Thank you to all whom reviewed/favourite/subscribed/read the last chapter.

I hope you all like this chapter; it's still with The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, but I'm wondering whether it should end when The Voyage of The Dawn Treader ends. Can you give me your opinion on it? That would be greatly appreciated! Nevertheless, I have the plot line all figured out and the decision here will only cause minor changes.

In addition, we find out what Alena's fear/temptation will be in the first part of the story!

Enjoy!

I stood on the crow's nest of the Dawn Treader, looking around in the sky. However, something didn't feel right, so I looked down at the deck.

A gasp escaped my lips as I saw the deck was full of the crew moving, but all in slow motion. A few members of the crew, including Caspian, were holding onto several ropes and pulling back. They appeared to be trying to pull down a large Sea Serpent, one whose head was close to the crow's nest.

"My dear," an icy voice filled my head, and I turned around to see the White Witch floating in the air before me. "I can help you."

"No," I shook my head and backed away from her, as she held out her hand to me.

"Just one drop and all of your troubles will be solved. You will have a peaceful life, with your little King."

"No!" I shouted, trying to back away.

"You can't escape me, my dear; I will always be here, waiting for you."

"No!" I screamed, clutching my head in my hands.

I jerked awake, my scream still in my throat. I was panting and shaking from my nightmare, and just as I wiped the light sheen of cold sweat off my forehead, the fears from my nightmare began to slowly seep back.

I threw off the covers and strode across the room to grab my wrap from the dresser. I then crossed the room to the door and slipped into the hall, before quickly and quietly making my way to the room where Caspian, Edmund and Eustace slept in hammocks, as did other crewmembers, such as Reepicheep.

I was just about to walk into the room, when I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Lucy was behind me.

"Can't sleep?" she asked me, and I nodded silently in response.

"Come on," I said, opening the door to the room and walking inside, with her following me.

As I walked in, I saw Edmund sit up suddenly and unsheathe his sword, pointing it at the far wall.

"Ed," I said as gently as I could, stepping forwards.

He jumped and turned quickly, but relaxed when he saw Lucy and me standing beside his hammock. However, he soon turned and looked back at the wall fiercely, before a look of shock broke out on his face. He lowered his sword and looked down, slightly upset.

"What is it?" I stepped forwards and placed my hand on his arm.

Caspian, with a small cry, jerked awake and looked around with wide eyes.

"I can't sleep," Lucy admitted in a small voice.

"Let me guess," Edmund stated, looking between the four of us, "bad dreams?"

I looked down for a moment, before looking at Edmund, trying to be stronger than I felt.

"So either we all go mad," Edmund spoke again. "Or something's playing with our minds."

"The mist?"

With a grim expression, Edmund gave me a curt nod, squeezing my hand with his own.

"There's a spare hammock here, but only one," Caspian gestured to a hammock between Edmund's and his own.

"Lu, you take that one, Alena can share with me," Edmund suggested.

Lucy nodded and made her way over to the spare hammock, pulling the covers back and climbing into it. Edmund moved the covers to the side and shuffled over so there was room for me, before helping me climb on next to him. I curled up beside him and rested my head on his chest, holding his right hand with my left. He pressed a kiss to my head, before laying his head back onto the small leather pillow he had. I tucked the covers around my shoulders and wiggled about a bit, until I was comfortable, and found myself slipping into a deep sleep.

The next morning, whilst on deck, one of the men spotted another island from the crow's nest. It took most of the day to get there, meaning it was late afternoon when we dropped the anchor.

The island appeared to be all brown, dusty rock, and one part appeared to have a huge crater in the front of it, with some smoke floating out of it.

About half an hour later, I sat in one of three longboats, beside Edmund, with Caspian, Rhince, Lucy and Eustace. Edmund, Caspian, Rhince and I were rowing, whilst Lucy was steering and Eustace was sat at the front, doing nothing.

"I doubt the Lords stopped here, my liege," Reepicheep commented, from the stern of the second boat. "There's no sign of anything living."

"Right, well once we get ashore take you men and search for food and water," Caspian called to him. "The four of us will look for clues."

"Hang on, you mean the five of us?" Eustace butted in, sounding slightly worried.

Everyone on the boat stopped rowing as we turned to look at the Pevensie's cousin with disbelief.

"Oh come on; please don't send me back to the rat."

"I heard that," Reepicheep sounded slightly annoyed.

"Big ears," Eustace muttered, looking away when we turned to start rowing again.

"I heard that too," Reepicheep, sounded amused this time.

I laughed, as did Lucy, Caspian, Rhince and Edmund, before sharing a loving and caring smile with Edmund.

"Would you two please stop with the looks?" Eustace's obnoxious voice carried along the waves.

I rolled my eyes at his comment, and glanced at Edmund, who had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Well then, Eustace, I guess you won't like this then," he spoke.

"Like what?"

"This," Edmund nudged me, so I turned to look at him, before grasping my chin gently with one hand, capturing my lips with his and giving me a short but loving kiss. My eyelids fluttered shut as I let out a small, shocked noise from the back of my throat, but kissed him back.

We broke apart when we heard Eustace grumbling about something or other, and carried on rowing, but not without sharing several more glances with one another.

