Lucy began to sit down on the sizzling rocks but soon thought better of her actions. She stood impatiently, unsure of what to do next. Surely Aslan wouldn't have sent her on an impossible task, though now Lucy was beginning to wonder if He would.
"Something wrong?" asked a voice, hissing more than talking. It made Lucy shiver even though the temperature was hotter than the Calormen dessert when the sun was at high noon. "I can help."
"What do you want?" Lucy said, "And who are you?"
The voice laughed. "I want nothing more than to help you, and my name is of no importance. What are names, when one will be coming and going?"
"How do you know I'm not staying?"
"I do," stated the voice simply, in a slimy tone. Lucy didn't trust whatever creature this was. If it wouldn't tell her its name, it should at least show itself.
"Show yourself, then," said she. Lucy bolted backwards as a spray of lava erupted from the lake. Once in the air, the hot liquid quickly morphed into beads of solid stone that rained over Lucy. She covered her head with her hands, just in case, but luckily the rocks missed her. When the ruckus had stopped, Lucy stood up and faced the voice for the first time.
"Who are you to be bossing me around?" it asked. "Can you not see that I could crush you if I pleased, which I very well may do?" Lucy was speechless – the creature could crush her, and Lucy soon realized that this was his intent all along. Long and slender, it appeared to be some sort of sea serpent, only its skin was charcoal black, no doubt from the scorching lava, and its feet were flat like a beaver's tail. What Lucy had thought to be a rock was actually the bridge of the serpent's nose, which was a turquoise blue, appearing to be the only part of the animal which had never felt the likes of lava.
"I am Queen Lucy the Valiant of Narnia, and I command you to keep your peace." Lucy held up her dagger. "Or I intend to fight."
"With that little thing?" said the serpent. "Hmph, it is merely a stick. I'd like to see your try. On the matter, shall we?" With that statement, it rushed forward in a flurry of snapping jaws and thrashing tails. Lucy threw her dagger at its heart, but the thick skin only received a minor scratch, the way a tree does if you were to carve your initials on it with a plastic knife. Lucy stumbled out of the way just in time for the serpent to smack his head on the rocks.
Now enraged, the serpent rose to take a second strike at Lucy. It let out a raspy battle cry and reared its large head into the air. Lucy cringed, waiting for her impending doom, but it never came. The serpent's turquoise nose was sprawled on the ground in flames, with a familiar creature perched beside it.
"Koru!" cried Lucy. "Is Wazari here too?" Lucy engulfed Koru in a hug. Koru held on for a brief moment before gently pushing Lucy away. She gazed solemnly upon a still ignited pile of ash. Lucy followed Koru's sight and watched as well. "What... happened?"
"Wazari was a phoenix," said Koru, her eyes never leaving the ashes which now were smoldering instead of blazing.
Lucy mumbled, "As if that explains everything."
Koru heard. "Wazari was a phoenix," said she, "And he killed the serpent." Lucy thought that this was all Koru would offer, but she continued, "The serpent was originally a sea serpent and a nice one at that, but he terrorized the seas and good sailors under the reign of the Witch. When the Witch was defeated, Aslan forgave the creature, for again, he was once good. As a second chance, he was sent here, to live in exile, but if for any reason he should let his nose touch the lava, he should be killed instantly."
"Why?" prodded Lucy.
"Because... well, I'm not quite sure how to put it. I suppose if anyone travelled to the sun, they'd likely reach here – as you did. Aslan knew the serpent would likely return to evil ways and try and terrorize the people. To do so, the serpent would have to thrash about and send lava flying, which increased the chance of lava on his nose. So, in short, this was his punishment – he could live happily or die from evil."
"So how did Wazari kill him?"
"I'm sure you know that lava is hot." Lucy nodded, rubbing a thumb over a tiny burn mark from airborne lava. "It was thought that the serpent's weakness was truly heat. So, when Wazari and I were flying overhead and saw you with the serpent, Wazari mumbled something at being at his end, and it all happened so fast..."
