ALBATROSS

"God save thee, ancient mariner!

From the fiends, that plague thee thus! –

Why lookst thou so?" "With my crossbow

I shot the albatross."

- "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1. 20)

Author's Note: Everything you read is intentional.

Reepicheep emerged from the sea, coughing, cold, and wet. His little body shivering as he swam toward the side the Dawn Treader. His paws ached from pain and his heart grieved of loss. He thought of Edmund Pevensie, who was at the bottom of the sea dying from asphyxiation.

There was nothing to be done about it, a call for assistance perhaps but it would be no use, and the poor boy would be dead before any help could come.

A King died for me today. Reepicheep thought. It was my fault- my blame, and I should, if this were a just world, be executed for failure to preform my duties.

The poor rodent continued to inch his way closer to the boat, he could almost reach out and touch the wood. As he moved forward, he maneuvered his tail back and forth like a rudder to keep himself afloat and his little legs in a slow, melodic, scissor cut motion. Reepicheep stretched his arm to its full extent and jumped to grasp the port side. His tail was barely out of the water before he plummeted down into the water again. He surfaced, took a breath, and tried a second time, realizing that this second would be the last the Mouse prayed he was lucky and leaped forward. Upon opening his eyes again, Reepicheep discovered that his paws were ferociously clinging to a very slick and nearly impossible port side. Wasting no time, the Mouse climbed up the wood rather slowly and logically, as if he were silently escaping a ravenous cave bear.

A wind blew slightly, making the sails ruffle and weave a bit. The ropes swayed back and forth sweetly, in tune with an ancient lullaby of forgiveness and love. Reepicheep's fur was still soaked with water, and he figured that he had to either be wrung out or just wait until he naturally dried himself. As he reached onto the main rail, the Mouse slipped and almost fell back into the water, but he dug up his strength and pulled himself up and over to safety.

Flopping onto the deck, Reepicheep landed on his stomach. Too tired to care and too tire to move, the Mouse smiled, laughed, and closed his eyes.

"Oh glorious wood, how thankful I am that you are still here and that nightmare is over!"

"Not exactly." A ghostly voice echoed through a silent wind. The sails were motionless and the ropes ceased their singing.

The Mouse's ears perked up attentively, slowly listening and hearing for any signs of familiarity within the voice but found none. Reepicheep opened his eyes and still too tuckered out to move, looked around and discovered nothing but sameness and normalcy. The sails resumed their post and the ropes continued their taut while ship and crew dreamed their dreams.

As Reepicheep lay on the deck, he too succumbed to sleep and even though it was uncomfortable, he did not complain, at least it was better than-

"Your Majesty!"

The Mouse's call echoed ghoulishly throughout the sleeping cadaver that was the boat. All around him were sounds from hell, sights from hell, and dreams from hell. He scurried back onto the railing, looked out into the sea and beheld Death, standing with his a pike in his right hand and his scythe in his left. The impaled corpse of Edmund Pevensie slowly descended down the sadistic pole leaving behind nothing but a trail of entrails and blood. Edmund's head moved toward the boat slowly, his neck creaked like a rusted door hinge and his eyes were that of milk. The sky swirled into a storm, slowly constricting whatever light or hope there was from the world. The sea became choppy and unsettling and just as the sympathy of the earth died, so did the notion of peaceful rain. Nature was at war with itself.

Winds beat the sails into submission and as the Dawn Treader cried out for mercy in this torture, Reepicheep dutifully watched Death descend into the water. When Edmund's body touched the sea, his head turned towards the sky and screamed as water filled up his lungs and worms destroyed his stomach and brain, decomposing the body before the body was finished living.

The Mouse cried as the un-honorable ceremony went on. He thought about jumping into the sea once again, but then it would the same situation as before. A failed attempt at rescue. Instead, Reepicheep shook his head and let the rain beat down against his fur. He shivered and internally screamed at himself to do something, but his heart told him to stay where he was and grieve for once in his life.

As the wind prevailed over the boat's sails, the waves rose in confidence as they submerged Death and Edmund under their malicious surface.

Reepicheep looked out into the storm and noticed that there was only the sea and great misery. He submitted to his knees not necessarily caring if he was teetering over the edge or not and cried.

Oh, you poor simplistic creature…

"Will you be quiet, whoever it is you are?!" Reepicheep screamed.

I cannot do that…

The Mouse turned back towards the mast and standing near an apple barrel was a black horse. Its rider, a headless behemoth, carried his skinless skull, which had a gash in the cranium, in his right hand. His eyes were soulless, but his mouth was more gentle and forgiving. He wore a suit of tarnished black armor. The rider moved his left arm and pointed eastward as if to give direction and as he did so the armor squeaked from rust and use.

Reepicheep fixed his gaze eastward and noticed a blue light stretch across the horizon as if Regency, the Star of the Eastern Border, had suddenly became a giant and was engulfing and transforming the sea from one of water into one of fire.

"What is happening here?" Reepicheep asked.

The rider said nothing, merely keeping his position. Reepicheep nodded for a moment and looked back at the sea and heard the fluttering of bird wings. The waves slowly but surely rose into the sky and the sea at the bow and the sea at the stern transformed into a brace of albatrosses. Fluttering up, down, cascading forward and backward in a sewing motion and so on, the birds surrounded the boat in a fierce unwavering storm of malice. The noise was no better, for Reepicheep could barely hear anything else. The Mouse covered his ears and turned towards the rider in black who carried his head and attempted to yell over the roaring swarm.

"Explain all this, what is going on!"

