Could really use some feedback on this story - it's one of those that I've just been lazily writing stuff for every now and then so I have no idea if it's good or not. Takes place during the return-journey from Aslan's Kingdom in Voyage of the Dawn Treader and could be said to be based on either the book or the movie. I think I'm using the looks the characters have in the movie as a base but other than that I'm trying to stick to what's in the book :)
It was supposed to be a regular exercise, just to see that everyone would be able to get out in case of fire. The students were moving down the stairs at a calm pace, talking and laughing as if they were just heading out for lunch.
But then they smelt it. The smoke. There was a fire somewhere in the school and it seemed to be spreading. Panic erupted as people tried to get out as quickly as possible.
When they had all gathered on the front porch; teachers, students and visitors, they could see where the fire came from. It was the classroom on the top floor located in the farthest end of the building.
"Brad!"
Kelly Welsh rose from her wheelchair, about to rush into the school, despite her injured foot. Another woman grabbed her and held her back.
"He should have gotten out", she said silently. Kelly turned slightly and saw the face belonging to the student who had decided to quit halfway through the term. Cate Jacobs looked stern and worried as she gazed at the flames leaping out through the windows. Still she had been calm when she spoke those words.
And Kelly knew she was lying.
Cate Jacobs had been at the school for a brief lecture. She had been on the top floor, in her old home-room, when the fire had started. Because of that she had left her computer behind.
The day after the fire she drove back to the school. She didn't have much hope of getting her computer; it had been too close to the fire, but her curiosity drove her there anyway.
Surprisingly, she found that her home-room hadn't been damaged at all by the flames and that her computer still lay right where she had left it. It made her frown and her brain was working through all the details of yesterday as she put the computer in its bag and turned to walk back out to her car.
When she got out in the corridor, she heard the quiet sobs from the room that had been burned. Slowly she made her way there, studying the clean walls while frowning. How had the fire been so central? Fire was a wild element, it could not be held in a single room for that long, and considering the size of it at least half of this floor should have been burned down.
She pushed the door open and noticed the wheelchair, lying on the floor not far from its weeping owner. The small, blonde teacher in theatre, Kelly Welsh, whom she had stopped from rushing back inside yesterday, was lying face down on the floor, crying uncontrollably.
"Kelly?" she said softly.
"Go away", came the muffled answer. Cate remained in the doorway, looking around the room. Here there were traces of the fire, but still every part of the furniture was intact; wooden desks that should have been turned into ash and still clean curtains by the windows.
"He's gone."
"He's not dead, Kelly", Cate said sharply and put her bag down on the floor.
"He was in this room when the fire erupted!" Kelly shouted, raising her head slightly.
"If he was, then we should be able to find traces of him", Cate answered, sinking down on her heels. "Burned bones, scraps of metal, the smell of burned flesh, but there's nothing."
"Then… where is he?" Kelly asked, wiping her nose as she slowly sat up.
"This is all a complete mystery", Cate sighed. "The fire was huge, from what we saw, but still it stayed in this room. No other room, not even the corridor, looks damaged, and this room only has a few traces, despite being the center. The furniture is intact, including the fabrics of the chairs, there are just black marks on the wall."
She rose, pulling her hand along one of the ash-marks left on the yellow wall. Frowning, she noticed that her hand did not get dirty or leave any marks.
"It's not real", she said and turned towards Kelly again. "It's an illusion, but as humans we have a hard time believing in magic. Logically, we should therefore have ignored these small flaws."
"Then why do you not ignore them?"
Cate gave her a quick smile.
"Because I'm used to looking at things that no one else sees."
She raised the wheelchair once again and helped Kelly sit in it. Then she frowned.
"How did you get up here?"
"What?"
"How is it possible that you are up here, on the top floor, when you're in a wheelchair?" Cate asked. "There's no elevator…"
Kelly's eyes widened.
"I… I do not know… I just wished that I could… that I could come here and…"
"And then you were here", Cate filled in. "I believed that my computer was destroyed, but I still came here to look for it…"
Her ears moved as she picked up a surprising sound from outside the door.
"Water", she whispered, before she grabbed onto Kelly. "Take a deep breath!"
The next moment water burst through the door, flooding over them until the whole room was filled with it. Cate placed Kelly's arm around her shoulders and pushed up from the floor, swimming upwards. Either the room had turned bigger or they had turned smaller, because they never seemed to reach the surface. Their lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen, until Cate spotted a ray of sunlight and took aim towards it.
Soon they broke surface, both of them gasping for air and finding themselves in the middle of the ocean.
"Where… the hell… are we?" Kelly managed to ask. Cate shook her head.
"Don't know."
She then spotted a ship heading towards them and raised her arm.
"Hey! Hey, over here!"
"Help us!" Kelly chimed in. The ship turned somewhat and steered closer. It was a magnificent ship with a large, purple sail and a dragon in the fore. A ladder was thrown over the side and a man climbed down to help them up. Cate pushed Kelly before her.
"She's injured", she said. The man nodded and grabbed onto Kelly's waist, easily pulling her up over the rail. He then reached down and grabbed Cate's hand, hurling her up as well.
Someone draped towels over their shoulders and helped them sit down on the stairs. There were soldiers everywhere on deck, and despite the quick stop to help them up, no one seemed to have quit their discussions.
"It's some kind of war ship", Cate said silently.
"Cate…"
"And we must be in another time, since everyone's carrying a sword."
"Cate…"
"Question is if they…"
"It's the Dawn Treader."
Cate turned to stare at Kelly, then at an armed mouse that had just appeared through a door, along with a Minotaur.
"No way", she mumbled and rose. "But… but there was never anything like this onboard the Dawn Treader, was there?"
Kelly shook her head.
"Daughters of Eve."
They both looked up at the young man who had spoken. He had dark hair in a pony-tail, dark eyes and a short beard, but everything about him said one thing only; king.
"I'm honored to have you onboard", he said with a smile.
"You're King Caspian of Narnia?" Cate asked, tilting her head slightly. At that moment, everything on deck stopped.
"Yes", the king answered after a while.
"And this is the actual Dawn Treader?" Cate continued, gazing up the mast. "The ship that went to the Land of Aslan?"
"Yes, we are on our way back."
"Why are you all in full armor?" Kelly asked from her place on the stairs.
"We only know what happened until you reached the Land of Aslan", Cate explained. "Why are you all armed? What's happened?"
"As we were about to leave the Land of Aslan, we were attacked by a navy", the man who had saved them from the sea answered. "Aslan himself protected our King, but was poisoned by the attacker's knife. We are trying to make it back to Ramandu's Island to find a cure for him."
"Aslan's onboard?" Kelly gasped.
"Who attacked you and who could possibly have poisoned Aslan?" Cate said. "I thought that was impossible!"
"The ships came from further south, from an island we do not know of", Caspian answered. "They might be rivals to Aslan himself, personally I do not know of what enemies he has, except for the White Witch."
He smiled weakly.
"Cate, this is crazy", Kelly said.
"Just as crazy and weird as the fire back at the school", Cate said silently. "It's all connected, somehow; Brad's disappearance, us ending up here, the attack on Aslan… by every God, I know the answer should be simple, that I should know it, but my mind refuses to let me see it!"
"My Lord!"
They all spun around to see a man climb up from below deck.
"It's Aslan, My Lord", he said. "He wants to see the girl."
Please comment what you think!