Risa: So, Jade emailed her chapter to me, but she never gave me a title! *gaspeth* Oh, and I changed Mr. Obvious to Captian Obvious because, well, Mr. Noyse says so!

Me: Shush, you.

Risa: I am now going to explain why I am not beating her over the head: Numero Uno (two of the five words in Spanish I know), I just bought 17 notebooks fore 90 cents. I mean, come on! But, there is another reason because I'm really not that materialistic. I'm getting baptized in two days! Jade's gonna be there and I'm soooooooooooooooo excited. Except I'm praying my sunburn is gone by then...

Me: I'm happy for you, but can you get on with the chapter!

Risa: Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that.

Me: *sighs*

Chapter 7

Water Rations, Captian Obvious, and Dragons (Rawr!)

Everything that happened after the water incident is not very interesting to share. Risa was as loud as ever, Eustace always stayed in bed, and I studied maps of Narnia. You know the ones in the books with little cartoons? Well these were elaborate and detailed maps with color and realistic pictures. They were amazing.

Anyway, if you really want to know, the most exciting events that happened in those two days were Eustace and Risa fighting below deck. I passed by one time and heard Risa chewing him out for some sexist comment he had.

"Girls don't need less water than boys nor do they need more! I get my water ration same as you!"

Lucy and I came in and broke the fight up, but it was pretty amusing to see Eustace's face. I can't really describe it except for pasty and speechless.

So that's how those two days went. Pretty uneventful. On the third day we weighed anchor in the bay of an island. I can't begin to tell you how good it was to see land again. What was better, was this was a special island for Eustace and he wouldn't be such a brat anymore. Angels were singing hallelujah in heaven at that moment.

There was an extra water ration that night and it felt so good. I am not a very nice person when I am dehydrated badly or tired. Since I was both, I kept my distance from other people. Hence the map story... yeah, my boring life. Plus, Risa was just plain annoying because she was singing the full version of the song she'd been singing for who-knows-how-long yet again.

Sleep came better than ever and morning seemed to have come sooner than I personally wished. It was really hot and the scenery, though beautiful, was wild and dangerous. It was probably not the best place for humans to live.

"We will all go ashore. Everyone gather in the boats," Caspian ordered. It took two boatloads to get everyone across, but it was worth it. We got to drink from the stream and it was so delicious. I wanted to jump in and almost did, but Risa beat me to it and jumped in with her feet and started dancing around.

"This is awesome!"

"Risa, get out of the water. No one wants to taste your nasty feet."

She stuck her tongue at me and jumped onto the wet grass and slipped. She mocked pouted and sniffed.

"Owee!"

I rolled my eyes and continued to drink. The cook prepared a nice hardy meal and we rested our full bellies under the shade of trees.

"This is the life," I sighed.

"Yes, but the harder work begins later," said Edmund who sat down between me and Risa.

"What do you mean? Risa asked.

"We have to restock the ship before we cast off again. That means replenishing water…"

"Finding food, fixing the damages… great," I finished for him. I looked at the Dawn Treader and she was a sight. Her sails were tattered, the sides scratched and even pieces of the hull missing. It was worse than the Flying Dutchman on a bad day after a maelstrom.

Looking at the crew, we weren't off much better. Clothes were in rags, everyone was red-eyes from lack of sleep. At least we weren't fish people. That would be weird in an awesome cool way.

Caspian later discussed the plans and sent four men back to keep the ship while the rest of us worked on the island. It was easy to fill the casks with water, but finding food was… well, difficult.

Risa and I decided to go into the jungle to find some fruits when we saw Eustace head towards the nearest mountain.

"There he goes."

"Should we follow him?" I asked.

"Duh. He gets to turn into a dragon! We've got to see that."

I shrugged and gave in. Now you probably think that is out of character for me, but I do have reasons. 1: I am so beat tired even after our rest. I didn't feel like arguing. 2: I really wanted to see a dragon. Who doesn't? They are basically the ultimate mystical creature in the universe! 3: It embarrasses Eustace. Mean? Yes. Hilarious? Of course.

