It's been about three days since we've left the Lone Islands with not even the slightest hint of land. I knew that some sailors went many weeks or months without seeing land, but it still worried me.
On the first full day after we left land, I swapped stories with Caspian and Edmund. They had been put in a jail cell with another prisoner, the lord whom I learned was Lord Bern. They also explained a green mist they had seen. I didn't like the idea of it whatsoever. That was also where the slaves on the cart had gone, wherever "there" was.
Since then, I had gotten rather bored. Aside from the normal duties, there wasn't much to do. Edmund has taken the job of scraping the rust and grime off the sword from Lord Bern.
However, one afternoon had a bit of excitement. Eustace had been caught trying to steal food by Reepicheep. This resulted in Reep attempting to teach Eustace to swordfight. Unsurprisingly, the fight was going rather badly for Eustace. Despite his size, Reep was a formidable swordsman and not someone I would ever want to cross swords with. The fight ended with Eustace falling over a large tarp. A sound came from under the tarp.
A young girl came out from under it. "Gael?" The surprise in Rhince's voice mirrored my own. "What are you doing here?" We had been at sea for days. How had she been hiding that long? How did she get food and water? Did she get food and water?
"It appears we have a new crew member," Drinian said. He offered her an orange, the one that Eustace had been trying to steal. She took it gratefully and bit it without peeling it. I didn't wait to see what happened next. I didn't know if she spit out the skin or ate it silently. I decided that she could use some water and went to get some.
When I returned a couple moments later, Gael was talking to Lucy. It would be good for Lucy to have a female friend close in age to her. Because of how mature Lucy acts and looks, people forget that she's still young. When I first met Lucy, we were only a year or so apart. But now I'm three years older than her and have that much more experience.
While these thoughts were going through my head, I was standing stationery on deck with a cup of water in my hand. It was only for a couple seconds, but it was enough for Lucy to notice me. "Courtney? You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." I remembered why I was there. "Gael, would you like some water?" I offered the cup to her.
"Thank you, Your Highness," She said, taking the cup gulping down the contents greedily.
"No problem at all, Gael. And you can drop the 'Your Highness.' I'm just Courntey." That was the start of a solid friendship. Despite the age difference, which was 4-5 years, Gael and I became good friends over our journey on the Dawn Treader. We had more in common than we realized and our friendship probably would have lasted long past our ocean adventures.
Speaking of friendships, I rebuilt mine with Edmund. Both of us had difficulty sleeping and often met on the nearly empty deck for late-night talks. We learned more about each other and talked in-depth about what had happened since we first met and how we had changed. We confided in each other and offered support when we could. Something about the dark expanse of the night made us more open to each other. We agreed to be friends, nothing more, but there were some moments that made us question our decision.
During the day, we didn't interact as much. Our closeness and late-night talks were our secret. We snuck glances at each other, stolen moments between just the two of us. Our dynamic wasn't the same as it was three years prior, but we had something just as good, if not better.
It was a couple weeks before land was spotted. Our supplies and morale were running low, so it was the perfect time to reach land.
Just like when we spotted the Lone Islands, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, and I stood on deck, taking turns with the spyglass. "It looks uninhabited," Caspian said.
"But if the lords followed the mist east," Edmund said, "They would have stopped here."
"Could be a trap," I said. After the Lone Islands, anything could be a trap, especially seemingly uninhabited islands.
"Or it could have some answers," Caspian said, closing the spyglass as it had ended in his hands.
"Caspian?" Drinian asked. "Your orders?"
"We'll spend the night on shore," He decided, "Scour the island in the morning." It was beginning to get dark and searching mysterious islands at night was a terrible idea.
"Aye, Your Majesty." The crew came alive to collect the supplies and materials necessary to make camp. I didn't like the idea of sleeping on the shores of an unknown island that might or might not be a trap, but we all needed the open air after being on the ship for that long. Yes, I know there's air on the boat, but it's different.
