Chronicles Of Narnia Fan Fiction / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles ❯ The Monster and the Dufflepuds ( Chapter 14 )

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The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles
PART FOURTEEN:
The Monster and the Dufflepuds

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Based on
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
and
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis


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Contains some spoilers for the Narnia books. But that's okay, I hope.
Besides, this disclaimer is starting to look pretty silly...

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But now, the story has reached that point when we must move some way away from both Narnia and Calormen -- many leagues away to the East, in fact -- to rejoin the third party of world travellers, who when last we saw them were being led away to places unknown by Reepicheep the Mouse.

The small party didn't exactly move at top speed, for even though mice (and especially talking mice from Narnia) are much, much faster than those short legs would imply, they're not exactly on par with centaurs or even humans for moving quickly over longer distances. Still, Reepicheep led the otherworldly travellers at a fairly steady pace through the landscape; Susan first and Michelangelo -- with Klunk perching on his shoulder -- making up the rear.

Michelangelo noticed to himself as they walked, that while everything was very silent, and the path Reepicheep was leading them down didn't look well-used at all, the rest of the landscape bore clear signs of people. The vegetation looked suspiciously well-groomed and cared for; with neatly mowed grass and, a little bit further down, trees were standing in an orderly row -- like soldiers on guard -- and, as far as Mike knew, that sort of thing just doesn't happen in nature.

"Pretty neat place, innit?" he said. "Oh -- wow!" That last part was uttered in surprise as the trees parted in front of them, revealing a gentle and gradual slope down to a sandy shore and beyond that, the huge, blue, glittering ocean. Mike looked around to drink the sight in, and decided from the shape of the shore that they had to be either on an island or a peninsula of some sort.

It was, he thought, beautiful.

He was just about to share his observations with the others, when Klunk spoke up from his perch on Mike's shoulder: "Hope the mouse isn't expecting us to swim! This is leading right down to the water, and I don't see any boats about."

"It'll be fine, don't worry," said Mike, trying to sound a bit more certain of this than he really was. "Hey, while we're on the subject, what is it with cats and water anyway?"

"If you'd ever experienced how freezing cold wet fur gets, you wouldn't even ask the question." Klunk looked over at the seashore getting closer by the second, and grimaced slightly. "Hey, mouse --"

Reepicheep stopped and turned towards them. His face -- probably because this was the fifth time he had stopped to turn and answer one of Klunk's remarks during the walk -- express a mixture of weariness and annoyance in roughly equal part. "I do have a name, cat," he said. "Is it too much to ask for you to remember it?"

"I'll start using your name when you start using mine!" said Klunk sourly.

"I shall start addressing you properly when you cease your insults!"

"Well, I'll stop doing that when --"

"Will both of you just quit it?!" sighed Susan, who had stopped when Reepicheep did.

"My apologies, your Majesty," said Reepicheep immediately. "You're quite right, we have more urgent matters to tend to." (Klunk muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "suck-up," but luckily Reepicheep didn't seem to have heard.) "We have nearly reached the part where we shall meet up with some friends of mine."

"Friends, by the shore? Are they merpeople?" said Susan, looking interested.

"Hardly that, your Majesty." Reepicheep, moving further down the path and towards the shore, where he stopped, stuck his paw in his mouth and whistled.

For a moment, nothing happened. But then, a faint sound was heard from somewhere out there; a whistling sound that was just different enough from Reepicheep's that it couldn't be an echo. And then, as if out of nowhere, four figures appeared on the horizon.

At first, Mike thought they were small humans in canoes or something like that, but then he realized to his surprise that what he'd thought were canoes were, in reality, huge shoes. The creatures, whatever they were, looked human enough from the waist-up, but instead of two legs, each of them only had one really thick leg centered in the middle of the body, and enormous singular feet that, with their vaguely boatlike shoes, floated on the water just as easily as real boats would have.

All four were paddling towards the shore now, using large wooden oars and going at such a speed that an Olympic rower would have been green with envy.

"What the blue blazes are those things?!" said Mike, speaking for both himself and his two fellow travellers. Klunk was staring at the odd creatures with a definite sense of disbelief, and even Susan looked as if she was having trouble believing her own eyes.

"I don't know," said Susan, clearly as baffled as Mike and Klunk were. "They look... they look a bit like the dwarfs I knew back in Narnia, but all the dwarfs had two legs... Reepicheep," she said suddenly, as if this exchange had reminded her of something she hadn't thought of before. "How long has it been?"

