Narnia, if the heroes did their jobs: Beginning to eat at Aslan's table

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

“Travelers who have come from far to Aslan’s table, welcome,” said the young woman. “My name is Sophie NicRéalta.  Why do you not eat and drink?”

“Madam,” said Caspian, “we feared the food because we thought it had cast our friends into an enchanted sleep.”

"It was not the food that did so," Sophie said.

"Then what was it?" Eustace asked.  "And how do we awaken them?"

[for some reason the business of waking the lords can only be done after the feast is eaten]

Throughout the explanation Edmund had grown more and more uncomfortable. The dagger itself reminded him of another time he had eaten enchanted food. The fact that when he looked upon her he trusted her for no apparent reason made him suspect magic, but more than for himself he feared for his friends and his family.

He had eaten the wrong food one time and the cost had been a life. A life that was returned soon after, but even if Aslan had only been dead for a day he still felt the guilt of causing that death. He didn't want anyone he cared about to get hurt, and he didn't want anyone he cared about to feel the pain of carrying that kind of guilt with him.

He tried to speak delicately, "I do not wish to be rude, but things are not always what they seem. Just because you seem trustworthy, and you do, doesn't mean that you are. How can we know that you are really a friend?"

“You can not know,” said the girl. “You can only believe—or not.”

"I've believed the wrong people in the past," Edmund said.

"What kind of an answer is that?" Lucy asked, consciously holding herself back from snapping at the young woman.

"The only kind I can give," Sophie said. "I have no proof to offer you.  I have only my word."

"If she speaks truly then the food must be eaten and the drink must be drunk," Reepicheep said, "We cannot abandon our comrades to endless slumber."

"That's true, but--" Edmund started.

"Majesty, apologies for interrupting, but I was not finished speaking."

"Sorry, Reep," Edmund said and gestured for the Mouse to continue.

"If she is not speaking truly, then the food is a trap, but there is no reason that we all must risk ourselves. I volunteer to test it."

"Reep!" Euctace said in shock.

Caspian, who had remained silent, looked at the young woman in hopes of some kind of reassurance.

"I am not offended if one of you eats first and the rest wait to see what happens," Sophie said. "Given that you are all armed, and I am not, perhaps that will set your minds at ease."

Reepicheep had already started eating food.

-

[Narnia, if the heroes did their jobs Index]

Narnia, If the heroes did their jobs: The Dark Isle

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

"What if our lost lords are lost in there?" Reepicheep asked.

"They'd never sail into such a thing intentionally," Octesian offered.

"Rhoop might," Restimar said. "He always did have a fondness for the unknown and fantastical." After a pause he added, "Also, at night they might not notice they sailed into it."

"So we should avoid it unless we shouldn't and we have no way of knowing which is correct," Caspian said.

"Meaning we go in and hope for the best," Lucy said. There were some frightened murmurs among the crew.

"After we turn around and drop off everyone who doesn't want to come on the dwarves' island," Edmund assured the crew.

The journey back was upwind, and so took longer than the thirteen days it had taken them to arrive at the darkness.

They were amazed at the progress the Dufflepuds and the various refugees who had resettled on the island had made.

The Duffers were glad for the company of anyone but Coriakin, who had taken to solitude and shouting obscenities about how this wasn't the way things ought to be done since his magic had been stripped from him.

The refugees were happy for solid land and abundant food.

Rather than build a traditional village the Dufflepuds had taught the largely human imigrants ways to build in the ground in accordance with nature, and Corikan's house had been repurposed for community use.

It was then that the crew of the Dawn Treader finally learned where the name Dufflepud originated. When not working, and with their original forms restored the Duffer's skipped and ran and frolicked and did anything but ordinary walking, but it was when theydanced that the crew finally understood.

At first the dance seemed awkward, clumsy, as if spending so much time as monopods had robbed them of their ability, but as the dance went on those seeming mistakes took on new form, a beautiful unity of apparent missteps that was anything but discordant. The dance was at once silly and profound, it seemed to carry a deeper meaning that no one could quite place.

The music that accompanied it had the same property, to a lesser degree, an off note would be accompanied by a unified "trip" on the part of the dancers, a sudden change in tempo, on it's own grating to the ear, would be accompanied by apparent confusion of the dancers that somehow always managed to work out into a beauty beyond all expectation, even after the crew took into account that their initial expectations would be surpassed.

"Dufflepud" a corruption of words meaning, "Clumsy Foot," was an affectionate term for a style of dance they had perfected, one which took apparent mistakes and combined them into something beautiful.

