Into the Unknown || King Caspian

The storm never seemed to want to end that day. The huge drops of rain that fell vigorously from the sky wet everything, from the streets, to the windows of the buildings, to the roofs of the famous red double-decker buses and cars, up to the people, who walked hastily as every other day, not giving weight to dripping hair or soaked clothes, after all, you know, the umbrella is not very fashionable in England.

It was mid-August, although the London weather that afternoon resembled an autumn day, a kind of warning, perhaps, that the summer would soon come to an end, and that the time for holidays was getting shorter. But that, of course, didn't matter to Elizabeth: being only at the beginning of her career, she suspected that it would have been a long time before she could have left the confusion of London and enjoy a few days at sea.

Elizabeth Dorothea Jones, Liz for friends, Liz for anyone in fact, loved her job, had struggled to get it, however, her current position was making her rethink about being actually fit for the environment.

"I swear, if he tells me another time to rewrite this, I'll throw him and his damn film out of the window!" The young woman started to complain, whizzing outside the glass doors of the BBC building and down the stairs.

Her light brown hair being immediately victim of the rain, her clear skin now freezing under the touch of the wind and her green eyes wide open for anger and frustration.

Right beside her, in the impossible attempt to keep up with her, was her co-worker Finn, the closest thing she had to a family.

"I think you are overreacting a little, Liz. He's the director, I think it's normal that he wants everything to be perf..." he tried to talk her down, failing miserably.

"Overreacting?! Overreacting! I'm a screenwriter, Finn, not one of his sluts! Even if he insists on treating me like them!" She sharply interrupted him.

Elizabeth was furious with her employer, Mr Adams, for the manners he often used towards her. It seemed as if she was a sex toy in his eyes, not one of his writers, and he was never satisfied with her script for the film. With his pompous and arrogant ways he was slowing down all production. The woman was almost thinking of suing him for harassment and getting him out of the way.

"All right, all right! Just please stop shouting, you're killing my ears, you know?" Finn asked her ironically, eventually giving up, realising that he wasn't being of any help to her.

"I'm sorry, really. It's just...nothing seems to go the right way lately." She said, taking a long breath and slowing her walk.

"You are stressed," he asserted, stopping her and putting a hand on her shoulder, "you are working too much. Take a free day, I'm sure no one would dare to complain, and you can always say that you're working from home: it wouldn't be the first time you lock yourself into your fleet to write." He looked down at her with his bright blue eyes and gave her a charming smile.

The woman relaxed. "I believe you're right...", she eventually whispered.

"There are no doubts about that," he replied. Both burst into laughter, the tension now disappeared.

Elizabeth leaned her head to his chest, "What would I do without you Finn?" She asked him, sighing.

"Die from a nervous breakdown," he joked, leaving a kiss on her forehead.

It might seems like a not very English behavior, but Liz had always been a loving girl, and the two had become very close over the years.

"Hilarious," she fought back, chuckling.

"I need to go now, if I want to catch the last train, I'll call you tomorrow." She then told him, taking a step back.

"Try to sleep an hour or two, would you?" he demanded her. A hint of sincere concern was perceptible in Finn's voice, despite his jovial tone.

"Promise," she said, giving him a last smile.

"Good. We'll talk tomorrow then. Goodbye Liz."

He spoke, watching her walking away towards the subway entrance.

"Bye!" she shouted back, waving her hand and speeding up to reach the dry underground station.

✵✵✵✵

Elizabeth's fleet in Duke Street wasn't too far from the studios. She took the Central Line at White City and got off at Bond Street, arriving home in less than thirty minutes.

It wasn't a big apartment. The entrance leads to a cozy living room in a modern style, in which the bookcase stood out on the back wall, full of books, fantasy for the most part, which threatened to break through the shelves at any moment; on the right, separated only by a sliding door, there was a small kitchen, whose stoves were victims of Elizabeth's culinary experiments. Beyond the living area, there were two bedrooms, facing the opposite sides of a short corridor that ended with the bathroom.

It was now 6 o'clock and Elizabeth was too tired for anything that day, so she opted for a light dinner, followed by one of her beloved herbal teas, which she sipped lying on the couch, with a good book in her hands and a blanket on her legs. For the umpteenth time she had arrived at the last pages of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Mysterious Island", when fatigue prevailed over her hunger for adventure and dragged her into the arms of Morpheus.

