The Dawn Treader rested at the shores of the unmarked and unnamed Island, finally receiving the rest that was much needed. The kings and queens and the crew split into three groups - Reepicheep, Eustace and the crew were in charge of gathering supplies while Caspian, Lucy and Edmund went to explore the Island, trying to find any sign of one of the Seven Lords.

While they went their way, Sophie told her small "See you again soon" to Caspian. He kissed her forehead and lingered for a while, not wanting to let go. Well, that was her sentiments precisely. She would have locked lips with him but there were too many eyes, not to mention Lucy and Edmund, who were not quite used to seeing affection shown in public. Besides, Sophie did not want them to tease her any more than they already did with the stolen glances that she shared with Caspian. 

After the group started exploring, General Tavros and she headed to the base of the hill. "General Tavros." She addressed him as he waited by a large rock.

"You can call me by my name, Your Majesty. I prefer it when people don't use my title. And it would certainly be an honour to be in your good graces."

"I know that feeling. The 'not using title' part. And no one can get on my bad side unless they harm someone. So you're cool there." She smiled. "So how long have you been a sailor for?" It was time to forget that she was an introvert and start to get to know a fellow Narnian. Sophie had Thunderride, Evelyn and Rumira to thank for this confidence, but that was probably because they were easy to talk to.

Once they reached the base of the hill, they searched for the entrance to a cave. Sophie couldn't find it when she searched but Tavros was able to find it like the back of his hand. "It's here, Your Majesty."

Sophie frowned. "How did I miss this?" She had searched that place before but found a boulder in the place where a boat stood then. She agreed that her attention span was low, but that was when she was around Caspian. She definitely wouldn't have missed an entire boat! Something was definitely up.

"The boulder must have hidden your view."

"Must have." But she knew that it hadn't. The boulder was in a different place now that the boat was visible.

The two got onto the boat and Tavros sat at the oars end. "There is a note here." He picked it up and handed it to her. "As for the journey, I'll try to take you to the place as soon as possible, Your Majesty."

"We can always take turns, Tavros. You don't have to do it alone."

"I'll be fine, Your Majesty." He assured her as she sat down. "A nice company can wile away any pain."

"Truer words haven't been spoken. Well, I do hope that I'm of good company because I can be annoying sometimes."

"The entire crew can tell you that I am the annoying one. I have a tendency to talk my heart out."

"Is that so?" She put her hand forward. "Then, may the best annoyer win."

"May they win." He shook it. "Which way do we go from here, Your Majesty?"

Sophie opened the note and saw the directions. "We have to go East from here and....."

"Not to interrupt you, Your Majesty," started Travos. "But East is that way." He pointed in the exact opposite direction that she was pointing towards.

"Right. Sorry." Now this was something strange as well. Her navigation skills were not that bad. She knew that. Caspian had taught her the basic of sailing, although he was yet to show her in the practical sense. Something was definitely going on. "We have to go East and once we reach the T-shaped valley, we have to take a left."

"Let's start with no further ado!"

"My ruddy old father was in the Royal Army and he always talked a lot about the experience of the military and I grew up wanting to be just like him," General Tavros replied to Sophie's question of how he came to be a sailor as they started their journey. "It's a million times better than he had described it though. I love being here. It's as if I have an extended family."

Sophie was playing with a loose thread on her dress to keep her mind occupied. There were too many things happening at once. There was a new prophecy that had been waiting for her but it wasn't alone. It had a partner - a sister - that was waiting in the darkness for her.

The two of them started talking about Narnian fairy tales and Tavros revealed that his mother used to tell him about them at night. "Which one is your favourite?" Sophie asked.

"Oh, the Tale of Two Lost Souls, for sure!"

"Right? It is such a beautiful story! I really don't see how people don't like it." She defended it and would continue doing it, hating that Edmund wasn't around to hear it. In your face, brother!, she thought.

"Has your seasickness subsided, Your Majesty?"

"Oh, I'm fine now. Thank you. It was just a beginner's brake problem." He frowned at her. "It's an 'Other World' thing where situations are hard in the beginning but as it progresses, they get easier."

"Oh, we call it Rumble's Luck."

"Why do you call it that?" She was curious to know more about the life outside the one that she knew. It was another way to not think about the possibility of the third part of the prophecy.

