Chronicles of Narnia: The Lost Dragon (Under Editing)

Chapter Four: The Magician's Island

In the middle of the afternoon, they paddled towards the closet shore. Sasha started writing in her beautiful Narnian journal.
"September 4,
It's my second time, and I'm really excited to check out this island; it looks ancient, mysterious, and somewhat magical. It's full of healthy trees and well-treated plants. I wonder if someone still lives on that island today. Earlier today with have found a nine year old girl named Gael, daughter of Rhince, she too wanted to find her missing mother. Gael had joined the crew and I think Lucy is like a big sister to her. I know that safety numbers are important, but I'm getting a little restless."
Sasha stopped her writing and put her things away in her travel bag before she joined the others as they each took turns checking out the new island.
"It looks uninhabited," noted Edmund. "But if the Lords followed the star they would have come here."
Sasha looked up and saw that Edmund was correct. The island does look like uninhabited and seemed as if only animals and birds had been there, and not one human had been here.
"It could be a trap," said Drinian.
"Or it could hold some answers," pointed out Edmund.
"Caspian?" asked Sasha, not wanting to be in a fight.
"We will spend the night on shore. We'll scout the Island in the morning," said Caspian.
The boats were prepared and they were ready to go ashore. Sasha unrolled her blanket on the sand, next to Edmund's. She put her bag underneath her, serving as a pillow. Sasha's eyes reflected off the litted fireplace, she got out her pencil and her journal. She continued her writing.
"Tomorrow morning we're going to scout most of this island and see if we could find the rest of the Lost Lords somewhere around here. But if we don't someone has to tell us what to do with the Seven Swords, I'm not what are we going to do. I can't help, but think that we're being watched by someone or a few someones I should say."
Sasha stopped her writing and put it in her pack. She soon gotten ready to sleep next to her while Edmund was getting ready to sleep next to her. The two of them curled up together and fell asleep in the warmth of the fire. Sasha opened one eye to see Edmund clinging onto her, but she smiled softly and relaxed underneath his gentle grip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two invisible beings, nothing more than voices, a breath in the air and a footprint were now looking over the resting Narnians, deciding which one would be best to take with them.
"This one, it's female." One of the voices spoke up as quietly as possible, looking down at Lucy, who was fast asleep with reading book still in hand.
"So is this one." The other voice peered down at Sasha, who was still curled up in Edmund's arms.
"We could never get that one without waking the male. We'll take this one, she reads," One of the voices decided, noticing Lucy's book.
"Let's get her." The first being placing his invisible hand over Lucy's mouth, so she couldn't make a noise and the other lifting her up in the air before carrying her away from the group.
Sasha was the first to come out of her undisrupted slumber, the warmth of Edmund's arms around her making her smile to herself before she even lifted her lids. She carefully raised Edmund's arm off of her, not wanting to wake him before he was ready and slowly placed it as his side. For a few minutes she stayed lying down, but now on her side, gazing over the sleeping form of the man she had confessed all of her feelings to the night before. She had never felt so happy.
Edmund and Sasha had decided before they went to sleep that night that they would keep the nature of their relationship to themselves for now. They just wanted it to be about them for a while and didn't want to have to deal with all of the comments they would no doubt receive from the people they were closest to. It was important to both of them that everyone's minds stayed on the task at hand and were not distracted by what has happening between them.
But Sasha looked around, she noticed that some footprints have been made in the sand and saw that Lucy was missing. "Uh oh." She noticed that Caspian was awake and saw that Lucy was missing too.
"Ed." Caspian prodded the boy into waking up, trying to alert him of the new danger. "Look, someone has been here." Pointing at the nearest print as Edmund got to his feet, looking himself at the discovery.
Sasha walked over to where Lucy had settled for the night, intending to wake her up and enlighten her on the situation as well. "Where's Lucy?" She noticed that her friend was not where she had left her.
"Lucy?!" Edmund shouted at full voice, desperate to find his younger sister.
"Everybody up," Caspian instructed the still sleeping crew in little more than a whisper.
"Get up. Get up I say," Drinian ordered the semiconscious crew now he had been enlightened on the situation himself. The group took hold of their weapons, now alert and ready to face those who may or may not have taken Lucy.
"This way." Caspian directed before running into the island undergrowth, Sasha, Edmund and the rest of the group following close behind whilst Eustace still lay snoring at the top of his voice. They ran as fast as they could, stopping every few moments to see if they could catch any clues as to where Lucy had been taken.