✵✵✵✵

The next morning, Elizabeth awoke on the couch in the living room. It was relatively early: even with the alarm off, she was no longer used to sleeping late, and her biological clock had rung. After having put back the book and the blanket, the young woman decided to wake up under the cool jet of the shower and to wear something comfortable. A good half an hour later, she was sitting at the kitchen table, with a bowl of warm porridge and her laptop in front. She couldn't believe the number of e-mails and notifications she received at night, most of which she didn't even know whose they were. Didn't people ever take a break from social media? All those who sent those messages had nothing else to do but write to her?

With these thoughts Elizabeth finished her beloved porridge and, lazily, began to wash the dishes in the sink, before the pile became too high.

Sοaped, rubbed and rinsed thoroughly all the dishes, pots and cutlery used in the last two days, Elizabeth surrendered to a sigh of relief, then closed the water sink and prepare to dry. Although the knob was turned downwards, the jet decided not to run out, but indeed, if possible, began to flow more abundantly.

"What the hell...?!" exclaimed the woman, trying to stop the flow with the cloth but without obtaining any result.

Water soon began to spill out of the sink, flooding the entire kitchen. Fortunately, the young woman thought, the sliding door was closed, even though she didn't remember locking it, otherwise she would have found herself having to pull up water throughout the all house, while, in this way, she had to worry only about that room.

"All right, breathe, just breathe. There had to be a way to stop it." she said to herself, trying to remain rational and do not panic.

Every phenomenon had a cause, she thought, which in that case probably was some valve turned in the wrong direction. She then decided to check the pipes hidden by the doors under the sink, but it seemed that everything was in the right place.

Meanwhile the water level had risen at an impressive speed, reaching the height of her knees. She closed the doors with violence and let herself go to a desperate cry. She had no idea what was going on, why it was happening and how to get out of trouble. Frustrated, she fell into the chair, aware that she couldn't stop the water, which continued to rise at an unnatural speed.

It was only a few moments before the level reached her face. Elizabeth thought it was the end. In a instant she felt the desperate need for air, the oxygen in her lungs that decreased every second more. She closed her eyes for the pain, but when she reopened them she was no longer surrounded by the furniture of her kitchen, she wasn't surrounded by anything in fact, except by an immense expanse of water. She looked up and saw the light across the surface. It must not have been far. She swam with all her strength towards it, the absence of air now almost unsustainable. Within seconds, Elizabeth could finally pull her head out of the water and breathe again.

She was now alive, but she didn't know where she was or how she ended up there.

It had to be some sort of magic, an impossible amazing magic that had brought her into the unknown.

Elizabeth looked around confused. One minute she thought she was drowning in her kitchen and now...now she was in the middle of the ocean! How exactly did she teleport from London to the open sea?

The course of those thoughts was interrupted by the sudden appearance,

on the one hand, of three other people in the water, a girl and two boys who weren't too far from her and, just like her, seemed disoriented and struggled to stay afloat, on the other, of a huge sailing ship headed towards them.

"You've got to be joking..." she murmured to herself, starting to swim as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

"Eustace swim!!!" Elizabeth heard the girl, who was the nearest to her of the group, shouting at one of the boys.

"Eustace swim! Keep swimming!" the kid yelled again.

Elizabeth then instinctively turned her face to her and realized how much she struggled to stay afloat, probably much more than the others. Without waiting to find out how much longer she would've resisted, the woman reached her, took her by the hips and helped her to stay with her head out of the water.

"Don't worry, I got you!" she told her, trying to be strong enough for the both of them.

"And I got you," a voice spoke behind her, a male voice, firm and, in that situation, reassuring, while two arms surrounded her waist, supporting her.

Elizabeth realised now that some of the crew of the ship had jumped into the water to their aid, and one of them was helping her breathe.

"Caspian!" the little girl she had tried to assist exclaimed, turning to their saviour.

"Lucy!" he replied with a friendly voice. Elizabeth couldn't see him but she was sure there was a smile on his lips.

"Edmund! It's Caspian!" the girl, whose name had to be Lucy, yelled to one of the boys.

"It's all right boys! You're safe now!" a sailor told them immediately after, swimming closer to assist them.

"We are in Narnia?" one of castaways asked him, calming himself.

"Yes! Yes, you're in Narnia," he reassured him, jovially.

Elizabeth had absolutely no idea were she was, what was happening and what they were talking about, but she was glad of the help. She followed her saviour to the side of the ship, Lucy swimming right beside her.

"I don't wanna to go! I wanna go back to England! I'm going back to England!" the other young stranger keep yelling. Apparently, unlike Elizabeth, he was against any help. He was in a total state of panic, squirming at sea like a child who can't find his mother.

