The Dawn's End

But We Can't Go Back

Susan couldn't believe that Peter had convinced her to play cricket. After all, the last time they had played it, she and her siblings had broken a window. Then again, they wouldn't have ever been to Narnia if that window didn't break. "You know I don't think it is fair." She told Peter as she pitched him the ball.

He had missed the ball after hearing those words. "You don't think what is fair?" He asked.

"This." She gestured to her and Peter. "That we get to have all this fun while Lucy and Edmund are stuck in that horrible house with Eustace."

"Su, they do live on the other side of England." He sighed. "How about this? If you finally let me take you on a sailboat, I will spend tomorrow driving us up to Cambridge."

"Really? You would do that?" She asked with a smile across her face.

"Why, of course!" He smiled back. "They are my siblings too you know, and I really do miss them. But we have to go sailing."

"Are you doing this because you because you know that I hate sailing?" Susan asked with a smirk on her face.

"Maybe." Peter replied, with a similar smirk.

Although they wouldn't like to admit it, Peter and Susan looked a lot like each other, especially when they smiled. Both of them let out a big laugh and headed for the docks.

"I can't believe the Professor owns a sailboat." Susan said as they approached the boat.

"Oh yes, he does. In fact, he was the one who taught me my love for sailing." Peter said with a confident smile.

"Then I hope you are as good as you have been saying you are." She commented as Peter held out his hand to help her onto the boat.

"You will see that I own this lake! Here we go!"

They sailed for a while under the sunset. Susan had to admit that Peter was a great sailor and she was actually having fun. Everything was going smoothly until Peter saw something swimming in the lake. "What's that?" He asked with caution.

"I don't know, Peter. Aren't you supposed to know since you own the lake." She mocked but with an undertone of fear.

"Calm down, Susan." He said when he sensed the fear. "I'm sure it is just a large fish or something."

Peter tried to hide the uncertainty in his voice but Susan could see right through it. She was about to suggest they turn around when suddenly the thing grabbed on to the side of the sailboat.

"Ahhhh!" Susan screamed as she knocked the thing off with her purse.

"Wait!" Peter called out. "It's a person! Help him up!"

"Oh Aslan! He's drowning!" She exclaimed as she grabbed the arms and pulled the person onto the floor of the sailboat. They both looked at each other when they recognized the person they pulled up.

"Eustace!" Both of them exclaimed.

"It worked." Eustace said with astoundment. "It worked!"

"What worked?" Peter and Susan spoke at the same time once again.

"Eustace what is going on?" Susan asked hoping that he would provide some type of explanation for all this.

"Ed and Lu are in danger! I don't have time to explain!" Eustace said hurriedly, and took both of their hands in his.

"Wait, hold on!" Peter exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" Susan asked. "Where are our siblings?"

Peter and Susan had gotten their hopes up when they saw Eustace. They thought that maybe their siblings were with him. Although they were wondering what they would be doing by the Professor's house in the first place, though the thought of seeing their siblings again made them forget how unlikely it was.

"You have to come with me." Eustace breathed out once again, realising that he had referred to Edmund and Lucy by their pet names for the first time.

"What kind of madness is this?" Susan asked.

"We were onboard the Dawn Treader and-" Eustace started but was interrupted by Peter.

"Were you in Narnia?" He asked, instinctively.

"Yes! Narnia!"

As soon as Eustace said that word, Peter was convinced that he was speaking the truth although Susan wasn't entirely convinced. "How do we know that you aren't making fun of us?" She enquired, knowing that Eustace used to mock her siblings through the letters that she shared with Lucy.

"Because Caspian needs your help!" Eustace shouted, getting more impatient by the minute as his cousins asked him useless questions. "Please come with me! Ed and Lu have been captured by merpeople!"

"What?" Susan asked in a heist. She wondered what madness Eustace was talking about.

"That's not possible." Peter mumbled, knowing that merpeople were friends of Narnia and would never harm the people of the land.

"Will you just come with me?" He asked, pointing to the bed of the lake. "There is an opening there - a whirlpool. We need to go back to Narnia before it closes. It might close any second!" He informed them while looking at the portal that grew smaller and smaller.

Before the elder Pevensies could ask any more questions, Eustace pushed Susan in. Peter, seeing her, jumped into the lake after her. Peter and Susan looked at each other while underwater. "But we can't go back." They both thought. They knew deep in their heart that they could never return to Narnia. After all, Aslan himself had told them that. But they knew they had to protect their siblings, so they needed to try.

So, with an uncertainty in heart, the siblings swam to the bottom of the lake towards the portal. The only problem was that Eustace wasn't with them.

"Hey, what about me?" Eustace shouted, as he realised that he was left behind.