Once again, very sorry for the long wait - but I hope its worth it. Well here ya go.

Chapter 10 - Sandstorm

Susan and Lucy

They had reached the desert. They had finally reached the desert, and by Aslan's mane it was hot. It was barely midday and they couldn't stop from sweating, the sweat was literally dripping off them – quite literally.

"Well that's the desert." Nutchit said from Lucy's shoulder. He didn't seem to be having half the problems as they did with the heat.

"Nutchit, how are you still so energetic, I swear I could melt in this heat." Lucy said.

"You forget, your majesty, that I was raised in the desert and I know it like the back of my paw. That is why Eril chose me to be your guide."

"I wish I was you." Susan said, panting in the heat. "We must stink."

"No your majesty," Nutchit said "I for one cannot smell you as the stench of sweating horse is quite over powering."

"Nutchit, I would just thank your luck that these are horses are but dumb beasts. If they were not I am sure that they would have trampled you to death by now, you are constantly criticising them." Lucy told him gravely

"Well, when there is nothing to criticise about them, I swear I will not criticise them."

"Well Lu, it won't do us much good just staring at the desert, we better get a move on." Susan said, wanting to just get this journey over and done with.

"I couldn't agree more, the quicker we get out of this heat the better."

They kicked the horses into a canter but the horses soon insisted that they could go no faster than a slow walk. At midday the heat was quite unbearable and so they stopped and raised a tent to rest in. Susan took out of her pack a cigarette and lighted it. After several minutes of her smoking in the small space of the tent Nutchit began to cough so vigorously that Lucy had to pat him on the back quite hard to get him to stop.

"Why I almost thought I was going to cough up my lungs there." Nutchit said between coughs "Can you smell that horrible smoke?"

"That smoke is coming from Susan." Lucy said quite amused as when she had told Susan how much smoking actually stank she had never believed her, but now she had somebody else to prove her point.

"What? Is her highness on fire?" Nutchit said suddenly alarmed.

"No, no. You see that thing that she has in her mouth; the smoke is coming from there." Lucy said, Susan was all the while ignoring them and pondering the fact that she only had ten cigarettes left. Nutchit interested in whether this awful smell was coming from the thing in Susan's mouth drew closer and sniffed. Once again he was consumed by a coughing fit and Lucy had to hit him quite hard on the back.

"Wow, that smells positively awful."

"I couldn't agree more." Lucy said turning to Susan "See I'm not the only person who thinks it stinks."

Susan was suddenly looking at Lucy in confusion, having not been listening to their conversation she had no idea what they were talking about.

"What stinks?"

"Cigarettes." Lucy said pleased with herself.

"Oh course they don't. Who put that silly idea into your head?" Susan replied, angry that this old argument had come up again.

"Well it was just that Nutchit was saying that it stank, so I thought I should tell you that I have a supporter in this argument."

"Well if it stank, why can't I smell it?"

"I don't know. I can smell it, Edmund can smell it, Peter can smell it, Nutchit can smell it. I don't know why you can't smell it."

'Maybe it's like Narnia.' Lucy thought to herself 'She just doesn't want to smell it.'

"Well I think the sun is less piercing so we should carry on." Nutchit said changing the subject.

The girls agreed and once again mounted their horses and spurred them on. The heat was more bearable but in their dresses Susan and Lucy were finding it hard to breathe. Lucy finally fed up with her clothes, dismounted and began to undress.

"Lucy what are you doing?" Susan said shocked by her sister's rash decision.

"What does it look like I'm doing? It boiling hot and in this velvet I swear I am going to die." Lucy had undressed until she was standing in nothing but her undergarments. Susan didn't know what to say.

"But you're a Queen!" Susan whispered in shock.

"Exactly – a queen should not have to put up with this unbearable heat. Copy me Susan, you won't regret it I promise."

Before Susan realised what she was doing she was off her horse and Lucy was unlacing her dress, Lucy pulled the dress over her head for her and then Susan like Lucy was also standing in nothing but her undergarments.

"Isn't it cooler?" Lucy asked.

"Yes." Susan said unable to lie and glad that she was finally rid of that layer. She almost wished that she could take off her undergarments, but knew that being a queen this really would be going too far.

They remounted their horses and were much better without that layer. However they were still covered in sweat, not so much their own any more but the horses.

"I swear if we collected all the sweat that the horses are producing we would make a fine oasis out of it." Nutchit said.

The girls nodded in agreement but were too tired by the heat to take much notice of what he was saying.

"Can we not stop now, Nutchit? I'm tired, the horses are tired." Lucy wailed

"Just a little further, your highness and we will be by a well." Nutchit replied

"Water, I had almost forgotten its existence."