In the meantime, aided by her rescuer, the woman was focused on climbing up a narrow wooden platform that would carry her to the ship, however, a small but not irrelevant detail didn't escape her ear: she wasn't the only English.

The man circled her waist with his left arm, to keep her steady, and grasped the rope with his other hand.

"Hold on," he told her, glancing down at her for a moment to see if she was all right. He found her trembling a little and with her eyes down. She was probably terrified and freezing, he though. Who knows how long they were in the water. And, in spite of that, she still did everything she could to help Lucy. She had to have a good heart...and a lot of guts.

Elizabeth, in truth, was just very confused, maybe even a little excited about being in another world. After all, escaping from everyday life had always been her greatest dream: she had never wanted a normal life, an ordinary life, she considered it boring, which is why she had entered the world of cinema, she wanted to find that little bit more which a common job couldn't offer her. But her wish didn't come true. Even as a screenwriter her life was not the one she had hoped for: something was missing, something that in her world would always be impossible to find...magic was missing. This world, however, seemed to be totally different from the one she came from. Maybe here she could find her place, find that something extra that would finally make her feel completely alive.

When the gangway reached the deck level, with a slight pressure on her back the man urged Elizabeth to board, then grabbed a towel from one of the sailors and placed it on her shoulders.

"Thank you," the woman murmured, finally lifting her gaze. Her eyes met those of her savior who, in turn, stared at her for endless moments. He smiled, just smiled, because he seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak.

Caspian had never been in a situation like that before: he had no idea who the woman in front of him was, all he knew was that she probably had come from the same world as the great Kings and Queens of old and found herself in the middle of the ocean, from which he had just fished her out, that, therefore, she knew how to swim, she had courage and...and he couldn't take his eyes off her. Her gaze was simply magnetic and she was beautiful, despite being soaked wet and trembling, confused and disoriented, he didn't think he had ever seen more wonderful creature.

Once awake from his state of trance, the man slightly nodded his head towards Elizabeth and focused on helping Lucy to board the ship.

"That was thrilling!" the young girl happily exclaimed, being finally safe on the deck.

Elizabeth chuckled at her enthusiasm, starting to look around to better understand where she was. It certainly could not be said that it wasn't an enchanted world: on the ship there were all kinds of creatures, from dwarves, to fauns, to satyrs, to minotaurs!

"Thank you for the help. I'm Lucy," the girl called her from behind her back, catching her attention.

"Elizabeth. And it was nothing really," she gently replied, turning towards her.

"How in the world did you end up here, Lucy?" their saviour asked her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and driving her further on the deck. The woman following just after them.

"I have no idea," she answered him in a cheerful tone, when they stopped next to one of the two staircases which leaded to the quarterdeck.

"Caspian!" a male voice yelled at hem. It was one of the boys who arrived with Lucy and who had just come on board.

"Edmund," said their rescuer, whose name Elizabeth had eventually understood being Caspian, going to greet him and leaving the two ladies behind.

"So are you from our world too?" Lucy suddenly asked her, catching her attention once again.

"I believe so, yes, I'm from London?" she quietly replied.

"London? Oh, I'm sorry." the girl immediately told her, a sad and compassionate smile forming on her lips.

"What do you mean?" she then asked, a little confused.

Lucy sighed, "I still remember what it was like during the bombing, and I heard it's half destroyed now." she said, a hint of gloominess and sympathy in her voice.

"Bombing? What are you talking about?" Elizabeth again demanded, now even more muddled.

"Well, the war..." the girl started.

"Lucy can I ask you a very strange question?" the woman interrupted her right away, just realising something. Looking at her clothes, which seemed, she had to admit, pretty old fashioned, and considering that she was talking about bombing in London, which only happened during the Second World War, and that they were in a fantasy land, where they could have arrived only thanks to a kind of magic...she had to be from a different point in time than her! No matter how impossible it seemed, after all, the whole situation was totally unreal.

"Yes?" Lucy replied with a nod of her head.

"What year are you from?" she asked her in a serious tone.

"Year? Well, the 1945 of course," the girl quickly answered, "Why? What year are you from?"

"2020" she replied, sighing. She was right, they were from different years.

"2020?! You're from the future?!" a male voice suddenly exclaimed. It was one of Lucy's companions, who, with Caspian, had just reached them and had probably heard the last part of their conversation.

"Ehm, yeah, I guess I am for you," the woman told him, giving him a warm smile right after.

