~By the Lion's Mane: The Call~

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

After leaving the Island of the Star, everything transitioned into a strange state of being. None of us talked very loudly, and we went to bed quite late at night and got up very early in the morning, because we were not very tired and sleep became too hard. We didn’t eat and drink much, and the sun was too bright and big.

Lucy and I leaned out over the rail and watched the clear water racing by. We could see the shadow of the Dawn Treader right on the bottom of the seafloor, it was so clear and shallow. And then we saw wavy, purple-green plants like a forest on the bottom, with a gray path cut through them. We determined that it was a road, and then it climbed up a hill and we could barely believe our eyes. On the bottom of the ocean was a castle made of coral, complete with towers and minarets and domes. And then we passed over a large, open place that looked rather like a park, and saw merpeople, but a kind that was very different from the savage sirens that we had encountered earlier.

“Lucy! Look, look!” I cried, hopping up and down in excitement and she squealed in delight.

There were about fifteen of them, all mounted on seahorses, but not the kind of seahorses that are small and really a strange kind of fish. These more resembled the hippocampi from Greek mythology, with fish tails that blended smoothly into a horse’s body, with the front legs and head. They were beautiful, with coats and scales in iridescent colors that ranged from dark orange to pale green to rich purple and brilliant silver, gold, and copper.

The people were unclothed and their bared skin shimmered as if it contained tiny particles of micah. Their hair was wild and in unusual colors like purples, greens, blues, pinks, golds, and oranges. They wore crowns upon their heads and strings of pearls around their necks and across their bodies. When they spotted us, they rose up nearly to the surface, their hippocami thrusting their pearly tails hard to keep even with the ship. The men raised their spears and stared at us fiercely.

“What are you looking at, girls?” Edmund asked from behind us.

I jumped, startled by his sudden appearance, but then said, “Look!” and pointed out at the people.

Drinian, who had come over with Edmund, said in a low voice, “Turn around, Your Majesties, that’s right, backs to the sea.  And don’t look like we’re talking about anything important. We can’t have another episode like the one with the sirens.”

I shivered and looked at Edmund as I remembered how close I had come to losing him and my own life.

Suddenly there was a plopping sound in the water and someone called ‘man overboard!’ I ran to the edge where others had gathered, followed by Edmund, Lucy, and Drinian. As I peered over the rail, I saw that it wasn’t a man that had jumped from the ship, but Reepicheep.

Drinian began furiously muttering, “Damn that bloody Mouse! It’s more trouble than all the rest of the crew combined! If there’s any trouble for it to get into at all, he’ll find it! It ought to be put in irons, marooned, have its whiskers cut off. Can anyone see the damned thing?”

As shocking as his words sounded, I wasn’t bothered, because I knew Drinian was only that upset because he was very worried about Reep, and that he didn’t mean what he was saying at all.

I was worried too. I hoped we could get him back onboard before one of the merpeople spotted him. I tossed down the rope as he bobbed up to the surface excitedly, chattering and spitting water. Then Drinian yanked him up on the line, whispering for him not to tell about the Sea People.

But Reepicheep wasn’t worried about them at all.

“Sweet, sweet, sweet!” he cried excitedly.