The ship began making its way in the same direction the other lords had traveled, hoping to find the whereabouts of the lost men and return them to their homeland. Along the way, each person on the ship continued to perform their assigned duties aboard the Dawn Treader…with the exception of one.

Edmund cleaned the sword given to him by Lord Bern, Lucy mended some of the sailors' clothing, Eva practiced her swordfighting, and Elizabeth helped Astram make good use of their rations. But Eustace, rather than help out in any way, sat around the deck moping all day while he complained to his journal about how his life was a terrible mess.

As he sat against the starboard side somewhat hidden by several crates and barrels, he glared at Reepicheep with whom he had the unfortunate pleasure of sharing quarters.

"Peeving marmot," he muttered. "He's even more deluded than my cousin."

A seagull landed on the crate in front of him, much to his disdain.

"In England, we have mouse traps for that sort of thing." He looked around to make sure no one would hear his next words. "Speaking of food, you don't know where I could get any, do you?"

The seagull didn't answer him.

"Uh, why are you talking to that bird?" a low voice said from above him.

Eustace looked up and realized that Tavros and one of the sailors had watched him talk to the seagull. "I just naturally assumed you can—"

Tavros started laughing. "He's talking to birds!"

"He's mad as a loon, that one," the sailor chuckled.

Tavros slapped the sailor on the back good-naturedly, but he underestimated his strength if the pain on the sailor's face was any indication.

Elizabeth, having just come up from the galley, smiled and approached the seagull. "Oh, just because he can't talk back doesn't mean we can't talk to him." She knelt down in front of the bird and held out a tiny piece of bread. "Isn't that right, my friend?"

The seagull quickly pecked the bread from her hand.

Eustace flapped his hands towards the bird. "Shoo! Go on, get off!" He glared at Elizabeth when the seagull made the wise choice of leaving. "Why would you waste food on a stupid animal like that?"

"No one's going to miss a little breadcrumb. But if it makes you feel better, it'll come from my rations."

"Who decided on those rations anyway? Everyone else is getting more food than me."

"I promise you that everyone is getting the same amount of food. Astram and I are very careful about that."

"Right, like I have any reason to believe you. Why do they even have you making the meals? Your cooking is terrible."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Well, if you want more food later on, that is, if you can stand the fact that I helped make it, you can have some of my dinner ration this evening since I'm not very hungry."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," Caspian's voice interjected.

Elizabeth quickly stood up. "Your Majesty, I—"

"No one on my ship gives up their rations for any reason. It's as I told you before, you're not going to be able to help anyone if you don't take care of yourself first."

"I…apologize, Your Majesty. I just thought…"

"And it was a noble thought. But all the same, one I cannot abide."

"Yes, sir."

Caspian turned towards the port side. "Reepicheep."

The large mouse perked up his ears and scampered over. "Your Majesty?"

"Help Elizabeth prepare supper, will you?" He gave the young woman a playful smirk. "Make sure she's following the rules."

"Of course, sir."

With a small smile, Elizabeth returned to the galley, Reepicheep behind her.

For the next couple hours, the two of them bustled around the galley, using the available ingredients to make a full meal for the many crew members aboard the ship.

Just when she was about finished, she heard a small clatter come from the supply area where they kept the food and cooking utensils.

Elizabeth looked at Reepicheep in confusion and the two of them stepped towards the source of the noise. She came across Eustace quickly slipping an orange into his shirt.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Eustace spun around so fast that he knocked some of the pots and pans off their hooks.

"Are you aware that stealing rations is a capital offense at sea?" Reepicheep said sharply.

Eustace looked around him for the source of the male voice.

Reepicheep appeared on top of the crates on his right side. "Up here."

When Eustace realized that he'd been caught by Elizabeth and the stupid mouse, he grumbled, "Oh, you two."

He tried to walk away, but Reepicheep quickly snapped, "Men have been keelhauled for less."

