Chapter 15 Chapter Fifteen The Spectacle of the Last Sea

As soon as they left Lamanduna, they felt that they had sailed out of the world.Everything has changed.One was that they all felt less need for sleep.Everyone didn't want to go to bed, and they didn't want to eat too much, and they didn't even talk much, and what they said was soft.The second is light.It's really, really bright.Every morning the sun came out looking twice as big, if not three times as big as usual.And every morning (and this was the strangest feeling for Lucy) those big white birds sang with human voices, and no one could understand what language they sang, and they flew over the head in a steady stream, and flew to Aslan's dining table. Eat breakfast, fly to the stern and disappear.After a while, they flew back again, flew to the east and disappeared again.

"How clear and beautiful the sea is!" Lucy said to herself lying on the port side just after noon the next day. And sure enough, the first thing she noticed was a small black object, the size of a shoe, following the boat as fast as it could go.For a moment she thought it was floating on the water.But at this time the cook just threw a piece of stale bread from the kitchen, and the bread floated across the water, looking as if it was about to collide with that thing, but who knew it didn't.The bread skimmed over it, and Lucy realized that the black thing could not be on the water.Then the black thing suddenly became extremely large, and then flashed back to its original size after a while.

Lucy knew at once that she had seen the same thing elsewhere—if only she could remember where.She propped her head on one hand, with a straight face, sticking out her tongue, thinking desperately.Finally figured it out.Needless to say! Like the way you see it from a train ride on a sunny day.What you see is the dark shadow of your own passenger car racing across the fields at the same speed as the car.When the train entered the cutting, the shadow immediately approached the train in a flash, became bigger, and flew along the grassy slope of the cutting.And when the cutting was cleared—all of a sudden!—the shadow returned to its original size and raced across the fields.

"So it was the shadow of our ship!—the shadow of the Dawn Treader," said Lucy. It's even clearer than I can imagine! My God, I must have seen the bottom of the sea so deep." After she finished speaking, she realized in her heart that the large piece of silvery light that she had been looking at for a long time was actually the sandy beach on the bottom of the sea. Underwater objects.Right now, for example, their boat passed a clump of limp greenish-purple stuff with a broad, twisting, light-gray ribbon in it.But now that she knew it was under the sea, she looked better.She could see that one little piece of dark stuff was higher than the other, and it was moving slightly. "Just like the trees in the wind," said Lucy, "I believe these are trees. An underwater forest."

They passed over this forest, and presently the gray band merged with the other gray band. "If I were down there," thought Lucy, "that strip would be like a road in the woods. The point where the two strips meet would be a crossroads. Oh, I wish I were down there. Hey! The end of the forest. I Believe that strip is a road! I can still see it going all the way across the empty sand. The color is different too. There's still something painted on the side—dotted lines. Stones maybe. It's widened now." But this is not really wide, but close.She knew this because the road rushed towards the boat as the shadow of the boat passed.And the road—she was sure it was the road—began to zigzag.Apparently the road was up a steep hill.When she tilted her head and looked back, it was like looking down on a winding road from the top of a mountain.She could even see the sunlight all the way through the deep water, onto the wooded valley: and at the farthest point everything melted into a blur of green.But some places—where the sun shone, as far as she could see—was dark blue.

But she couldn't take the time to look back; the sight ahead was too exciting.Now the road clearly leads to the top of the mountain, straight ahead.There are still small spots moving around on it.And now, thankfully, the sun was shining—as brightly as sunlight can penetrate the depths of the sea—and the most wonderful thing flashed before my eyes.It was a small dome, jagged and pearly, or ivory in color.At first she was almost right on top of it, so she couldn't tell what it was.But it was clear when she saw the shadow of this thing.The sun was shining over Lucy's shoulders, so the shadow of the thing lay directly on the sand behind it.Only by looking at the shape did she realize that they were the shadows of towers, minarets, pagodas and domes.

"Oh!—it's a city, or a great castle," said Lucy to herself, "but I don't know why they built it on top of a high hill?" Long after she was back in England, she talked to Edmund of all these adventures, and they devised a reason, which I believe was quite right.In the sea, the darker it gets, the colder it gets. Dangerous monsters—big squids, sea snakes, sea monsters—live in the dark and cold place below.Valleys are wild and dangerous places.The Sea People think of their valleys as we think of our mountains, and their mountains as we think of our valleys.It's warm and quiet up high (or, in our parlance, "in the shallows").Those reckless hunters and brave knights at the bottom of the sea went to the depths to explore and hunt for novelties, and then returned to the high places to rest in peace, exchange courtesy with others, hold meetings, entertain and play, sing and dance.

