A/N-So it appears I may need to clear things up again: this is a reminder that I will NOT be basing chapter regularity on the number of reviews I get (if I did that we'd all have a bad time here), and there will be regularly at least one if not two chapters per weekend along with hopefully at least the weekly Book of Dragons entry. When I have time, there will be the possibility of bonus chapters or entries that may be based on views/reviews, but that sort of thing is not concrete in any manner.

Now, with that out of the way, hopefully we can focus on our story again. The real excitement is over for now, but there's a lot of important information to come, so pay attention and let me know what your predictions are!

Chapter 20

Changes

"So they weren't killed or anything, they were abducted to be used as hostages and an energy source," Lucy surmised. "That's about as sick as I could expect from pure evil."

We had managed to pull the damaged ship over to the beach and began interacting with the people who we came to confirm were the ones who'd disappeared in the occurrences with the fog. Naturally they were apprehensive about us at first, but once they came to learn who we were, they became overjoyed at the thought that they'd finally be freed.

"So, is there any way we can help them?" Lucy asked. Caspian rubbed his chin and looked around at the island, now clear of the hideous fog it once was covered with. Nothing grew on it now due to the lack of light.

"Well, there's no imminent danger here anymore," Caspian replied, "so we can probably fix the ship on the beach, especially now with extra helping hands and anything we can use from the boats. Then we can sail home from there." "Well, don't forget the three lords on Romandil too," Peter reminded. "They're probably awake now and need a way to return home as well."

Suddenly, a loud roar from above us drew our attention upward, to find Eustace gliding down toward the ship, flaring his wings and landing with a little more grace than he'd possessed before. Reepicheep scrambled down one of the few ropes still hanging on the mast and up to the young dragon, grinning wildly. "Eustace! You're alright!" he exclaimed. Eustace nodded, chuckling a little, then looked at me.

::It worked,:: he said. ::The catalyst broke the curse once it was released.:: I nodded. "Yes, the battle's over. And, it wouldn't have been broken had it not been for you taking it upon yourself to deliver the last piece."

"Well, I see Eustace managed to come through unscathed as well," I heard behind me amidst a new flapping of wings. I turned to see Thuggory and Silverwings landing on the ship as well. I smirked. "Well, not quite unscathed I'm afraid, "I said. "I can see it in your eyes Eustace. You had a battle of your own, didn't you?"

Eustace nodded. ::There… there was a demon waiting to ambush whoever it was that tried to bring the last sword back. Though, they didn't factor in that the sword already had an effect on them when in proximity to the others.:: I nodded, then gestured that he should follow me as I turned around and began walking. Out of curiosity, the others all followed behind as well. Toothless came up next to me and glanced between me and the young dragon. ::So, are you going to undo the transformation now?:: he whispered. I shrugged. ::Maybe. But we have to see if he learned what I needed him to first.::

I stepped up to the broken prow of the ship, and turned to be eye to eye with Eustace. "I have something very important I need to ask you Eustace," I began. "A few days ago I became fed up with the hassles you had been putting all of us through and I changed you into what you are now for a reason. I did so because I wanted you to learn a lesson, a few important things that you sorely lacked at the time. Now, I ask you, in this time you've spent as something other than yourself, what have you learned?"

At hearing this, Eustace visibly deflated from the reminder of his prior behavior, and he looked up at me apologetically. ::I… guess I should just start off saying, Hawken, that I'm… I'm sorry. I managed to misjudge and take prejudices against everyone here, even my own family, thinking that I knew best and I knew what was right.:: He snorted and looked around him. ::I guess this is proper punishment for such airheaded arrogance. To tell you the truth I think I was a better dragon than I was a human, and I… I think I've realized the dragons have been better souls in the couple days I've known them than I've been my life so far. All I did, and they still didn't retaliate when they had every right to, even when I could understand them they didn't even lash back verbally. I wish I had realized this sooner though.::

For a moment no one said anything, save for Stormfly who was taking it upon herself to be translator, and everyone's eye were glued to me to await a response. Finally, I let out a breath and turned to face away from everyone, hands clasped behind my back. "Eustace, you did learn a lot in what was a very short time. But, there was one thing that was missing from your response, another lesson I wanted taught." As I turned around I watched the atmosphere tense up around everyone, as if they thought I'd just decided it wasn't enough. I smiled slightly at the look on Eustace's face too.