Lucy and Koru sat in silence, still watching the ashes. When they began to mysteriously swirl like a tree spirit in the wind, Lucy was a bit startled, for she was unsure of what was happening. Koru squawked and beat his wings.
"Wha...?"
They both kept their eyes glued to the swirling pile which now resembled a bird. With some more swirling, a rush of wind, and the cry of a bird that was not Koru's, the pair was now face to face with a phoenix. The phoenix seemed equally surprised to see a human and firebird staring at it. As if asking a question, it tilted its head to the side.
"Is it Wazari?" asked Lucy.
Koru took a cautious step forward. "No. Well, I'm not sure." Koru mimicked the bird's movement. "I don't think so, though this is his child."
"But boys can't be pregnant... can they?"
Koru laughed and said, "No, Lucy. I've only heard legends of this, but supposedly a new phoenix is born from the old one's ashes. I didn't think it would actually happen though. I thought it was a tall tale."
"Sort of like Susan thought Narnia was," mused Lucy.
"What's this now?"
"Nothing." For some reason, Lucy wasn't comfortable telling anyone about Susan's prior disbelief. Then again, no one had believed Lucy at first, so she didn't know why the feeling of discomfort was only towards Susan.
"Pkaw," said the phoenix. The bird had big brown eyes that poured out adorableness, begging Lucy to pet the bird, which she would have done if the phoenix hadn't coughed and sent a small puff of fire flying her way.
"Can't he talk?"
"No, he's too young yet."
"Should we name him?" Lucy tilted her head up to watch the bird test his newly discovered wings. He dipped back down and landed on Lucy's shoulder, thankfully not coughing anymore.
"I don't see a need," said Koru, "But if you must, it is customary to name the new phoenix with the last letter of its parent. Or, was it first letter? I suppose Athylt can correct me if I'm wrong, when we get back."
"If we get back," Lucy said as she eyed the lava lake. "I'm going to name you Iggy." She thought that Koru let out a snort at the immature name, but Lucy chose to ignore it and stroked Iggy on the head.
"That's no way to think."
"Do you have any idea of how to get across this thing?" asked Lucy. She glanced behind her at the endless rocks and streams of lava, "Or home, for tha-" Lucy cut off when Iggy pecked at her necklace. She pushed his prying beak away. "Not now, Iggy." She was about to speak again when it hit her. "Iggy, you're genius!" After a bit of struggling, Lucy was able to remove the vial of blue liquid without the necklace sliding off.
"Are we sure it's safe?"
"We don't have an option," said Lucy, pouring a few drops into her hand, then handing the bottle to Koru. "Here goes nothing." Lucy sniffed the substance and tentatively licked it from her palm. She straightened herself and blinked. Nothing had changed. "See, Koru, no-" Koru wasn't there. Neither was Iggy. However, a few seconds later, both Koru and Iggy appeared with a loud pop sound.
"Well, nothing's changed, so there's nothing to worry about," said Koru quite grumpily.
Lucy frowned. "I don't suppose Aslan would-" Lucy blinked. "Koru, no, look! The mountains are behind us now! By Aslan, are those dwarves over there? Why, and these are fireberries over here!"
Ahead of them lay a community of dwarves which mingled in the field of fireberries. Some were busy clinking their hammers while others gathered berries and carried them into big mixing pots. Lucy stood stiff as a board when a dwarf approached her and the two birds beside her.
"Queen Lucy Pevensie, the Valiant?" asked the dwarf in a gruff voice. Lucy nodded slowly, not used to both her title and her full name used in the same sentence. "Right this way, time is wasting." Lucy turned to Koru for support; she motioned her forwards. She did, however, manage to whisper a quick question to her.
"Does everyone know about my journey?"
"No, just the ones who have been called to help," answered the dwarf, who had overheard, "Now come along."