We followed him out of the trees and up a slope. I really hate hills, they are my enemy. (Bad camp experience; a story for another time.) To make a long story short, the climb up the hill was a struggle for me. Risa seemed at ease, but that was because she had no weight to carry up.

We had to keep a fair distance and be careful about how loud we were, especially when Eustace took breaks. I thought I wasn't good at climbing hills, but I would've taken half the breaks he did.

"Risa, you do know we're almost over the clouds, right?"

Risa looked around and giggled. "It's better than I imagined." I knew Risa had a connection with the air. One of her life time longings was to have wings, but she would settle with the air force.

"Crap, he's coming back down," I hissed and dove behind a rock. Risa peeked out, but I quickly pulled her down and gave her a look. She shrugged, but still looked over.

"He's going the wrong way," she whispered.

"Figures."

We followed him down to the right until he stopped in a foggy valley.

"Can you see him?" I asked.

"At last!" Eustace said loudly.

"No, but I can hear him," Risa answered and we followed his voice.

"And now, where are those trees? There is something dark ahead. Why, I do believe the fog is clearing."

Way to go, Captain Obvious. The fog was clearing, only to show the valley in the middle of nowhere and Eustace only a few feet from us.

I looked to Risa and beckoned her over behind another rock. Hopefully he wouldn't hear us. Who knows how screwed up the book could get from him knowing we were here.

"This isn't so much fun unless we can actually go out and tease him," Risa hissed.

"Sorry if I don't like screwing up the book as much as you do," I hissed back. It was actually more like a whisper-yell. We whisper-yell to each other a lot.

"How long does it take to find a giant dragon?" Risa asked (still whisper-yelling.)

I shrugged and looked over the rock and saw him looking down over a cliff. "Risa, I think he's seen the dragon."

"How can you tell?"

"He's frozen stiff."

"Well, I want to see the dragon!"

"Ssh, we'll have to wait till Eustace goes down first."

"By that time it'll be dead," she whined.

"Yeah, but we'll see Eustace as a dragon. Isn't that enough?"

"I'm hungry."

Wow… ADOS really does exist. Eustace finally went down and stood by the dragon. We knew because once he left, Risa took off towards the cliff and "Awed." The dragon was huge, much larger than I expected.

"Dude, that thing's giant."

"Duh. But most of that are his wings. They have to be massive to pick him up off the ground."

How many times have I heard this lecture? Risa loves wings, whether they're on a bird, a human, or a dragon. She's actually writing a book, but that's a story for another time.

Suddenly a storm came in and beat down on us. Now for us, Risa and I, we love the rain and she loves storms, so this wasn't too bad. The place where we live gets much worse than this. But I guess for Eustace, he didn't like it so he went inside the cave.

"I guess we should follow him," I shouted over the rain. So we did, we climbed down the hill and went to the mouth of the cave where we saw treasure gleaming from the lightning flashes and Eustace on top of it all.

"You think he'll see us if we sit at the entrance?" I whispered. Risa shrugged and plopped down on the floor. I followed and we continued to watch as Eustace tried to stuff his pockets.

"They don't have any tax here, and you don't have to give treasure to the government. With some of this stuff I could have quite a decent time here—perhaps Calormen. It sounds the least phony of these countries. I wonder how much I can carry. That bracelet now—those things in it are probably diamonds—I'll slip that on my wrist. Too big, but not if I push it right up here above my elbow. Then fill my pockets with diamonds—that's easier than gold. I wonder when this infernal rain's going to let up."

"He likes to talk to himself," I said quietly during his little self conversation. Now just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with talking to yourself. But this was different, hearing it from Eustace was just weird.

"Just wait till that bracelet swells his arm up like a balloon," Risa giggled.

"Yeah, but now we've got to wait till he wakes up."

"Great."

Now you figure that someone can't sleep too long on a hard pile of treasure and gold. But Eustace proved that logic wrong because he slept, and slept—and slept. *Sob* It was only 30 minutes he slept… but it felt like hours!

"This is agony!" Risa moaned and rolled over on her back.

"How long is it?"

"How should I know? I don't have a watch."

