Chapter Four – A New World

Again the sensation came of rushing upwards and then they could see turquoise water above their heads and they were thrust further up until they broke the surface and felt solid ground beneath their feet. They were standing up to their knees in the sea, with little lacy waves lazily crashing around them. Before them lay a sunlit beach and to the right, a white cliff with the dark mouths of caves. As they stood there, they could see dark objects darting about, high in the sky above. These soon started to fly down towards them and as they got closer, Susan could see that these were not birds but birdlike creatures with long jaws and sharp teeth and wings like bats. She did not like the look of them at all.

'Run!' she shouted. She could see some caves, a few yards from the sea and she made towards those. The cats followed close behind. The flying things began to dive bomb them and Susan felt one tug painfully at her hair.

'Majesty!' shouted Tobermory and Tabitha and then she heard the creature screech and let go. Tobermory had struck it with his sword. Tabitha was also fighting off one with her sword. Susan turned and as the next one dived towards her, she pulled Peter's baseball bat from her belt and swung the bat at the creature. It landed with a thwack and the creature screeched and flew off.

'Fight, you cowards!' yelled Tobermory.

'No!' gasped Susan. 'There's too many of them. Get to the caves, they'll provide shelter.'

They ran the last few yards and darted into a cave. They collapsed, panting under the low roof. The creatures wheeled about and then flew off, disappointed of their prey.

'What horrible creatures!' Tabitha remarked. 'What are they?'

'I think that they are flying dinosaurs,' Susan said slowly. 'I saw a picture of some, once in an encyclopaedia. I think they are called pterodactyls.'

'What are dine o sows?' asked Tobermory.

'What's an in circle steed, Queen Susan?' asked Tabitha

Susan tried to explain. 'A dinosaur is a giant reptile that lived thousands of years ago before humans.'

'You mean before King Frank and Queen Helen? But they ruled over the first talking animals so we've been told. So can could there be reptiles before the first talking animals?' protested Tobermory.

'I was talking about my world,' Susan told him hoping to avoid a discussion about the creation of Narnia.

"But if there are dine o saws in your world, how can there be dine o saws in this one?' Tabitha wanted to know.

'Worlds can have the same sorts of animals in them, otherwise how could there be cats in your world and cats in mine?' Susan tried.

'But how can they be in your world and not ours?' Tobermory sounded confused.

Susan did not feel up to explaining the theory of evolution especially when she was not quite sure that she understood all the finer points of it herself.

'So what is a in circle steed please Your Majesty?' Tabitha asked.

Susan could see that it was going to be an uphill struggle to persuade the cats not to call her Your Majesty or Queen Susan.

'An encyclopaedia is a book which describes everything in alphabetical order,' Susan told her.

'How?'

'Well, for example, it could start with A for Apple and describe what an apple is. Then it would describe other things in name order such as such as…. Aslan.'

'What is the point of such a book? Surely everyone knows what an apple is and everyone certainly knows who Aslan is." remarked Tabitha in a puzzled way.

'Well, suppose, you lived somewhere, where, oh I don't know, marshwiggles didn't go very often and you had a child who had never seen one. You could show him or her the encyclopaedia and they could turn to the letter M and see a picture of a marshwiggle and a description of what they are like.'

'But you could just could just describe a marshwiggle,' said Tobermory, 'which would save a lot of paper.'

Susan sensibly gave up the attempt.

'We haven't had much of a welcome,' she remarked. "I hope the other inhabitants are more friendly.'

She could not help but think of the other time that she and her brothers and sister had magically landed on a beach. They had been called back to Narnia to help Prince Caspian.

'What do we do now, Majesty?' asked Tabitha.

'We need to wait until dark. If the pterodactyls are out during the day, they are unlikely to be out by night. We could have a look at this cave and see how far back it goes. One thing, you two really must stop calling me "Your Majesty". If we meet any people, they may not be friendly and we don't want to give them ideas about ransom or money.'

'But Your Majesty!' protested Tobermory.

