I suck. I completely suck because I am too lazy to write a good chapter and update as often as I should. And I'm sorry that I suck so bad, and I don't even deserve your reads.
But here is another chapter, albeit not a great one, and I humbly ask for reviews, although I don't really deserve your kind words.
Chapter Twenty
~Rose~
After Aslan had given me that cryptic warning, I returned to Narnia to watch over Caspian and the others.
Before my eyes, time seemed to whirl by, and several years passed. Caspian no longer openly grieved for me or Rilian, but I knew that it was still inside him. Knight after knight searched out my son, but none returned from their quests. Even I could not find them. Finally, Caspian enacted a law forbidding anyone else from taking up the search. As much as it pained him to give up all hope of finding the prince, he could not let anymore men lose their lives.
One night soon after this, I was wandering through the stables. I came to Anduril's stall, and saw that my ever-faithful companion was lying on his side in his bed of straw. He had aged drastically since my death and Rilian's disappearance, and I saw just how much then. His broad back was now swayed with age and work, the places above his eyes sunken, and his coat duller. My heart went out to him.
He looked tired and sad, his muzzle hovering listlessly just above the bedding and his breathing heavy and slow. A stabbing sadness pierced me as I realized my oldest friend was fading.
"Anduril," I wanted to say. I wanted to comfort him, to stroke him, to tell him that he would be home soon. For a moment it even seemed his ears twitched a little in my direction, but I told myself it was my imagination.
His breathing slowed and grew even more labored, and his head rested on the straw. He gave one more heavy sigh, and then his spirit drifted from his aged body and it was still.
I knew he saw me then, but Aslan was calling him home. I raised my hand in a goodbye and smiled at him sadly, before he whinnied his own goodbye and left me, once more alone and invisible.
XXX
Time continued on, and I watched everyone I knew grow grayer, more lined, and more stooped with the weight of their years pressing down upon them.
It was strange, seeing my husband become an old man, with a long gray beard and a lined, wrinkled face. And when that time came, I felt Aslan's pull on me, and I answered.
When I entered His Country once again, I knew that something was happening. Aslan stood on the cliff-top, gazing West.
He turned, fixing me with his golden eyes. "Rose, the time has come, and Narnia is in need of help again."
"But who can help?" I asked hopelessly.
"I believe you have already met them once before. A boy, who at one time was most disagreeable, but who has undergone a great Change." Aslan's eyes twinkled.
I felt my own grow wide. "Eustace? Eustace Scrubb? You've brought him to help Narnia?"
"He will need some assistance, of course," Aslan said. "One of his friends from school, Jill Pole. I have given her a set of signs to guide her in their task."
I was speechless. The fate of my son, and Narnia, in the hands of Eustace Scrubb and a girl of which I had never heard.
"I see that you do not have much confidence in whom I have chosen," Aslan said.
"I-It's just that..." I couldn't voice what I was feeling. I wasn't even sure what it was. Maybe... disappointment? Doubt?
Aslan's golden eyes were soft. "You are afraid that Rilian will be lost."
I nodded.
After a moment more, Aslan spoke again. "Jill Pole is a proud girl. You know what Eustace is like, though he has changed vastly for the better." He studied me closely, and I felt laid bare under his scrutiny.
At length he seemed satisfied. "Go with them, Daughter. Go with them in their journey, to help steer them in the right direction if they seem lost. With you, perhaps the task I have set for them will be accomplished."
And with a smile, I was sent back across the wide ocean to Narnia, where a great celebration and sending-off was being held.
XXX
Brightly colored flags, banners, and crowds filled the lawn of the harbor. Sitting atop the smooth water was a jewel-bright ship, slightly larger than the Dawn Treader. Her sails were furled, and a gangplank led up to her deck. People bustled up and down it as the crowd filled the air with its noise: music and laughter and cheers.
And then the gangplank cleared, and I saw Caspian, old and gray, wearing a scarlet cloak and leaning upon a cane at the foot of the gangplank. He said some words to the crowd, who was now quiet. When he had finished, he bent down and kissed fat little Trumpkin, who sat in a little cart pulled by a donkey, and then turned and boarded the ship.
All around, people took out their handkerchiefs to wave and to sob into. The gangplank was lowered, the ship was cast off, and it steadily began making its way out of the harbor.
Sadness overwhelmed me. Caspian was leaving Narnia, going to the Seven Isles. Rumors that Aslan had been in Terebinthia has spurred him to go search for him, to find who would succeed him as King, since Rilian was... gone.
I tried to shake off my feelings. I had to find Eustace and this girl Jill. Before they got into too much trouble.