpent peaceably decided not to destroy the ship and challenged Reepicheep to chess, which was why it had come.

Eustace and Edmund did each other's makeup with stuff Caspian had gotten from the Lone Islands for Lucy even though she never saw the point of it. Lucy had been happy to give it away.

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Very soon the whole ship’s company except Lucy and the Mouse (which was fainting) was in two long lines along the two bulwarks, each man’s chest to the back of the man in front, so that the weight of the whole line was in the last man, pushing for their lives.

If not for Lucy their savior would have died from exertion but fortunately Lucy had realized that one person more or less would make no difference in moving the serpent but could make all the difference for the Mouse.

No one on the ship noticed Lucy's quick thinking and good work because they all were too busy congratulating themselves at being big strong men and ignoring the fact that they would have been doomed if not for the Mouse they left to die.