The Dawn Treader landed on the island and we all disembarked and set up our sleeping places. I ended up next between Edmund and Caspian. I had muted conversations with both of them before going to bed. For the first time in weeks, I slept soundly on the solid ground. However, the morning that greeted me was far less peaceful.
"Wake up, Courtney. Wake up!" The urgency in Caspian's voice woke me up with a start. Instinctively, I drew my sword. I always slept with my sword within grasp.
"What's going on?" I looked around frantically. When I saw no immediate threat, I lowered my sword.
"Lucy's gone," Edmund—who was also awake—answered. I swore violently, using words I had never used out loud, drawing looks from the pair of kings. I ignored them. There were indents in the ground. Footprints.
The three of us quickly woke up the others before running towards the center of the island, weapons at the ready. The others gathered their weapons before following us.
We arrived at an open space and stopped. There were many ways to go.
Edmund was by my side."She'll be fine," I said, noticing his pained face. "We'll find her."
"I know." He didn't sound very convinced. A loud thunk drew our attention. A large spear had landed in the midst of our group. More followed. I looked around, but there was nothing in sight. Nothing, no one, that could have launched those spears.
"Stop right there," A voice ordered. The space the voice came from was empty. One of our men grunted and fell to the ground. All around us, others met the same fate. Edmund and I stood back to back to fight this invisible enemy. My sword was yanked away from me and I was pushed to the ground.
"What sort of creatures are you?" Caspian asked. Brave words for a man facing the point of his own sword. His sword, like my own, hovered in midair, pointed towards its owner.
"Big ones," The first voice said. "With the head of a tiger and the body of a…"
"Different tiger," Another voice finished. The air around where the voices came from shimmered, like heat haze.
"You don't want to mess with us," A third voice said.
"Or what?" Edmund asked.
"Or I'll claw you to death." I couldn't keep up with which voice was speaking.
"And I'll ram my tusks right through you." The hazy outlines started to solidify.
"And I'll gnash you with my teeth." I saw that there were many figures around us as they slowly came into the visible spectrum.
"And I'll bite you with my fangs." Scattered laughter came from the crew as the creatures became fully visible. They were human-like, but much shorter and only had one leg. They were sets of three, where two of them held up another.
"You mean you'll squash us with your fat bellies?" Caspian asked, resulting in more laughter.
"Yes!" One said without thinking. Then it seemed to settle in as they looked down and saw themselves. The triads fell in shock.
"Tickle us with your toes?" Caspian continued.
One of the creatures, possibly the leader, found himself at the end of Edmund's sword, which he had recovered in the moments of confusion. The business end of a weapon in the hands of a skilled swordsman such as Edmund was not a place I ever wanted to be, especially considering how angry Edmund was.
"What did you do with my sister, you little pipsqueak?" He demanded.
"Now, calm down-"
"Where is she?" The sword point moved closer to the creature's throat.
"You'd better tell him," One of the other one-legged men said. I decided that I would call them "uni-foots" for the time being.
"Go on, chief," another said, "tell him."
"In the mansion," the chief said.
"What. Mansion." Edmund asked through gritted teeth. The chief pointed behind us to a mansion that was most definitely not there before. "Oh, that mansion." Some of the steel had left his voice.
"I'm getting really tired of all of you leaving me behind." It was Eustace. In our rush, we must have forgotten to wake him up. Oops.
"It's the pig!" One of the uni-foots said.
"The pig has come back," A second uni-foot said. The pig? That was a bit rude. Eustace was by no means my favorite person, but he wasn't a pig. He was actually rather skinny and no dirtier than the rest of us.
"This place keeps getting weirder and weirder," Eustace said, taking in the uni-foots. Even after living in Narnia all my life, I had to agree with him. Just when you thought things couldn't get weirder, they could.
"Weird?" A uni-foot said, insulted.
"Him calling us weird?" Another one asked.
The doors to the mansion opened and two figures walked out. One was Lucy. The other was an older man with a long, white beard.
Many uni-foots muttered, "The Oppressor."
"Lucy," Edmund said, dropping his sword and moving forward to embrace his sister. When they parted, Lucy spoke.
