Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Three Sleeping People

Although the wind never stopped, it became weaker every day, until finally the waves became the size of ripples, and the boat drove quietly hour after hour, as if it were on a lake.Every night they saw new stars rising in the east, such as no one in Narnia had ever seen, and, as Lucy wondered with wonder, perhaps no human eye had seen them at all.The novas were big and bright, and the nights were warm, and most of them slept on deck, and some talked till midnight, and some lingered over the side of the ship, watching the dance of brilliant foam that rose up from the bow. One evening, the scenery was astonishing. The setting sun behind the ship was blood red, the sky was full of red clouds, and the sky was even more empty. They suddenly saw land on the starboard bow.Land approached slowly, and the sun behind them set all the headlands of this new place on fire.But soon they were sailing along its coast, and as its western headland rose astern of their boat, black against a red sky, sharp as a cardboard silhouette, they saw Know what this place is like.There are no big mountains on land, only many small hills that are not very steep, and the slopes are like pillows.There was a tantalizing smell from the land--Lucy said it was "a dull fuchsia smell," Edmund said it was nonsense (as did Rines), but Caspian said : "I know what you mean." 6

They drove a long way, passing cape after cape, hoping only to find a good deep water harbour, but at last they had to make do with a wide and shallow beach.Although the sea outside was calm, it goes without saying that there were still breaking waves on the beach. They could not drive the Dawn Treader as far as they wanted, so they had to drop anchor far away from the beach and take a small boat. Drenched through the body, he stumbled onto the shore.Lord Roop remained aboard the Dawn Treader.He didn't want to see any more islands.All the time they stayed on the island they heard the long crash of breaking waves.

Caspian left two men to watch the boat, and led the others inland, but did not go far, for it was too late to detect, and it was getting dark soon.But there is no need to go far to explore.The flat land at the head of the beach can neither see the road nor the footprints, let alone any human habitation.Here and there there was soft, wet turf, and a low bush that Edmund and Lucy took to be heather.Eustace, who was quite well versed in botany, was probably right when he said it wasn't heather; but it was more or less the same thing as heather. When they were within a stone's throw of the shore, Drinian said, "Look, what's that?" and everyone stopped.

"Is it a tree?" said Caspian. "The tower, I think," said Eustace. "Probably a giant," said Edmund in a low voice. "The only way to know the truth is to go in and have a look." Reepicheep drew out his sword and walked ahead of everyone. "I think it's a ruin," said Lucy, as they drew nearer, her best guess so far being correct.What they saw before them was a wide rectangular clearing, paved with smooth stones, surrounded by gray pillars, but without a roof.From one end to the other ran a long table, covered with a bright red tablecloth, which almost reached the flagstone floor.On either side of the table were many finely carved stone chairs covered with satin cushions.Moreover, there was a sumptuous banquet on it that had never been seen before, not even Supreme King Peter had seen such a sumptuous banquet when Cair Paravel was in power.There were turkeys, geese and peacocks, wild boar's heads, deer breasts, pies, some shaped like ships with full sails, some like giant dragons, some like elephants, iced puddings, bright lobsters, Shiny salmon with nuts, grapes, pineapple, peaches, pomegranate, honeydew melon and tomato.There were gold jugs, silver jugs, and cleverly made goblets; and the smell of fruit and wine came to them like a festive event.

"Oh!" said Lucy. They got closer and closer, and they got closer and closer, and everyone was silent. "But where are the guests?" asked Eustace. "We can round up the numbers, sir," Reines said. "Look!" snapped Edmond.Now they were walking between the pillars and standing on the flagstones.Everyone looked to where Edmund pointed.It turned out that the chairs were not all empty.There was something at the head of the table and the seats to the left and right - maybe three of them. " "What are those?" whispered Lucy. "Looks like three beavers sitting on a mat."

"It's a big bird's nest," said Edmund. "More like a haystack to me," said Caspian. Reepicheep ran forward, jumped onto the chair, onto the table, and ran along the table, moving like a dancer through bejeweled goblets and mountains of fruit and ivory. Salt shaker room.It ran right up to the gray and mysterious pile at the end of the table; looked here and there, touched it a few times, and then cried: "I thought, these things don't fight." At this time, everyone took a closer look and saw that there were actually three people sitting on the three seats, but they couldn't be seen as people unless they looked closely.Their hair was gray and grew over their eyes and almost covered their faces, and their beards covered the table and climbed along the table, coiling around the cups and plates like thorns around a fence, until they became a pair. Large tufts of hair fluttered over the edge of the table and dragged to the floor.The hair on their heads was still hanging on the back of the chair, completely covering their bodies.In fact, all three are almost covered in hair.