"What do you think took her?" Sasha asked, concern dripping from her voice.
"I don't know, but I promise we shall find out," Caspian assured.
"I hope so," Edmund voiced sadly, worried about what had happened to his little sister. She smiled at him gently while he held her hand in comfort whilst no one was looking, before they took off in pursuit once more.
The group had once again come to a stop, this time in the same ornamental garden Lucy had been taken to. They each found something on the ground. "Lucy's dagger." Sasha became alerted when she saw it sticking out of the ground at her feet. They were in the right place.
Before another word could be said, another step could be taken spears began flying down around them out of nowhere. Edmund immediately shielded Sasha with his own body, not about to lose her now as the others tried to find the source that these spears were coming from. There was nothing, there was no one.
"Stop right there or perish," An unseen voice warned, ripping Caspian's sword from his hand somehow and then hitting him in the face so hard he toppled over.
Sasha stepped forward boldly, with the fierce confident and protective aura that made everyone stunned to silence. "Back off you bunch of cowards! You are attempting to ambush the Royal Crew of Narnia! And you are now facing all of us!"
At that moment, the invisible creatures had appeared before their eyes. There were twenty of the creatures in total, towered on top of each other so they could gain some height. They had one leg which had an oversized grubby foot at its base, small pot bellies, long beards and crooked teeth.
"Aren't you going to squash us with your fat bellies?" Edmund asked the creatures, not being able to keep up the pretend any longer.
"Or tickle us with your toes?" Caspian added, gaining a loud laugh from the group that surrounded him.
When they realized they could be seen, there confident resolve slipped and they became nothing more than blithering idiots, tumbling on to the floor and struggling to get to their feet, terrified that they had been discovered.
"What have you done with my sister, you little pipsqueak?" Edmund's voice held great anger as both he and Captain Drinian pointed their swords at one of the useless creatures that sat on the ground before them.
"Now calm down," The small thing stuttered.
"Where is she?!" Sasha yelled, stepping away from the others and leaning down to get a better look at one of the things that had kidnapped her friend.
"She's, er, she's in the mansion." He saw how mad the Narnians were and not wanting the situation to get any more hostile than it already was.
"What mansion?" Caspian asked, confused.
But at that moment, a huge, English-looking mansion building had appeared in front of their very eyes.
"Ooooh, that mansion." Edmund remarked out loud, acting like it had been there the whole time.
Out of nowhere and completely at the annoyance of the whole group, Eustace appeared out of the undergrowth. "You know I'm really getting tired of you always leaving me behind." He complained as usual, before coming to shocked silence when he saw the abnormal creatures scattered before him. "This place is getting weirder and weirder."
Sasha snickered at his comment. "Ya kidding? This is the third weirdest thing I've seen in since my time in Narnia." Eustace gave her a small smirk before looking grumpy again.
"Lucy." Gael squealed when she turned away from the others and saw Lucy come out of the mansion accompanied by an elderly, regal-looking man in a long and starry cloak.
"Your Majesties." The man bowed, looking over at Caspian and Edmund who had now come to greet the girl that had been missing nearly all morning.
"Sasha, Edmund, Caspian. This is Coriakin. It's his Island," Lucy introduced with a smile on her face.
"That's what he thinks," One of the creatures shouted out, interrupting the introductions. "You have wronged us, Magician."
"I have not wronged you. I made you invisible for your own protection." Coriakin tried to assure the creatures who seemed to be getting tenser with every passing moment.
"Protection?"
"That's oppressive."
"Oppressor." The creatures screeched one after the other, hopping back with their one leg as Coriakin approached them, completely unfazed.
"I have not oppressed you." The Island owner mumbled to them, a fed up tone in his voice. "Be gone!" Coriakin pulled a white substance out of his cloak pocket and throwing it in the direction of the creatures who quickly jumped away, screaming as they did so.
"What was that?" Lucy asked.
"Lint. But don't tell them." Both Lucy and Coriakin grinned walking back over to where Sasha, Edmund and Caspian still stood.
"What were those things?" Eustace asked, curious by the beings that were scurrying past him in the most abnormal fashion.
"Dufflepuds," Coriakin answered over his shoulder, settling to a stop at both the Kings' and the girl's sides. "I apologize for their behavior, Your Majesties. They have been a burden to me for as long as I can remember." He took another bow out of courtesy.