"This is Coriakin," She indicated the man. "It's his island."
"That's what he thinks!" A uni-foot exclaimed.
"You have wronged us, magician."
"I have not wronged you," The man, Coriakin, spoke for the first time. "I made you invisible for your own protection."
The uni-foots (uni-feet?) did not share the same opinion.
"Protection?"
"That's oppressive!"
"Oppressor!"
"I have not oppressed you," Coriakin said calmly
"But you could've if you wanted to." The conversation was getting rather old. The same things were being said and repeated over and over.
Coriakin seemed to think the same. "Be gone," He said, blowing a handful of white powder on the creatures.
"It's a spell!" One of them shrieked. They all fled, hopping as fast as their single foot would allow them.
"What was that?" Edmund asked.
"Lint," Coriakin responded, "But don't tell them."
"What were those things?" Eustace asked. I wanted to know as well.
"Dufflepuds," Coriakin answered. Well that explained… absolutely nothing.
"Right, of course," Eustace said, "Silly me."
"Follow me." Coriakin ignored Eustace and walked back towards the mansion. The five of us—me, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace—followed him while Drinian and the rest of the crew stayed behind.
The interior of the mansion looked exactly how I pictured it from the outside. It had a rustic look with dark oak walls. There was also a smell, the smell of old books. I liked that smell, but judging by the wrinkled noses some of the others had, they didn't think the same. Coriakin stopped in a large room.
"What did you mean when you said you made them invisible for their own good?" Caspian asked, referring to the magician's earlier words to the Dufflepuds, as I now knew them.
"It seemed the easiest way to protect them from the evil," Coriakin said. Why couldn't this man say something plainly? Why did he have to be so vague?
"You mean the mist?" Edmund asked.
"I mean what lies beyond the mist." He flicked a hand and the floor changed. Instead of wood, it displayed a beautiful landscape. However, upon closer examination, the green mist could be seen throughout.
"It's quite beautiful," Eustace said, enthralled by the image. We all looked at him. Admitting that someone was beautiful was very out of character for him. "I mean, for a make-believe map of a make-believe world," He corrected.
"There is the source of your troubles," Coriakin continued. The scene on the floor zoomed in on a dark island shrouded in green mist. "Dark Island.A place where evil can take any form. It can make your darkest dreams come true. It seeks to corrupt all goodness, to steal the light from this world."
"How do we stop it?" Edmund asked.
"You must break its spell. That sword you carry," He pointed to Lord Bern's sword, which Edmund had adopted as his own after scraping off the rust, "there are six others."
"Have you seen them?" I asked.
"Yes."
Caspian learned forward, taking more of an interest in the conversation, "The six lords? They passed through here?"
"Indeed."
"Where were they headed?"
"Where I sent them." That sounded very ominous. I wasn't sure I trusted this Coriakin. He could have been linked to the lords' disappearance. "To break the spell," He continued, "you must follow the Blue Star to Ramandu's Island." The image on the ground again changed, this time to a bright, blue star. "There, the seven swords must be laid at Aslan's table. Only then can their true magical power be released."
Are you telling me that these swords, which are probably also covered in rust, have magical power? And only when they're together? And they have to be at a specific place to work? How do we know this isn't a load of monkey brains?
But Coriakin wasn't done yet, "But beware. You are all about to be tested."
"Tested?" Edmund questioned.
"Until you lay down the seventh sword, evil has the upper hand. It will do everything in its power to tempt you." He looked each one of us in the eye. "Be strong. Don't fall to temptation. To defeat the darkness out there, you must first defeat the darkness inside yourself." With that warning delivered, he vanished into thin air, leaving us behind to decrypt his words. This mission just got a little more complicated.
Did no one in the movie question this random magician guy? He seemed a little sketchy to me. Also, this story is moving a lot faster than I thought. We're already over ⅓ through the movie and it's only been 4 chapters. I'll add more non-canon stuff in future chapters where it makes sense.
Has anyone guessed what Courtney will be tempted by?