The rider remained silent but summoned a large spear from the depths of his realm. The metal tip was barbed and formed a sinister hook, while the shaft was simple and still foreboding. Reepicheep uncovered his ears and sighed at the prospect of a duel.

"Sir," Reepicheep said, "I am not usually one to deny requests but do you honestly believe me to be capable of such a thing at this time."

"I do not wish for you to be capable of anything- Reepicheep." The rider replied with a vicious laugh.

At the sound of his name, The Mouse fell to the floor against his will and a sharp pain grew in his chest. He screamed out of agony but looked into the rider's face as well as the albatrosses, some of whom were beginning to land on the ship's deck and railing.

"W-what do you want with me?" The Mouse asked.

The rider laughed again, this time it was more jovial. "What I want my dear rodent, is for you to listen with your eyes!"

He bucked his horse and charged with fierce speed toward the railing and still unable to move, The Mouse simply screamed and closed his eyes. The horse and rider passed through Reepicheep's small body, filling nothing and taking all but his heart, soul, and mind. His confusion, insight, all other senses were completely absent. He was dead, in a sense, and in another sense entirely he was something of a translucence in space. The horse and rider disappeared, gone forever, in a moment of clear, conscious, confusion.

When Reepicheep's mind oriented itself, the rodent found that he was not the same as he was before. It was not like he had left the world he knew, but it was not like he knew the world he knew either.

Looking out into the sky and sea, The Mouse saw no birds, no fire, no storm- just serenity- and in this moment he thought it best to sit down on the deck and wait for someone to come on the deck and explain whatever it was that had just occurred.

Perhaps it was a dream. Reepicheep thought, Then again, I do not remember falling asleep or hearing the rustle and bustle of Eustace either. For, the boy does have the tendency to squirm. What if…it was all schizophrenic? What if I'm mad and am simply hiding that fact from myself? What if…

His thoughts were interrupted by a white albatross who sat on the railing behind him. It was large, beautiful, and carried no guilt of anything. For this albatross, like all albatrosses, do nothing in the way of harm or malice, they simply fly around mariners vessels and wish them happy voyages.

Reepicheep turned towards the bird and realizing that it was not sentient like him, stood in awe- for he had never seen such a large benevolent bird up close and personal before.

"Well," The Mouse said, "you are a sight of beauty. I trust you and your brothers will see us well."

The albatross said nothing of course and took off to the wind again as if to say that he really didn't care on what Reepicheep had to say. The bird flew up toward the mast and main sail and began to peck with its beak small holes in the sail, slowly turning it into a board of ripped shreds.

Reepicheep huffed and rolled his eyes as he trudged toward the mast and scaled it quickly. As he climbed higher and higher into the massive sea of crème white tapestries and silk woven pieces into the rafters of a great hall in a glamorous castle, a chill ran up his spine and mid-way through the ascent, Reepicheep froze into place….

Go on without me, Sire. Please, I beg of you to consider your life.

"I have considered it, and for your sake and the others, I have made up my mind…"

Reepicheep shook his head as well as the rest of his body from his head to his toes to the tip of his tail awake.

"Those were the last words he spoke to me." Reepicheep said. "To think they were so simple."

A westerly wind gust blew in, forcing the ship forward to the east. As the sails sprung into the pursuit of the goal a small voice spoke among the rope and metal hooks keeping them in place. Listen with your eyes.

Reepicheep continued his climb and noticed that the albatross was gone by the time he had reached the top, but instead, something or someone else was there. That particular someone was me.

I should probably introduce myself, don't want to cause any more confusion if I haven't already. This is August- Dauphin of the Great Dominion and to give a brief description: I am an extremely large red tail hawk.

Pleasure as always.

"Hello," I said rather cordially, "I take you were expecting someone else."

"A much smaller bird yes." Reepicheep said, bowing at the waist and lowering his head slightly.

Rolling my eyes and huffing at the mannerism I waved him off with my wing and yawned sarcastically.

"Yes, yes, formalities, formalities- anyhow, do you know why I am here?"

"No sir." Reepicheep said.

"I am here," I answered, "because someone told me that you have albatrosses."

The Mouse nodded his head and looked down at the deck and beheld not albatrosses but the crew working as usual. The Captain was protruding into other people's business, Eustace was tying a series of knots on rope, and Edmund was still presumed sleeping.

"Eustace," Caspian said, who was walking toward the helm, "would you be so kind as to see if Edmund is awake yet?"

"He is not in his bed sir." Eustace replied. "I know this because I checked before I came up."

"Well, that is peculiar." Caspian said. "Where is Reepicheep?"

"Up here Sire!" The Mouse called.

"They cannot hear you." I retorted.

Reepicheep turned toward me and raised his eyebrows a bit. He laughed and smiled cynically. "You must be joking. If he cannot hear me then he is either deaf or has sensitive orals, which is he neither. To be fair, I am not exactly a hard person to find. I am a Mouse after all."

I smiled, shook my head, and sighed. "You have albatrosses Reepicheep."

"I know-"

To say that I cut him off would have been an understatement. Instead, I threw him off the mast. He spun and cursed and screamed like anyone would when being hurled into space and when he landed in the water I shouted down to the crew:

"Do not go in after him! For he must resurface in his own and on his own time."

The crew hesitantly waited a full minute before their nature urges kicked in. Reepicheep, while in the sea, discovered his albatross adrift in the dark blue water and swimming to it, found that he was not only still dead and impaled with a pike, but also surrounded by a seven thousand albatrosses.

"Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."

-William James