When the crew of the Dawn Treader was again ready to leave the crew was slightlylarger than when it had come. Several sailors had no desire to sail into the mysterious darkness, but several of those on the island were young and looking for adventure. A Red Squirrel named Jess was the leader of this group, and it wasn't as if in all their time crammed aboard the ship the refugees had learned nothing of how to operate a ship.

The trip back to the darkness would have been quicker than finding it had been, but preparations had to be made. Drinian practiced navigating the ship blindfolded. Chip logs and hourglasses were broken out to give him constant updates on the ship's speed, and small sea anchors were dropped to tell him of changes in the course. Additionally he assigned a crewmember to make sure he was correctly gauging the passage of time.

Everyone hoped that the lights they brought with them would be powerful enough to drive back enough of the darkness for these measures to work. If the sailors couldn't see to measure knots, to see the angle of the rope to the sea anchor, or to see an hourglass, it would all be for nothing.

Spare oars were sacrificed to fashion a way to keep Reepicheep's coracle directly ahead of the Dawn Treader. He would have a single job. A rock was tied to a rope the length of the Treader's draft. If the rock struck anything he was to call out for them to turn hard.

* * *

When they reached the darkness all took their places. Iisha and their second best with a bow took to the crow's nest. Iisha would have preferred more, but it took a great deal of talent to shoot something you could hear but not see, and she only trusted one other to do it.

Jess, the Squirrel, stood ready to relay information from the crows nest to the deck, if it became necessary to do so silently.

Adah, Caspian, Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy were all to be roving patrols, intended to relay information when sight couldn't, and practiced in not tripping over those who were to stay at their posts.

Drinian took the tiller, a sailor near him with a lantern and an hour glass prepared to count off the minutes, on each side of the ship a sailor with an hour glass, a lantern, and a chip log prepared to call out the speed.

At the stern a sailor with small sea anchors, not intended to slow the ship but merely to use the line to determine how far the ship deviated from a straight path, also armed with a lantern, stood ready.

At the bow Octesian and Restimar positioned themselves with a lantern, hoping to see what lay ahead.

Reepicheep boarded the coracle. The rowers sat at the oars.

The sails had been taken down because Drinian didn't want to risk being blown off course, sailing without seeing was dangerous enough as it was.

When everyone was sure that they were ready, Drinian asked for a heading.

Lucy the valiant answered: "The center."

And so they rowed.

The darkness was cold and encroaching. Only the rowers, kept warm by their exertion, could keep from shivering. Iisha worried that the shaking might be too much to fire a bow straight, and prayed that she wouldn't have to nock an arrow. The lanterns didn't cast their glow far. Even on the darkest night they should have illuminated the entire deck, instead within a few feet there was total darkness.

But, they were enough.

All would have lost track of time if not for the sailor calling it out to Drinian, and the only sounds were those calling out times, speeds, and angles to him combined with the chanting the rowers used to keep in sync. It seemed that only Drinian had an idea of where they were, and as he said, "We're getting close now," a voice cried out.

Not with words, their were no words. There was terror and sadness and the loss of all hope. There was suffering. But there were no words.

For a moment no one spoke, then Reepicheep spoke, "Who calls?" He asked. "We are Narnian," he said, believing it only fitting to give as much information as he asked for.

There was a moment's silence then Reepicheep added, "If you are friend we offer whatever help we may give. If you are foe then know that we do not fear you."

The voice didn't answer, instead it cried, “Mercy! Mercy!"

In unison Octesian and Restimar said, "It's Rhoop."

Lord Rhoop continued, "Even if you are only one more dream, have mercy. Take me on board. Take me, even if you strike me dead. But in the name of all mercies do not fade away and leave me in this horrible land.”

“Where are you?” shouted Caspian. Then he decided it didn't matter. “Come aboard and welcome.”

As soon as they heard his feet hit the deck all heard Rhoop say, “Fly! Fly! About with your ship and fly! Row, row, row for your lives away from this accursed shore.”

The deck tilted and some fell over as Drinian turned the ship as hard as it could turn. He shouted orders for a new sea anchor to be dropped, or rather thrown, so that they could know how far they turned.

The rowers rowed faster.

Reepicheep crawled back on board and when he was confident Drinian was guiding them back the way they had come he gently said, "Compose yourself if you can, and tell us what danger we are fleeing."

-

[If the heroes did their jobs - Index]

Narnia, If the heroes did their job, Index

Started writing this during the Midas Pool incident of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  There are lots of gaps to be filled.

Death-Water Island
Midas Pool

The Dufflepud's Island
Meeting the invisible people
The Dinner Party

Caspian and Coriakin

The Dark Isle
The Dark Isle

I lost track of what chapter I was on:
Beginning to eat at Aslan's table

Narnia, if the heroes did their jobs: Caspian and Coriakin

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]
[Bold italics from the original text.  In this version Lucy freed the slaves but Eustace was still the dragon and so that leave Caspian the magic book.]

