Whisked Away

42. Sailing to the End of the World

Shifra's POV
We sailed on after the Ramandu's Island. The sea was clearer than we had ever seen it and any number of creatures crawled and swam around the sea floor. A few very curious things had been happening to us all after we sailed away. For one thing we all found we were needing less and less sleep and food. Even water we drank very sparingly. Another was the light which had become so unbearably bright that it seemed as though the sun was two or even three times its original size.

We had all been tending to our work on the ship when the first exciting thing happened. I was standing at the crow's nest and looking down into the water. I could see miles and miles down the water was so clear, but below I saw fierce sea people. They held spears and seemed to be going on a hunting party. When suddenly a voice cried out, "Man overboard!"

Everyone else stopped their work and rushed to the side, but I dove down and caught up the man who had fallen. It was an easy task for it was just Reep who had fallen. He was, as we all knew, a brilliant swimmer, so none of us worried for him much.

When I had set him back on deck, he cheeped, "Sweet! Sweet, sweet!"

"What are you talking about?" Drinian asked slightly crossly, for he had been rather frightened and fear made him bad tempered, "And you needn't shake yourself over me, either."

"I tell you the water's sweet," said the mouse, "Sweet, fresh. It isn't salt."

When no one seemed to fully understand, I said gravely, "Where the waves grow sweet, doubt not Reepicheep, there is the utter east."

"Let me have a bucket, Rynelf," said Drinian when everyone had understood. When the bucket had been lowered and brought up again it shone like glass. "Perhaps your majesties would like to taste it first?" Drinian offered. Caspian took the bucket from him first and raised it to his lips. He took a long sip and when we could all see his face again it was...different.

His face and expression was brighter. Even his clothes seemed somehow brighter. "Yes," he said, "it is sweet. That's real water, that. I'm not sure it isn't going to kill me. But it is the death I would have chosen-I'd known about it till now."

"What do you mean?" Edmund asked.

Caspian struggled to explain as he said, "It-it's like light more than anything else." Then every other crew member drank from it. I was the last in line as I stared into the clear water that had been freshly drawn up as the last person had topped it off. My hands curled around the bucket as I lifted it up to my lips. It was the sweetest, richest, and most refreshing water I had ever tasted.

Any faint appetite I had held before had disappeared, so strong was the water. No one seemed to want to speak and scarcely a word was said all day until around dinner time, although no one ate, Drinian said, "I can't understand this. There is not a breath of wind. The sail hangs dead. The sea is flat as a pond, and yet we drive on as fast as if there were a gale behind us."

"I've been thinking that too," Caspian admitted. "We must be caught in some strong current."

"H'm," replied Edmund, "That's not so comforting if the world really has an edge and we're getting near it."

Lucy asked, "Do you me that we might just, fall over the edge?"

"Yes, yes!" cried Reepicheep, "That's how I've always imagined it. The world like a great round table and the waters stand on her head-for one moment you stand looking over the edge..." I did not listen to what else Reep said, for I was grasping at some faint thought in my head of a round world. Not round as a table, but like a ball.

"But look here," Eustace broke through my thoughts, "this is all rot. The world's round-I mean, round like a ball, not like a table."

"Our world is," said Edmund, "but is this?"

"Do you mean to say," asked Caspian, his eyes lighting up in excitement, "that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you've never told me! It's really too bad of you. Because we have fairy tales in which there are round worlds and I always loved them. I never believed there were any real ones. But I've always wished there were and I've always longed to live in one. Oh I'd give anything-I wonder why you can get into our world and we can never get into yours? If only I had the chance! It must be exciting to live on a thing like a ball. Have you ever been to the parts where people walk about upside down?"

Edmund shook his head. "And it isn't like that," he added, "There's nothing particularly exciting about a round world when you're there."

"Hold on," Caspian said suddenly, "You're from that world aren't you Shifra?" I nodded my head, for I was still not in the mood for speaking. "What did you think of it?"

I paused, thinking. "I don't rightly remember," I replied slowly, "I know that I spent much of my time alone."

"Not much has changed then," he joked, but no one else laughed.

"I suppose not," I replied after a few moments of awkward silence.

Edmund spoke next asking, "Where were you from, I mean when might be the better question."

I thought back and replied, "It was some time in the twenty first century."

"That's what Professor Kirk said as well now that you mention it."

"Kirk?" I asked suddenly. "Digory Kirk?" The two nodded, "Something did come of him then."

"He mentioned that he knew you," Edmund admitted. After that we all fell into silence once again. That night everyone else was either below deck laying in their hammocks, no one wanted to sleep but they lay there anyways, or they were sitting on deck. I had flown up to the crow's nest and was looking out over the water. The only sound was the water moving along the ship and even that was not much sound at all.
................................
Edmund's POV
I walked up on deck and proceeded into Lucy's cabin. She was sitting awake and looking over the still water. "Hey Lu," I said. She looked back at me and smile before returning her gaze over the water. "I probably own you an explanation now."

"Yes, a little bit," she replied with a smile, "You don't just tell someone to act as if two people who are engaged are suddenly not."

I let out a chuckle and sat down next to her. "I don't fully understand it myself, but from my understanding there is something that happens in the future. Their marriage would mess it up, so Aslan wiped both of their memories. To them and in their own minds they are and never were any more than friends."

"Oh poor Shifra," Lucy said, "I wondered why she was acting so different, but falling in love changes you." I nodded. I had never been in love, but I had heard my father's stories about who he was before meeting my mother. I did not even recognize that man he described. Not to say that they become completely reliant on one another or that they had to change themself, but it taught them new things, new lessons.

"At least he wiped her memory as well," I said, "Can you imagine the pain she'd go through if he didn't?" Lucy let out a sigh and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I'm glad we got to come back, even if this is going to be the last time," Lucy said.

"You don't know that, Lu. We might come back," I replied, surprised she had drawn such a conclusion.

"No," she sighed, "Our time's up. We must enjoy it while it lasts."

"But why? I mean, we're still young," I said, not wanting to except the truth Lucy was telling me.

Lucy smiled sadly at me, but only said, "I wish it was different too."