Charlotte wasn't sure how long she stood gaping at the great creature before it's mouth opened a very little bit wider and it spoke to her.
"Human child, come here." His voice was deep. So deep that it seemed to come down from the tips of his claws working its way through the massive body before coming out. And yet it all happened so quickly that if you blocked your ears for so much as a second you might miss the whole thing.
I'm dreaming, Charlotte thought to herself, Lion's can't talk. They just can't. I've lost my mind, I've hit my head on something, I know I have.
"Daughter of Eve, did you not hear me?" The Lion sounded a bit annoyed, even a little angry now.
She was too frightened to speak for a moment (Maybe this was more of a nightmare than a dream) and then when she mustered up enough courage to attempt a word or two, nothing would come out. Her voice felt dry and her throat sore. It took three attempts at opening and closing her mouth before she could say anything.
"M-m-my mum's name is not Eve." Charlotte finally managed to blurt out.
The Lion shook his head at her. "At least you are not the sort to pretend you can't understand me. At least you aren't that stupid."
"Am I stupid?" Charlotte's voice was nearly a whisper. She didn't know how to behave in front of this Lion. She had in the very core of her heart a sudden secret dread of him. Not because she was worried he was going to eat her. No, but simply because she felt his anger. As if she'd wronged him somehow. And she couldn't stand the look his deep golden-brown eyes kept expressing. As if he was reading her mind and hated what he saw. She didn't want him to hate her. Nor did she want him to leave her. She wanted to do something. Something, but she wasn't at all sure what that something was.
"You have become worse than the ass you'd been before." Aslan told her, his voice was very matter-of-fact, deep, and quite grave. "You were an ass the way you behaved towards those who tried to befriend you."
"Who do you mean?" Charlotte asked him. "Do you mean Rikki, Cleo, and Emma? They didn't want to be my friends! They wanted to be my mother. They bossed me around like I was some child. Like I was too much of a fool to understand my powers on my own. And then Cleo took Lewis away from me."
"Ah..." the Lion looked like he was thinking deeply about something. He shook his head. "Pride. That's your problem. You have-have always had too much of it-it does take greatly away from who you could be. Who you are truly meant to be. Don't you see?"
"See what?" Charlotte demanded. "I see nothing at all."
"That's right. To things that matter you are blind." The Lion sighed deeply, making his fair golden shoulders shake a little. "You are at a crossroads, Charlotte. Do not take the wrong fork in it."
"How do you know my name?" She gasped, putting her hand to her heart.
"I know you, through two means." Aslan explained. "One, it was you who had Susan taken away by that Denman fool. She could not hear me when I tried to speak to her, it shows that you are not so stupid as Linda was. though that is hardly much to be proud of." He let out a low growl. "To go against Susan was going against me. Keep that in mind next time."
Charlotte nodded quickly. She wouldn't want to go against this creature. She almost wanted him to eat her, swallow her whole and end it.
"Two, I know your Grandmother." Aslan said.
"Know?" Charlotte shook her head sadly. "My grandmother is dead."
"Is she?" The Lion's lips curled up, the faintest suggestion of a smile played on them. "Follow me." He started walking towards the moon pool.
Charlotte had no intention of running away but still felt too frightened to come close to his golden self. She trailed slowly behind.
One they were at the pool, the lion breathed on the water and it swirled around and around until it cleared and became window-like. Charlotte could see a garden and two people standing side by side talking. Both had dark hair. One was a young man, the other a young woman. The young woman turned around to look at something and Charlotte caught sight of her face. It was the face she had seen in photographs but never in person. And there were the bright eyes she had seen only in one old wrinkled face when she was very, very small. The eyes that were not like any other eyes. Grandmother's eyes. The man she didn't know, she had never even seen a photograph of him.
"Human child." Aslan said sternly. "See your heart's desire in that pool, but know it can never be yours if you do not put away your pride. Put it away, daughter, what have you to be proud of? Do you think yourself special now? You thought yourself a fine mermaid and you were, but you were not-are not better than the others. If you had accepted that, you wouldn't have lost your tail."
"I know." Charlotte whispered, tears rolling down her face. "I just wanted to be special. I wanted Lewis to love me. Only me."
"But you knew, dear, you did know, don't act like you didn't, that Lewis could never feel for you what he felt for Cleo." The Lion reminded her. "You knew it long before you knew your grandmother's secret. And do you think your grandmother would be proud to know that you ripped her locket off of Cleo's neck?"
"You know about that?" Charlotte gasped, turning rather red in the face.
"I know about a lot of things." He answered.
"But she's my grandmother, wouldn't she have wanted me to have it?" Charlotte protested, wanting to be at least a little in the right.
The lion let out another growl.
"I suppose not." She hung her head.
"Good you are starting to be less prideful." He looked a little pleased now.
"Um, Lion..." Charlotte didn't know what to call him by. "What is your name?"
"My name is Aslan." He told her.
"Aslan, don't you think the girls, well...didn't like me?" Charlotte shifted uncomfortably. "They never did, not even before I was a mermaid."