"However, I did not expect you to consciously realize you'd learned this lesson either, so I've watched to see instead if you had. You learned about the bond of friendship. You risked your own life in order to help your family and, if any of us can be called by it, friends. That was another extremely important point I intended to make."

I turned and waved my hand toward the Vikings and their dragons. "For 300 years both humans and dragons fought tooth and claw against each other, the Vikings seeing their opponents as entities of evil, demons like those we fought today. The dragons were forced into the war themselves by the grip of a monstrosity like no other. Yet here they are before you, brothers and sisters together, fighting side by side." I turned and looked Eustace straight in the eye, a dead serious expression on my face to emphasize my point. "Do you know what it took for all that to change?"

Eustace stood silent for a moment, knowing the answer but feeling awkward to just say it out loud. Finally he met my gaze again. ::Friendship?:: he asked. I nodded. "Yes. Friendship, and trust. Three years ago, what once was and still is the most feared dragon alive was brought down by none other than a village screw-up"- out of the corner of my eye I saw Hiccup wince at the memory "-and instead of acting like everyone else, they spared each other when they had the chance to kill, like anyone else would have. From that first contact, a bond formed. Across hatred, across species, looking past every single prejudice that either of them had ever grown up with, they managed to find the ability to trust each other not for what they thought they knew, but for what they found together.

"That pair managed to end a three century war, and brought peace to the entire region they lived in. Eustace, that pair was the boy you also saw as a failure when you first arrived here, and the dragon the Night Fury that you hurt through the eyes of hatred you hadn't yet managed to look past."

Eustace looked, shocked, at Hiccup and Toothless, along with all the crew who had yet to hear the story as well, as they both just nodded simply. ::They…they did all that?:: he asked quietly. I smiled. "Yes, just as you, in an act of selfless trust to not only me who you started out hating as well but all the crew on this ship, helped to end our battle today. Against all odds you also managed to find within yourself that same ability everyone has to put aside prejudices and find what really lay behind it all. And, I hope, you've found it within yourself to be able to call us by friend as well." Eustace nodded in agreement, trying to hide the watery eyes he had but not quite managing. I smiled even wider. "Then you have learned."

I stepped down from my makeshift pedestal and came closer to the young dragon. "By these words I say now to you," I began, opening my palm and reaching up to place it on his forehead, "I return you to how you are meant to be. Your lesson is learned in heart, and by God's power it will never leave again." My hand began to glow soft lavender as I felt a stream of energy flow through me. Eustace closed his eyes, as if expecting the process to hurt, as the light of my hand increased in intensity. I focused a little more, and the power transferred from me to him. With a flash, tendrils of light raced from that spot all across his body, dissolving bit by bit scale and tooth, claw and wing. The light continued to intensify, and enveloped Eustace until all that could be seen of him was a dragon-shaped halo.

In a fraction of a second, the glowing figure spun like a vortex, drawing every last eye to it, and collapsed inward condensing down to a much smaller form before slowly fading out to reveal the clearly discombobulated but still standing figure of Eustace the boy.

Susan and Lucy both screamed and ran up to him, picking him up in a tight hug, and the three boys Edmund, Peter and Caspian waited for them to let him go before taking a slightly less touchy approach, walking up and patting him on the back. "You were a pretty good dragon," Edmund said, ignoring the look his younger sister gave him, "but it's still good to have you back as yourself again." Eustace smiled faintly before he, Edmund and Peter also shared and embrace.

One they let go of each other, all of them a little red from the public affection display, Eustace walked over to the dragons and the teens. "I have to get this over with now or I will be kicking myself later for not doing so," he said. "I am truly sorry I acted the way I did toward all of you, especially the dragons." The teens let out a number of various "hey, don't worry about it"s and "apology accepted"s, before Eustace turned specifically to face Hiccup and Toothless.

"I'm especially sorry to both of you, as I greatly underestimated your worth. You are both far better than I am in so many ways, and I am glad to call you my friends, if you'll accept that." He smiled and held out his hand, which Hiccup took, and rubbed Toothless' head, before glancing at the three female warriors. "And Astrid, Cami, Ruff? Remind me to never again say girls can't fight."

