So yeah, this chapter is kind of just a fluff chapter, but was still fun anyway. The part with Reepicheep and Eustace comes from a clip I've seen of the movie, WHICH I'M GOING TO SEE TONIGHT AT 7:20! I'm so excited!

Chapter Twenty-Five

Down in my cabin, I slumped to the floor, my heart thudding and my muscles exhausted. I caught my reflection in my mirror: my eyes and nose were red and my hair was plastered to my head. I stood again, rifling through my drawers to find a dry shirt and a leather vest to help keep me a little dryer and warmer. Then I went to find Lucy and Reepicheep.

The hurricane raged for twelve days. I spent those twelve days with Lucy, Reepicheep, and Eustace, pumping water out of the ship. Whenever Edmund or Caspian would stagger into their cabin, soaking wet and shivering, I would go to them and give them something to eat, bandage their blistered and bleeding hands, and try to find them something dry to wear. However, we all quickly ran out of dry clothing, as we couldn't wash or dry anything without a fire, and so we all spent the twelve days soaked through to the skin and cold.

On the eighth day of the typhoon, I was up on deck to relieve one of the men. The rain was still beating down horizontally, the wind screaming, and the waves the size of mountains. I had my safety line tied to the mast to keep from being swept overboard, as one poor soul had been the day before.

"Edmund! Let me take over! Go get some rest!" I called to him.

He was visibly exhausted, his cheeks hollow and his eyes red. His arms trembled with the effort of holding the lines, and his hands were bleeding through their bandages. He shook his head, but I knew he wanted to go lie down for a while. I forcefully took the line from his hands and gave him a gentle push in the direction of the cabin.

I turned back to my job, when a deafening crack split through the storm. I whipped my head around, knowing it wasn't thunder. My blood ran cold with despair as I saw the mast falling as if in slow motion, like a great tree falling towards me. The men screamed and abandoned their posts, desperately trying to get out of its path. I stood, frozen, watching the huge timber falling down, down, down, taking an impossibly long time, as Edmund screamed for me to move.

And then something collided with my right side, knocking my breath out and sending me rolling across the deck through the several inches of water that covered it. Caspian landed on top of me as I gasped for breath. The mast landed with a boom that reverberated throughout the small ship, crashing through the rail on the right side of the ship.

I stared up at Caspian, my eyes wide and short of breath.

He looked down at me, and said in bewilderment, "Why didn't you move?"

I shook my head, not being able to answer that myself, and he rolled off of me, helping me to my feet before we went back to work on the newest task that had presented itself.

We had to have everyone up on deck. I set to work with an axe to chop the part that had remained on the deck into pieces so we could toss them overboard. It was backbreaking work, and I nearly took the axe to Eustace while he complained about working. But finally Caspian sent me back down to my cabin, where I accidently slept for an entire day.

On the thirteenth day, I was up on deck, helping man the tiller, when the rain lessened. The torrential downpour slacked off to more of a spring shower, and the wind came in small gusts rather than constant howling.

Over the next hour, the waves decreased in size, the rain slowed to a fine drizzle, and the wind was gone completely. We all gave a great sigh of relief, and staggered to our bunks and cabins.

After the storm, the sun broke through the gray clouds, as if saying, "Sorry for being gone so long, but I'm back now."

We used buckets and cups and bowls to scoop the water off of the deck. Then we started up a fire in the galley, and had a hot meal for the first time in two weeks. We dried our clothes and enjoyed soaking up the hot sun on deck.

But there was no wind, and we had no sail, so we were stuck.

We had to have very small rations because of what was lost in the storm, and there was very little water left, maybe enough for twelve more days. Eustace complained the entire time.

"We should row back to the Lone Islands right away," he said in his pompous way.

Caspian sighed. "We cannot row back, because the men cannot do such work with so little water."

Eustace looked at him as if he were the stupidest human he'd ever encountered. "But men perspire to cool themselves down, so they would actually need less water," he said.

I wanted to strangle him, but Caspian didn't even dignify him with an answer.

Later, Reepicheep caught Eustace trying to steal water and an orange in the heat of the afternoon. Eustace came running up from below deck, running into one of the Minotaurs in his haste to escape the Mouse. He was carrying a butcher's knife.

"Watch it!" the Minotaur growled threateningly as Eustace smacked into his bulk.

"Sorry!" he said quickly, turning to run away again.

I tilted my head quizzically to one side and raised an eyebrow, wondering what the boy was up to as I leaned against a barrel, sharpening my dagger that I kept in my boot.

