~By the Lion's Mane: The Call~

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Three

After our escape from the Dark Island, we continued pursuing the blue star. The days grew warmer and the winds grew gentler, the waves weren’t much more than ripples, and yet we still glided along with surprising swiftness. When the sun set behind us each night in a show of crimson and purple and magenta, I watched as new constellations, brighter and the stars seemingly larger than the ones in Narnia, appeared over the eastern horizon.

I had lost track of the days it had been since we had come across the Dark Island, but we eventually spotted a new land on the starboard bow. As we got closer, I could see that there were no beaches, but instead sheer rock cliffs topped with tall, lush vegetation formed the perimeter. A pleasant odor filled the air.

We had come to the Island of the Star at last.

“It smells like… purple,” I said to the others as we stood near Drinian at the tiller.

He muttered something that only he could hear, but Edmund looked at me and chuckled, saying, “You’re crazy, Rosie.”

But Lucy agreed with me, and Caspian said, “I know what you mean.”

We sailed quite far around the island, looking for a harbor, but had to settle for a shallow bay. We got thoroughly soaked in the boat going ashore, and our ears were filled with the roaring of the waves as the crashed against the rocks. We left a few men to guard the boat, and then set out a little ways inland, even though it was getting dark.

We hiked through the thick trees hung with dark green moss and thick, ropelike vines, with the hum of insects and songs of strange birds filling the quiet as we walked. The island seemed to have a warm, tropical climate and wildlife with bright, beautiful flowers and colorful, showy birds.

We hadn’t gotten very far before Eustace exclaimed, “Look, what’s that?” and pointed ahead. I looked to see a stone bridge, draped with vines and crumbling away in some places.

Caspian and Edmund went first to make sure it was solid, and then we made our way up some more ruined, ancient steps, also draped with vines. At the top stood a great table.

 It was surrounded by stone pillars, but without a roof. In the middle was an enormous table covered in a crimson table cloth and surrounded by ornate stone chairs with silken cushions on them. But in the middle was a feast that the likes of which had never been seen before, not even in my days in the Golden Age of Narnia at Cair Paravel.

There were turkeys and hams and geese and peacocks, pies in different shapes of animals and ships, lobsters, salads, salmon, nuts, grapes, pineapples, oranges, apples, peaches, pomegranates, melons, star fruit, as well as others which I’d never seen before, and thick golden loaves of bread. The china was exquisite, and there were jeweled goblets filled to the brim with the finest wine. A breeze wafted the smell towards us, and my mouth began to water.

“Where are the guests?” asked Eustace.

“I can provide that!” exclaimed Rhince eagerly, starting toward the table.

“Don’t touch anything!” barked Edmund, and pointed down to the far end of the long table. “Look!”

“What are those?” I asked in a whisper.

“They look like haystacks,” said Caspian in a wondering tone.

Reep jumped upon the table and scurried down to the strange form, sniffed, touched and then called back to us, “I doubt these will be fighting.”

We joined him at the far end and saw that the form was actually a huge mat of gray hair, coming from three slumped figures.

“Are they dead?” asked Lucy in a whisper.