"There once was a man named Rumble that lived in these lands. If you ever hand him a new item, he will make sure that he makes it even if it really is unintentionally."

Sophie laughed. "Rumble seems to be a really grumpy person for some reason."

"Oh he is! He hates trying new things but if he heard you talking in a new language, he will make it a point to learn it."

"Even if it is the beginner's brake problem?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Just as around two hours passed, they reached the T-shaped valley where the river diverged into two paths. "We need to take a left here."

"Aye aye."

Sophie enjoyed talking to someone from the military because in the Other World, she had wanted to join the Forces herself. she wanted to be of use to her country but all those plans changed in an instant once she found myself in Narnia. There was one person who thought that she would be of use to my country - Mr. Chad Ward. He told her to pursue her dreams and she was going to do that.

Even when she made plans about the future and of what would have happened once she came out of the foster system, something in her heart always told her that the world wasn't where she was meant to me. She knew why that was now. She was meant to be in Narnia; Prophecy or not. Narnia was where she belonged to and it was the only place that she had ever called 'home'. It was her country and it wasn't just because of being King Frank and Queen Helen's daughter. Narnia and she were related in a way and nothing could change that. Not even herself.

The two took a rest at an unmarked island before they continued on their journey. The island looked like a savage one but the main shores were quite interesting. "Are you sure that this island is unmarked?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. It is not in any of the maps nor mentioned in any guide that I've read these many years."

The main shores of the island had the wreckage of several ships. Wood and supplies were spread everywhere and Sophie knew that they wouldn't be able to move any further without getting hurt. It was like it was out of a painting and she knew exactly what she would name it.

Sophie picked up a branch from the ground. "Let's mark it then."

She walked down the hill with the General, who was making sure that she didn't fall down. He had never seen a royal walk so freely before, always having seen them be uptight and following rules. But the Queen in front of him was different. 

"What are you planning to name it, Your Majesty?"

"A very generic name but I don't think anyone will mind." She wrote down the words 'Shipwreck Island' in capital letters. "Sophie and Tavros were here." She mouthed as she wrote it down, thinking only of 'Shawshank Redemption'.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," he said. "Narnians mark islands a little differently but I like this new method. Different is good."

"Thank you! Will you please mark it in the maps that are going to be made from now?"

"Yes, of course."

That was Sophie's first discovery and she was really proud of it because further possibilities of shipwrecks were stopped. A flag was kept at the shore with a flag that would clearly indicate that moving any closer would be of danger. Then, the two were back on their journey.

"I hope that I'm not annoying you," he spoke for the first time since the island.

"Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm having fun. Thank you!"

"Ghael would have told you the opposite really. I usually keep quiet during sailing." He recited and asked her if she would like to talk about herself.

"Sure! It is nice to make a new friend."

He looked surprised at the last word but Sophie wasn't going to take it back no matter what. "It's my pleasure, Your Majesty. Where to next?"

She looked at the map very keenly and her eyebrows furrowed. She was sure not to question the merpeople's words. "I think we're there." But when she looked ahead, there was nothing.

"But there is nothing here." He read her mind, turning his head all around to find something. There was only ocean on all four sides, only water.

They continued rowing and Sophie was getting tense without any support from her mind-voice because she was going through the route that they took. "Let's rest here then," she suggested while pointing to what looked like a broken dam.

"It looks like another abandoned cave."

"It does, but this is where the map points to." She handed him the map and crossed her fingers, praying that they were at the right place.

"You're right, Your Majesty. And I agree. I think it is better if we make a stop here," he added. "We'll figure it out."

She nodded to assure him. They had to figure it out. For the sake of Narnia.

Tavros was rotating his shoulder blades as they sat down next to where we tied the boat to. "I'm sorry." She told him. "You're stuck with me and I'm not being very helpful."

He looked at her in shock. What she said may not have been something that a future Queen would say, but she was another passenger of the sea like him. Why should she get special treatment? "Oh I don't mind it, Your Majesty. You are of a lovely company."

"I loved our journey. It has been a nice one."

The minotaur opened the sack where they kept the supply of food and handed her an apple. "We need to get energy for the rest of the trip," he reminded her when she looked hesitant to eat.

"But there is something curious about this place." She expressed as she took the apple from him. The water energy felt odd here somehow. "Like, why is there a dam in the middle of nowhere?"

