Whisked Away

52. Making Plans

Shifra's POV
I woke to the sound of shuffling around me and the glare of light streaming in from a triangular opening in the wigwam. "Where on earth are we?" Jill asked, stretching out her limps, stiff from sleep.

"In the wigwam of a marsh-wiggle," Eustace replied groggily.

"A what?" Jail retorted.

"A marsh-wiggle," Eustace countered, slight annoyance clear in his tone. Clearly not all was forgiven, "Don't ask me why it is. I couldn't see it last night. I'm getting up. Let's go look for it."

"How beastly one feels after sleeping in one's clothes," exclaimed Jill, causing me to wince at the loud noise so early in the morning.

"Keep your voice down," Eustace replied, "Shifra's still sleeping. Besides, we don't have to dress. What is there to complain about?"

"Lord does she have weapons," Jil exclaimed, noticing the pile that lay beside me.

Leaning over, Jill reached out to pick one up, but Eustace's voice whispered, "Don't! Pole, those are General Shifra's weapons! She will kill you if you touch her things. Especially those. Do you not realize just who that is?"

She straightened herself, countering, "What? It's not like she's awake and besides, she wouldn't harm me. She's not some kind of god so she wouldn't and she has no reason to."

Eustace held an expression of mixed fear and wonder at his schoolmate's idiotic statements. "Ok, A. She is a goddess, A. You don't know what she would or wouldn't do, and C. A weapon to her, is an extension of herself. You can't just pick one up and expect her to be fine with it or to not know. Those weapons are the heart and soul of Shifra, The General Shifra."

"Ok, geez I get it. Don't touch the weapons, "Jill replied, clearly not understanding what was so important about it.

The two crawled out and left me to get myself up. Swiftly, I placed all twenty of my weapons about my person, checking over each with exquisite care to see if any were damaged, broken, or needed sharpening. Only my sword and three of my Sahara did, so setting those aside, I climbed out of the dome-shaped wigwam.

When I approached the children, they had just come across Puddleglum, who was saying, "Though when I say good, I don't mean it won't probably turn to rain or it might snow, or fog, or thunder. You didn't get any sleep, I dare say."

I left the children to become acquainted with the marsh-wiggle, feeling a rather solemn feeling overtake me. This would be no easy journey and only Puddleglum knew that yet. The children's heads were filled to the brim with tales they had heard of happy adventures that were easy and light on the soul, but this...They could not go through this without change inside them.

Eustace had begun to set up a fire by the wigwam when I walked back to it. He sat poking at it with a stick as I sat down beside him. "That marsh-wiggle," Eustace began with a very scoff-like tone, "real nutter isn't he."

"To some," I replied gravely, "To others he just has a different perspective then is considered normal."

"But he said the wood would be wet and its perfectly dry, he said we'd probably get no sleep, but we slept famously," he exclaimed. I simply remained silent, pulling out my blades that needed sharpening and began to work at them carefully.

When Puddleglum and Jill had joined us, the marsh-wiggle said, "Now, those eels will take a mortal long time it cook, and either of you might faint with hunger before they're done. I knew a little girl - but I'd better not tell you that story. It might lower your spirits and that's a thing I never do. So, to keep your minds off your hunger, we may as well talk about our plans."

"Yes, do lets," Jill exclaimed excitedly. She had a kind of shinning light in her eyes that made me wonder if she had any idea the sorts of problems we may face. Naive. That's what it was. She continued before I could continue my thoughts. "Can you help us find Prince Rilian?"

"Well," he replied slowly, choosing his words very carefully, "I don't know that you'd call it help. I don't know that anyone can exactly help. It stands to reason we're not likely to very far on a trip to the North, not at this time of year, with the winter coming on soon and all. And it's an early winter too, by the look of things. But you mustn't let that make you down-hearted. Very likely, what with enemies, and mountains, and rivers to cross, and losing our way, and next to nothing to eat, and sore feet, we'll hardly notice the weather. And if we don't get far enough to do any good, we may get far enough not to go back in a hurry."

"Are you coming with us?" the two children exclaimed, noting how he said we and not you.

"Oh yes I'm coming of course," the marsh-wiggle retorted as if stating the obvious, "Might as well you see..." As the others continued to talk I gazed out to the north, eyeing the ice-capped mountains.

I tuned back in as Jill suggested, "Perhaps we shall meet people on Ettinsmoor who can tell us the way."

Puddleglum opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it. "You don't want advice on where to go from them."

"Why ever not?" asked Jill.

Puddleglum replied, "Don't you know? I thought the owls had told you. They're giants." I saw Jill wince and Eustace had turned rather pale.

Bending down to wipe my blade on the grass, I began to tell them the whole tale. "As you know, Eustace, Caspian went to war with them and managed what your cousin, High King Peter never managed. He defeated them and forced them to pay tribute, but they are no threat to us when we stay here, on this side of the scribble." I place the dagger away in my clothes and picked up another to be sharped. The scraping sound filled the silence as I organized my thoughts. "When we leave this side, they have no reason not to harm us. Word of Caspian's illness and his age combined with his departure may have reached them. They know he has no son so, while they would not lay siege on Narnia, killing a group of Narnians would be no matter for them."

Jill shuddered. "So your saying they would not hesitate to kill us?" Eustace asked, fear showing through his voice.

"No," I replied, cleaning off my third blade and reaching for my sword. This I sharpened with the highest and tightest care. "So long as we are not seen, then we shall be fine."

"That's true enough," Puddleglum agreed.

"Look here!" Eustace shouted, losing his temper, "I don't believe the whole thing can be half as bad as you're making it out; anymore than the beds in the wigwam were hard or the wood was wet. I don't think Aslan would have sent us if there was a=so little hope as all that." Turning to me, he added, "What on earth happened to you? Since when are you so...so glum and serious? You used to have hope! You used to believe in something!"

I had looked up at him when he began speaking directly to me, but my expression remained blank and unreadable. My lack of reaction seemed only to fuel his anger, but before he could speak, Puddleglum said, "That's the spirit Scrubb, That's the way to talk..." I tuned out the rest of the conversation as they made plans, but nothing they said interested me.

After I had finished with my sword, I stared hard at Eustace. I found myself wondering what was going through that head of his when I could feel something before me. It was like...a thick layer of jelly. Not impenetrable, but still a slight obstacle. I thought about cutting through the jelly and getting beyond. When I did so, I felt a swarm of emotions and thoughts that were not mine. Why is he so negative? Why is Shifra so different? Pole tried to kill me. I felt anger and unease, but also a sense of bravery.

Pulling myself back, I held my head in my hands. It was the sort of feeling when you have been laying down for a long time and when you sit up there is a sort of rush of pain, so severe it causes you to wince and temporarily limits your vision. My eye-site narrowed and after a few moments went back to normal.

The others had taken no notice and were still chatting about plans. I looked next to Jill. I felt the same layer of jelly-like substance and quickly cut through. I felt fear and frustration. Thoughts were running through my head far too quickly to sift through. I pulled out and felt the same rush of pain. This time it was far more severe and I let out a small groan.

Fortunately, it was unnoticed by everyone else. What was happening to me?