"For what?"

"For treason and sneakiness and general nuisancery. Look, just hand over the orange and we'll let the matter pass."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Eustace tried to walk away again, but Reepicheep blocked his path with his tail. "Allow me to cla—"

The boy quickly grabbed his tail as it whipped in the direction of the orange hidden in his shirt which made the mouse gasp in alarm. "Look, I've had quite enough of you."

"Unhand the tail," Reepicheep said lowly, drawing his sword and pointing it directly at Eustace's face. "The great Aslan himself gave me this tail. No one, repeat, no one touches the tail. Period. Exclamation mark."

Trembling, Eustace released the mouse's tail. "Sorry."

"Now, I will have the orange…then I will have satisfaction." Reepicheep used his tail to whip a butcher knife out of one of the barrels and into Eustace's hand.

"P-P-Please, I'm a pacifist."

"En garde!"

Terrified, Eustace pushed past Elizabeth and raced up the stairs out onto the main deck where he bumped into Jemain.

"Watch it," the minotaur growled.

"Sorry," Eustace stammered.

Elizabeth quickly came up from the galley, watching in amusement as the mouse scampered along the railing after the young boy.

"Trying to run away?" he taunted. "We're on a boat, you know." He swung on a rope and landed on a barrel in front of Eustace.

"Look, can't we just discuss this?" he asked.

Reepicheep used his sword to cut the bottom of Eustace's shirt. "That was for stealing." He then poked his sword into the orange he'd stolen. "That was for lying." Reepicheep hit Eustace's face with the orange. "And that was for good measure." He noticed the butcher knife in Eustace's hand start to shake with anger, and he laughed when Eustace finally reciprocated his attacks. He flipped over him and landed onto another barrel behind him. "That's the spirit! We have ourselves a duel! Catch!"

He tossed the orange to Drinian who caught it with ease.

Eva leaned over to Edmund. "This should be interesting."

"Now, come on," Reepicheep laughed. "Take your best shot."

Eustace clumsily lunged at Reepicheep with his knife three times, but each time Reepicheep managed to evade his movements.

"Is that it? Come on, boy! Focus! Focus! Yes!" He rolled over onto the railing to avoid more of the boy's messy maneuvers. "Stop flapping your wings like a drunken pelican! Poise! Keep your blade up. Up! Up! That's it!"

Eustace lunged again, but Reepicheep just jumped onto his back and scampered across ropes and barrels along the port side. When he perched onto the ladder leading to the crow's nest, Eustace tried to attack again, but the knife got stuck in the wood when he missed.

Reepicheep scampered across his back once more and stood on the first barrel again. "Yoo-hoo! Over here!"

Eustace got the knife free from the wood and swept it in Reeipcheep's direction.

As he hopped over the swing, he ordered, "Now, lunge with your foot." He jumped off the barrel and scurried over to Eustace's feet to indicate which foot to lunge with. "Not your left, your right! Got it?" He then sprinted back up on the railing. "Come on. Be nimble. Be nimble! It's a dance, boy, a dance. Come on now."

Eustace lunged with the knife in his direction several times.

"Again, and again. That's right, that's right!"

When Eustace lunged once more, Reepicheep lost his balance and fell backwards off the railing. Eustace quickly ran up to the side of the ship and looked down into the ocean to see if the mouse had fallen in. Reepicheep then appeared on the rope ladder next to him and tapped him on his left shoulder with his tail. Eustace turned around which gave Reepicheep the opportunity to shove him across the deck.

"And that is that!"

Eustace knocked over a large wicker basket when he fell, and Lucy and Eva thought for sure they heard a girl scream.

While everyone laughed and applauded the short duel, Lucy approached the fallen basket. To her astonishment, a little girl crawled out of it. "Look!"

The man who had joined them from the Lone Islands, Rhince, stepped forward, his eyes wide. "…Gael?"

The little girl slowly stood up.