"I beg your pardon, your Majesty?" said Reepicheep, looking up on her.

"Narnian time never makes any sense compared to time in my world, I remember that much," said Susan. "The last time I was in Narnia, it had changed so much from how it was when I was Queen, that I hardly recognized it. How long ago was that, Reepicheep? Is this world filled with new creatures now, creatures I never knew about?"

Reepicheep looked grave, staring out on the ocean as the rowers came closer. "A long time has passed, your Majesty. Many stars have grown old and been born again. Were you to return to Narnia now, I fear you would find none left whom you knew from your last visit. Even I am only here and alive still because I long since journeyed to Aslan's own country, where age and death dare not tread, and was sent back here to perform my last task in this world: To aid the Queen. Aslan himself provided me with a new sword to replace the one I threw into the ocean before entering his land -- and with the fire-berry that revived your Majesty."

"Yeah, well, Aslan himself turned me into a talking cat and sent me and Mike along to help get her back here in the first place," Klunk piped up, "and you don't see me putting on airs like that!"

"I am not putting on airs," said Reepicheep in an annoyed tone. "Might I remind you, cat, that you are in the presence of a Queen, and were it not for the fact that you are a friend of her Majesty --!"

"Ooooh, spare me," Klunk snorted. "How many times have you said that now?"

"Klunk, shhh," said Mike, placing a hand on the cat's back just as the four rowers reached the shore, stopping a few feet away and bobbing up and down on the tiny waves, looking at the group with excited faces.

Reepicheep, deciding to forego the argument, immediately bowed to the four before turning towards Mike and the others. "May I introduce the Dufflepud Resistance."

"That's us, that's us," said the four, speaking all at once and not in a very organized manner, though in somewhat hushed voices. "Dufflepuds, that's who we are, that's right! Couldn't have said it better ourselves! Here now, are they the ones who've come to heal the Magician?"

"Honored Dufflepuds," Reepicheep went on, as if they hadn't spoken at all, "This is her Royal Highness, Queen Susan the Gentle of Narnia, sister of Queen Lucy the Valiant, and her companions. I ask you to treat them with the same respect you would have given her sister and her friends."

"Oh, we will, we will," the Dufflepuds promised, trying to bow and curtsey while still floating on the water, something which looked comical rather than respectful -- but then again, it was probably the thought that counted.

The biggest of the four, who was wearing a rather sorry-looking blue cap, looked up at Susan and took a deep breath. "Your High Royalness," he said. "I'm Clanker, the Leader of the Dufflepud resistance --" ("He is, he is, that's who he is, all right," the other three chorused) "-- and I speak for us all when I say I'm honored to finally meet you. We knew your sister, we did, or rather we didn't -- seeing as how none of us were born when she was here -- but our parents' grandparents have told us about her, and of course our Magician."

Susan blinked. "I -- I beg your forgiveness, noble Dufflepuds," she said, obviously masking her astonishment with courtesy. "I regret to say that I have never heard of you until now. Certainly there were no Dufflepuds in Narnia when I was there last."

"Oh, there wouldn't be, there wouldn't be," said Clanker. "We've never been to Narnia, never in our lives, and never in our grandparents' lives either. Dufflepuds live only on Dufflepud Island. That's why it's called Dufflepud Island, you see, because it's the only place in the world where you'll find Dufflepuds."

"He said it, he said it," the other three agreed. "Can't say much clearer than that. Keep it up, Clankie, you're doing great!"

"But this isn't a safe place to talk," Clanker went on. "If you'll climb aboard, we'll take you to our Magician. He can't explain anything, of course he can't, on account of him not being able to explain anything, but it's a safe place to talk, and we can tell you everything."

"Uh... Climb aboard what, exactly?" said Mike.

"Us, of course!" said the Dufflepuds. "Step on, step on! We can carry you, we can! You wouldn't like to swim all the way, that would be extraordinarily wet."

Susan didn't seem to need any more encouragement. Like she had for some moments back in her own apartment in New York, she had seemed to grow, if not younger, then at least stronger and more vital than before. She was walking straighter and even seemed to stand taller in some weird way (whether this was because of the fire-berry, or some strange effect of the air, or a combination of the two, was impossible to say.), and wasted no time in wading out in the water.

With the help of the eager Dufflepuds, she climbed up onto the feet of Clanker and one of the others, raising herself so she was balancing with one foot on each Dufflepud, floating on the water.

The two other Dufflepuds paddled closer to the shore and began eagerly assuring Mike that they could carry him, no trouble at all, he didn't look too heavy, and anyway, if worst should come to worst, he could swim, couldn't he?

