Thanks to all the people who reviewed the last chapter, I have to admit that it was my favourite one so far, but this comes a close second to it.

Updates will be a lot slower now, not that they aren't already, due to the fact that I'm going to London for a week, and then returning back to school for Year 11 – which is a scary prospect. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter though!

I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading my story!

I walked beside Lucy, keeping my eyes forward and my lips pressed in a thin line. I knew my eyes would still be red from crying earlier.

I felt heartbroken; I didn't know how Edmund could accuse me of being like her, especially after my troubles with her in the cave.

I knew Lucy was fuming with anger at both Edmund and Caspian, for allowing the mist to use their temptations against one another.

Twice, Edmund had tried to apologise to me, by grabbing my wrist and trying to get me to face him. Both times, I had ignored him and just gone back to Lucy, as soon as his grip had loosened. I was sure he had seen the tears in my eyes the second time, since he didn't try again after that.

Finally, after a walk that seemed like eternity, we reached the beach, where the other members of the crew, who came ashore with us, stood beside the boat.

Automatically, Caspian strode ahead to see what they had managed to scavenge on this island.

"What food did you find?" he asked them, as we drew closer.

I peered into the wicker baskets and saw they weren't even close to being half-full of food.

"It's volcanic, your majesty," Rhince explained, kneeling by one of the baskets. "Not much grows here."

"Where's Eustace?" Lucy asked.

My brow furrowed in confusion as I looked around for the whining boy, who was missing from the site.

"I believe he is out not helping us to load the boats," Reepicheep to Lucy sarcastically, standing on one of the boats.

"Eustace!" Lucy yelled. "Eustace!"

"Eustace!" I joined in, feeling slightly worried about where the boy could be.

However, there was no response from anywhere on the island.

"I doubt he can hear us, Lu," I placed my hand on her shoulder.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang from further in the island, followed by the sound of rocks falling.

"Edmund, I've got a bad feeling," Lucy turned to her older brother, worry showing clearly on her face.

"I'll go find him," he said, striding off along the path we had just walked.

"I'll come with you," Caspian added, causing Edmund to turn and look at him in slight disbelief.

He gave a slight nod of his head, so Caspian sped up to catch up with Edmund, handing Lucy the sword we found in the pool.

"Your majesties," I turned to see Rhince was looking at Lucy and me. "I think it might be better if you went back to the Dawn Treader."

We agreed and climbed into one of the boats, sitting around the baskets.

"I'm sure Edmund didn't mean what he said," Lucy began, as the crew began to row the boat.

"But he still said it," I replied, looking at her.

"You know he loves you."

"I can't forgive him at the snap of my fingers, and I know he's your brother."

"But, you still love him, right?"

"Of course; I love him, but I just don't like him at the present time."

I leant against the railings on the bow of the Dawn Treader, watching the smoke rise from the island in a never-ending column. Gael and Lucy stood beside me, the former chatting with the latter gaily.

The crew were waiting for a signal from the two Kings, telling them to get a boat back to shore to bring them back to the Dawn Treader. In the meantime, they were swabbing the deck, clearing away stray ropes and chatting to one another.

Suddenly, a loud roar, coming from the island, made everyone on deck start and look up towards the island; wondering what had created the noise.

"What was that?" Lucy turned to ask Drinian, who had a look of suspicion in his eyes.

My eyes widened as another roar sounded, this time, a column of fire burst out from just behind the crater.

Gael spun around to look at Drinian after she heard the second roar.

"Is it the volcano?"

"Oh no, that's no volcano," Drinian stared at the island, before walking down the stairs to the deck. "All hands on deck!"

The crew all stood on deck, watching the island as Drinian walked to the side of the ship. I watched him intently, wondering what Drinian thought was making the noise, just as it sounded for a third time.

"Archers! Arm yourselves!"

At Drinian's order, the archers ran through a doorway to grab their crossbows, before moving to stand in position on deck.

"Look!" I screamed, pointing at the dragon that was flying towards us, increasing in speed and roaring flames.

Lucy grabbed Gael as I held onto the railings, staring at the monstrous creature. It swung around the ship, scaring some of the crew as the others finished preparing their crossbows.

"Take your positions, and wait for my command!" Drinian ordered, standing on deck with his own, loaded crossbow.

The dragon flew around once more, before flying up the mast and trying to land on the sail, which rocked with the creature's weight.

"What's it doing?" Lucy yelled, clutching Gael to her in fear.

"Fire!" Drinian shouted, seeing that his archers were in position and aiming at the dragon.

The archers launched arrows one after the other at the dragon, most missing widely, but a few hitting its target.