"What are you doing here?"

Gael looked at her father nervously.

Rhince quickly came up to her and hugged his daughter tightly.

Drinian slowly approached the small girl. "Looks like we have an extra crew member." He smiled as he held out the orange Reepicheep had tossed him, and Gael shyly took it from him.

Lucy smiled broadly at the young girl. "Welcome aboard."

"Your Majesty," Gael curtseyed.

"Call me Lucy. Come on."

She put an arm around Gael's shoulders as she led her to Caspian's quarters where she would be staying with the other girls.

"Come on, look lively!" Drinian ordered. "Back to work!"

Eustace picked up the fallen butcher knife on the deck.

"Good match," Reepicheep commented from atop one of the rope ladders. "I'll make a swordsman of you yet."

Eustace smiled a little but then quickly caught himself. "Yes, well, if the playing field were a little more even, it would've been an entirely different result."

Reepicheep chuckled. "Indeed."

As Eustace awkwardly stormed away, Elizabeth came up to the small mouse and smiled at him. "It seems you have achieved what I've always strived for. You got him to give you a real smile, as fleeting as it was."

Reepicheep looked at her fondly. "You have a soft spot for the boy?"

"I suppose you could call it that. And I see that you have one as well."

"Elizabeth."

Elizabeth turned as Caspian walked up to her.

"That little duel has shown me that it would be probably be wise for you to learn your way around a sword as well."

"Oh, no, Your Majesty, I don't…I can't…"

Caspian held out a sword for her. "I'd feel better if you did."

"Uh…I, um…"

"I'm not expecting you to be an expert at it. I just think you should know a few basic maneuvers. I'd rather not have a repeat of what happened at the Lone Islands."

Elizabeth hesitantly took the sword from him. Her eyes darted around to look at all of the many people staring at her, and she knew she could never do this in front of them. How could she ever practice knowing that multiple pairs of eyes were scrutinizing her every move?

Caspian seemed to understand what was bothering her and called out to all the crew members, "All right, you've all had your fun, now get back to work."

Seeing that this particular duel was not for their amusement, the crew members resumed their chores and left Caspian and Elizabeth alone.

With a little less pressure on them now, Caspian began the lesson.

As the ship sailed on for the next few days, Elizabeth continued to learn how to swordfight from Caspian, Drinian, and Edmund. Eager to continue her own lessons, Eva joined her and the two of them practiced with one another in their down time. It was difficult work and both Eva and Elizabeth never walked away from a lesson or a practice session unscathed. But it was an entertaining way to pass the time while also providing them with a skill they would most likely need in the near future.

When not doing that, Lucy and Eva took the time to answer all of Elizabeth's questions about when they'd both previously been to Narnia. Hearing their stories made Elizabeth realize how little she knew about the people she had been tending to for the last few months. Edmund, Eva, and Lucy were not the young and naïve teenagers she had always believed them to be. It somewhat warmed her heart to know that even with such a high status of nobility, they had all continued to treat her kindly back at home. It would've been easy for them to let their positions of power go to their heads and think of her as beneath them, but instead they had always considered her as their equal.

Sometimes late at night when almost everyone was asleep, Eva would occasionally take Elaine's staff out of its holder next to Susan's bow and arrows and carefully practice using it. She knew that she'd never be able to wield it well enough to use in a fight, and she would certainly never be as skilled as Elaine, but it still felt good to hold the weapon and attempt to honor her friend's memories of her time here.

Before long, the Dawn Treader came upon another island.

"It looks uninhabited," Caspian said, eying the unfamiliar territory through his spyglass. "But if the lords followed the mist east, they would've stopped here."

"Could be a trap," Drinian told him.

"Or it could hold some answers," Edmund countered. "Caspian?"

Caspian closed his spyglass. "We'll spend the night on shore. Scour the island in the morning."

"Aye, Your Majesty," Drinian answered.

