𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑁𝐼𝑁𝐸
→𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵𝑺 𝑻𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑬

𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏. The whole situation was pretty tense and Edmund and Caspian hadn't looked each other in the eye.

The young King was the first to reach the crew and his eyes were traveling over the several baskets that stood on the stones. "What food did you find?"

"It's volcanic, your majesty. Not much grows", the man at the front of the group answered his king, while he sat down besides the baskets.

Suddenly Adeline's attention was drawn towards Lucy. The young girl let her eyes travel over their surroundings and she immediately panicked when she couldn't see their cousin, "Where's Eustace?"

Reepicheep was the one to answer her, "I believe he's out not helping us load the boat." Adeline chose to ignore his comment while she turned towards the stone landscape and started shouting as loud as she could, "Eustace!"

Lucy quickly joined in before she faced their brother, "Edmund, I've got a bad feeling."

Edmund still seemed taken back by what had just happened in the cave when he shifted from one leg onto the other. But at least he spoke, "I will go find him."

Caspian immediately joined in, "I will come with you." He quickly handed Adeline his sword, before he followed after the young high King.

Adeline felt her stomach flipping over in worry when she watched how the two men were climbing over the rocks that lead up to the mountains.

The brunette couldn't sit still and she continued pacing back and forth while she fumbled with the swords. Her gaze only snapped up when she heard Edmund and Caspian returning, but her worst expectation became true when she realized that they were alone and not accompanied by Eustace.

The brunette's eyes were wide while she gazed at Caspian, "You didn't find him?"

The young King shook his head at her in regret, "I'm so sorry, Adeline."

She immediately shook her head and made him stop talking by rubbing her her hands over her face, "No, it's my fault— I'm the oldest— I should've stayed with him. I shouldn't have left him behind. It's my fault."

Edmund gave his older sister a stern look, "Addie, stop blaming yourself. He ran off as always— and his stupid greed  caught up to him— he touched the cursed treasure."

Caspian avoided eye contact while he shook his head, "There's no coming back from that."

Adeline gave Edmund a disbelieving look, she was shocked by his statement. Of course Eustace was annoying and most of the time she wanted to kill him but he was still just a child.

Without saying another word to her brother she spun around on her heel and got into one of the boats, waiting for the crew to take her to their large ship without saying a single word.

The brunette was completely devastated and the guilt was eating away at her while she stood by the railing of the ship, gazing out onto the ocean.

Suddenly a loud roar pulled her out of her daze. Lucy's couldn't hide the fear in her voice, "What was that?"

"Is it the Volcano?"

Drinian shook his head while hiz gaze was fixed in the island. "Oh, no. That's no volcano." He spun around and addressed the crew while walking away from them, "All hands on deck there!"

The rawing grew closer and Drinian's voice echoed over the ship, "Archers, arm yourselves!"

Suddenly chaos broke out and the archers hurried to get their weapons.

To Adeline it almost seemed like she could hear wings flapping and her heart dropped when suddenly a gigantic dragon appeared between the large mountains.

The brunette quickly threw herself into the ground when the creature flew above the ship, it's firy breath nearly burning the ship.

"Tak your positions and wait for my command!"

The dragon flew around the ship and roared loudly when it settled down onto the wooden mast.

Lucy had wrapped her arms around Adeline while she screamed, "What's it doing?"

"Fire!"

Suddenly the archers opened fire at the dragon, their arrows shooting up into the sky.

The dragon shifted on the mast and the wood started breaking. "He will break the mast!" But the crew didn't stop shooting at it.

Adeline could see the panic the dragon was feeling before Reepicheep appeared besides him and cut the dragons claws with his sword.

The dragon immediately let out a scream before it flew into the air and made it's way back towards the island.

Everyone was watching the beast retreated and Adeline released a deep breath whil Lucy let go of her.

But after a moment the Dragon returned with Edmund trapped in it's claw.

Adeline's face expression immediately fell while she shouted for her brother, "Edmund!"

The boy seemed helpless while he screamed out for her, "Adeline!" But as fast as the Dragon had returned it disappeared again.

Adeline immediately prepared one of the long boats they had used before and quickly returned to the Island, together with Lucy, Drinian and a few of the other crew members.

The brunette was confused when she slowly approached Caspian, Edmund and the Dragon, all peacefully standing next o each other. But her confusion was quickly dissolved by Edmund, who explained to her that the dragon was no other than Eustace.