It took Susan some time but she finally persuaded the pair of them that it was absolutely necessary for them not to call her "Queen Susan" or "Your Majesty". They had a quick meal. It was made up of some crackers for Susan and a small jar of crab paste for the cats The cats did not like the taste of the crab paste but were far too polite to say so. It was also a very small pot of paste. Susan also produced a bottle of water from her rucksack. She had never forgotten the terrible thirst of that first day at Cair Paravel. Everybody only had a mouthful, as they did not know when they would find water.

She suggested that they explore the cave. The floor was rough but dry underfoot. That was a relief to Susan as it showed that the sea could not come all the way into the cave and she would not have to worry about the tide. It was a very large cave and the roof got higher and the cave grew darker, the further they walked further along. Susan pulled an electric torch out of her rucksack, switched it on and played it about. Suddenly, the torch showed a big, dark object against some large boulders and they heard the sound of running water. They approached closer and saw a wooden boat, bobbing on the water. Susan played the torch around again and saw that the water belonged to a large, deep stream that flowed beyond the rocks and through a large hole. Tobermory dipped a paw in the water and then licked it.

'It's fresh water,' he reported.

'What should we do, Your Maj .. I mean Susan?' Tabitha asked.

Susan frowned. 'I'm not sure,' she admitted. 'We could take the boat and see where that takes us or we could go back and wait for nightfall.'

'But we don't know where the stream will take us,' Tabitha protested.

Tobermory was almost dancing with excitement. 'We should take the boat, it was surely meant to be, a boat just waiting for us, it will be a great adventure.'

'But Tabitha is right, we don't know where it will lead,' Susan said.

'Yes, but think of the alternative,' Tobermory urged, ' the dine o saws are waiting to attack us.'

'Susan said that they will not attack us at night,' argued Tabitha.

'That may be true but might there not be worse things, even larger beasts that hunt at night?' Tobermory asked.

Susan admitted that Tobermory had a point, she had already been wondering what size dinosaurs might hunt by night. They discussed it for some time and in the end agreed that they would take the boat and travel in it for a while. If they did not like the look of where the stream was taking them, they would return and brave the beach by night.

They clambered into the boat and Susan took the oars. Tobermory untied the rope and they cast off. Susan was not as good at rowing as she was at archery but she made good progress and the boat was soon far down the tunnel.

Eric stood with his mouth open for a few minutes while he struggled to work out what had just happened. Had he really seen Susan with two upright cats jump into a pond? Then he recovered himself and strolled over to the pool, crunching over some small bones as he did so, He looked down but it was only the skeleton of some small animal, nothing important. He gazed down at the grass by the pool, noting the freshly hacked cross. He grinned and thought to himself that he would very much like to see where they had gone. He patted his jacket pocket for reassurance, there was a revolver nestling inside and he had several spare rounds of ammunition about his person. He had gone back to is car and put a few essentials into his pockets before slipping on the yellow ring. He had not come unprepared. Eric jumped into the pool.

He rose up through the sparkling salt water and exclaimed with irritation to find he soaking wet up to the knees and quickly moved to the shore. Then he narrowed his eyes at the sound of screeching and whipped out a pair of binoculars that he had also brought with him and studied the sky through them. Next, he drew out his revolver, and as the first of the pterodactyls flew towards him, fired a shot. Eric was an excellent marksman and his shot found its target. So did his next shot and the other pterodactyls wheeled around and flew off. Eric smiled and surveyed the beach. He noticed the caves and said to himself, 'I bet that's where they went!'

He strode over to the caves, saw the footprints and paw prints leading into the first cave and smiled with satisfaction. They would be sheltering in this cave. This seemed to be a dangerous world and Susan would, doubtless, welcome a rescuer and protector, especially one armed with a gun. He walked into the cave.

'Anybody here?' he yelled. No reply.

He tried again, "I say, anybody here?' Again, there was no reply.

He looked around and spotted a small object, a glass jar. He picked it up and read the label, "McTaverish's Finest Crab Paste'.

'Aha!' he said.

Once he had pulled a torch out of his pocket and switched it on, he explored further, past the start of a stream and some large boulders and caught sight of a flight of stone steps leading up into darkness.

'So they went that way!' he exclaimed and started to climb the steps.