With the ship firmly anchored by the inlet of the island, all of the Dawn Treader passengers boarded the longboats and set up a camp on the shore, preparing for a long day of discovering what secrets the island held come the morning.

However, just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon and everyone lay on their separate blankets fast asleep, large footsteps appeared in the sand seemingly of their own accord.

"Seems they've brought a pig," a soft voice said, listening to Eustace snore.

"This one, it's female," another voice said near Lucy.

A footstep appeared next to Gael's blanket. "So is this one."

"This one too," another announced next to Eva.

"And over here too!" yet another called out near Elizabeth.

One of the invisible creatures flipped open a book resting next to Lucy's head. "This one reads."

Another creature looked at a medical book in Elizabeth's hand. "So does this one."

"Let's take 'em."

Lucy and Elizabeth found themselves forcibly awakened as something covered their mouths and yanked them up off the ground.

Trying to scream, the two of them frantically kicked and struggled against the invisible forces taking them further into the island and away from the people who could help them.

Elizabeth felt as if she couldn't breathe. This feeling of powerlessness was so familiar and brutally terrifying. She worried that if she wasn't released in the next few seconds, she might pass out, and she needed to be more alert now than ever, especially if Lucy was in danger too.

After what felt like an eternity, the invisible creatures deposited them onto the ground of what seemed to be a very large garden.

Elizabeth fell to her knees, gasping heavily for breath while Lucy immediately stood up and pulled out her dagger. One of the creatures forcibly knocked it out of her hand, and when she tried to retrieve it, something roughly pushed her back so that she fell next to Elizabeth. The young woman was only vaguely aware of Lucy's presence next to her as the girl attempted to calm her down through her gentle touch.

"There is no escape," a low voice warned them.

"Well put."

"Scary."

"Yeah."

"What are you?" Lucy asked the chorus of male voices.

"We are terrifying invisible beasts!" someone replied

"If you could see us, you would be really intimidated," the low voice said.

"You forgot to mention that we are very large!" another added.

"Well, what do you want?" Lucy demanded.

"You," the low one told her. "You'll both do what we ask."

"They will."

"Very clear."

"Well put."

"Yeah."

Lucy stood up and carefully helped Elizabeth to her feet as well. "Or what?"

"Or death," the low voice said threateningly.

All of the other voices began chanting 'Death' over and over again all around them.

"Well, we wouldn't be much use to you dead, now would we?" Lucy retorted.

"I hadn't thought of that."

"No, you hadn't."

"Fair point."

"All right, then we'll just kill your friends," one of them taunted.

"Ooh."

"Good idea."

Lucy closed her eyes in frustration. If she could at least see the creatures who had abducted her, then she could fight them. But since she couldn't, she asked quietly, "What do you want with us?"

"You will enter the house of…" Two of the creatures abruptly pushed Lucy and Elizabeth forward. "The Oppressor."

"What house?"

"This one."

To their amazement, a door opened in the air and revealed a beautiful foyer inside. Lucy and Elizabeth hesitantly went up the two steps towards the door.

"Upstairs, you'll find The Book of Incantations. Recite the spell that makes the unseen seen."

"Well put, Chief. Well put."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

Lucy looked around either side of the door, but she could find no evidence that there was a large house around it. The land seemed to go on for miles.

"Well, go on. We haven't got all day."

"Remember what will happen to your friends."

"You've been warned."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Right."

"Right."

Lucy turned around. "Why don't you do it yourselves?"

"We can't read," the chief answered.

"Can't write either, as a matter of fact."

"Or add."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Lucy told them.

"Beware The Oppressor."

"He's very oppressive."

"'What makes the unseen seen', got it?"

"Don't forget."

"Don't forget that."

"Yeah."

Lucy turned back around to face the inside of the invisible house. She nervously gripped onto Elizabeth's hand which Elizabeth tightly squeezed back, and then they both stepped through the doorway.