"Dead?" said Caspian. "I don't think so, Sire," said Reepicheep, brushing the tuft of hair between its paws, and held up the hand of one of them. "This hand is warm, and the pulse is still beating. " "This hand too, and this one," Drinian said. "Why, they were just asleep," said Eustace. "But it's a sleepless night to have your hair grow like this," said Edmund. "Sleeping like this must be enchanted," said Lucy. "The moment we set foot on this island, I felt that the island was full of magic. Oh! You see, maybe we are here to break the magic." ?”

"We could try," said Caspian, and began to shake the nearest of the three sleeping ones to him.For a moment it was thought he was going to succeed, for the man gasped for breath and muttered, "I'm not going east any more, I'm going to row to Narnia," but fell asleep almost at once, and He slept more deeply than ever; that is to say, his heavy head dropped a few inches toward the table, and it was useless to try to wake him up.The second person is pretty much the same. "We weren't made to live as cows and horses. Get to the East while you get a chance—to the land behind the sun." And he fell unconscious.The third person said only one sentence: "Please pass me the mustard." After that, he fell asleep.

"Going to row to Narnia, eh?" said Drinian. "Yes," said Caspian, "you are quite right, Drinian. I think our search is over. Let us see their rings. Yes, these are their arms. This is Lord Levelyan. This is Lord Argoze. This is Lord Malframont." "But we can't wake them up," said Lucy. "What shall we do?" "Your Majesty, please forgive me," Reince said, "but why don't we start eating while you are discussing? We don't see such a delicious meal every day." "Never eat it," said Caspian. "True, true," said some of the sailors, "there's a lot of magic here. We'd better get back to the ship as soon as possible."

"Indeed," said Reepicheep, "these three lords have only slept for seven years on this." "In order to save my life, I don't want to touch these dishes." Drinian said. "It's getting dark very quickly," said Lainif. "Go back to the boat, go back to the boat," the others muttered. "I really think," said Edmund, "that they are right. We can decide what to do with the three sleepers until to-morrow. We dare not eat this meal, and it would be no fun to spend the night here." Yes. The whole place smells of magic—and danger."