“Well, that’s rather a delicate question,” said the Magician.* “You see, it’s only they who think they were so nice to look at before. They say they’ve been uglified, but that isn’t what I called it. Many people might say the change was for the better.”

"Speaking as one ruler to another," Caspian said ever so politely, "you're an asshole."

Coriakin shouted, "I'm a star!"

Caspian considered pointing out that he had been appointed via divine fiat, interdimensional travel, and various other impressive things, but settled on, "A fallen star!" There was a pause which Caspian used to sneak in, "The royalty of old had a word for fallen stars." This shut Coriakin up for the moment. "Now let's see, what was the word? It started with a D..."

"I'm not a... don't you dare! There is no way" the words after that were incoherent. English, but incoherent.

The entire room shook and Caspian trembled with fear. But he reminded himself that there was an entire island of slaves to this unstable being and said, "Your actions say more than your words ever could."

"They're a conceited people. First it was just the Cheif, but now he's gotten the rest to follow him. They agree with every word he says like a mindless mob. No, like children. They need an adult to guide them and teach them."

"A fine idea," Caspian said. "Now where do you suggest we find one?"

"I was put here by Aslan."

"So was I, and I say they'd be better without you."

The Magician rounded the table. "I could turn you into something. Not a Duffer. Something else. Or even put a spell on you to make sure no one ever believed a word you said. But I don't like to do that."

It took everything Caspian had not to give in and submit to this monster in human form before him. He'd spent much of his life as a prince, a short time as a rebel leader, and then a king. Never had he been so alone, or so helpless. "You don't like to do it. Meaning you've tried. What happened the last time?"

The Magician was silent.

"What transgression was the transmogrification even a punishment for?"

"Well, they wouldn’t do what they were told."

"Slaves can be like that."

"Their work is to mind the garden and raise food—not for me, as they imagine, but for themselves. They wouldn’t do it at all if I didn’t make them.

"Possibly owing to the fact that the land here is rich enough to live off of without a garden."

"And of course for a garden you want water."

"Which would explain the water pump I spied earlier."

"There is a beautiful spring about half a mile away up the hill."

"Is this going anywhere?"

"And from that spring there flows a stream which comes right past the garden. All I asked them to do was to take their water from the stream instead of trudging up to the spring with their buckets two or three times a day and tiring themselves out besides spilling half of it on the way back."

"Three questions. One, asked or ordered? Two, did you ever ask why they went to the source? Because there are many good reasons to do so. Three, this justifies body modification how?

"But they wouldn’t see it."

"Did you try explaining?"

"In the end they refused point blank.”

"As is their Aslan given right."

Narnia: If the heroes did their jobs: The Dinner Party

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]
[So I was thinking something like this for why our heroes would be at this dinner party (continuing in the continuity established here and first meeting the dufflepuds here, in this version Caspian, not Lucy, needs to read from the book):]

Caspian asked, "Wouldn't it be better if I just went up and read this spell right away?" He was going to add that they could eat after, but was answered too soon.

"Master?!" came the shocked reply. "The Masters must be properly fed. Everything must be tended to, so it must." A chorus of affirmations followed.

Before Caspian could respond Lucy silenced him with a gesture and motioned for them to speak away from the group.

Lucy started thus: "I don't think they know how to be anything but servants."

"That's nonesense," Caspian said. "No one is purely--" and then he stopped. "How long do you think they've been slaves?"

"I don't know but ever since we've met them they've treated themselves as lesser than. We're the 'masters' to them. And what do you do with a Master? Clean the house, trim the lawn, tend the garden-- they don't have access to our houses and our lawns and our gardens or anything else like that. But another thing you do for a Master is--"

"Prepare a meal."

"Exactly. They may be planning an act of rebellion, but they still can't seem to conceive of their relationship with us as anything but servile. So they have to make us a feast because that's the only way they can conceive of us interacting."

"The perfect slaves," Caspian said with disgust.

There was a pause.

"If this magician did that to them," Caspian said, "then he has a lot more to answer for than whatever he did to their bodies."

Lucy didn't disagree, but didn't make any response at all. Not even a change in facial expression.

"I mean there's slavery," Caspian said, "but if you're right than this goes beyond even that. Normal slavery only has power over your body, you're talking about a people who've had their minds put in chains."

Now Lucy responded, "Exactly." And it was an enthusiastic, "Exactly."

"So what do we do?"

Lucy looked down, "I don't know."