"You might have grown on them in time." Aslan said. "And you might have not minded losing Lewis to another if you'd viewed it with a clear head."
"Oh dear." Charlotte said sadly. "do you mean to say that if I'd stopped boasting, hadn't tried to make them lose their fins, and not have done what I did to Susan, that we all might have been great friends in the end?"
"We can never know what would have happened." Aslan said softly. "No one is ever told that. But what will happen next is up to you. Will you put your pride and lust for revenge behind you? Or will you hold onto it? That it is up to you now."
Charlotte looked back into the water, she could see her beautiful grandmother laughing and smiling. Oh, what would Grandma Gracie say if she'd known how her granddaughter had been acting? Tears streamed down her face. She'd wanted to hurt the others, but she'd never, not even for one moment wanted to hurt her grandmother.
"Aslan she doesn't know does she?" She asked eyeing the water which was darkening and swirling so that she could no longer see that other world in it.
Aslan shook his head. "No. Not yet."
"What should I do?" Charlotte came closer to the great Lion, and kneeled at his large paws, looking up his frightening but somehow wonderful face.
"Only you know that." Aslan planted a lion-kiss on her forehead. "Do make the right choice, dear one. Your fate may not be so terrible as it might have been."
And with that, the Lion blew and blew his breath picked Charlotte up off the ground and she hovered above the moon pool. She remembered the last time she'd hovered there. It had been when she'd lost her tail and powers forever. Now she felt herself going higher than that. Much higher and much closer to the sun. She was floating out of the top of the cave and up in the air, away from Mako Island, closer and closer to the mainland. Soon she felt herself going lower. And she could see the roofs of the houses in her neighborhood. Then she was even lower and could see her backyard. Suddenly her feet plunged downwards and she found herself placed back on her patio by the pool.
"When did you get back?" Her mother stuck her head out of the sliding glass door and looked strangely at her daughter.
"Just now." Charlotte answered breathlessly, thinking about all that Aslan had told and shown her. Was it possible for her to meet her grandmother again? She'd like that. She also thought she would very much like to see that Lion again, if it was allowed.
After learning how to use their weapons, Rikki, Emma, Cleo, Zane, Ash, and Lewis sat down sipping lemonade that Miss Chatham had made for everyone, while Peter began to tell them his battle plans for Mako Island.
"Those too old to fight must stay where it's safe." Peter told them. "Julia, Max, Louise, and William are going to stay on the boat."
"What boat?" Lewis asked.
"Mine." Zane told him. "It's the only one big enough to fit everyone."
"Right, their job will be to protect extra weapons, armor and other necessary provisions. Max can operate the boat and keep steering it along so as to keep it out of the sight of our enemies."
"But that only leaves us eight to fight." Ash pointed out. "Six of us, against all of those working with Mr. Bennett."
"There can't be that many of them that know how to fight and we have the element of surprise on our side. We have to strike them before they strike us. If they strike us, they'll try to take the mermaids away. We don't want that." Peter reminded him. "It's this or not fighting at all."
"We can't just let my dad win." Zane said, putting his hand on top of Rikki's in a surprisingly sweet gesture. "Not with the plans he has in mind."
"That's right." Peter nodded at them. "We have no choice."
"When do we start?" Rikki asked, letting her fingers intertwine with Zane's.
"Our great battle," Peter said shortly, not because he was cross but because he had something on his mind. "starts in less than two weeks."
Later that evening, Peter and Susan walked along the beach hand in hand. They kept a sharp eye out for Mr. Bennett but no one was around, so they relaxed a little, enjoying each other's company.
"Susan, I was thinking about something." Peter said softly, pulling her closer to him. "If something happens to me..."
Susan shook her head and put her index and middle finger on his lips. "You'll be fine."
"Su, we have to think about this realistically." Peter's tone was soft but also very serious. "Harrison Bennett would have murdered me right in front of you if he could have, you know that."
"No." Susan wasn't willing to think about what might happen to Peter. She'd lost him once before. She couldn't bare the thought of losing him again.
"If I die..." Peter started again.
"No!" Susan cried pulling her hand away from him, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
"I just want you to know that I have always and will always love you no matter what." Peter wiped the tears off her cheek with his thumb. "And I was thinking about if Harrison gets me and I don't get pulled away into Aslan's country this time and I die for real, there is only one thing I would want to be before I died."
Susan felt weak thinking of what might happen. Maybe they shouldn't join this fight. Maybe they could all run away. But looking into Peter's eyes she knew he wouldn't back down and neither would she. Mako was what had turned her into what she was. She was a mermaid and fighting for Mako was her duty. She pulled herself closer to him how.
"Susan, the only thing I would ever want to be that I'm not is your husband." Peter told her. "I know we planned on waiting a while but what do you say we get married tomorrow?"
Susan pressed her lips against his and started kissing him.
"Is that a yes?" Peter half-laughed when they finally broke away from one another.
AN: Well I was going to make it longer but that just felt like a good way to end the chapter. I hope you liked it. Please review.