Edmund, Caspian and Rhince jumped out of the boat as we drew into the shallow waters and pulled it up onto the shore. I took Edmund's outstretched hand and jumped onto the dry ground, walking forwards slightly to allow Lucy to get out.

I looked up and around at the island, trying to see if there was anything living here.

"Why are you frowning?" Edmund walked up to me and placed an arm around my shoulders.

"I don't think that they'll find anything; it appears to be lifeless," I replied, frowning.

"There might be something growing deeper in the island."

I shrugged, looking over my shoulder at the crew, who were pulling the boats ashore.

"Alena," I turned and took a few steps away from Edmund when Lucy called me.

"Yes?" I replied, as Lucy walked up to me.

"Have you seen Eustace?"

"He's probably hiding, so he doesn't have to help Reepicheep," I guessed.

"Probably," she agreed.

"Are you three ready?" Caspian called, beginning to walk up a dusty slope, which led further around the island.

Lucy smiled at me, before we began to walk quickly to catch up with Caspian and Edmund, who joined him in his long strides.

Edmund walked beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist, keeping me close to him. I grinned at him and wound my left arm under his shoulders, pulling us even closer together.

"You're feeling very affectionate today," I noted.

"What's wrong with that?" Edmund replied, kissing my neck lightly.

I giggled when his lips brushed my skin; I was quite ticklish.

"Are you ticklish?"

I shook my head, despite the smile on my face.

"You are," he grinned, when he poked me in my side, which caused me to giggle.

The next thing I knew, Edmund was running his fingers up and down my ribs, causing me to squirm away, amidst my loud giggles.

"No! Please, stop it!" I choked out.

"Come on you two!" Caspian groaned, when he saw we were slipping behind him and Lucy.

"While we're still young!" Lucy yelled down, a grin on her face.

I managed to wriggle out of Edmund's grasp and begin running to the other two, with Edmund hot on my heels all the way, all four of us laughing.

"Look," I glanced up at Caspian as he jogged ahead to a large crack in the ground. "We're not the first ones on this island."

As I drew closer to him, standing just behind Edmund and Lucy, I saw that there was a rope tied to a nearby rock, which led down into the crack.

"The Lords?" Edmund asked, drawing to a stop.

"Could be," Caspian replied, peering down into the crack.

It was quite wide, at least four feet, and the cavern below seemed to have a golden glow, from what I could see on the surface.

Caspian bent down and, as Lucy finally reached us, threw a rock into the crack. We watched it bounce off the sides of the tunnel inwards, before it hit the ground and stopped moving.

"What do you think could be down there?" I asked.

Edmund looked down for a few more seconds, before turning to look at me, with a small smirk on his face.

"Let's find out."

"What?"

As Edmund moved to grab the rope, I stopped him by placing my hand on his arm.

"What're you doing?"

"Going to have a look," he replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Using that rope? That's at least twenty years old – it could break at any second!"

"I'll be fine; I always am."

He grasped the rope in both hands and began to lower himself into the crack. I got onto my knees and watched him as he walked down the rocky wall, looking around, as he got closer to bottom.

Finally, he let go of the rope and jumped the last foot, landing on the floor of the cavern.

"It's huge; you guys really should see this," Edmund called back up.

"Right, Alena first," Caspian decided, moving away from the edge of the crack.

I sent him a withering look, before throwing my legs over the edge of the crack and grasping firmly onto the rope. I slid down slightly, before turning around so I was facing the rock and rope as I began to make the descent below.

I concentrated on taking one-step after the other so much; I jumped when I felt Edmund's hands on my backs of my calves.

"A bit lower and you can jump," he murmured, keeping his hands close to me as I took a few more steps.

I looked down and saw there was only a couple of feet left for me to climb down, and Edmund obviously saw that as well; his hands tightened their grip on my hips, and allowed me to jump down without hurting myself.

"Thank you," I smiled at him, titling my head back and placing a small kiss on his lips, before looking back up at Caspian, who was beginning to climb down as well.

We waited for Lucy to reach us at the bottom, before we began to explore the large cavern, lit by the sunlight pouring in through more cracks in the roof.

Further in, there was a large pool; its surface was as smooth an clear as glass, but something didn't seem right about it.

I walked ahead of Edmund and leant on a large rock to peer into the pool. Under the surface, I saw there was a golden statue of an older man, who appeared to be reaching down to something.

"Ed," I took a step back and pointed at the statue.

"What's that?" Caspian asked us, drawing closer.

"I don't know," Edmund replied, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"It's a golden statue, of some man, but I don't know who," I answered them.

Lucy leant on a rock and looked at the statue, as Edmund turned around and walked to a wall, where dried up tree roots clung to the rock. With a grunt, he pulled a fairly large, but light one off and began walking back to the pool with it in his hands.

Kneeling down so he was closer to the water's edge, he held onto the end of the stick and stuck the other in the water, moving to prod the statue. However, he pulled it back out with a confused look on his face. I followed his gaze and saw, with shock, that from the end of the stick, a golden covering was spreading towards the end Edmund held. With a cry from Edmund, he dropped it into the water when it became too heavy for him to hold.