"Just saying," said Klunk underneath their voices. "You're my best friend and all that, Mike, but if you do lose your balance here, I will scratch you."

"Aw, don't worry, Klunkers, I think I can..." Mike began, but then cut himself off as he heard some strange, silent thumps far behind him. There were several of them, and they seemed to be coming closer all the time, as if a herd of giant rabbits were coming hopping towards them. "What's that noise?" he said, turning around to face the island.

The Dufflepuds seemed to have heard it too, and looked nervous. "They're coming, they're coming!" they hissed. "Quick, quick, we must hurry! If they find us here they'll take us prisoner and we'll end up enslaved just like them!"

"Who?" said Mike, drawing his nunchucks and twirling them around as he assumed a battle position.

"The other Dufflepuds!" said Clanker. "They're slaves of the terrible monster, the terrible monster that came here to our island and enchanted our Magician and enslaved our brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and cousins and grandparents!"

Just as he said that, Mike saw the forms of more creatures appearing between the trees, with the same shape, build and one gigantic leg as the Dufflepuds on the water, but and brandishing spears and swords, moving down the path in huge leaps and bounds, the ones in the front yelling and pointing at Mike and the others.

"They have seen us," said Reepicheep, turning around and drawing his rapier. "Dufflepuds, get the Queen to safety! She must get to the Magician! We shall stall them for as long as we can!"

"I can't leave you behind," Susan protested, even as the Dufflepuds began rowing away from the shore with her, in the tone of voice of someone ready to swim back ashore rather than abandon her friends.

"I beg your forgiveness, your Majesty, but you must!" Reepicheep called back, waiting as the new Dufflepuds came closer with their giant leaps. "Worry not about us, we shall fight proudly as long as our bodies have any fight left in them!"

"We'll be fine, Mrs. Palmer!" Mike yelled. "Go!"

"Don't hurt them too much!" Clanker called, his voice fainter as they got farther from the shore. "They're enslaved! They don't really mean being bad!"

If he added anything more, Mike didn't hear it, because now the small force was upon them, eight angry-looking Dufflepuds with their spears and swords at the ready. At once, Reepicheep charged them, causing two of them to hop around and scream in pain, bleeding from their gigantic feet from lightning-quick lashes of his small sword.

Careful of Klunk who was still on his shoulder, Mike evaded the spears that two other Dufflepuds were thrusting at him, and with a carefully-aimed spin kick he knocked the spears out of both their hands. Klunk chose this exact moment to leap off Mike's shoulder and jump on top of the head of one of them, who was so surprised he toppled over and fell.

With a flash of his nunchucks, Mike knocked out the other spearless Dufflepud, sending him tumbling to the ground, and leapt out of the way as three more charged at him with enormous jumps.

"Time to get a new perspective!" he quipped as he dodged low and rolled out of the way, causing his three attackers to collide with each other in the air and fall to the ground.

The Dufflepuds were not strong or organized fighters, but their speed and unusual way of moving forth solely through the use of high jumps made them that much harder to hit, and Mike, dodging and rolling and kicking, discovered quickly that a lot of his blows failed to connect because the targets had jumped away.

But Mike had fought for his life many times before and against weirder creatures than this, and elegantly backflipped away from a mighty swing of a sword that would probably have chopped his leg off if he had been slower, locking his legs around the head of the Dufflepud who'd been knocked over by Klunk and was now getting to his feet again, ending up sitting on the surprised-looking creature's shoulders.

"Ride 'im, cowboy! Yeeeeee-haaaaa!" Mike cheered as the Dufflepud, panicking, began bouncing wildly around in order to throw him off, giving Mike the extra altitude he needed to swing his 'chucks around and sending two of the attacking Dufflepuds into dreamland, while a third once let out a startled "ooof!" as his panicking comrade accidentally jumped on top of him.

Reepicheep was a whirlwind, rushing around and somehow always being there just as a Dufflepud hit the ground, and with sharp swings of his sword drew more blood and ensured that certain Dufflepuds' jumps became weaker and clumsier, often accompanied by sharp yelps of pain (it's hard to jump when your one leg is bleeding).

Apparently unused to this kind of resistance, two of the Dufflepuds dropped their weapons and fled, bouncing away from the scene as quickly as they could, leaving only six of them, four of which were lying unconscious on the ground and one of which was bouncing around in a panic with Mike on his shoulders, but getting more and more tired under the weight of the Turtle.

