The High Queen of Narnia

Chapter 29

"Get off my ship!" Elodie bellowed as she brought her axe down on the thick body of the serpent that had wrapped itself over the ship a couple of times after resurfacing. Reepicheep was below deck as he encouraged the rowers whilst Caspian and Drinian tried to steer them away from Dark Island. As Lucy rushed Gael below deck into her sister's cabin, Elodie felt the hull begin to crack as the serpent squeezed the ship and the sea water splashed by it soaked them all, Elodie's hair that had fallen from her braid plastered to her face as she cut at the serpent as it hissed painfully.

"Ed! Ed. Ellie!" shouted Caspian from the helm as the two siblings turned to face him. "We ram the serpent-smash him on the rocks," he suggested as they turned to see the ship heading for one of the large boulders jutting out of the ocean.

"Steer her to port! I'll keep it on the prow!" Edmund yelled back.

"I'll try to loosen its grip!" Elodie added as they all began their respective tasks, Caspian fighting the current as he and Drinian battled to turn the ship. Edmund was sitting inside Solomon's jaw, the great griffin in a rearing-up position with his beak open as Ed summoned the serpent's attention away from his sister with his flashlight. Elodie on the other hand let out grunts as she heaved her axe into the skin of the serpent, each strike making it harder for Edmund to keep the creature's attention.

"HIT THE DECK!" she screamed as the serpent moved away from Edmund and lunged at the ship, swallowing a sailor in his mouth before Edmund recalled its attention and it struck.

"NO!" Lucy cried.

"EDMUND!" Caspian called in shock whilst his wife was simply speechless as she watched the sea snake bite out a chunk of Solomon's face, the chunk Edmund was supposed to be inside. She knew he was ok though when she saw the sun bounce off his blade as it shone through the hole of darkness they'd entered. It was so close now but still seemed so far away.

"Archers to the ready!" the High Queen ordered as she watched Lucy run on deck armed with Susan's bow and arrows as she aimed.

"Brace yourselves!" Caspian warned and Elodie threw her hand down.

"FIRE!"

While the arrows seemed to bounce off the serpent's skin, Lucy's hit its mouth as it became disoriented before they crashed it into the rocks. The creature seemed to bleed green blood as the ship bounced back from it and it shrieked out in pain as Edmund fell from the figurehead and rolled onto the deck, his eyes closing as he was knocked out. But the battle was far from won.

The serpent only seemed stronger as yellow light began to fill its body and its skin split open, revealing hundreds, if not thousands of insect-like legs as it hissed at them. Oh, they were definitely in trouble now.

"MOVE!" Caspian shrieked as he tackled Edmund out of the way as the creature struck, the wooden ship splintering further as Elodie was also knocked off her feet. Caspian had then managed to go for his sword as he was able to cut off one of the legs of the serpent as it withdrew, howling in pain worse than before. However, their attention was on the leg that twitched on the deck before it faded into green mist as if it had never been there. "We can beat this," Caspian announced as he met his wife's eyes and they all rose to their feet.

"We have to get it closer," Edmund announced.

"All hands to the main deck!" Drinian called.

"Ready the harpoons!" Caspian ordered, and the ship began to tilt as the serpent bit onto the mast and refused to let go.

"We have to get to its mouth. It's the weakest spot," Elodie said to her brother who began running for the rope ladder as he started to climb, Elodie grabbed a stray rope that was flying about as she swung onto the ladder. She was fighting gravity big time as the ship tilted and each rung became harder to climb as the invisible force weighed her down.