"It'll break the mast," Drinian exclaimed, as the dragon began moving to dodge the arrows, still clutching the sail and causing it and the mast to creak with the weight it was trying to support.

Shoving the sail away, the dragon flew into the air, which caused the ship to rock to the side sharply.

I stumbled and tightened my grip on the railings, trying to regain my balance. The crew stumbled, but some regained their balance quickly and began firing at the dragon once more.

I saw Reepicheep put his sword in his mouth and run to the mast, scaling the wood quickly to reach where the dragon clung onto the sail again.

As another wave of arrows was fired at the dragon, one hit it, causing it to slip and hang onto the sail, spewing out fire as it roared.

Reepicheep swung on a rope, pulled his sword out and stabbed the dragon in between its knuckles. It let go with a roar and flew away, narrowly dodging the side of the ship.

I watched with wide eyes as it flew back to the island, before a thought struck my head.

"Edmund's still there," I exclaimed.

Lucy looked at me worriedly, before turning back to the island, watching and wishing the same thing that I was; Edmund and Caspian would be safe.

Lucy moved Gael over, so the sailor with us hugged her, as we scanned the island for any signs of the dragon.

Suddenly, it appeared again and flew towards us, this time; it held something in its claws.

"Edmund!" I shrieked, seeing Edmund was trapped in the dragon's grasp.

"Ed!" Lucy yelled, in worry for her brother.

"Lucy!" Edmund shouted, as the dragon turned back to the island. "Alena!"

"We have to find him," I gasped, clutching the railings in fear.

Evening was drawing in by the time we reached the shore for the second time that day.

Edmund stood beside the dragon, glancing at it wearily from time to time.

"Edmund," Lucy darted forwards, hugging her brother tightly.

I moved to run towards him, but then remembered what he had called me, so I stopped and stood where I was.

Caspian, who was standing on the other side of the dragon, saw this and sent me a pitiful glance.

Edmund quickly explained that the dragon was Eustace, and how, when he had been taken, Eustace had shown him the message burnt into the rock.

Eustace began rubbing his right leg against the ground and, upon closer inspection; I saw he had a large, golden bracelet stuck to it.

"He must have been tempted by the treasure," Edmund said, looking around at us.

"Well everyone knows a dragon's treasure is enchanted," Caspian noted, with amusement lacing his voice.

Eustace glared at him through narrowed eyes, and Caspian realised his mistake very quickly.

"Well, anyone from here..."

I bit my lip, as I looked down, trying not to laugh too much at Caspian's statement.

Lucy walked forwards, towards Eustace, who hopped backwards, keeping his wounded leg in the air. However, when Lucy held her hands out, Eustace stretched out his leg and allowed Lucy to pull it off. With a roar of relief, Eustace held his leg closer to his body, rubbing the swollen skin to try to relieve himself of the irritation.

Lucy smiled at her cousin as she walked away, holding the golden bracelet in her hands, before throwing it onto a pile of rubble.

"Is there any way to change him back?" Edmund asked, looking at Caspian and Drinian.

"Not that I know of," Caspian admitted, looking to Drinian, who shrugged in return.

Eustace looked around at us, slight fear desperation showing in his eyes.

"Aunt Alberta will not be pleased," Edmund stated, looking at his cousin-turned-dragon.

Eustace growled and stamped his foot down, just as Reepicheep scampered forwards to stand in front of him.

"Sorry about the hand, old boy, I can be a little over zealous at times," Reepicheep apologised, looking slightly abashed.

"The boats are ready sire!" Tavros called from the shoreline.

"We can't leave him alone," Lucy said, steel underlining her voice.

"Well we can't take him on board, your majesty," Drinian replied quickly.

"Drinian, you and the others take one boat back," Caspian ordered, handing the sword to Drinian. "We'll camp here until morning. We'll work out what to do."

Drinian and a few of the others began to get the boat ready, but Rhince stepped forwards.

"But you've no provisions, and no means of staying warm, your majesty," he said earnestly.

I leapt back a step out of shock when Eustace blew fire out of his mouth and onto a small trunk, which immediately became a small campfire.

"Aha, you were saying?" Reepicheep joked.

We all laughed slightly as Eustace licked his lips and looked around at us quite innocently.

"Wake up!"

I groaned and sat up at Lucy's cry, wondering why she was yelling.

"What?" I mumbled sleepily.

"It's the blue star!"

That woke me up fully. My head snapped up as I looked into the sky, and a smile graced my lips when I saw the blue star was shining brightly in the sky.

For the first time in the past half-day or so, I felt a glimmer of hope in my bones.

I stood on the deck of the Dawn Treader; the crew were working hard and fast, as there seemed to be something in the air that made everyone happier. Whether it was due to the fact that we had finally found the blue star, I didn't know, but everything was going great.