We all burst out laughing at that, and Eustace opened his mouth to continue before Stormfly came rocketing back down toward the ship, having taken off to get a look out around where we were now that everything was clear. Her scales were blushing bright gold in excitement.

"Hey guys, the clouds cleared up fully," she exclaimed, "and I can see land on the horizon to the west!" "Land?" we all asked. "Yeah. Kind of odd looking, as it's edged in white, but there're mountains beyond and it looks to stretch on for a god ways."

"Maybe it's Aslan's country!" Reepicheep suggested from where he'd perched on Eustace's shoulder. The Vikings looked at me. "So, I know I heard that name before, but who is he?" Fishlegs asked. I shrugged. "Okay, so I guess not everything here has been explained just yet." "Well, you can tell them on the way," Caspian interrupted. "The crew here and the castaways are safe for now and should be able to hold things down here. We should go and take a look." Lucy smiled and nodded from behind him, and spoke up, "Yes, we should, since he's probably waiting for us there now."

We arranged for everyone going to ride on the dragons, with the Vikings of course with their respective mounts and Lucy with Astrid, Susan with Cami, Peter with Snotlout, Edmund with Thuggory, and Caspian with Hiccup. Eustace and Reepicheep both rode on my back after I switched to Wind Fury, and we all took off.

As we headed toward the line on the horizon, Tuffnut spoke up again. "So, no one answered Fish's question earlier, so: can someone actually tell us who Aslan is?" Lucy giggled and answered first. "He's a lion, the one who protects Narnia and the adjacent lands. He rarely comes to visit or interfere directly, but when needed we've often had him show up to help in the blink of an eye."

"He's saved my life one more than one occasion," Caspian added. "So, Aslan is like one of the other talking animals?" Thuggory asked, before shrinking away from the glare Reepicheep shot him. "He's a lot more than that," Reep answered him. "He's a guardian, like Hawken is."

We rode on in silence for a time until we neared the shoreline. Below, explaining the odd white edging Stormfly had described, was some sort of pure white water lily growing across a massive expanse of the water. Not what you'd expect to find in a saltwater environment, and one more question I had that would go unanswered. The shore itself was a wide swath of pure crystalline sand, and a great length of it was separated from the forest beyond it by what appeared from a distance to be a shimmering blue wall. As we dove down to land, it quickly became clear that it was not a wall, not really. It was a sheet of water, pouring down like a massive fountain across a backing of translucent crystal, and creating a beautiful but off-putting barrier between the beach and the forest. Beyond all that, in the distance, was a range of low mountains, making the land look, save for the water wall, very familiar.

We landed and everyone hopped off their dragons, and once Eustace and Reep left my back I morphed to normal and re-secured my swords. We looked around, but saw nothing else along the beach. Everything was just pure white sand fronted by water.

"Kind of eerie here," Astrid commented. "I can't hear a thing besides the waterfall thing here." Susan nodded as she glanced up at the odd structure. "I'm as surprised as you. Usually we'd have some sign of either where we'd need to go, or of Aslan himself by now." "Well, maybe this just isn't the right place," Hiccup offered. "Let's see if there's somewhere along this water wall that we can get through and into the forest. Maybe there's a clue there, and I get the odd feeling we aren't just supposed to fly over."

Everyone agreed (and some of us voiced the same feeling that Hiccup was getting), and we began walking across the width of the beach, which was quite expansive from the ocean's edge to the water structure. I lagged behind a little, feeling like there was something just out of place, but shook it off and kept following the rest.

The feeling didn't abate. As I walked, I also gained the new sense that something was watching us. I slowed again, and just as the first of the group reached the fountain, a shadow caught my eye. There was something behind us now, following us, and bigger than a man. I slowly stopped, grabbed the hilt of my team sword, and pulled it out, spinning around to aim the tip of the blade at whatever it was.

"Oh! Uh, hi. Um, sorry about the rude entrance and the, uh, sword, thing." "Don't worry yourself, Hawken," he said, chuckling. "It's perfectly understandable in this place."

Alright, I'm sure you all can guess it by now, but who did we just meet? And, who is he really? Leave a review and let me know your predictions! And don't forget, only two chapters left before we begin the next tale in the series: Time's Revelation.