He managed to trip over several ropes and knock some tools over, causing several seamen to yell "Watch where you going" and "Hey, what're you doing?" at him.

I watched as Reepicheep ran along the rail, grabbing hold of a rope and swinging over to land, sword drawn, on a barrel in front of the boy.

"Trying to run away?" he asked. "We're on a boat you know."

Eustace, red-faced and out of breath, pleaded, "Look, can't we just discuss this?"

Reepicheep slashed a small hole in the front of Eustace's shirt, saying, "That was for stealing!" He thrust his little sword into the hole, stabbing an orange and pulling it back out, stuck on the end of his sword. "That was for lying!"

Then he smacked Eustace on the side of his head and said, "And that was for good measure!"

Eustace looked down angrily at the knife in his hand and then took a swing at the Mouse.

"Ah, that's the spirit!" Reep exclaimed gleefully, glad that he was finally fighting back, leaping back onto the rope and landing on another barrel. "We'll have ourselves a duel!"

He flung the orange off the end of his sword to me, saying "Catch!"

I caught the fruit in my open palm, both of my eyebrows now raised. I was curious to see how this would end.

"Now, come on. Take your best shot!" Reepicheep goaded Eustace.

The boy furiously stabbed at the Mouse, and Reep jumped over the blade, shouting, "That's it!"

Eustace continued to try to get the him, but Reep only continued to duck under, jump over, and roll away from all of his attempts.

But then, all of the sudden, Reepicheep seemed to lose his balance on the rail of the ship.

"Oh! Oh! Whooaaa! Oh noooo!" he cried as he fell backwards, disappearing.

Eustace ran to the rail, leaning over and searching the waves. Behind him, I saw Reepicheep appear again on the ropes and reach down to tap on his shoulder with his tail. Eustace turned to look behind him, and Reep swung down to hit him in the chest with his little feet.

"And that," he said as Eustace was sent stumbling forward to crash into a basket, "is that."

We all burst into laughter at Reepicheep's clever victory as Eustace, sprawled across the deck, tried to struggle to his feet.

"What was that all about?" I asked Reep.

He answered with disdain. "I caught him trying to steal an orange from the galley!"

"That's a lie! The little monster was spying!" Eustace cried, red-faced from where he was getting to his feet.

I strode over and grabbed his arm roughly. "Stealing's a serious offense on a boat," I snarled at him.

I was distracted by Caspian striding down from the upper deck. "What is all of this commotion about?" he asked, frowning at us.

"Reepicheep caught Eustace stealing food," I answered with a scowl.

"Is that right?" he growled at Eustace. Edmund arrived behind him, his face questioning.

Eustace didn't answer, only mumbling to himself and the planks of the deck.

Caspian turned to Drinian. "Did you see this happen, sir?" he asked the captain.

Drinian looked from me to Reepicheep to Eustace. "Yes, sir," he answered with a nod of his bald head.

"He deserves at least a dozen!" I exclaimed in fury to Caspian.

His tanned face was stony. He turned and addressed the entire crew. "From now on, anyone who is caught stealing anything will be given two dozen lashes. This will be the only warning you get."

Then he turned to Eustace and lectured him, and told him how his selfishness could be a serious problem in our current conditions, and how we all wanted more water and food, but we had to make our provisions last. Eustace didn't say anything, and then ran down below after Caspian was done.

"The little brat!" Caspian moaned, closing his eyes wearily.

We managed to tie part of the sail to the bowsprit, and that got us a little ways the next day. The wind wasn't much more than a gentle breeze, but it was still better than nothing at all.

After three more days of inching farther east, I was up in the rigging again in my favorite spot, my spyglass held to my eye, when I heard an ear-grating screech. I looked up, spotting a lone white gull flying overhead. My heart leaped, and I eagerly trained my glass on the horizon. As I swiveled slowly around to the direction we were going, I spotted a tiny gray smudge on the horizon.

I waited to make sure it was really there before crying, "Land ahead!"

There was a great bustling around on the deck as the men clambered to see it.

Each day it got clearer and a little bit closer, and we could tell it was a very mountainous island, lush and green, and more and more seagulls flapped and screeched overhead.

We finally drew into the bay on September 11th and dropped anchor in the water, which was three fathoms deep. Caspian decided we should stay aboard for one more night, because it was getting dark, and we had no idea what lay in wait for us on the beach.

I barely slept at all that night, staring out of my tiny cabin window at the dark mass of the rugged island, eagerly anticipating whatever we would find the next morning.