"It is no matter Coriakin," Caspian reassured the man as Edmund glanced over at Sasha who was standing at their side defiantly.
Coriakin led the royals, along with Sasha and Eustace into his mansion, wanting to show them something that he was sure would be of upmost importance if they were to succeed in their quest.
Together they ascend to the second floor, admiring how the silver lined skylight fractures the space into golden squares, warming the room until every last trace of fear they felt not even ten minutes ago is melted away. Walking down one of the smaller corridors sees the replacement of the natural light with phoenix shaped wall sconces burning gold, their pools of light providing just enough visibility to see the details of the carpet that muffles their steps, threaded with symbols of moons and stars and nonsensical runes.
Coriakin opened a door indistinguishable from the rest, harboring the same frame decorated to depict a forest filled with all the mythical beasts you could imagine (Sasha's personal favorite beings are a Centaur and a Lion) and, just like the rest, finished with a lion shaped handle.
The room they enter is horseshoe shaped, with floor to ceiling bookcases running parallel to each other, crammed full of leather-bound tomes that fill the air with the comforting aroma of aged parchment. The curved end of the room was highlighted by two wooden pillars that bowed into an archway which spanned the length of the ceiling to intersect with other pillars set within the room. The small dome was separated from the library by an enchantment, the sunlight filtering from its skylight cut off when it brushed against the pillars, so no natural light penetrated the larger space. Instead, the room was lit by stars. Thousands of them whirling across the bookcases in patches of azure light.
In the center of the dome lay a table void of contents except a singular scroll. Coriakin strode towards it as the group, each enraptured with a different section of the room, stood distracted by the doorway. Though he'd keep it to himself, Coriakin found their reactions vaguely amusing. Nobody had been to appreciate his home in a decade, it was nice to witness the glassy eyes and open mouths, even if the tour had to be cut short.
He cleared his throat and lets the scroll unravel across the length of the floor. What first appears as a simple tapestry, lovingly painted with the same fantastical imagery woven through the entire building, soon blooms into a dimensional map. The ocean, deep and glistening as if they were looking at the real thing, spreads from the center and covered its surface, picture perfect white clouds settling above out of thin air.
"It's beautiful." Everyone turned to look at Eustace, surprised by his compliment. "For a fantasy, imaginary world." Edmund shook his head while Sasha had an unimpressed look and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Here is the source of your troubles." He waved his hand and the scene shifted, spanning the sea like a bird in flight, until a new space appeared. "Dark Island. That's where evil lurks." A blackened hand raised from the ground, clawed fingers curled over into a loose fist. Green mist, the same from Narrowhaven, twisting and curling around the shape as a snake would. It seemed anxious. Waiting for the next creature to wander into its grasp so it can smother its life, craving their energy as someone isolated for life would crave companionship. It was malicious. And it was alive. "It can take any form, it can make your darkest dreams come true. It seeks to corrupt all goodness, to steal the light from this world."
"How do we stop it?" Lucy asked, the words cast in steel. She stared at the island with grim determination, as did the others – all except Sasha and Eustace.
The younger boy was pointedly ignoring it, choosing to believe that if he couldn't see it then whatever it was, infecting his mind and tapping light fingers on his heart between beats, would no longer affect him. Sasha, on the other hand, was desperately trying to channel the determination of the others by observing them.
"You must break its spell." He turned to Edmund. "That sword you carry. There are six others."
"Have you seen them?" Edmund asked him. "Did they pass through here?"
"Yes." Coriakin nodded.
"Where were they headed?" added Caspian.
"Where I sent them." Coriakin walked across the map and through the projection of Dark Island with ease, collectively unnerving the others.
The map shifts again, bringing into view an island twice the size as Dark Island and far more inviting. Dominated by a crudely shaped mountain and sparse patches of nature, it wasn't what most would call an ideal destination but for the seven people staring at it now, there could be nothing better.
"You must follow the blue star to Ramandu's island." An orb, glowing far brighter than any star they had ever seen, hovers above the peak of the island. "There, the Seven Swords must be laid at Aslan's Table. Only then can their true magical power be released. But beware, you are all about to be tested. Until you lay down the seventh sword, evil has the upper hand. It will do everything in its power to tempt you." Coriakin turns to each of them in turn. "Be strong. To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness inside yourself."