"Even if we set them free, and fix their bodies of course, if they can't think of themselves as anything but servile what good will that do? They'll just be the ready slaves of whoever makes landfall here next." There was a pause. "And until then they won't know what to do."

The silence disturbed both of them. Lucy finally broke it.

"They can think for themselves. Whatever strangeness may surround it, you reading from the book is their idea. So was the spell that made them invisible. So there's that."

"That's not much."

Lucy had a new thought: "And then there's this: there's nothing wrong with serving. What if we could get them to serve each other. We wouldn't be imposing our ways on them, but we also wouldn't be leaving them as people lesser than, and subject to the whims of, someone else."

"I..." and Caspian found he had nothing to say. "I..." he tried again. "I think we might be on this island for a long time."

Another pause, this one less fraught.

"I hope you're wrong, by the way," Caspian said.

"I do too," Lucy said.

"I hope that this dinner is just some silly tradition and they don't think of themselves as nothing but servants."

"There will be time enough to find that out," Lucy said, "but for now we're losing the group.

The group had indeed gotten well ahead of them.

"What do we do?"

"I told you already, I don't know."

"I mean right now. Do we have a dinner party in the local despot's house and just hope the noise doesn't attract him?" Caspian asked. Then he started talking again before Lucy could respond, "And I remind you that the local despot is a magician."

"I think we have to. If they won't tell you the details you need until after dinner, then we have to have dinner. Hopefully once they're visible we can talk about everything else."

"And the magician?"

"Keep your sword at the ready," Lucy said. "I plan to eat with my dagger. I don't want it leaving my hand."

"Thank you," Caspian said, "for your council." After a pause he added, "You're really right, we should catch up."

Lucy and Caspian rejoined the group with little trouble, and quickly, but quietly, gave out orders that everyone was to politely indulge in their host's insistence on the dinner, but to be at the ready for the possibility of an intruding magician.

-

Dishes appeared and disappeared as the invisible people put them down and picked them up. It was a disconcerting sight, but those who had attended great feasts before (Kings Caspian and Edmund, Queen Lucy, Lords Octesian and Restimar, and Reepicheep), were able to follow everything as a fairly mundane preparing of the table.

The only thing out of the ordinary was the way liquids were transported. Every bowl or pitcher appeared at the table with a lid, quickly disappeared, and then appeared again with the lid gone. In contrast to the rest of the dinnerware the lids appeared to be cobbled together with a good deal less attention to aesthetics.

"They must have made them after they lost the ability to see while they worked," Eustace remarked. Once he said it, it seemed clear that this was the case. A small handful of the lids were different* apparently crafted by ones who could see what they held in their hands, but most appeared to have been cobbled together by those who couldn't see their hands or what those hands contained and then painstakingly adjusted until ready for their job. Whatever the job of the waterproof lids actually was.

Eustace had become much better at seeing things from others' perspectives since he had been a dragon.

Everyone from the Dawn Treader, Lucy and Caspian especially, tried to learn more about the invisible people. This was made difficult by the fact that the invisible people had given themselves the least honored seats at the great table, when they finally stopped serving the meal and sat down. More so by the fact that they insisted on getting up to transport anything rather than allow any of the guests to strain so much as a little to reach or move something. But it was made impossible by the fact that the invisible people refused to say anything in the least bit interesting.

"It's getting dark, so it is. It does that at night, so it does."
"You came over the sea, did you? That's powerful wet, it is."
"I always say, 'When someone's hungry, she wants food.'"

And so forth. Though that last one got a powerful confirmation from Iisha, the master bowman.

Eustace quietly said to Adah, "They're afraid of saying anything that could ever possibly offend anyone."

"Terrified," Adah said. "Believe me, I know when people are terrified." Only a handful could hear, all from the Dawn Treader, and all of their thoughts went to first seeing her: as a Serpent. "I don't need to see terror to recognize it."

"And that," Lucy added, also keeping her voice too soft to be heard by their hosts, "is a very bad sign." Lucy turned to Caspian.

He grimly took a spoonful --with his left hand-- of the most delicious mushroom soup he had ever had and didn't enjoy it in the least because his thoughts were entirely with his right hand: on his sword's hilt.

Not everything about the meal was wrong, not everything about the place was wrong, but it was becoming more and more clear that as wrong things went the fact the people here were invisible was relatively minor, considering.

-

* Some would have been made between when they were transformed and when they became invisible but, assuming that they acted to become invisible soon afterward, not enough for the feast. I'm assuming that these away parties are composed of dignitaries, of which they have an increasing number, and enough guards to protect the dignitaries.

That's why the Kings and Queen and cousin of royalty are always there. Also why Octesian and Restimar, rescued in this version, are present. Adah is there simply because it's been so long that any time she can get land beneath her feet she's happy and, given what she's done for them, no one will argue with that.