"If I may say so, you drank too much water in the morning. We will have to make sure that you don't drink so much. We will have to ration it."

"What? Ration the water. I thought we came well prepared."

"I didn't realise that you humans drank so much."

"Thank God, the sun is setting." Susan cried. Indeed it was but it was setting very fast, so that in a few minutes it was almost gone.

Once the sun had gone a wind picked up flinging the stinging sand at them. The wind was cold and Susan and Lucy put their dresses back on for warmth.

"I didn't realise the deserts were so cold at night."

"Well your majesties they are, but I advise we come to a halt now."

The girls pulled the horses to a stop and set up the tent. They had not reached the well; they were still an hour's walk away. In the tent they all huddled together for warmth as the thin canopy did little to stop the ravishing winds blowing through. They rose several hours before sunrise and set off before the sun decided to burn them again. They reached the well and filled up their water bottles again and let the horses have their fill as well.

Unfortunately for them the sun was soon up as well and decided to plague them with its blinding heat. Once again Lucy and Susan undressed, and decided to dismount their horses deciding that the beasts need a rest from carrying such heavy loads.

"I'm dying to have a cigarette now, no matter what you think." Susan stated rummaging in her bag for one.

She pulled one out and light it with a match, she breathed in the smoke and then skilfully puffed it out through her nose in a most un-lady-like manner. Nutchit laughed at this skill.

"You could be a dragon your highness." Susan laughed, Narnia wasn't so bad she thought. She looked around. Yes, maybe the desert was bit was horrible but that wasn't Narnia was it, that was Calormene. She breathed in the fresh air. It was hot, but fresh none the less. She scanned the horizon and looked up into the sky. Not a cloud.

But there was something on the horizon. A small speck, it looked like a speck of dust. God knows what it was, possibly some old building or something. Lucy had seen it too, but her mind was far more inquisitive.

"What is that Nutchit?" She asked.

Nutchit turned to look around. He put his paw above his eyes, squinted them and looked at what was on the horizon.

"Possibly nothing. But I will keep an eye on it. It could be a sandstorm."

And indeed a wind did pick up and Nutchit turned round to look at the ever increasing speck on the horizon.

"It's a sandstorm!" he shouted "Run!"

Lucy and Susan kicked the horses into a gallop, and Nutchit clung on the Lucy's shoulder for dear life. Susan threw away her cigarette and let it burn in the burning sands. She glimpsed behind her shoulder and saw that it was almost no use in running. The sandstorm was fast, too fast, faster than them.

"There's no point in running." Susan shouted from her horse.

"I can't hear you." Lucy shouted back, as the wind had really picked up and was blowing their hair into great big tangles

"I said the sandstorm is faster than us."

"What do you think we should do?" Lucy shouted back.

"I don't know, hide."

"Where? This desert is totally flat. Running is our only hope."

Susan wished she had some magical power to stop this sandstorm. She wondered what the sandstorm would do to her. Would it bury her under piles of sand, until she would wake up alone and trapped. Buried alive.

No she must run, she must not lose hope, she thought to herself. Similar thoughts were going through Lucy's head, except hers were slightly more valiant. She thought that she could not let Peter and Edmund down, she must find the troops. She could not let them down.

Lucy looked behind her and saw that the sand storm was upon them and suddenly she felt the hard sand hitting her so forcefully that she fell off her horse. She clutched Nutchit with all desperation and shoved him in her clothes so that he would not choke on the sand.

Lucy tried with all desperation to rip a piece of her clothing and tie it around her mouth so that she wouldn't swallow any sand. She tried to rip the cloth but it was too well made. She tried again and again, but with each breath more sand filled her lungs. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe! Somebody help me! Somebody! She screamed in her mind, not daring to open her mouth for fear of more sand entering it.

"Aslan!" She cried, sand filling her mouth. Now she really couldn't breathe. Everything went fuzzy, she tried to breathe through her nose, but it was blocked with sand. She tried to breathe, but she breathed no air, only sand, fine, hard grains of sand.

Suddenly everything went black. There was no light anymore, no sun, no piercing sun. Lucy was almost thankful for that. But it was all too dark. She didn't like the dark. After all her name did mean light. She was the light. At the thought of light, light appeared. It was distant, like a lone star on a cloudy night. But it was there.

Lucy tried to go towards and as she grew closer she saw that Aslan was this light. She ran up to him but however far she ran he remained the same distance away from him.

"Aslan." She shouted "Save me. Help me. I need to get out of this darkness."

"I will help you. But this time it is you who will need to help me. Look east. Look unto the very end. Look for me. Save me Lucy. Save me." Aslan said sadness in his voice, slowly Aslan began to fade and everything grew light again.

"Aslan!" Lucy cried "Aslan."