"We must have travelled a long way and it doesn't make sense."

"Yes, and, why is it broken? If it is a dam, there should be land nearby. And why is the dam near an ocean?"

"It doesn't have the right bricks for this age." 

"You're right!" She exclaimed as she traced the walls with her hand. "Something is off about this place."

"I've never seen it before or heard about this place and I've sailed almost all the seas, even this one."

She turned her head to face him. "Are you telling me that you've been in these parts of the ocean before?"

"Why yes, Your Majesty!" He nodded as he moved onto his next apple.

Sophie couldn't eat hers but she did spin it around within her palms as she walked around the dam and looked for something that could tell her what the structure exactly was. "There is a small cave behind!"

"Be careful, Your Majesty!" He shouted back.

Sophie knew that the minotaur was very tired and so, she had asked him not to follow her down. She could take care of herself. She had her sword at ready in case the island was inhabited despite what she thought. There were steps that led down to another water body. It looked like an inland ocean. Right as she was going to take the final step, she heard a scream. 

"Tavros?" She shouted as she climbed back to where she had started from. "What happened?" She asked him as he sat on the floor, looking as though he had encountered a ghost.

"I....I tried to....."

"Are you okay?" But he kept pointing to the entrance of the dam. "What is it?"

"I went to investigate it and...."

"Okay, I'm going to go close to it...." Tavros was going to tell her not to do that because after what he had witnessed, he couldn't let her risk her life. "But I'll be cautious."

He was breathing heavily and wasn't able to talk properly. Something had definitely spooked him. Sophie walked closer to the structure from where the two of them were. There were steps that led to the entrance of the dam but as she climbed it, she felt the air getting thinner. "Odd." She breathed out and before she could take the final step, she saw a shimmer move in front of me. 

"Woah!" She shouted as she brought her hand forward to touch it and just as she did, the whole structure enlightened. "Oh my-"

"It pushed me down! The enchantment or whatever it is. This place is magical." There was a huge emerald-coloured force field barrier that prevented anyone from moving any further from where they were. "We can't get in," he breathed out.

Sophie spent the next thirty minutes climbing up and down the stairs and pacing the boundaries of the shore. "There has to be a way to do this." She kept mumbling to herself. "Some way out."

The enchantment must have been cast by someone. It can't have appeared out of nowhere, which meant that someone was trying to keep the shores barren and the inside hidden.

"Why don't we take some rest and think about it tomorrow? The sun is setting down."

And so, they spent the night there. Tavros kept asking Sophie if she was okay with keeping the first watch and tried to tell her that he was fine to do it, but she ordered him to go to sleep. She lay awake and played with a few stones and kept thinking of a way to get inside the dam. If there was an enchantment around it, the Witch had to be inside. Once Tavros got up and looked a little better, Sophie went to sleep. She woke up very early in the morning because curiosity was eating her up from the inside.

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you need to sleep, Your Majesty."

"A curious mind never sleeps," she quoted the Professor. "I'll sleep once Narnia is safe."

"Well, would you like to swim down and eat then?"

That sentence made all the difference. "What did you just say?"

"Well, it is another phrase that Narnians use when we eat fish," Tavros started. "We say 'swim down' instead of 'sit down', although not everyone uses it."

"Tavros, you're a genius!" She threw her arms around him.

"I am?" He asked, trying to remember what he had said that made the princess react the way that she did. "What did I say?"

Sophie rushed to the sea-cave that she came across the previous day and climbed down the steps. "I knew that there was a way." She stomped her foot on the ground.

"Is everything okay, Your Majesty?"

"Is it now, General Tavros. You might have just saved Narnia."

"I have? What did I say?"

"The merpeople told us that the journey to reach the destination would take a day." He nodded. "And the map pointed us here. If my navigation skills were right, which I am guessing that they were, and if there is an enchantment over the main entrance to the inner structure, that would be the first place we will look to."

"Are you suggesting what I think that you are suggesting?" He asked as the two of them stood staring at the sea-cave between the walls.

"This is a small water body in between two walls." She stated what they already knew. "This is like a sea-cave. Which means that below it, is the deep wide ocean. If we can't go up," she said, looking at the water. "Down is the only option."

*****

From the official illustrations