The idea behind this is that they can make peaceful diplomatic contact with whomever they find immediately (the top officials are all there) but at the same time they're not going to get captured and sold into slavery again (hence the guards.)

It may not be the best plan ever, but when you're on an ill stocked mission from God and your royalty consists of children, you go with what plans you have.

--

Also, another reason for large parties to leave the ship is that the ship is getting damned crowded.

After they found Octesian's bracelet they went on a search and found not just him but the survivors of an entire ship that got wrecked, when they found the burnt village another search, now they have refugees whose home has been destroyed and whatever other slaves were in the holds of those who took them. What they're not doing is finding places to offload these people.**

It's really at a point where you want to send as many people on your scouting party as you can not because a reconnaissance party too conspicuous for reconnaissance is a good idea but because you want the people left back at the ship to be able to stretch damn it.

-

** Technically they could have dumped the rescued slaves back at their destroyed village but there're traumatic memories, it's the wrong season for starting from scratch, the entire place is a graveyard now, and so forth.

Plus it clearly isn't a safe place to have a village if the entire population could be overpowered and variously killed or taken into slavery. Now that any previously existing defenses have been razed it's even less safe then when it totally failed to be safe enough.

Narnia: If the Heroes did their jobs: Meeting the invisible people

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

[More If the heroes did their job (Iisha is from a footnote here, even though the post itself isn't in this canon.) This also has the thing where stuff was supposed to go with different people but since it's established that Eustace was the Dragon that just means Lucy freed the slaves and Caspian gets this one. Anyway, story time:]

"So we're just going to walk into an ambush?" Adah asked.

"We don't have much choice," Drinian said. "We need the boat to get to the ship."

"Besides," Caspian said, "we don't know their intentions. We did land on their island with an armed force without so much as a, 'Hello.'" He paused. "I think we had cause, I remember the last time we came ashore without armed guard, and if we could have seen them we would have made diplomatic contact, but I know that if an armed force came onto Narnian shores without making their intentions clear I'd have a call to arms too." Another pause. "Hopefully we can parlay."

Adah sighed. "Some things were easier as a Serpent. So we just walk into a place where we could have knifes to our throats without even knowing it."

"If they were that close," Reepicheep said, trying to be reassuring, "I'd smell them."

"I'd try to find a position I could cover you from," Iisha said, "but I can't shoot what I can't see."

"I'm sorry," Restimar said to Caspian, "that I used your title."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Caspian said. Letting a potential hostile force know they could capture royalty was potentially catastrophic, but who could be blamed for not seeing that an invisible enemy might be listening?

"Let's face this," Caspian said to everyone. "Lucy, Iisha, nocks on strings--"

"Susan used a bow," Lucy said. "I've always faced combat up close with a dagger." After a pause she added, "Learn your history."

Caspian said, "Iisha, ready your bow, everyone else draw your weapons or be prepared to." Caspian then led the way making a point of not drawing his sword. Only Reepicheep joined him ahead of the others.

Even though Reepicheep was actively sniffing hard he wasn't picking up much. A breeze that would be pleasant if not for its infuriating scattering of scents was blowing steadily seaward. The Mouse could tell that something dwarf-like had passed this way, but his knowledge ended there. He never picked up a scent strong enough to be coming from something that was still around and so was as surprised as the others when a voice said, "No further, masters, no further now.”

Lucy noted the use of, "Masters." Deferential words from people who clearly had the advantage over them. Slaves or servants was her guess. That meant that whatever these people's disposition, there was almost certainly a problem on this island in need of fixing.

The voice continued, “We’ve got to talk with you first. There’s fifty and more of us here with weapons. Talk would be in your best interest, it would.”

“Hear him, hear him,” came a chorus of voices. “That’s our Chief. You can depend on what he says. He’s telling you the truth, he is.”

Reepicheep hopped to Caspian's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "They're downwind of us, there could be 15 or 500. We've got only their word."

Caspian spoke in the direction of the voice, "We wish to talk as well. It was not our intention to invade your island and we would have greeted you and explained that had we been able to see you." Caspian motioned for weapons to be put away.

Iisha removed the arrow from her bowstring and returned it to her quiver, but kept in mind the direction of the Chief's voice. The other's sheathed their weapons, though likewise kept in mind the location of any voice they had been able to locate.

The Chief spoke again, "We have a request. Something your king can do for us."

Restimar swore.

"If it is truly a request, not a demand, then you have no need of weapons," Edmund said.

"We have put ours away as well," the Chief responded, to a chorus of affirmations.

"Meaning no disrespect," Reepicheep said, "but we can't see that."

