Journey of Trust | A Narnian Story

Chapter 27 | Keeping Watch

The Dawn Treader anchors in a natural bay that is sheltered from the open sea by headlands left and right. The newfound island is vast, green hills covered with lush forest and grassland. Behind lay mountains which tower over the isle like guardians of stone. Drinian says, in these waters, guardians may indeed be needed. The captain is no superstitious man, but in this world, there are things incomprehensible for most minds, and at any rate inexplicable. So, he would never presume something possible or not only because he can't understand it, or it seems illogical. That attitude allows him a certain flexibility which saved him from foolishness on a few occasions in his quite long years of seafaring – for a Telmarine. This cannot be said about all sailors in this crew, some are – frankly – foolishly holding onto the one or other superstition. They spent some time discussing whether to steer the ship into said bay or not, Tavros and Rynelf having different opinions was not helping. The second ship's mate didn't question Drinian's order while Rynelf voiced concerns – especially regarding the strange islands they encountered so far. Unnecessarily, he reminded the captain of the slave traders, a cursed treasure which turned a boy into a dragon, and mysterious events that led to memory loss. However, the Dawn Treader stayed on course – some men grumble about it. Their long faces are forgotten when everyone lays eyes on the beauty of this patch of earth. It seems so peaceful, yet practically bursting with life – the impression could be deceptive, though, as there was absolutely no life on Deathwater Island.

» Everything seems to... glow, « Eustace comments and frowns at the nearest trees. Part of the crew set over to the shore. As Rynelf insisted to stay on the ship to keep it safe, Drinian left Tavros behind as well as the voice of reason. Caspian is with the captain, walking ahead through the forest adjoining the beach. Edmund follows along with Reepicheep and some men, Luna amongst them. Lucy and Eustace stay by the longboats with the rest of the landing party. They will prepare camp for the night while the others scout the surroundings. The boy is right, the flora has a strange glow to it. Not that the plants are really glowing like fireflies, but their colours seem stronger than usual. Yet, as they comb through the forest along the shore, they find nothing unusual and soon return.

As the fire burns down, everyone heads to their makeshift beds – except of the two fellows who are on the first shift of watch duty. The landing party set up camp between a few boulders on the western side of the bay. The large stones are covered in moss lichen and provide shelter from wind and the eyes of potential enemies. There is still no sign of the latter, but the crew stays alert – better safe than sorry, as Luna likes to say. This time, she didn't have to say anything, though, the crew internalized it by now.

As usual, the warrior and Queen Lucy arranged their mats next to each other. So, Lucy lies between a boulder and her friend. Reepicheep and Eustace are curled up just above the girls' heads while Caspian and Edmund flank them. There is only little space between their mats, just enough to walk through the sand. Luna is eager to get some sleep, she volunteered for the third shift to keep watch. It is the last shift that ends in the morning after sunrise. To her delight, Elrik did the same. Drinian looked them over a bit sullen, given the history of the two on lookout duty in the crow's nest. In the end, he agreed – they are both dutiful, especially the young woman will probably attack every shadow coming too close to the king. So, Luna plans to get every minute of sleep until the start of her shift. Caspian and she share a smile as they settle down. It feels as if nothing and everything changed between them at the same time. The both of them detect a tingling in their stomachs at the lightest touch, the faintest smile, the shortest gaze. In itself, this isn't new, however, Luna starts to acknowledge it. She becomes more and more aware of the tiniest reactions towards him, sometimes it astounds her how she is able to analyse others quite quickly yet fails to notice her own body's language. For now, she pushes the questions circling the matter to the back of her head and tries to accept the facts. It is difficult as her inner voices hold opposite opinions about all this. Caspian, on the other hand, accepted the facts long ago. His challenge lies in finding the right approach, and to restrain his euphoria about Luna's returned feelings to not overwhelm her. The two must find a pace slow enough to let Aslan guide them and be comfortable with returning to the old closeness while overcoming the time that passed since, the wounds and the doubts – those more on Luna's behalf. And the pair wants to keep the relationship quiet for now, they are not keen on others interfering when they themselves still need to figure things out. Being on a relatively small ship, this challenges them to find moments and shadowed corners to get some privacy. The rest of the time, they must stick to smiles, small gestures, and conversations that are overheard by at least two people. So far, it works – maybe these circumstances favour a slow pace.