As their boat sailed past the city, the bottom of the sea kept rising.The ocean floor is now only a few hundred feet below the boat.That road is gone too.Their boat was now sailing over a park-like void dotted with tufts of brightly colored vegetation.And then—Lucy was on the verge of screaming aloud with excitement—she saw someone. There were fifteen or twenty or so, all on seahorses—not the tiny ones you see in museums, but much bigger and bigger ones.They must be princes, Lucy thought, because she could just see some people in the water with gold on their foreheads, and emerald green ribbons or orange-red fabrics fluttering on their shoulders.

Suddenly Lucy said, "Oh, what a nuisance these fish are!" for a school of fat little fish was swimming close to the surface and between her and the Sea People.But though this was a great disappointment to her, it gave her a most interesting scene.There was a fierce little fish that she had never seen before, jumped up from the bottom of the water unexpectedly, opened its mouth and bit a fat fish, and quickly sank under the water with its mouth in its mouth.The sea people were all riding on seahorses, looking up at this scene.They seemed to be talking and laughing.Before the game fish came back to them with its catch, another same game fish leaped from the sea man to the surface.Lucy was almost certainly the big man on the seahorse in the party who had released the fish; it seemed he had been holding it in his hand or on his wrist just now.

"Why, that's queer," said Lucy. "It's a hunting party. It's more like a falconry party, though. Yes, it is. They have these fierce little fish on their wrists, Riding out on sea horses, as we used to ride out when we were kings and queens at Cair Paravel long ago, with falcons on our wrists. Let game fish fly--I think, I should say game fish Swim—to the prey. How..." She stopped suddenly because the scene had changed.The Sea People saw the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.The school of fish fled in all directions, and the Sea-Man himself emerged to see what was this huge black thing that stood between the sun and them.They were near the surface now, and Lucy would have talked to them if they had been out in the air and not in the water.They were both male and female, and all wore some sort of crown on their heads, and many also wore pearl necklaces.They didn't wear other clothes.The body is the color of aged ivory, and the hair is dark purple.The king in the middle (no one could mistake him) gazed haughtily and fiercely into Lucy's face, brandishing a spear.The knights under him also acted in unison.The faces of the women were full of surprise.Lucy believed that they had never seen a boat or a person before—how could they know that they were in the ocean out at the end of the world, and no boat had ever been there before?