Weapons appeared as they were dropped on the beach before them.

"They trust us, apparently," Eustace said.

"Or they're very desperate," Adah said.

"What is your request?" Caspian asked.

"Well,” said the Chief's voice. “It’s a long story. Suppose we all sit down?”

"If it's all the same to you," said Eustace, "we'd prefer the short version."

“Well, then, to put it in a nutshell,” said the Chief's voice, "we want your king to go into a place protected by magic spells that only royalty and the magician who made the spells can penetrate, find a magic book, and read the spell that will make us visible again, so we do."

"I may have been wrong," Eustace said. "Perhaps we should have the long version."

[And then explanation about how, while royalty can penetrate the spells certain people can be kept out via spells specifically directed at them which is why the chief couldn't read the invisible making spell (magician assumed that the daughter was useless and thus not making a special spell for) but since then there's been an anti-her spell added so none of the locals can penetrate the spells to get to the book and stuff.]

Narnia: If the heroes did their jobs (The Midas Pool version 3)

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]
[Not connected to any other story but I stole the Serpent's name from this story by Ncfan_1, and Octesian's backstory from this version of The Midas Pool incident (note that unlike this version Aslan could endure the goldmaking water in that one.) with the key change that the crew of the Dawn Treader actually did what it had been hoped they'd do.]

[The cast has found a pool that turns anything that touches it's waters into gold, and the only gold thing in it is the body of a man who, years ago, had the misfortune of diving into it hoping for a refreshing swim.]

"Why is the pool empty save for him?"

And they pondered.

"Dragons love gold," Lucy said.

"And they're immune to most magic," Caspian added.

"So they could snatch any gold from the pool unharmed," Lucy concluded.

"But then why is mister naked still there?" Edmund asked.

"Dragons don't horde the living," Eustace said, as if it were an obvious piece of common knowledge.

There may have been a moment's doubt here or there, but once they realized where the information must have come from, latent memories imprinted during the transformation, no one doubted his word. The long silence, then, must almost wholly be attributed to the gravity of those words sinking in.

Lucy was the first to break it: "You mean he's..."

"Why not?" Edmund asked. "We've seen people locked in stone."

There were three seconds of pause then a flurry of activity.

Within hours the better part of two crews had assembled at the pool and were trying to determine the best way to removed the golden man, but all efforts were hindered by the fact that any tool placed within the pool turned to gold.

Between attempts Edmund and Lucy spoke with Lord Octesian.

"Do you think he might be one of yours?" Lucy asked.

Octesian said, "It's difficult to tell. Whoever he is is face down after all."

"Of course," Lucy said.

"And I parted company with the other five before we ever made it this far. I don't know if any might have ended up on this island." He paused. "If it is one of the others then the fact he's alone troubles me. The others wouldn't simply abandon him, and this is not an island one would ask to be left on.

"Perhaps they attempted to rescue him and failed."

"Perhaps," Edmund said, "but we have more resources. Even in something as basic as manpower, we have the sailors Caspian brought and those we rescued with you. Two crews can move significantly more gold than one."

"Or perhaps they never found him," Lucy said. "Even the most dedicated search can't go on forever, and all he left behind was a pile of clothes and his body. If the sun were reflected off the surface of the pool one might not be able to find his body, and clothing is easy to miss if you're looking for something the size of a man."

"Clothes?" Octesian asked.

"All that was left was tarnished armor," Edmund said.

"But there were coins left with it," Lucy quickly added. "Narnian coins." She paused. "Those can't have been very common, does that mean anything to you?"

"It..." Octesian began then lost his voice. "It may," he said sadly.

For a time no one spoke.

"No one talked about it, for to do so would mean death, but Lord Restimar was a Narnian sympathizer. And not nearly so good at hiding it as he believed himself to be." Octesian initially decided to stop talking there, but then changed his mind. "I don't know for sure, but I always suspected that he never went anywhere without bringing a piece of old Narnia with him." For a moment he was lost in thought. "Coins, hidden away in a coin purse, would be just the sort of thing he might bring."

---

A skeleton crew piloted the Dawn Treader out into Serpent-deep waters, and there Eustace prepared to speak with the Serpent.

---

Adah found the shallow waters near the islands difficult and, more importantly, she had a vital job to do.

The Dawn Treader had become overfilled with humans, and even the occasional Animal. When she met them they were dangerously low on provisions.

The details she had were somewhat sketchy. It was hard to communicate with those who were still human. Her ears were meant to hear underwater, her eyes to see underwater, and neither intended to pick out particularly fine detail.