The dwarf led Lucy through a worn path in the field, over to the dwarves' camp. Lucy noticed that the bottom of the dwarf's beard was black, no doubt from the fireberries that occasionally set ablaze in the field, making a magnificent show of tiny fireworks. Her attention snapped back when he led her into a closed tent with only one other dwarf, who was busily mixing something and every once and a while turning back to temper something on his anvil.
He didn't even falter from his work to say, "Greetings, my Queen, it will be done shortly."
"I thought you said it was done," argued the first dwarf.
"Whoever did you hear that from?" countered the working one.
"You."
"Oh no matter now, what's done is done," said Lucy, stepping between the two.
They both peered up at her (for they were a great deal shorter) and gulped. The first dwarf had the nerve to say, "Or what's not done, rather." Only when Lucy glared at him did he stop talking.
"So, uh... um..." Lucy raised an eyebrow in question at the second dwarf.
"Timmobri," he supplied.
"So, Timmobri, what are you doing?"
"Making the cordial sturdier so it doesn't break again."
"That's good. And what's in the pot?"
"The healing juice."
"Oh, that makes-"
"Listen, it would go faster if you stopped talking-"
"Right, right."
"- and time is something you need on your side."
Lucy pretend zipped her lips. It was quite awkward, sitting there in silence other than the clink of a hammer or the scraping of a mixing spoon in the pot. After what Lucy swore could have been eternity, Timmobri stood up and handed her the bottle. She reached in her pocket for the Lion's head stopper but could not find it.
Timmobri produced it from his pocket. "Old dwarf trick," he said, grinning. "Best of luck, and farewell. I don't suppose I'll be seeing you soon. One of your brothers, maybe..."
"She really must be going, Timmobri," said the scorched-beard dwarf, who was tugging impatiently on Lucy's sleeve. Timmobri kept talking.
"Tell High King Peter he really must be a tad gentler with Rhindon. I know King Edmund can be quite a frustration but if he hits any harder the sword could snap."
"Is that even possible?" asked Lucy, ignoring the impatient sighing of the first dwarf, who had yet to offer his name.
"Anything is breakable, my dear, case and point your cordial."
"Well, it was nice meeting you." Lucy curtsied and to the relief of the dwarf, followed him back out to the open field.
He asked, "Do you still have your other cordial, the one with the blue liquid?" Lucy held it up. "Good. You and your friends must divide the rest. It will take you all the way home." Lucy gulped - she wasn't too thrilled about drinking the substance again because last time it had given her a queer feeling in her stomach. Regardless, she relayed the word to Koru, who helped her divide the liquid. They gave some to Iggy first, who threw a fit about downing the liquid. Eventually they had to pour it in his mouth and clamp his beak shut. Lucy felt bad but knew it needed to be done. Seconds later, he had disappeared.
Lucy and Koru drank at the same time. Lucy closed her eyes and clenched her fists, waiting for the sickness to come, but it never did. She opened her eyes to find herself in a thick forest, with Koru and Iggy at her side. Lucy covered her ears when she heard two muffled voices - both coming from separate directions - believing it was a side effect of the potion. The voices persisted, though, and Iggy raised his head in alarm, leaving Lucy with a startling conclusion.
Wherever they were, there was company.
A/N: Overdue chapter, yay! Alright: here's the story. So, you all know I had finals, which I finally finished on the 17th, and most of you know that my school laptop was collected for updates, so this left me with three options: our old family dinosaur from 2000, which I found doesn't even load FF, our family laptop, or our family desktop. Of course, my splendid brother drops our laptop, damaging the hard disk, so that's ruined, and now there's four people arguing for one desktop, which throws hissy-fits and freezes every. Other. Word. (That you type.) It is incredibly frustrating. Plus, it only freezes for me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I repeatedly kicked it... I don't know. So anyway, until I get my school laptop back, I'm stuck writing at the library with a time limit of 90 minutes. Yuck. I'll try to get here every day so I can produce a chapter per week, but I don't know how it will work. That's the reason for my delayed chapter. I tried to make it super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot (from AVPM) but I'll leave that up to you guys - review and tell me what you thought!