The final Dufflepud, realizing he was alone and seeing Reepicheep advancing on him from one side and Klunk (who had mainly been running around and trying not to be trampled by Dufflepud feet) rushing towards him from the other, threw himself down on the ground and yelled: "All right, all right, I give up, I'm dead, see?"

"Looks like the fun's over" said Mike as his "horse" finally collapsed under his weight and lay panting on the ground. "Not exactly warriors, these guys, huh?"

"Which is why their monster enslaved them so easily," said Reepicheep, poking at the surrendering Dufflepud with his sword. "Surrender to us now, and your life shall be spared!"

"I surrender, I surrender," the Dufflepud moaned. "I never wanted to be a soldier, not at all, but the monster demanded it! We have to do as the monster says, and the monster says to kill or capture all intruders, so we had to --!" he gave a sharp yelp of terror and fainted dead away as Klunk bopped him on the nose with his paw.

"You're right, not warriors at all," the cat said, looking at Reepicheep, who just shook his head in dismay.

"Those two who got away are prolly warning everyone else as we speak, though," said Mike. "I suggest we split the scene before we have an entire army of bouncing one-leggers jumpin' on our heads, or that monster they were talking about. Where's Mrs. Palm -- I mean, the Queen?"

"The Dufflepud Resistance would have taken her to the Magician," said Reepicheep. "She should be safe enough with them for the time being. As for us, we have little choice in staying here on the island, as there are no boats big enough for us all to join her. I have my coracle hidden close by, but it would carry only me, and it would be a great stain on my honor were I to leave two friends of her Majesty to fend for themselves alone in a strange land -- especially now that we have all fought side-by-side. It would be to abandon my comrades in arms." He bowed elegantly to them both.

Mike and Klunk exchanged glances, partly amused and partly impressed by the elaborate speech. Had it come before Reepicheep had had a chance to show his skills in battle, they might have laughed, but his speed and ferocity had more than demonstrated that despite his small size, the mouse was clearly a force to be reckoned with, and the only reason why the Dufflepuds were still alive was that he hadn't been trying to kill them.

"Uh, thanks," said Mike.

"Yeah, I guess," muttered Klunk reluctantly.

"But what should we do?" Mike went on. "We can't stay here on the shore, they'll come back and find us. We could take eight of 'em, no problem, but there could be more. And then there's that monster that they kept talking about..."

"Shall I understand this as your admitting that you are afraid of facing the unknown?" said Reepicheep, looking at Mike with piercing eyes.

"Um..." Mike paused. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, hello, it's a monster."

Reepicheep opened his mouth, and then closed it again, as if he hadn't expected that answer and wasn't sure how to deal with it. "Well," he said. And then again: "Well." He had to take a deep breath before continuing, his expression a mix of confusion and indignity. "You carry yourself as a warrior, and you fight like a warrior. What is more, if your story is true, you were chosen by Aslan to accompany the Queen! Now you tell me that you are a mere coward who will flee in the face of danger? Have you no thought for your honor?"

"Whoa, relax!" Mike held up his hands. "Just saying, we should know a bit more about this place, and this monster, before we go chargin' against it."

Reepicheep seemed to consider this, growing less tense. "Your words are not without wisdom," he conceded. "I suppose that there is a time to gather information and a time to strike. Very well... I had hoped that we might go though this together with her Majesty and the Dufflepud resistance, but it seems like that was not meant to be. Follow me, and I shall tell you what I know."




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Susan listened anxiously to the sounds of the battle behind her as the Dufflepuds sped across the water with her, desperately wishing that she'd had her horn with her to call for help, or at least her old bow so that she could... well, perhaps not fight these enemy Dufflepuds, but maybe help frighten them away.

The familiar feel of the Narnian air -- even if she was not, technically, in Narnia -- had begun working its wonders on her, and even if she hadn't been exposed to it for long, she was already beginning to feel stronger, and she knew that the longer she was here, the part of her that was old, weary Mrs. Palmer would more and more yield to the half-forgotten part of her that was Queen Susan of Narnia. But what good would it do being Queen Susan if she was unable to help her friends?

I hope they'll be all right, she thought anxiously.

Then, before she could think any more, she spotted the tiny little stone island in front of them, steadily growing bigger as they closed in on it. It was barely more than a large rock in the sea (with, it must be admitted, several dramatic and interesting-looking stone formations), only a few minutes' swift paddling away from Dufflepud island itself, but the cheers of the Dufflepuds made it clear that as far as they were concerned, this was a stronghold and a safehaven with few, if any, equals.