"I should've brought my phone!" My arms flailed and I hit my side pocket and felt something hard. I dug in my pocket and pulled out my phone. "Okay, that's creepy."

"What?"

"I have my phone."

"It survived the swim?"

"It wasn't with me then!"

"Cool…"

I slid it open and looked at the screen. Full battery, and bars! "I can get bars in Narnia! Thank you Aslan!"

"Ssh."

"Sorry."

We looked over to Eustace and saw the now black and massive head of his twitch. "Finally," I heard Risa say. Maybe she would stop bugging me now that she's seen a real dragon.

"Um, isn't he about to shoot out of this cave and trample us?" Risa asked.

"Good point. Let's go."

The night sky was clear when we came out and watched as the giant dragon body shot out of the cave and mourned over his reflection in the water.

"I actually kind of feel bad for him," I muttered as I saw him cry. "That bracelet must hurt."

"It can't be that lonely being a dragon."

"We're talking about Eustace. Most deprived child in the world."

"True. Look, he's eating the dragon," Risa pointed out. I wish she hadn't.

I shivered. Watching a dragon eat was more messy than the wildest big cat (if you've seen a lion or a bear eat, you know what I'm talking about).

"Oh, it looks like he's going back to the camp." Suddenly he took off and began flying.

"That's koodles!" Risa yelled.

"Koodles?"

"I am being depraved of sugar. This is my relapse."

"Well that's just great," I said sarcastically and started climbing up the hill, Risa following.

There was no fog and we were able to find the jungle again and then eventually the bay. The others were already questioning Eustace by the time we got there.

"Hey ya'll!" Risa called. Lucy looked and ran back to us.

"Where have you two been? We were so worried!"

"We followed Eustace," I said blandly, ringing out the edge of my soaking shirt.

"So you know he's a dragon?"

"Yep. And his arm's swollen from a bracelet and that there was-"

I covered her mouth. "We saw enough to last us for awhile. Do you guys have any food? I'm starved."

"Yes, we were just finishing dinner when we noticed you all missing. Come and eat."

We followed Lucy to the fire where she bombarded us with questions like how Eustace became a dragon, why did we follow Eustace, the basic little sister got wide-eyed and worried while we were gone.

"It's okay Lucy. We're fine and so is… well I can't say Eustace is really fine," I looked over at the giant black shadow by the beach.

"I wanna go talk to the dragon!" Risa shrilled and took off.

"Ris- she won't hear me."

Lucy giggled and looked back. "She is a bit eccentric."

"A bit?"

Lucy shrugged and took my empty plate and set it in the fire to burn extra bits of food off.

"Well, it's nice that she wants to talk to Eustace. Only a few days ago she looked ready to kill my cousin."

"I guess. Though I would pay tickets to see that fight."

Lucy yawned and looked up at the sky. "Well, I'm completely exhausted. Goodnight Jaden."

"Night Lucy." Lucy disappeared away from the dying fire. I guess I should get to sleep too. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.

------------------------------------

I really hated sleeping out in the woods. Bugs ate you, you wake up too early and can't go back to sleep, and much worse: Eustace the dragon… SNORES! No offence, but I don't know how the others could stand it.

Maybe it was because Eustace proved more of an asset with the work on repairing the Dawn Treader. I was fastened to a rope and helping to repaint the side of the ship when Eustace flew over with a giant pine tree.

Drinian and the other men set to work on it, chopping of limbs and branches and sanding it out to a nice looking mast.

When it was lunch time, Eustace brought a wild pig that we roasted. I've had roasted pig before, but this was more delicious than any pig I've tried in the past.

"Thank you Eustace," I tried to say, but Eustace was over by himself with his own raw pig. His back was facing us so we couldn't see him eating. I did feel sorry for him. For him, being a dragon must feel like the loneliest thing in the world.

"Doesn't Eustace want to sit with us?" Risa asked.

Caspian shook his head. "No, leave him be."

Risa shrugged it off, but I knew that look in her eye. She was going to do something spontaneously unique… great.

Risa: I AM spontaneously unique. Everything I do involves those words.

Me: Whatever.