After the nagging from Reepicheep to go back, the curiosity go the best of Prince Caspian and he decided turn the ship around.
“NO!” Screamed Lord Rhoop.
“The cursed island has ruined me! Many days I ran screaming in fear without stopping. You do not want me to go into any more detail than that!”
“But not many of my dreams are bad,” exclaimed a sailor, Owen, “I think I’ll have better luck than you. Plus, we are in a big group. You were just by yourself.”
“I see the island ahs cursed your mind before we even reach it!” snapped Lord Rhoop.
The rest of the crew talked happily as they thought of the pleasant dreams that they’ve had, but Lucy couldn’t help feeling nervous when Lord Rhoop sat silently with his eyes wide open, not blinking, alert at all times. The darkness didn’t help much either. It was so dark, the people on board couldn’t see one another but they knew they were approaching the island. For some reason they stayed quiet. A loud splash told them the anchor had been dropped.
Drinian came over to them and said, “well, who’s going?” just then Lord Rhoop fell to the floor shaking violently and screaming. “NO! Don’t go to the island! There is nothing for you there! Get away while we can!’ Then he abruptly stopped talking a laid there shaking.
“How about you stay here with him while we explore the Island?” Prince Caspian asked Lucy.
“If what the man says is true, then this is no island for a lady.”
Lucy pretended to be disappointed but agreed, secretly happy that she was not going.
“But what if my dreams come to the shore? Will Lord Rhoop be much help?” Lucy wondered.
It was as if Eustace and lots of other sailors read her mind. With tons of excuses, the only people (and mouse) going were a hopeful sailor named Owen, Caspian, Reepicheep, Edmund and Drinian. They said goodbye to Lucy and the rest of the people on board and started walking into pitch darkness.
“Well, we can’t get far on this island,” said Edmund. “We’ll just have to swim across the lake.”
“What lake? Asked Owen, “But do you hear those gongs? It’s creeping me out.”
“What gongs?” asked Caspian, “the person who’s walking behind me should come and walk with the rest of us so you don’t get separated. By the way, who is the one walking behind us?”
“What are you talking about?!” asked Reepicheep. “and whoever keeps mocking me and laughing needs to stop. It’s not funny.”
“No one’s mocking you!” exclaimed Drinian. “Are you all mad? And am I the only one who agrees with Edmund about the lake? But we don’t have to swim, I see a ship. It’s the most wonderful ship in the world! I’ve never seen something more beautiful. Lord Rhoop was wrong! My dreams are coming true!”
By then, everyone on the island was very confused about what each other was saying. Soon they just started mumbling and talking to themselves about what each of them heard and saw. Soon they just started mumbling and talking to themselves about their own problems. They all stopped at the same time realizing that they didn’t know what to do. To make matters worse, each one of them thought the others were crazy. A scream pierced the dark, thick air. It was Drinian.
“The ship! My beautiful ship! It’s in flames! Save it!” He took off running towards the lake and scooping up handfuls of water trying to throw it on the boat. To the others, it looked as if he ran to the edge of a wood and started scooping up leaves, dirt and grass and throwing it on the trees.
“It’s no use! I need a bucket!” Drinian said. He then screamed again making their ears pulse, and they knew the ship had sunk. They didn’t know what to do with Drinian, but before they could discuss it, he sunk to his knees.
“This cursed island. There’s horrible people here if they let a ship sink and burn like that.” He looked up and suddenly stopped talking He realized that the lake was gone.
“Oh…it was just a dream. Ha ha.there’s no lake at all. Just a dream.” Reality seemed to hit him when he saw the others standing there.
“This is too much for me. This island is cursed like the man said. I am going back to my ship.” He said stiffly. And he walked away.
The others shrugged, but Edmund said,
“The lake is gone? No it is not. It is still there. Are you mad?”
“We’ll have to cross it.” The others tried to convince him he was like Drinian and was having a bad dream.
“There is nothing bad about a lake.” Edmund replied. The others didn’t know what to do.
They decided that they would let Edmund go first into the lake. So he walked toward the lake and to him, he was swimming. But to the others he was crawling, or swimming on the ground. It was strange to see him. He yelled, “hey! Come on! You’re dragging behind.” Then he changed his tone of voice.
“I see something in the water. It’s a large black space. I think it just indicates that it gets deeper in this part. No.wait! I see it’s moving! It’s a sea monster! It’s huge!”
He screamed over and over. Loud short screams. He “swam” back as fast as he could. He then started to stand up and ran to them.
“Why did you not try to help me? Didn’t you see that thing? Some friends you are.” And he turned back to look at the lake and he gasped. It was gone.
“It’s gone! It’s gone!”
“As Lord Rhoop said before,” Caspian said calmly, “the island is the Island of Dreams. It shows your worst nightmare.”
Reepicheep interrupted him. ” Excuse me? Have we moved from this very spot? I do not think so. I thought we were supposed to explore the island, and by all means, let’s get going!”
“This is really no place for us. We do not have anything to find here. We have found Lord Rhoop and that was our quest for this island. I think we should return to ship and leave.” Said Caspian. “We see what it has done to us so far.”
They could tell Reepicheep wanted to protest, but Prince Caspian was very firm in his last statement, and they all agreed to return to ship. As they boarded, the crew questioned them, because they heard screams. But none of them felt like talking.
“Maybe tomorrow,” they would just reply.