꧁ Narnia ꧂

Elizabeth looked around confused. One minute she thought she was drowning in her kitchen and now...now she was in the middle of the ocean! How exactly did she teleport from London to the open sea?

The course of those thoughts was interrupted by the sudden appearance, on the one hand, of three other people in the water, a girl and two boys who weren't too far from her and, just like her, seemed disoriented and struggled to stay afloat; on the other, of a huge sailing ship headed towards them.

"You've got to be joking..." she murmured to herself, starting to swim as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

"Eustace swim!!!" Elizabeth heard the girl, who was the nearest to her of the group, shouting at one of the boys.

"Eustace swim! Keep swimming!" the kid yelled again.

Elizabeth then instinctively turned her face to her and realized how much she struggled to stay afloat, probably much more than the others. Without waiting to find out how much longer she would've resisted, the woman reached her, took her by the hips and helped her to stay with her head out of the water.

"Don't worry, I got you!" she told her, trying to be strong enough for the both of them.

"And I got you," a voice spoke behind her. A male voice, firm and, in that situation, reassuring, while two arms surrounded her waist, supporting her.

Elizabeth realised now that some of the crew of the ship had jumped into the water to their aid, and one of them was helping her breathe.

"Caspian!" the little girl she had tried to assist exclaimed, turning to their saviour.

"Lucy!" he replied with a friendly voice. Elizabeth couldn't see him but she was sure there was a smile on his lips.

"Edmund! It's Caspian!" the girl, whose name had to be Lucy, yelled to one of the boys.

"It's all right boys! You're safe now!" a sailor told them immediately after, swimming closer to assist them.

"We are in Narnia?" one of castaways asked him, calming himself.

"Yes! Yes, you're in Narnia," he reassured him, jovially.

Elizabeth had absolutely no idea were she was, what was happening and what they were talking about, but she was glad for the help. She followed her saviour to the side of the ship, Lucy swimming right beside her.

"I don't wanna to go! I wanna go back to England! I'm going back to England!" the other young stranger keep yelling. Apparently, unlike Elizabeth, he was against any help. He was in a total state of panic, squirming at sea like a child who can't find his mother.

In the meantime, aided by her rescuer, the woman was focused on climbing up a narrow wooden platform that would carry her to the ship, however, a small but not irrelevant detail didn't escape her ear: she wasn't the only English.

The man circled her waist with his left arm, to keep her steady, and grasped the rope with his other hand. "Hold on," he told her, glancing down at her for a moment to see if she was all right. He found her trembling a little and with her eyes down. She was probably terrified and freezing, he though. Who knows how long they were in the water. And, in spite of that, she still did everything she could to help Lucy. She had to have a good heart...and a lot of guts.

Elizabeth, in truth, was just very confused, maybe even a little excited about being in another world. After all, escaping from everyday life had always been her greatest dream: she had never wanted a normal life, an ordinary life, she considered it boring, which is why she had entered the world of cinema, she wanted to find that little bit more which a common job couldn't offer her. But her wish didn't come true. Even as a screenwriter her life was not the one she had hoped for: something was missing, something that in her world would always be impossible to find...magic was missing. This world, however, seemed to be totally different from the one she came from. Maybe here she could find her place, find that something extra that would finally make her feel completely alive.

When the gangway reached the deck level, with a slight pressure on her back the man urged Elizabeth to board, then grabbed a towel from one of the sailors and placed it on her shoulders.

"Thank you," the woman murmured, finally lifting her gaze. Her eyes met those of her savior who, in turn, stared at her for endless moments. He smiled, just smiled, because he seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak.

Caspian had never been in a situation like that before: he had no idea who the woman in front of him was, all he knew was that she probably had come from the same world as the great Kings and Queens of old and found herself in the middle of the ocean, from which he had just fished her out. Therefore he was aware that she knew how to swim and was courageous and...and that he couldn't take his eyes off her. Her gaze was simply magnetic. She was gorgeous, despite being soaked wet and trembling, confused and disoriented, he didn't think he had ever seen more wonderful creature.

Once awake from his state of trance, the man slightly nodded his head towards Elizabeth and focused on helping Lucy to board the ship.

"That was thrilling!" the young girl happily exclaimed, being finally safe on the deck.

Elizabeth chuckled at her enthusiasm, starting to look around to better understand where she was. It certainly could not be said that it wasn't an enchanted world: on the ship there were all kinds of creatures, from dwarves, to fauns, to satyrs, to minotaurs!

"Thank you for the help. I'm Lucy," the girl called her from behind her back, catching her attention.

"Elizabeth. And it was nothing really," she gently replied, turning towards her.

"How in the world did you end up here, Lucy?" their saviour asked her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and driving her further on the deck. The woman following just after them.