"Awesome!" he said, returning the smile.

"Oh, I'm Edmund by the way," he then added, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Elizabeth," she introduce herself.

"So, how..." the boy started to ask her something but he was cut off by a high pitched shriek.

"Aaaah! Take that thing off me! Take that thing off me!" a voice keep crying from the other side of the ship. It was the last castaway who had arrived with Lucy and Edmund, the poor boy was now writhing on the deck while trying to get rid of a very big mouse.

"Hey! What manners are these?" complained the rodent, getting up on its feet after being brutally thrown away.

Elizabeth's eyes widened: she couldn't have imagined it, there actually was a talking mouse right before her. But then again, there was also a minotaur not more than ten meters away from her on that same ship, so why would she be surprised?

"Reepicheep!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Your Majesties," the mouse greeted her and Edmund, bowing.

"Hello Reep! What a pleasure." the boy said, smiling down at it.

"The pleasure is all mine, sir," it replied courteously, "and who's our new guest?" it then added, turning towards the woman.

"My name is Elizabeth, sir," she answered politely, still a little shocked to talk to a mouse and confused by the way he had just addressed her fellow castaways.

"Delighted to meet you, Miss Elizabeth. I'm Reepicheep, at your service." it told her, bowing again. "But now, what to do about this hysterical interloper?" it continued, pointing at the crying boy.

"That giant rat thing just tried to claw my face off!" he yelled again, probably feeling called upon.

"I was merely trying to expel the water from your lungs, sir," the rodent explain.

"It talks! Did you see? Did anyone just hear that? It just talked!" the boy panicked.

"It always talks," asserted a crew member.

"Actually, it's getting him to shut up that's the trick." Caspian confirmed.

"The moment there is nothing to be said, your Highness, I promise you, I will not say it." Reepicheep assured him.

"Well, I don't know what kind of prank this is, but I want to wake up right now!" Cried out the kid, jumping to his feet and staggering to the other side of the desk.

"Perhaps we could throw him back?" suggested the mouse.

Edmund seemed to consider it for a moment, only to receive an elbow from Lucy, who was watching the scene by his side.

"I demand to know just where the blazes am I?!" the boy asked to no one in particular, as his furious gaze continued to shift from one sailor to another.

"You're on the Dawn Treader, the finest ship in Narnia's navy." the minotaur eventually said, in the probable attempt to silence him.

The sight of the mythological creature was just too much for the kid, who lost his senses and fell to the ground, arousing a general laughter among the crew members.

Elizabeth slightly shaken her head, "Oh boy," she chuckled, soon followed by Lucy and Edmund.

In the meantime, Caspian went to make sure that his new whiny guest was fine and asked the minotaur to take care of him. He then come back, took a few steps on the staircase and turned towards the crew.

"Men!" he started, "Behold our castaways, Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant, high King and Queen of Narnia!" he exclaimed, as all the sailors got on their knees.

The woman too knelt down, not really knowing how to behave.

"Come on, it's better to change into something dry," Lucy told her, offering her hand to help her up.

That wasn't the way Elizabeth thought she was spending the day off that Finn for a long time had been advising her to take, but she certainly couldn't complain. Besides, now she was wearing new dry robes, spare garment of the crew that, together with Lucy, they had happily accepted. During the change of clothes and a good part of the afternoon, Elizabeth had therefore got to know a little better the girl, who had told her about her life and her family. She had learned that Lucy was the youngest of four siblings, one of whom was Edmund, and that together they had already been to Narnia twice.

Eustace, the whiny boy, instead, was here for the first time, just like her.

✵✵✵✵

It was now sunset, and she admired the sun going to take refuge among the waves of the sea with her elbows comfortably resting on the edge of the ship, the look lost among the wonderful orange colors of the sky, the brown hair free to the wind and a sweet smile on the lips.

Caspian couldn't say how long he had been still staring at her, leaning against the mast, observing every detail of her figure, before having the courage to approach her.

"Ever been on a ship before?" he quietly asked her, resting his elbows on the edge, right beside her.

"Just once, but it was a long time ago." she answered, turning her head a little to look at him.

Observing him in the sunset's light, Elizabeth had to admit to herself that her savior was indeed a handsome man. His dark brown hair, now perfectly dry, fell loose on his shoulders and were therefore victims of the gentle breath of the wind. His hazel eyes were beady and bright, while his full lips surrounded a wonderful smile. He had high cheekbones and a slightly olive skin, probably tanned by the time he spent at sea.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I introduced myself properly," he started, waking her up from her thoughts, "but in my defense it's been a quite rough day. I'm Caspian. And I believe you are Elizabeth, am I right?" he said, smiling down at her.