But what she had gathered was that the boy who understood her, who had been transformed into something, she hadn't caught what, and then --this gave her hope-- turned back had discovered some trinket that led them to an entire shipwrecked crew. Thus the boat had been overcrowded and understocked for some time, then, more recently, they'd rescued a group who had been enslaved but couldn't return them home. Something about fire and whatnot.

With so many mouths to feed by the time they had met her -- she was still angry they had opened fire on her but the boy had made them stop -- they were almost out of food.

Adah had been a Serpent long enough that she had become adept at gathering large quantities of food from seemingly barren seas. This, and a benefit of her transformation was that she could tell the difference between animals and Animals --something the humans could not do.

So she had stayed in the deeper water and gathered fish. Fish, and her crowning glory:` a wondrous surprise for the boy who had made them stop shooting her, a kracken. The fish she had been herding into smaller and smaller circles, so that the humans might cast nets to catch them. The kracken she'd had to kill and carry in her mouth.

---

Adah noticed the ship returning, a bit too soon it seemed to her, and hurried the shrinking spiral of her swim. The fish had to be in an area small enough for the humans to gather them.

Adah made out that the boy wanted to talk, but then another --Drinian was his name?-- said a word she could make out: "food" and the boy indicated she should continue with the fish.

---

Eustace had yelled to the Serpent, "Come over here, we need to talk!"

Drinian urgently contradicted him: "FOOD!"

And Eustace thought of the overcrowded ship. The people forced to sleep on the deck for lack of space. And the empty storerooms that no one wanted to say or hear were empty. He looked at the circle of fish the Serpent had gathered and shouted, "It can wait!" Who knew how time passed when one was turned to gold, but a little more would --hopefully-- be a small price to pay to stave off starvation.

Nets were cast. Fish were caught.

When the fish had been caught the Serpent approached the ship and spat out the largest squid Eustace had ever imagined. It proved too large to sit aboard the ship and rolled off to the side, shaking the entire ship in the process.

Eustace didn't notice, his eyes wide with wonder he soaked in every detail. "I have to get my notebook," he mumbled.

He prepared to to just that when Drinian asked, "Aren't you forgetting why we're here?"

Eustace had --in his wonder at seeing such an amazing creature. As the squid was lashed with sturdy cords so it could be brought to land, or at least shallow water, and there cut up into food, Eustace attempted to explain the situation to the Serpent.

---

Adah did her best to understand. Magic. She didn't like that. The last magic had stripped her of her humanity. Magic water.

Metal? Metal was not to be found in water except on ships.

Magic water that made metal.

Someone... who?

It was impossible to ask questions, she could not speak.

Someone in magic water.

Someone trapped? in magic water?

Could she help? The boy believed she could help. He was unsure, she could smell that he was unsure, but he believed it was worth trying. The boy who had stopped the others from hurting her when they could only see a monster.

Adah didn't understand --her ears were not human any more, her eyes were not human any more-- but for the boy she would try.

With a motion of her head she indicated for them to lead. She was thankful that they'd at least achieved this level of communication. If she had to go through the hours it took to get them to understand that motion the first time every time she made the motion it would drive her far outside the realm of sane.

The worst part was that she still understood English. Often she even thought in it. She could compose a sonnet if she wanted to. She could impress them with her rhetoric. If she could only communicate. But she couldn't speak, she could barely hear, and she couldn't see nearly well enough to read lips. Everything was guesswork.

-

The Dawn Treader led the Serpent to the cursed stream, and Eustace, with great flailing of arms, indicated to it that the person to be helped was up the stream.

Then they went toward the other stream to begin the laborious work of turning the fish and squid into food. Eustace alone left, rushing toward the pool. He alone was completely trusted by the Serpent, he alone completely trusted the Serpent. All knew that if the Serpent were to solve things Eustace should be there, because he might be required.

-

Adah disliked shallows, but she'd been in many and seen many an outlet, this one was strange.

Odd flakes of something pelted her hide. Not strong enough to hurt her in the least, but definitely not ordinary sediment.

As she approached closer the flakes became larger, their shape was strange, irregular.

Then Adah understood. Magic water. Metal. The stream's water was turning the ocean water to metal when the two touched, but not all at once. The larger flakes quickly dropped to the bottom, while the smaller ones were carried farther.

If the water turned what it touched to metal then she had to find a way to make sure she wasn't turned to metal.

She rubbed against the sea floor, coating herself in sediment and the strange metal particles. She did this again and again and when she was convinced she could make no more stick she charged at the stream, her eyes closed. The magic water hit the seawater within and surrounding the hodgepodge of material coating her scales and solidified it.

As she moved it warped and cracked, but, by repeating the process a few times she was able to create a shell around herself so the magic water would never touch her.