Except for my problem with Edmund: I wanted to forgive him, but I didn't want to talk to him, so I was in a bit of a dilemma.

However, as the sun rose higher in the sky, the wind dropped, slowing the Dawn Treader down until she was nearly at a standstill. The crew had to go below deck and start using the oars to sail, but they were beginning to tire.

"The wind has left us," Drinian commented as I leaned sat on one of the barrels beside Caspian, the sun glaring down on us.

"So how do we get to Ramandu's Island now then?" Edmund asked, slight worry seeping into his tone.

"My guess is something doesn't want us to get there," Drinian replied cryptically, before walking around the deck to check on the crew.

I exchanged a look with Caspian, ignoring Edmund, and walked up the steps to the helm, with the other two following me, talking quietly.

"If I get any hungrier, I'm going to eat that dragon!" one of the crewmembers yelled loud enough, so that Eustace, who was flying about, could hear him.

Eustace obviously heard him, as he stuttered in his flight slightly.

"Don't worry Eustace, they'll have to get through me first," Reepicheep, who was sat on the great dragon's head, told him.

"If we don't find land by tonight they may well eat that dragon," Drinian commented, walking up the steps to stand with us.

Just as he finished speaking, however, the ship tilted sharply, causing everyone to fall over. As I fell, a pair of arms wound around my waist, causing me to fall half onto the person I was trying to avoid. Everyone else on deck felt it, and I heard them yell as they fell.

"What did we hit?" Drinian demanded when Caspian helped him up.

Edmund pulled me up and we clung onto the side, in case anything like that happened again.

"Eustace!" Edmund yelled after looking around. "That's brilliant!"

I looked in the direction of the prow and saw Eustace had his tail wrapped around the nose of the figurehead and was flying along, pulling the Dawn Treader after him.

We all cheered at the brilliant idea of the dragon, as Reepicheep ran onto the prow and yelled 'Onward ho!' holding his sword aloft as he did so.

Eustace looked back happily as he flew, obviously proud of the applause.

I smiled, holding onto the railings, before Edmund turned me around to face him.

"Alena, we need to talk," he said.

"No we don't," I replied, my voice hardening as the dislike for him resurfaced.

I turned away and stormed down the stairs to the deck, trying to ignore him as he followed me.

"Alena!"

"What?" I yelled, spinning around to face him.

"Why are you acting like this?" he replied, looking slight shocked.

"Why did you refer to me as the White Witch? Especially after what I went through!" I shouted.

"I didn't mean to, Alena, it was the mist."

"But Caspian didn't threaten me, or bring up bad memories!"

"Alena, I'm sorry. I know I threatened you in the cave, and that was awful of me. I don't want to hurt you, and I'll always love you. The mist affected Caspian and me in the cave, me mostly, but I honestly didn't mean any of it. Alena, I am truly sorry."

"Really? You're sorry? Well I've got something to say about that I–"

Before I could finish my sentence, Edmund grabbed me by my upper arms, pulled me close to him and crashed his lips to mine. Ignoring the whistles and catcalls of the crew around us, I clung back to Edmund, parting my lips and allowing his tongue to stroke mine harshly.

All the anger I felt for him seemed to slide off my body as he gently stroked my cheek with his hand, the other resting on my hip as I gripped his shoulders, my eyes squeezing shut as I tried to pour everything I love about him into the kiss.

When reality finally sank in, and Edmund broke the kiss, I felt a blush stain my cheeks as I listened to the crew and bent my head from embarrassment.

"You?" Edmund prodded, bending his head so his lips were by his ear.

"I love you, and I forgive you," I told him earnestly. "Just as long as you don't do anything like that again."

"I won't," Edmund shook his head, taking my threat seriously.

I hugged him tightly, and blushed once more when I saw Lucy and Caspian smirking at me.

"Alright men, back to work, and you two – stop canoodling on deck!" Drinian ordered loudly, causing Edmund and me to jump apart.

We looked at Drinian and laughed slightly, before Edmund wound his arm around my waist as Caspian and Lucy walked over to talk to us.

"You've finally made up then," Caspian commented, patting Edmund on his shoulder.

"Took her long enough," Edmund replied, which made me hit him on his chest.

However, the peaceful silence was broken by Lucy's comment, which made both Edmund and me blush and gape open-mouthed at her, and Caspian burst out laughing.

"When can I expect a niece or nephew then?"

I am so sorry for the long delay, but I've just got back to school and been loaded with homework for my final year before the Lower Sixth.

I hope you like this chapter – the last line is definitely my favourite!

Love,

Alexandra.