"Indeed, you are," she replied, "it's a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty."

"Please, don't. There's no need for that." he told her, shaking his head slightly. "So, you are from the same world of Lucy and Edmund, but from a different time?" he then asked her.

Elizabeth nodded, smiling at the absurdity of the situation, "I am, I live more than seventy years in the future compared to them," she explained.

"How complicated," he ironically stated.

"Yeah, it's quite a mess, isn't it? I mean, people from the past and from th future together in another world. Crazy." she said, chuckling.

Caspian laughed too, "well, I hope not in a completely bad way," he replied.

"Not at all. I'm glad to be here." she assured him.

"Are you really?" he joked.

"Having only seen your vessel, this world seems to me far more beautiful and hairy than mine. I am intrigued." she affirmed.

"Why is that so? Is your world really so different from this? And in what way is it worse?" he asked her, with a little bit of both curiosity and confusion about her words.

Therefore, they stood there talking for a time that seemed endless. Elizabeth told him of her world, how it was not possible to find there mythological creatures or talking animals as devoid of magic. She told him about her life in London, her job and her family, which she usually never talked about, after all there was not much to say: for years she hadn't seen any of her relatives, there was no reason, they had never been on good terms.

Caspian, in turn, told her how it was to grow up in Telmar, the men's kingdom of Narnia, with his uncle. He had lost his parents as a child, and just three years before he had found himself having to fight for his life and for the throne against his only relative, who yearned to take his place. He told her that he had won that battle with the help of Lucy, Edmund, their siblings Susan and Peter, the Narnians and Aslan, the true King of that magic land.

As the sun completely disappeared under the sea, they started to realise how late it was.

"I believe it's time to say good night," Elizabeth started, "and I also understood that you are to thank for the bed," she said. The king, in fact, had ceded his quarters to the ladies.

"It's nothing, really. Now go and rest, you'll need all your strengths tomorrow. No day is easy at sea." he replied, giving her a charming smile.

"Good night then, Cas," she told him, nodding lightly and starting to leave.

"Good night, Liz," he murmured, chuckling at the surname. "Cas", he liked it.

✵✵✵✵

The following morning Elizabeth climbed with Lucy to the bowsprit, which consisted of the enormous head of a green and gold dragon. Clinging to the face of the beast and facing the ocean, Reppecheep hummed undisturbed.

"Where sky and water meet

Where the waves grow ever sweet

Doubt not, you Reepicheep

To find all that you seek

There is the Utter East

Doubt not..." it sang.

The ladies smiled, "That's pretty," Lucy interrupted him.

The mouse gasped, turning towards them, "Oh! Thank you." it said, "a dryad sung it to me when I was just a mouseling. I can't divine the meaning, but I've never forgotten the words." it then continued.

"What do you think is past the Lone Islands, Reep?" Lucy asked him.

The Lone Island was where they were headed, as Lucy had explained to Elizabeth shortly before. Those were old domains of Narnia which had apparently been the destination of seven Lords of Telmar several years earlier, but from which they never returned. Their job was now to find them, or at least find out what happened to them.

"Well, I've been told the furthest east one can sail is to the end of the world. Aslan's country." the rodent told them.

"Do you really believe there's such a place?" the girl retorted.

"Well, we have nothing, if not belief." Reepicheep stated.

"Do you think you could actually sail there?" Lucy then asked him. There was hope in her voice.

"Well, there is only one way of finding that out. I can only hope I will one day earn the right to see it." it said, chuckling. "Your Majesty, Miss Elizabeth." it then greeted them, before returning to its spot.

The two ladies smiled again, reflecting on his words. Reepicheep was a true source of wisdom and an exceptional orator, who had always ready the appropriate phrase for the opportune moment. Few would have known how to match his skill.

Something in the water caught their attention, distracting them from their thoughts. Protruding slightly beyond the edge, they could admire a female figure jumping out of the water cheerfully and waving to them. Elizabeth thought she saw a ghost, because the creature's body was entirely translucent, it seemed almost made of water.

"Is it a mermaid?" Elizabeth asked Lucy, never e shifting her gaze from the shape.

"No, it's a Naiad," she explained, "a water spirit."

"It's beautiful," said the woman, waving back at it.