"I have no idea," she answered him in a cheerful tone when they stopped next to one of the two staircases which led to the quarterdeck.

"Caspian!" a male voice yelled at them. It was one of the boys who arrived with Lucy and who had just come on board.

"Edmund," said their rescuer, whose name Elizabeth had eventually understood being Caspian, going to greet him and leaving the two ladies behind.

"So are you from our world too?" Lucy suddenly asked her, catching her attention once again.

"I believe so, yes, I'm from London?" she quietly replied.

"London? Oh, I'm sorry." the girl immediately told her, a sad and compassionate smile forming on her lips.

"What do you mean?" she then asked, a little confused.

Lucy sighed, "I still remember what it was like during the bombing, and I heard it's half destroyed now." she said, a hint of gloominess and sympathy in her voice.

"Bombing? What are you talking about?" Elizabeth again demanded, now even more muddled.

"Well, the war..." the girl started.

"Lucy can I ask you a very strange question?" the woman interrupted her right away, just realising something. Looking at her clothes, which seemed, she had to admit, pretty old fashioned, and considering that she was talking about bombing in London and that they were in a fantasy land, where they could have arrived only thanks to some sort of magic...she had to be from a different point in time than her! No matter how impossible it seemed, after all, the whole situation was totally unreal.

"Yes?" Lucy replied with a nod of her head.

"What year are you from?" she asked her in a serious tone.

"Year? Well, the 1945 of course," the girl quickly answered, "Why? What year are you from?"

"2020" she replied, sighing. She was right, they were from different years.

"2020?! You're from the future?!" a male voice suddenly exclaimed. It was one of Lucy's companions, who, with Caspian, had just reached them and had probably heard the last part of their conversation.

"Ehm, yeah, I guess I am for you," the woman told him, giving him a warm smile right after.

"Awesome!" he said, returning the smile.

"Oh, I'm Edmund by the way," he then added, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Elizabeth," she introduce herself.

"So, how..." the boy started to ask her something but he was cut off by a high pitched shriek.

"Aaaah! Take that thing off me! Take that thing off me!" a voice keep crying from the other side of the ship. It was the last castaway who had arrived with Lucy and Edmund, the poor boy was now writhing on the deck while trying to get rid of a very big mouse.

"Hey! What manners are these?" complained the rodent, getting up on its feet after being brutally thrown away.

Elizabeth's eyes widened: she couldn't have imagined it, there actually was a talking mouse right before her. But then again, there was also a minotaur not more than ten meters away from her on that same ship, so why would she be surprised?

"Reepicheep!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Your Majesties," the mouse greeted her and Edmund, bowing.

"Hello Reep! What a pleasure." the boy said, smiling down at it.

"The pleasure is all mine, sir," it replied courteously, "and who's our new guest?" it then added, turning towards the woman.

"My name is Elizabeth, sir," she answered politely, still a little shocked to talk to a mouse and confused by the way he had just addressed her fellow castaways.

"Delighted to meet you, Miss Elizabeth. I'm Reepicheep, at your service." it told her, bowing again. "But now, what to do about this hysterical interloper?" it continued, pointing at the crying boy.

"That giant rat thing just tried to claw my face off!" he yelled again, probably feeling called upon.

"I was merely trying to expel the water from your lungs, sir," the rodent explain.

"It talks! Did you see? Did anyone just hear that? It just talked!" the boy panicked.

"It always talks," asserted a crew member.

"Actually, it's getting him to shut up that's the trick." Caspian confirmed.

"The moment there is nothing to be said, your Highness, I promise you, I will not say it." Reepicheep assured him.

"Well, I don't know what kind of prank this is, but I want to wake up right now!" Cried out the kid, jumping to his feet and staggering to the other side of the desk.

"Perhaps we could throw him back?" suggested the mouse.

Edmund seemed to consider it for a moment, only to receive an elbow from Lucy, who was watching the scene by his side.

"I demand to know just where the blazes am I?!" the boy asked to no one in particular, as his furious gaze continued to shift from one sailor to another.

"You're on the Dawn Treader, the finest ship in Narnia's navy." the minotaur  eventually said, in the probable attempt to silence him.

The sight of the mythological creature was just too much for the kid, who lost his senses and fell to the ground, arousing a general laughter among the crew members.

Elizabeth slightly shaken her head, "Oh boy," she chuckled, soon followed by Lucy and Edmund.

In the meantime, Caspian went to make sure that his new whiny guest was fine and asked the minotaur to take care of him. He then come back, took a few steps on the staircase and turned towards the crew.

"Men!" he started, "Behold our castaways, Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant, high King and Queen of Narnia!" he exclaimed, as all the sailors got on their knees.

The woman too knelt down, not really knowing how to behave.

"Come on, it's better to change into something dry," Lucy told her, offering her hand to help her up.