They rowed all the way up to its rocky shores to allow the passenger to step onto the island, and then, easy as anything, jumped off the water themselves and landed on the ground.

"We're here, your Royalness!" said Clanker with great pride in his voice.

"It's... lovely," said Susan, with only a tiny hesitation. "But Clanker, what will happen to my friends? Will the other Dufflepuds..." she couldn't bring herself to actually voice her fears.

"They will be all right, your Royalness, if you can just heal our Magician," said Clanker.

"Yes, the Magician," the other three piped up, speaking all at once. "He's here on this island you see! Indeed, because if he hadn't been here, we wouldn't have come here! No, we wouldn't, because that would just have been pointless, wouldn't it?"

"All right," said Susan as patiently as she could. "But who is your Magician, and how do I heal him?"

"Why, he's our Magician, of course!" said Clanker, looking surprised at the question. "Our great and noble Coriakin! You didn't think we would talk about some other Magician, did you? Someone who wasn't even here and we'd never met? What would be the point of going to meet someone who wasn't here?"

"Quite right, quite right, Clankie!" said the other three. "That's logic, that is!"

"That's right, that's right," said Clanker. "It was the terrible monster, you see! It came from the West, and it enchanted our Magician and enslaved the Dufflepuds! The four of us, we rescued the Magician and brought him to this island to hide from the monster, but we couldn't break the enchantment, no, we couldn't, and now he's enchanted and can't help us!"

Susan did her best to hold back a sigh. The Dufflepud kept chattering, but their voices seem to fade out and drown in her thoughts. Of course, it had to be magic. She knew all about magic, of course, and enchantments, having witnessed and even felt several kinds of them in her youth, but she had never been directly involved in either forming or breaking them.

It should have been Lucy, she thought with a twinge of bitterness. Not me. Lucy was always so much more at home with these things than I was. Always brave, always faithful, and always so much closer to Aslan. She even had that vial of potion that could heal just about any wound or disease... She would have known what to do. How Susan wished her younger sister could have been here now, that she hadn't died in that awful train crash. It was so long ago, more than fifty years, and yet... when Susan thought of Lucy now, it was as if no time had passed at all.

Silly old woman, she scolded herself, doing her best to pull herself together. Act your age, Susan! Lucy is gone, they're all gone, and no amount of wishing will bring them back. But I'm still here, and these creatures are counting on me to help them. And so are Reepicheep, Mike and Klunk.

She took a deep breath and spoke, just as the Dufflepuds were winding down. "I will do my utmost to help you and your Magician," she said firmly. "What do I have to do, proud and noble Dufflepuds?"

"Actually," said Clanker, "we were hoping you'd tell us."

"What?"

"Our friend the Mouse, who just arrived here yesterday," Clanker explained, "has told us that a Queen would come to help us in our need. Just as a Queen once saved both us and our beloved Magician from an evil invisibility spell, so would her sister, who was also a Queen, come to break the evil spell that's been placed upon our Magician, and save our brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and cousins and grandparents from the terrible monster!"

"But he didn't say how!" one of the other three added.

"He didn't need to!" said another one. "You'll do great! You'll know what to do!"

"Yes, yes," they all chorused, all bouncing and jumping around Susan to lead her up the rocky past and towards one of the stone formations. "Come see him! We'll tell you the story! And you'll know how to help!"

A little overwhelmed by their unwavering faith in her, Susan let herself be led towards the stone formation, which -- when she got close to it -- parted and revealed a small cave entrance, just big enough that she could walk through it without crouching down.

"We didn't used to be Dufflepuds at all," Clanker continued, to the constant agreeing of his three companions, as they followed her in. "We used to be something else, only our parents never tell us what that was, because they say it's too horrible to speak of. And when they say something is too horrible to speak of, they mean it's so horrible that no-one should speak of it! But our good and wise Magician, he granted us a great and glorious boon and turned us into what you see us as now: Noble and proud Dufflepuds! And this is where we get to the point, you see, because there is a point to this, that's why I'm making this short and to the point."

"Nothing like a short point, nothing like it," said the other Dufflepuds, but Susan decided to ignore them for now and focus on her surroundings. The cave was dark, what little light was there only coming in through the entrance, and she had to wait a little before her eyes adjusted enough that she could move on and see where she put her feet.

It wasn't a particularly big cave, but it was cluttered with small things; a cooking pot, a fishing rod, a few well-used knives and tools. And furthest in, on a stone slab by the inner wall, an old man was lying with closed eyes, as if in a coma.

