Camille's Adventure

Chapter 4: Into Narnia

Just as Edmund and Lucy were looking at the painting of the ship on the wall, Eustace stalked into the room.

"There once was two orphans who wasted their time believing in Narnian nursery rhymes." Eustace rhymed tauntingly.

Edmund spun around and growled, "Please let me hit him."

Lucy caught his arm. "No." She scolded.

"Don't you ever knock?" Edmund asked annoyed, as he turned to look back at the painting.

"It's my house." Eustace ranted. "I'll do as I please. You're just guests." He plopped down on Lucy's bed and crossed his arms.

"What's so fascinating about that painting anyway?" Eustace asked, "It's hideous."

"You won't see it from the other side of the door." Edmund stated dryly.

 "Edmund, it looks like the waters are actually moving," Lucy mused, smiling unconsciously.

"What rubbish," Eustace snorted angrily. "That's what happens when you believe all those fanciful novels and fairy tales of yours."

"There once was a boy called Eustace, who read books about facts that were useless," Edmund quipped. Lucy grinned at him.

"People who read fairy tales are always the sort to become a hideous burden to people like me. I read books with real information." Eustace taunted.

Edmund whipped around and stared daggers at him. "A hideous burden?" He shot back incredulously.

Eustace shot up from the bed ready to run out of the room.

"I haven't seen you lift a finger since we've been here," Edmund shot at the boy as he moved towards him threateningly.

"I have a right mind to tell your father that it was you who stole Aunt Alberta's sweets." Edmund taunted again, then slammed the door shut when Eustace tried to leave.

"Liar." Eustace accused.

"Oh really?" Edmund shot back at him.

"Edmund, the painting!" Lucy called as the waters really started to move. But the boys went on.

"I found them under your bed," Edmund continued, "and you know what? I licked every one of them." Edmund sneered.

"Ugh, I'm infected with you!" Eustace wailed.

Wind whipped through Lucy's hair, then a gust of air sprayed water in her face causing her to gasp for breath. Some of the spray hit Eustace.

"What's going on here?" Eustace cried.

"Lucy, do you think?...." Edmund exclaimed, smiling at the painting now gushing water into the room.

"This is some sort of trick! Stop it or I'll tell mother!" Eustace yelled.

"Mother!" Eustace attempted to scream through the door.

"Oh I'll just smash the rotten thing!" Eustace concluded. He rushed at the painting and seized the sides with both hands.

Edmund, who knew that magic shouldn't be tampered with, grabbed Eustace's arm sleeve. "No Eustace!" He shouted at him as Eustace pulled the painting off the wall.

Lucy seized Eustace's other arm sleeve as all three of them got their faces and clothes drenched.

"Let go!" Lucy demanded.

"Let me go!" Eustace cried.

"Let go!" Lucy exclaimed again.

They finally managed to break Eustace's grip on the painting letting it plop onto the floor. By now the water had completely covered the floor and was up to their knees. Edmund wrestled Eustace away from the painting but Eustace tripped and was yanked underneath the quickly rising water. Edmund was next to get pulled under. As Lucy screamed, she lost her balance and went down too. The three of them thrashed about, trying their best to avoid the furniture floating around them. Once, they even got to the surface but were quickly sucked under again. Some of the furniture cleared and the three kids worked their way to the surface. Lucy was the first to break through.

****

Back on the deck of the Dawn Treader, Camille sat on the ship's railing with her back to the hard wood of the dragon head bow. Camille's unfocused eyes stared endlessly at nothing as she thought back on her most recent nightmare. This nightmare was different from the other but still about the same boy. In it, the boy was shoved off a pier and into a large, deep lake. But the strange part was that this lake was bottomless. It went on with no stop. And the boy was sinking.......sinking. His lifeless body going down into the depths of the unknown. The boy's limbs hung in a weak, feeble position and his eyes were shut as if death itself had found its mark on the poor boy. That was when she woke up.

Caspian walked over to her and leaned his arms on the railing. "You know you're going to fall overboard if you keep sitting there." Caspian commented.

Camille gave her brother a gentle punch on his bicep. "You need to stop being such a worry wart."

The two siblings laughed quietly then they both quieted down.

"You look.......depressed." Caspian commented trying to find the right word to describe Camille's facial expression.

"I, um, I had another dream," Camille stammered.

"Same boy, I suppose."

"Well, yes, but," Camille sighed, "Caspian, there's something I didn't tell you before. I wasn't sure about it."

Caspian looked at her and raised a curious eyebrow.

"He, I mean this boy, he," Camille sighed again. "He looked a lot like you. Not in appearance, but in, in personality."

This caught Caspian off guard. Someone with a few of his characteristics? Caspian's eyes widened. "H-how is that even possible?" He stuttered in surprise.

Camille shook her head. "I don't understand that either."

The lookout suddenly yelled, "Men overboard!"

Camille quickly hopped over the railing and ran the other side of the ship. Caspian followed and after talking one glance at the three figures in the water, jumped head first into the waves.

Drinian and a few others dove in as well, with Camille behind them.