"And I am become Salmon, the climber of rivers," she thought to herself in a very human way. She would have smiled at remembering the quotation she butchered, but a disgusting metallic taste filled her mouth, she'd decided it was best to protect that from the magic water as well, which meant a layer of sediment and metal filled her mouth.

-

Eustace reached the pool before the Serpent. It was not as he had left it. Gold was good for many things, but there was a reason it wasn't used as a tool. Too heavy for its own good, entirely the wrong properties, a mess in the making. Ropes and tools of all sorts, now found themselves golden remnants on the pool's bottom.

Discarded around the side were other, similar things, some all gold, some half gold. some only slightly gold.

Everyone's faces were downcast.

This was the first time the refugees and the two crews had worked together as one and it looked to end in failure.

Eustace held out hope.

-

Lucy was the first to notice the golden Serpent blundering snakelike upstream. The stream had never been fit for such a great serpent, but the closer to the source it ran the shallower it ran. Every time the serpent moved the gold warped and cracked revealing the sediment beneath, which was quickly converted to more gold by the magic water.

By the time the Serpent reached the pool it seemed a great golden snake, and Lucy noticed its eyes were closed.

"Everyone to high ground!" Lucy shouted as she realized that the Serpent would likely breach the pool.

The various groups scrambled away and sure enough the Serpent did breach the pool, sending a flash flood down the path of the stream turning various things golden as it went. But the pool was still mostly full, the body still out of reach, as the Serpent slithered into it.

---

Adah wasn't even sure if she was in the right place. But it was a pool deep enough for her to be a Serpent again as opposed to some strange landworm. She lifted her head and, finally, opened her eyes.

The metal covering them tore apart with ease.

The boy was there, waiting. He motioned for her to look into the pool and there she saw a human figure, naked, made from the metal the water turned things into. Was she here to save that? Was that really a person?

It must be, for there was nothing else of value. Broken tools, frayed ropes turned to metal.

Her eyes needed to be covered again. The deadly water couldn't be allowed to touch her. She lay her head in front of the boy and closed her eyes.

He took longer than she thought he should to realize what he had to do, but soon he had caked them in sand and gravel.

Adah lowered her head into the water, a golden coating now protected her eyes, and she opened her mouth. She trawled the bottom, retrieving as many of the humans' lost objects as she could, and then closed her jaws on the prize. Rearing her head above the water she tossed the metal objects, including the body, onto dry land.

Then she prepared to make the journey back to the sea. But as she crossed out of the pool her lower scales scraped against the rocks and an opening was was made in her armor.

The magic water touched her and she had just enough time to writhe in pain before she was metal.

---

A village elder, Eustace didn't know her name, grabbed onto him after he screamed, "NO!" and tried to charge forward to help the Serpent.  Eustace struggled against her --not realizing she was saving his life-- hoping to reach the Serpent.

Then a voice rang out that resonated in the various souls of all those there. "Thank her, lad. Even I can't go in those waters." Aslan jumped onto a spot where the Serpent's coils were above the magic pool and started digging into it. He stopped a moment to say, "Fetch me a blanket."

It took an hour for him to tear his way to the center of the golden beast, but when he did it was minutes later that he emerged with a young woman, wrapped in the blanket he had requested. "My name is Adah," she said.

Then she looked at Eustace and said, "I'm afraid I couldn't hear very well, what's yours?"

"Eustace," he said.

"Thank you, Eustace."

Aslan had Adah climb on his back and lept to the dry land. Once there it was a much quicker process to revive Restimar.

"Lord Aslan!" He cried out. Then a moment later asked, "Am I dead?"

"No," Aslan replied.

"What's the last thing you remember old friend?" Octesian asked.

"It was a hot day, I decided to take a swim, I dove in... I dove in and... I don't even remember hitting the water."

"The transformation is more painful if your body is huge, I guess," Adah said.

Most of those at the pool made their way back to the ship where fish was served. Octesian and Restimar remained and spoke to each other for a long time. Eustace stayed to talk to Adah. Some of the younger people rescued from the slavers --five humans, a Squirrel, and two Turtles-- were entranced by a story Reepicheep was only halfway through telling about his exploits.

"Thank you," Adah said.

"For what," Eustace asked.

"For getting the others to stop shooting at me. For trusting me."

"I have some experience with what you went through."

"You were a Serpent?"

"I was a Dragon."

"Slept in the wrong place?"

"You too?"

"Yeah. Did you like the Kracken I brought you?"

"Kracken?" Eustace thought a moment. "The immense squid? It was fascinating. I wish we didn't need it for food because I'd love to be able to study the thing. It's positively amazing."

"I'm glad you liked it. I got it for you."