He looked very much like a traditional magician, with a long white beard and dressed in a red robe. for some reason, he was also barefoot, but maybe the Dufflepuds had removed his shoes to make him more comfortable. Susan stood for a moment, looking at the scene, before moving a little bit closer.

"She's going to heal him, she is," said the Dufflepuds behind her. "We'll be rid of the terrible monster, just you wait and see! How are you going to do it, your Royalness?"

"Good question," Susan muttered, looking at the Magician again. Truth be told, she was at a complete loss, and for a brief moment she considered turning around and saying that she was sorry, but she had no idea what to do -- but this impulse lasted only for a fraction of a second. She knew she at least had to try something.

"My sister Lucy," she said, partly talking to herself and partly to the Dufflepuds, "once had a vial containing the juice of the fireflowers that grow on the sun. It could heal just about any wound or illness, even magical ones."

"Could it help our Magician?" said Clanker eagerly.

"I don't know," Susan admitted, still looking at the sleeping old man. "Whether it could or not, though, is a fairly moot point since Lucy isn't here... nor is her vial. Why am I even thinking about this?"

"Maybe it can help even if it isn't here!" Clanker suggested, bouncing up to her side. "Maybe you're thinking about something without thinking about it, and the thing you're thinking about isn't what you're really thinking about, but it's something that can help!"

Behind them, the other three Dufflepuds take a collective breath in order to agree with this statement -- but the agreement never came. Susan turned to look at them and was mildly surprised to see them exchange glances and look uncertain.

"That doesn't make any sense, Clanker," the smallest one finally said. "If you think about something, you think about it. You can't think about something without thinking about it.

"You can't," the other two agreed. "It's impossible to think without thinking! If you don't think, you don't think!"

The Dufflepuds fell silent again, and all four of them were looking fairly shocked at each other and themselves, as if this disagreement over philosophical matters had been completely out of line. Finally Clanker turned back to Susan and said, looking ashamed of himself. "We're deeply sorry, your Royalness, deeply sorry. That argument was uncalled for!"

"Completely uncalled for, completely uncalled for," the other three murmured, averting their eyes and shifting uncomfortably. "What must you think of us? Starting a fight like this! And in such dire circumstances too! We should be ashamed of ourselves, we are ashamed of ourselves."

Susan was about to ask what fight they were talking about, but then realized that the Dufflepuds had spent most of their time up to now agreeing with each other, and if this was how they normally acted, even a minor disagreement like this would seem to them like a big argument.

"Don't worry about it," she said as soothingly as she could. "But," she added as a new thought struck her, "Clanker may have had a point." Do what you can, with what you have, where you are... the words returned to her again, just as clearly as if they had just been spoken out loud, and once again she felt a small, hopeful twinge. "I don't have the vial. But I did recently swallow a fire-berry, which came from the same plant as the fireflowers from the sun..."

It was a desperate and even absurd thought, she realized. But then again, how many stories in her world didn't mention this very simple way of breaking an enchantment?

Slowly, she knelt down beside the Magician, bent over him and planted a light kiss on his lips.

Even before she could raise herself again, his eyes opened, staring up at her.


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To be continued....
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Author's Notes: Well, what do you know -- after more than a year of nothing at all from this fic, there's suddenly a new chapter! Granted, it's more Narnia than Turtles at the moment, but Reepicheep and the Dufflepuds demanded the extra attention, leaving poor Michelangelo a bit in the background for this chapter. Oh well -- he'll have his moment.

Coriakin and the Dufflepuds (though not the four who appear in this chapter, who are original characters) are from Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The Dufflepuds have matured slightly in the time since then -- trust me, they were worse in the original book -- though from the story they tell Susan here, it seems like they're not quite remembering Lucy's visit to their island exactly the way it happened in canon, nor do they seem to remember that they originally feared and resented Coriakin, whom they at the time viewed a an unfair and sinister tyrant because he kept trying to get them to do sensible things instead of utterly foolish ones.

I made this change to them largely because, since there are Dufflepuds present in the final gathering in Aslan's country, they must have grown up somewhat and, if not exactly found wisdom, then at least become a little less stupid. But of course, they wouldn't be Dufflepuds if they didn't keep saying obvious things and constantly agreeing with each other, so hopefully they're at least somewhat recognizable.

It's canon in the Narnian books that Lucy was always a little envious of Susan, who was so much more beautiful and "grown up," but I thought it would be interesting to show that perhaps Susan was just as envious of Lucy -- just for other reasons.