Caspian, Lucy, Edmund and I all exchanged nervous glances, as we realised that the pool turned anything it touched to solid gold.

"He must have fallen in," Caspian murmured, kneeling at the water's edge.

"He can't have," I told him, earning a slightly surprised look. "He's bending into the water to touch the water."

"Poor man," Lucy walked up, speaking for the first time in the cavern.

"You mean 'Poor Lord,'" Edmund corrected, pointing at the crest on the shield.

"The crest of Lord Restimar," Caspian nodded, informing us who the man in the water was.

"His sword," Edmund pointed into the water, at the sword that lay untouched by the magic this pool possessed.

"We need it."

"But how're we going to get it out without turning to gold?" Lucy asked.

"Edmund, you use your sword; the swords aren't affected by the power, since the one under water hasn't turned to gold," I explained my idea, quite proud of it, actually.

"Be careful," Lucy asked Edmund, as he unsheathed his sword.

He bent down and slowly sliced the sword into the water, until it touched the second. Carefully, he used his sword to pull the second out of the water.

"The swords haven't turned to gold," Lucy said.

"Both of them are magical," Caspian muttered, concentrating on helped Edmund keep his balance as he pulled the swords out.

"You were right," Lucy gave me a brilliant smile. "You're theory."

I returned her smile, glad that she appreciated me inputting ideas into the adventure.

"Here," Caspian took the sword off Edmund and looked at it in the sunlight.

"He mustn't have known what hit him," Lucy noted sympathetically.

"Maybe," Edmund said, putting his sword down on the side. "Or maybe he was onto something."

"Ed?" I questioned, unsure where he was going.

"What are you talking about?" Caspian had the same train of thought as me.

I watched cautiously as Edmund picked up a shell off the ground and dunked half of it in the water. As soon as it began to turn gold, he put it back on the ground and pulled his hand away, watching as it turned to solid gold. He picked it up and held it before his eyes, staring at it with something I couldn't place.

"What are you staring at?" Lucy asked, worried for her brother.

"Whoever has access to this pool could be the most powerful person on earth," Edmund said, his eyes never leaving the gold.

I looked at Caspian and Lucy, starting to get scared with the way Edmund was behaving.

"Lucy," he turned to his sister. "We'd be so rich; no one could tell us what to do, or who to live with."

"Edmund..." I trailed off, taking a step towards him.

Caspian blocked me by holding out his arm, giving me a cautious look.

"You can't take anything out of Narnia," he told Edmund.

"Says who?" Edmund appeared not to care; he was still staring at the gold.

After a pause, Caspian spoke again, only this time, the temperature in the cavern seemed to drop.

"I do."

Edmund turned to stare at Caspian, looking angry. He picked his sword up and stood up, walking towards Caspian.

"I'm not your subject," he snarled in a whisper.

"You've been waiting for this, haven't you," Caspian accused. "To challenge me; you doubt my leadership."

"You doubt yourself."

"You're a child!"

"And you're a spineless sap."

"Edmund," Lucy tried to pull her brother away, but he pushed her.

I caught her before she could trip over, and held her in my arms as we watched the growing conflict with wide eyes.

"I'm tired of playing second fiddle; first it was Peter, and now it's you. You know I'm braver than both of you are, and you got Peter's sword. I deserve a kingdom of my own! I deserve to rule!"

"Edmund, please," I pleaded, letting go of Lucy and walking to Ed, placing my hand on his arm. "You don't need to prove to anyone what you are; everyone knows it already."

"Get off!" he yelled, slapping my hand away and turning on me. "I don't even know why you're here; you just fall in from your time for no reason and everyone suddenly loves you, as if you put a spell on them, and you probably did; you're just as bad as the White Witch!"

I heard Lucy gasp behind me as I took a step back, the rejection slapping me on my face.

"See, you don't deserve anything, if you treat it like her! If you think you're so brave, why don't you prove it?" he yelled, shoving Edmund.

With a roar, Edmund lunged at Caspian and they both swung their swords at each other, the metal clashing in the air.

"No! Stop it!" Lucy yelled, standing in between them. "Both of you! Look at yourselves; can't you see what's happening? This place has tempted you, it's bewitched you; this is exactly what Coriakin was talking about. Let's just get out of here."

Lucy turned and began walking away, as Edmund looked at the golden shell in his hand. As he thought about his mistakes, he turned to me with a apologetic expression.

"Don't," I shook my head softly, holding up my hand at him, my eyes stinging with tears. "Just don't."

Ignoring Edmund call my name, I turned and followed Lucy to the rope, where she was halfway up. I grabbed it and climbed back out, feeling the tears falling steadily down my cheeks. At the top, Lucy pulled me into a hug and let me sob into her shoulder.

As Caspian helped Edmund out, Lucy pulled me away and we began walking back to the beach, ignoring both men.

An angsty chapter, but I had to end it there otherwise it would have gone on.

Sorry for the delay, but I hope this makes up for it all.

For some reason, FanFiction won't let me reply to your reviews, so please don't think I'm ignoring you; I love the reviews, but I just can't say so.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Alexandra.