"What are you staring at, Lou?" said a voice beside her. Lucy was watching intently, but she was startled when she heard the sound. When she turned around, she realized that one arm had already gone numb due to the weight of her whole body on the side of the railing.Drinian and Edmund were beside her. "Look," she said. They both looked at it, but Drinian whispered almost at once: "Your Majesties, turn your head right away—by the way, turn your back to the sea. Don't act like you're talking about something important." "Oh, what's the matter?" Lucy said after listening to him. "Sailors should never watch all this," Drinian said. "After seeing it, some of us will fall in love with sea women, or love the underwater world, and jump into the water. That kind of thing. It's always bad luck to see these people." "But we used to know them in the days of Cair Paravel," said Lucy, "when my brother Peter was High King, and they came out on the water and sang for our coronation." "I think that must be another kind of sea people, Lou," said Edmund. "They can live under water and in the open air. I don't think these people can live in the open air. Look at them. If they could, they would have come out of the water to attack us. They look vicious." "All in all—" Drinian began.Unexpectedly, at this moment, two voices were suddenly heard.One is a plop.Second, there was a roar from the observation platform, "Someone fell into the water!" So everyone was busy.Some of the sailors hurried up to lower the awning, others hurried down to row the oars; Reines, who was on watch in the poop, began to turn the rudder desperately, turning the boat back to the place where the man fell into the water.But at this time everyone knew that it was not a human being who fell into the water, but Reepicheep. "Damn the rat!" said Drinian. "The rest of the ship together shouldn't be in as much trouble as him. If any misfortunes happen, he'll have his share! He should be shackled—and tied with a rope." He's hauled under the keel of the boat--banished him to a desert island--shaved his beard off. Who can see the little bastard?" Having said so much, it didn't mean that Drinian really didn't like Reepicheep.On the contrary, he loved it so much that he was afraid of something happening to it, and out of fear, Drinian lost his temper—just as your mother got mad at you for running out and bumping into a car on the road, and a stranger would never so.Of course, no one was afraid of Reepicheep falling into the water, because he was a good swimmer: but the three who knew what was going to happen under the water were afraid of the murderous spears in the hands of the sea people. Presently the Dawn Treader rounded the bend, and everyone could see that the dark thing in the water was Reepicheep.It was chirping happily, but its mouth was so full of water that no one could understand what it was saying. "If we don't shut him up, he'll tell everything," cried Drinian.To stop it, he ran to the side, let down a cable himself, and called to the sailors, "There, there, go back to your posts. I hope I can pull a mouse up without help." ’” Reepicheep climbed up the cable—not very swiftly, for his fur was soaked and his body was heavy—and Drinian stooped and whispered to him: "Don't say it. Don't say a word." Unexpectedly, after the wet mouse stepped on the deck, it turned out that it was not interested in the sea people at all. "Sweet!" it squeaked, "Sweet, sweet!" "What are you talking about?" asked Drinian angrily. "You don't have to shake the water all over me." "Water is really sweet," said the mouse, "sweet and fresh, not made." For a while, no one fully understood the significance of these words.But then Reepicheep repeated the old prophecy: The sea becomes sweet and fragrant, Reepicheep, take it easy, There is the Far East. It was only after everyone heard it that they finally understood. "Give me a bucket, Rainif," Drinian said. When the bucket was handed to him, he put the bucket down and hung it up again.The water really sparkled like glass. "Perhaps Your Majesty would like to have a first taste?" said Drinian to Caspian. The king held the bucket with both hands, raised it to his lips, took a shallow sip, took another deep sip, and raised his head again.His face changed.Not only do eyes appear brighter, but spirits also appear refreshed. "Yes," he said, "it's sweet indeed. This is real water. I'm not sure I won't die if I drink it. But I'd like to die like this if I only know how it tastes now." "What do you mean?" asked Edmund. "It's--it's more like light than anything," said Caspian. "Quite right," said Reepicheep, "drinkable. We must be near the end of the world now." There was a moment's silence, and then Lucy knelt on the deck and drank from the bucket. "I've never tasted anything so delicious in my life," she gasped, "but, oh--what a treat. We don't need anything now." Everyone on the boat drank one by one, and all remained silent for a long time.They all felt that the water was too good and strong to avoid; and after a while they began to see another effect.As I said before, since they left Ramandu's island, the light has been strong—the sun is great (though not too hot), the sea is bright, and the sky is brilliant.The light didn't diminish now—increased, shall I say—but they could bear it.They could look straight up at the sun without blinking, and they could see a brighter light than they had ever seen before.The decks, the sails, their own faces and bodies grew brighter and brighter, and every cable shone.The next morning, when the sun rose five or six times bigger than usual, they stared at the sun so hard that they could see the feathers of birds flying from it. All that day, hardly a word was said on board.Until lunch time (no one wants to eat, the water is enough for everyone), Drinian said: "I don't understand that. There's not a breath of wind, and the sails hang still. The sea is as calm as a little pond. And yet our boat sails smoothly." "I've been thinking about it, too," said Caspian. "We must have run into some strong current." "Well," said Edmund, "if there is an edge to the world, it is not a good thing that our ship is approaching the edge." "You mean," said Caspian, "that our boat might--well, just flow over the side?" "Yes, yes," said Reepicheep, clapping his paws, "that's how I've always imagined it--the world is like a big round table, with the waters of the oceans running endlessly down the side. The boat will Flip over, head over the edge—we'll figure it out in a minute—then plunk down, sprint down—" "Well, what do you see waiting for us down there?" Drinian said. "Maybe it's Aslan's land," said Reepicheep with a twinkle in his eyes. "Maybe there's no bottom. Maybe it's going down, down, down to nowhere. But whatever it is, just look for a moment at what's out there at the end of the world." , isn't it worth it?" "But listen," said Eustace, "it's just absurd! The world is round—I mean, round like a ball, not like a table." "Our world is round," said Edmund, "but is this world round?" "You mean," asked Caspian, "that all three of you came from a round world (as round as a ball) and you never told me about it! What a disgrace you are. Because we There is a round world in my fairy tales. I have always liked this kind of world. I don't believe there is any real round world. But I always hope to have this kind of world, and I always yearn to live in such a world .Geez, I'd give it all - I don't know why you can get into our world and we can't get into yours at all? If only there was a chance! Living on a ball must be exciting enough. Have you ever been where people walk upside down?" Edmund shook his head; "that's not the way it is," he added. "Once you're there, there's nothing particularly exciting about the round world."