We raised the camp to an alert and made search for her. However, Eustace was left on the beach because we all knew that all he would do would be complaining about being woken up. That wouldn't help us find Lucy.
"Caspian, Will," Ed said, kneeling, he lifted a small silver object, "Lucy's dagger." Spears appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and shot around us.
"Stop right there or perish," a gravelly voice said.
Invisible forced began to move the men around, tripping them up and disarming them. One of them knocked Edmund to the ground. Something hard shoved me to the ground and, what felt like, a stick poked me to keep me down. For what seemed like forever we were battling an unknown enemy.
"What sort of creatures are you?" Caspian asked our invisible attackers.
"Big ones, with the head of a tiger and the body of a…"
Another one finished, "Different tiger."
"They're bluffing," I mouthed to Caspian.
"You don't want to mess with us."
Edmund asked, "Or what?"
It answered, again obviously lying, "Or I'll claw you to death." As he said this, ugly little dwarf like things with one foot began to appear. One being held up by two on the ground so that they appeared to be bigger than they really were.
However, they didn't notice that they were slowly becoming visible and continue lying.
"And I'll ram my tusks right through you." Liar.
"And I'll gnash you with my teeth," another boasted making an odd face. Bluffing~
"And I'll bite you with my fangs. Grrr!" What's another name for lying?
All of them had now come into full focus.
Caspian retorted, "You mean squash us with your fat bellies?
"Yes!"
"Fat bellies?"
Caspian continued to taunt, "Tickle us with your toes?"
The creatures, in their new visible state, fell out of formation and dropped a particularly fat and bearded dwarf-like creature to the ground. They were ugly little things. Almost like dwarves, but where there should have been two legs and two feet. The two legs just formed into one foot.
Quickly they began to hop away. But one wasn't quick enough to get up and move, he was a fat little thing too.
Edmund stepped forward, his sword unsheathed and pointed it at the fallen fat dwarf thing, "What have you done with my sister, you little pip-squeak?"
"N-now, calm down," he said as Edmund threatened him and pushed his sword closer to the small male's neck.
"Where is she?" I pushed, stepping forward and brandishing a knife threateningly.
"You better tell him," shouted one.
Another chimed in, shouting, "Go on, Chief, tell them."
The fat one on the ground with a sword to his face answered, "In the mansion."
"What mansion?" Ed asked.
We all turned our heads as a large mansion appeared in the clearing beyond the bushes. It slowly warped into vision.
"Oh, that mansion," Ed said as we all stared at the newly appeared building.
Out of the bushes Eustace came, complaining, "I'm really getting tired of you all leaving me behi-." HE froze when he saw the one footed dwarf like creatures.
The strange creatures muttered something about a pig, obviously referencing Eustace.
"This place just get's weirder and weirder."
Out of the house came Lucy and an old man.
The strange dwarf like creatures muttered, "The Oppressor!" over and over as they scattered away slightly.
Ed turned to his sister, "Lucy."
The old man gave a small boy, "Your majesty."
"Caspian, Edmund, and Will," Lucy said, introducing us. "This is Coriakin. It's his island."
We all gave small bows in return.
"That's what he thinks," the Chief said. "You have wronged us, magician."
"I have not wronged you," Coriakin said, advancing on the Chief. "I made you invisible for your own protection."
The strange creatures, since they only had one huge foot, hopped away from Coriakin as he advanced on them. "Protection? That's oppressive!"
"I have not oppressed you."
"But you could've, if you'd wanted to."
These creatures were either stupid or…never mind, 'stupid' is exactly the word to use.
Coriakin reached into his pocket and threw something at them, "Begone."
"A spell!" they shouted, hopping away.
"What was that?" Lucy asked.
"Lint. But don't tell them."
Eustace finally had a sensible thing to say and asked, "What are those things?"
Coriakin answered, "Dufflepuds."
"Right, of course. Silly me," he said sarcastically.
We were all led into Coriakin's castle.
Edmund and I, still at odds, walked on either side of Caspian. Not looking at each other. Lucy and Caspian gave us strange looks, but said nothing, which I appreciated greatly.
"What did you mean when you said you made them invisible for their own good?" Lucy asked.
"It seemed the easiest way to protect them," Coriakin explained, "from the evil.
Edmund asked, "You mean the mist?"
"I mean what lies behind the mist," Coriakin said.
We were then ushered into, what seemed to be, a grand library.
Every wall was filled from the floor to the roof with books. However the roof was what separated it from a Continental Congress like library, it seemed to merge with the sky. Purple and black patches, with a sprinkling of stars, took up part of the library's ceiling. It gave the place a sense of magic that only added to the beauty of the place.
Coriakin went to a book shelf and took out a scroll. Standing in the middle of the room he unrolled the scroll across the floor in one smooth gesture. This scroll turned out to be a map, but not just any ordinary map. This map was alive. Clouds formed right above it and the ground rose up from the water.
"That's quite beautiful," Eustace said.
For once he was right about something.
Lucy, Edmund, and I turned to look at him.
"I mean, for a make-believe map of a make-believe world," he added.
Scratch that last thought.
Coriakin gestured to the map that was moving fast, like an airplane, you could see it traveling over the water quickly, "There is the source of your troubles. Dark Island."