"He must have been tempted by the treasure", Edmund stated while everyone watched how Eustace was trying to get rid of the gold wristband that was still on his wrist.

"Anyone knows a dragon's treasure is enchanted", Caspian stated sighting but after Eustace gave him a dark glare the man corrected himself. "Well, anyone from here."

Lucy slowly approached Eustace, who was still in his dragon form and pulled the wristband from his wrist.

Eustace roared in pain while he yanked his claws back and Lucy took a couple of steps back.

"Is there any way to change him back?", Adeline questioned Caspian while she patted Eustace leg.

The young king shook his head, "Not that I know of." Edmund and Eustace exchanged helpless looks, before the dark haired boy spoke, "Aunt Alberta will not be pleased."

Eustace groaned loudly and held up his wounded claw. "Sorry about the hand, old boy! I can be a little overzealous at times", Reepicheep apologized to Eustace while he gave him a soft gaze.

"The boats are ready, Sire!" One of the crew members called out to them.

Lucy immediately spoke up, "We can't leave him alone." Adeline quickly nodded her head in agreement, but
Drinian argued, "Well, we can't bring him on board, Your Majesty."

"Drinian, you and the other's take one boat back— the rest of us will stay here till morning and work out what to do", Caspian ordered while he handed Drinian the sword that he had found earlier while searching for Eustace.

"But you have no provisions, and no means of staying warm, Your Majesty", one of the new crew members stated worried.

Suddenly Eustace spat out a breath of fire, which created a fire pit in the middle of their circle.

Reepicheep gave the crew member a look, and pointed at the fire, "You were saying?"

The other's chuckled quietly and the crew slowly got onto the boat before they retreated towards the ship.

It didn't took long before the cold night came, but the fire in their middle was holding them warm and the stars were spending them light.

"I have never seen these constellations before", Edmund suddenly stated, breaking the silence that had laid over the group.

Caspian was facing the sky while he sat besides Adeline, both eyeing the stars above them, "Me neither— we're a long way from home.— when I was a boy I used to imagine sailing to the end of the world finding my father there."

Edmund, who was laying in the sand, besides Lucy, also stared up into the sky, "Maybe you will."

Caspian hummed quietly to himself, which made a small toothless smile appear on Adeline lips while she felt how her eyelids grew heavy.

The brunette's eyes scanned over Caspian's face, which was only recognizable by the light of the stars and the fire.

How much she wished that everything wasn't so complicated. Suddenly the brunette felt this warm tingling sensation in her stomach and before her eyes fell slowly shut, she was convinced that she felt how Caspian pushed the hair out of her face and whispered.

"Goodnight, Adi."

The next thing the brunette knew, she was brutaly awoken, "Adeline, wake up! Wake up!"

The brunette slowly opened her eyes and spotted no other than Lucy, who was kneeling besides her, shaking her awake.

Her younger sister pointed at the sky, "Look!" Adeline immediately sat up and her eyes widened when she spotted a bright blue shining star on the horizon. "The Blue Star!"

Lucy suddenly jumped onto her feet and shouted loudly, "Everybody! Wake up!"

Everyone else slowly awoke and sat up while Lucy continued, "It's the Blue Star!"

Everyone stared the star in awe for quiet some time before Caspian and Reepicheep hastily ushered all of them into the boat, so that they could join the rest of the crew and start their journey.

When the group had entered the ship, Drinian greeted them with not really spirit lifting new.

"The wind has disappeared", the bald man stated, which meant that their journey would be draining for the whole crew.

"So how do we get to Ramandu's Island then?", Edmund questioned the two men who were standing besides him, a sorrowful look on his face.

"My guess is something doesn't want us to get there", Drinian stated, exchanging a meaningful look with Caspian while he walked past them and the moaning crew, who was doing all the hard work.

A few of them had made a few comments about eating Eustace, but Adeline took it as a joke.

The brunette made her way a bit further down towards the railing, before the whole ship suddenly jerked forward, making everyone fall to the ground.

Adeline groaned while she sat up, hearing Edmund shout, "Eustace, that's brilliant!"

The brunette girl stood up and a smile appeared on her lips when she spotted that Eustace was pulling the ship.

The whole crew started cheering and clapping loudly while Eustace continued and Adeline could've sworn that she saw a smile on the dragons face.

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