"As far as the whole crew is concerned, I am in complete agreement with King Edmund," said Reepicheep, "but I would personally like to sit at this table till morning." "Why on earth?" said Eustace. "Because," said the Mouse, "this is a great adventure, and any danger is nothing to me, and if I go back to Narnia knowing that fear has left a riddle unsolved, That's the big deal." "I'll stay with you, Rip," said Edmund. "I'll stay too," said Caspian. "I'll stay too," said Lucy.So Eustace also volunteered to stay.It was a very brave act on his part, because when he was not aboard the Dawn Treader, he had never read about such a thing in a book or even heard of it, so it was more important to him. It's harder on other people. "I implore Your Majesty—" began Drinian. "No, my lord," said Caspian, "your station is on board the ship, and you've been working all day, and the five of us have nothing to do." It took a lot of argument, and it was Caspian in the end. Bin calls the shots.The crew set out for the coast in the twilight, and the five who had left the watch, except perhaps Reepicheep, felt cold in their stomachs. : It took them a long time to pick a seat at this perilous table, and I'm afraid everyone was doing it for the same reason, but no one said it.Because it's a pretty nasty choice indeed.It's not a good idea to sit all night next to three creepy, hairy monsters who, if not dead, are not, by definition, living.But on the other hand, sitting on the other side, the sky is getting darker and darker, the more you can't see them, you won't know if they are moving, maybe at two o'clock in the middle of the night, you can't see them at all—no , shouldn't think about it.So they walked round and round the table, saying, "How is it here?" Then they said, "Maybe you should sit a little further away," and then they said, "Why don't you sit on this side?" What?" Finally decided to sit in the middle, but closer to the three sleeping figures than to the other end.It was about ten o'clock now, and it was almost dark.Those strange new constellations shine in the east.Lucy would have liked it better if it had been the constellation Leopard and Ship, and old friends seen over Narnia. Wrapped in sailing overcoats, they sat still and waited.At first they also tried several times to talk, but they couldn't talk about anything big.So we sat like that, hearing the sound of breaking waves crashing on the beach. 7 Hours later, what seemed like centuries, they all realized for a while that they had just dozed off for a while, and suddenly they were all awake again.The directions of those constellations are quite different from those seen just now.The sky is very dark, only the east is faintly gray.Although they were thirsty, and they were cold and stiff, none of them spoke, because a miracle happened at last. Ahead of them, beyond the pillars, was the slope of a low hill.At this time, a door on the slope opened, and a light appeared at the door. A person came out, and the door behind him closed again.The man held a lamp in his hand, which was really the only thing they could see clearly.The light slowly got closer and closer, and finally it was right on them, on the opposite side of the table.Only then did they see that it was a tall girl in a blue gown with bare arms.She was hatless, and her blond hair hung down her back.When they looked at her, they thought in their hearts that they didn't know what a beauty was until they were so old. The light she had just held was a long candle in a silver candlestick, which she now placed on the table.If there had been any sea breeze in the first half of the night, it would have died down long ago, for the candle stood still, as if in a room with the windows shut and the curtains drawn.The gold and silver cutlery on the table gleamed in the candlelight. Then Lucy noticed something on the other side of the table which she hadn't noticed before.It was a stone knife, sharp as steel, an old-looking, murderous thing. So far no one has spoken a word.Then Reepicheep and Caspian stood up, one after the other--and all of them, for they felt that she was a lady. "Travellers who have come all the way to Aslan's table," said the girl, "why don't you eat or drink?" "Miss," said Caspian, "we dare not eat it, because we think our friend will be enchanted by it." "They haven't even tasted these things," she said. "Excuse me," said Lucy, "what's the matter with them?" "Seven years ago," said the girl, "they came here in a ship with all the sails in rags and the bones of the ship falling apart. They took some sailors with them, and they came to this table One said, 'This is a good place. Let's take off the sails, stop paddling, and sit back and die!' Said the second, 'No, we'll re-board and sail to Narnia , and drive to the West, and maybe Miraz is dead.' But the third man was very bossy, and he jumped up and said, 'No, for God's sake! We're men, Telmarines, not animals.' What else should we do but continue to explore and hunt for novelties? We won’t live long anyway. Let’s spend the rest of our lives exploring the uninhabited world behind the sun.” As they spoke, they quarreled, and he picked up the gun that was on the table. Shidao, wanted to fight with his partner. Who knew that he couldn’t move the knife. As soon as he grabbed the handle with his fingers, the three of them fell into a deep sleep. They didn’t wake up until the magic was broken.” "What is this stone knife?" asked Eustace. "Don't any of you know?" said the girl. "I—I think," said Lucy, "I've seen such things before. It's like the one the White Witch used to kill Aslan on the Stone Table long ago." "This is it," said the girl. "Bring it here and keep it forever as a souvenir." Edmund, who had been looking more and more disturbed during the last few minutes, spoke. ! "Listen," he said, "I hope I'm not a coward--I mean, eat these drinks--and I really don't mean to be offensive. But we've had a lot of queer dangers along the way on this voyage, and Things are not as they seem. When I look in your face, I have to believe everything you say; but when I meet a witch, I might believe her too. How do we know you are friends?" "You have no way of knowing," said the girl, "you have to believe it or not." After a short pause, only Reepicheep spoke in a low voice. "Your Majesty," it said to Caspian, "will you pour me a drink out of that flagon: it is too big for me to carry. I will drink to the lady." Caspian did so, and the Mouse stood on the table, holding the gold cup in its little paws, and said, "Good health, madam," and he ate the cold peacock meat.After a while, everyone ate and drank with it.Everyone is very hungry. Even if the food and drink is not the early breakfast you want, it is no better as a supper. . "Why is it called Aslan's table?" asked Lucy after a while. "The table is set here, as he ordered," said the girl, "for those who come from far away. Some people call this island the end of the world, because you can go farther, but this is the end. beginning." "And how are these dishes kept fresh?" asked the practical Eustace. "Eat it every day and make it again," the girl said, "You will understand when you look back." "And what shall we do with these sleepers?" asked Caspian, "in the world my friends came from," (here he nods to Eustace and the Pevensies ) "There is a story that a prince or king came to a castle, and everyone in the castle fell asleep under a spell. In that story, he had to kiss the princess to break the spell." "But here it is different," said the girl, "here he must be disenchanted before he can kiss the Princess." "Then," said Caspian, "in Aslan's name, tell me how to set about this work at once." "My father will show you," said the girl. "Your father!" they said, "who is he? Where is he?" "Look." The girl turned her head and pointed to the door on the hillside.It seemed all the more convenient for them now, for as they talked the stars were dimming and a great white dawn was showing in the gray eastern sky.