"Yes, it is," the girl agreed, "everything is beautiful in Narnia," she told her, smiling, before turning to the deck, drew by the cheers of the crew.

In the middle of the ship Edmund and Caspian were competing in a friendly duel, surrounded by sailors who watched, intrigued and fascinated, the skillful moves of their Kings. Neither could prevail over the other, both equally agile, fast and meticulous in every swing, block, jab and parry.

"I knew this would've happened sooner or later," Lucy said, sighing.

"What would've happened?" the woman asked her, now lifting her gaze from the water to move it in the same direction as the girl's. She smiled seeing the boys apparently having the time of their life, and followed Lucy among the crew, to be able to observe the challenge more closely.

The duel ended with crossed blades and the applause of the sailors.

"You've grown stronger, my friend," Caspian told his opponent, smiling and putting an hand on his shoulder.

"Seems I have," the boy joked.

"All right, back to work." ordered Captain Drinian's thundering voice to the men, who did not wait for a second warning.

Edmund, after having gratefully accepted a glass of water offered to him by a sailor, joined the two ladies, who had taken place on crates attached to the ship's flank. Caspian would've followed him a few moments later.

"Good match." Elizabeth greeted him.

"Thank you, Liz," he replied, a proud grin forming on his lips.

"Edmund," Lucy called him, "do you think if we keep sailing to the end of the world we'll just...tip off the edge?" she asked.

"Don't worry, Lu, we're a long way from there," he reassured her, not really knowing how to answer that question.

"I see you're still talking nonsense, the two of you. And with crazy strangers, of course." Eustace stepped in, who had just come out of the hold and, not knowing where else to go, had decided to join his cousins. It wasn't a pleasant idea, but it was the best solution he could come up with.

"Liz is no stranger, Eustace," Lucy retorted, "are you feeling better, by the way?" she then demanded him.

"Yes, no thanks to you." he sharply answered. "It's lucky I have an iron constitution." he claimed right after.

"As effervescent as ever, I see," Reepicheep remarked, climbing down a rope near to Elizabeth. "Find your sea legs?" it then asked him with irony.

"Never lost them," he was quick to respond, "simply dealing with the shock of things. Mother says I have an acute disposition, due to my intelligence." he explained, making everyone chuckle and almost choke Edmund with water.

"I don't think he has "a cute" anything," the mouse joked.

Eustace sent him a glare, "I'll have you all know, as soon as we find civilisation I'm contacting the British Consul. Have you all arrested for kidnapping!" he cried out, deciding to walk away but bumping into Caspian.

"Kidnapping, is it?" the King asked him, "That's funny. I thought we saved your life," he said, smirking.

"You held me against my will!" the boy yelled back.

"Ha!" exclaimed Reepicheep, which was enjoying the comedy of the scene now comfortably leaning against Elizabeth's shoulder.

"Did I?" Caspian sarcastically asked, moving a few steps forward.

Eustace didn't give up, "In, what I must say, are the most unhygienic quarters. It's like a zoo down there!" he continued.

"Well, darling, if you prefer, we can always throw you back into the sea." Elizabeth said with a wry smile, as everyone burst into laughter.

"He's quite the complainer, isn't he?" the mouse then remarked, turning towards Edmund and Lucy.

"He's just warming up!" the boy told him.

"And you said he's your cousin, right? Lucy?" Elizabeth then rhetorically asked the girl.

She sighed in resignation, "Yes, yes he is," she answered.

"I am so sorry. For both of you." the woman said, sounding sorrier than it needed.

"Thank you, really, I appreciate it." Edmund replied in a serious tone, before letting out a chuckle.

"Laugh now if you wish, because you won't do it anymore when I finally found the British Consul!" Eustace complained again, tired of being ridiculed.

"Ah, is that so?" the woman asked him, raising her eyebrows.

"Of course! You'll be locked up into an asylum! That's where mad people go, people who claim to be from the future." he exclaimed.

"You better shut your mouth!" Edmund roared out, taking a few steps in his direction.

"It's all fine, Edmund," Elizabeth stopped him, "our friend here is probably just shocked by the situation. He doesn't really mean it." she said in a calm voice.

"But I do!" the whiny boy cried out again, seeming desperate for their attention.

"Which doesn't make it fine." Caspian stated, ignoring the kid's last comment.

Before anyone else could speak, the group was called by the watchman.

"Land-ho!" the sailor yelled from the mast.

Caspian ran up the stairs, took the telescope and looked at the horizon. They had finally reached the Lone Island, his quest could now really begin.