XII

The Weeping Butterfly” mused Hedegar, “I remember that place. We often used to go for picnics there when we were hoglets. There was a cave behind the waterfall.”

“I wonder,” said Susan. “Maybe it's not nothing.  Maybe that is the key to the clue. Bragold might have been making use of the similarity between the two words. It's quite cleaver really.”

“I still don't get it,” said Scaltard, “What does a tear or weeping have to do with the tearing wind.”

“I'll show you,” answered Susan. She led them back to where the others were still working at the letters and showed them how the two words used the same letters.

“This writing is stranger than I thought. But it was clever of Bragold to make use of the fact,” said Scaltard finally, the first to understand what she was saying. “If we are right, Bragold made sure this clue would not be easy for just anyone to understand. I wonder why?” The creatures were silent as they thought about it.

“Well if Scaltard says it makes sense, I'm willing to accept it. What shall we do now?” asked Hedegar.

“Make a trip to the cave by the Weeping Butterfly and see if we can find the seed,” said Gelinda.

“Has no one been into the cave before?” asked Susan. “Wouldn’t the seed have been found before now?”

“It must be well hidden,” answered Hedegar, “We didn't go into the cave very often; we preferred playing outside in the sunlight.”

“So, do we go at once?” asked Susan.

“We'll call another meeting and tell the others. Then we'll make plans. It's not far to the waterfall. About half a days' journey,” said the hedgehog.

“It's almost lunch time,” said practical Gelinda, “Let's have a meeting over lunch.”

There was great excitement among the creatures when the news was brought that they had worked out the clue. The fact that they weren't completely sure they were right didn't seem to dampen their enthusiasm.

The following creatures were appointed to be part of the search party: Hedegar, Scaltard and Belinda, as well as Vixel the fox. And Susan of course. The bees had to leave shortly to attend to their hive, and Ratel agreed to stay behind, to keeping an eye on things while they were gone. Loopel said he didn't want to go, but would rather wait for Akadis came back to give him the news.

It was decided that they would only leave the next day since they did not want to arrive at the falls at night. The rest of the day was spent making preparations for the journey.

*-*-*-*

They left early the next morning. The walk was relatively uneventful as they followed the river. Susan found herself enjoying the walk. She couldn't remember the last time she had been on a walk in the countryside at home, and despite the more arid and rough landscape, it brought back memories of Narnia. In particular, she remembered the last time she had been there, in the days of Prince Caspian, when she and her siblings had gotten lost in the overgrown woods. She was glad that she was travelling with people who knew the landscape better than they had back then.

The vegetation was thin, consisting mainly of thorns and small shrubs. There wasn’t much in the way of shade but there was a soft river breeze that kept them cool as they walked. They were walking upstream, on the left bank of the river. Ever to their left was the rocky and rough landscape Susan was becoming accustomed to and sheer cliffs forming the walls of mesas.

They could hear the falls before they saw it. As they rounded a bend it came into sight. It wasn’t the largest or most spectacular falls ever, but it was still a pleasant sight in that arid landscape. Frothy foam spilled its way over the rough rock shelf in to a large round pool. The water in the pool was clear. Small plants grew on little outcrops on the rocky wall, enjoying the moisture from the spray of the falls.

It was near midday when they finally reached the pool. There was a flat area with a tree that was trying to offer some shade where they rested and had a picnic lunch. Susan had forgotten how lovely the look and sound of cascading water could be. She was reminded of Cauldron Pool which she and her siblings had often visited when travelling through Lantern Waste during their reign in Narnia. On one part of the rock face there was a section of different-coloured rock. Sure enough, it didn’t require much imagination to see in it the shape of a butterfly. The Weeping Butterfly. This was it.

“So do you think we’ve finally found it?” she asked Scaltard as they cleared away the lunch things.

“It would seem so,” was his simple reply. “It fits well with the clue. The tearing wind’s daughter is the waterfall, the echo that calls the cave.”

“What about the first part of the clue?” she asked.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” answered the tortoise. I guess the cup of cold water also refers to the waterfall, I’m not sure how the leaf that falls fits in.”

“Couldn’t it also be a reference to the falls,” she asked, “if Bragold was again using the double meaning of a word?”

“I’ve thought of that,” said Scaltard, “but it worries me that it specifically speaks of a leaf. Why a leaf? Well, hopefully we’re about to find out.”

Susan looked again across the pool towards their destination. As the falls neared the river, the rock face suddenly veered away creating a cleft. Susan guessed that this was where the entrance to the cave was. At first glance, she could see no way of getting to it without swimming across the pool, but there was a small, steep path that became a ledge they could walk along. They made their way across cautiously. The entrance to the cave was fairly small, though large enough for them all to get through.

The inside of the cave was cool and damp. It took some time for their eyes to adjust as they stepped in out of the bright sunlight. There was enough daylight shining in through the entrance to light up the cave which proved to be a medium sized round chamber. Apart from a few boulders and smaller stones marking a fire place, it was empty. The fire place itself appeared not to have been used in a long time.

“Now what?” asked Susan, “Where do we look?” She couldn’t help the sinking feeling that there weren’t many places to hide anything in here. Surely if what they were looking for had been kept here, it would have been found and taken years ago.

“I doubt it’s in the main chamber,” answered Scaltard wisely. Susan hadn’t thought that this might not be the only part of the cave. She hadn’t seen any entrances to other passages, but now that she looked more closely at the dark back of the cave, she noticed two darker patches that might be holes. The animals made their way to the back and discovered one small passage and another larger one. Susan and Vixel would never fit through the former so they decided to split up. Susan, Vixel and Scaltard would take the one passage, Hedegar and Belinda the other.

“We’re going to need light,” said Hedegar suddenly. They hadn’t really thought about this before and felt a little foolish. The pale light from outside which was enough for the main chamber would not carry into the darker rooms. We’ll need to go back outside and get some sticks and grass for torches. Good thing there’s flint in the picnic set.

He was about to head back out when Susan remembered, “Wait!” she said. “I have a torch!” The animals looked at her quizzically. She had completely forgotten Edmund’s favourite torch, the replacement for the one he had lost in Narnia, which she’d packed in her back pack. When she pulled it out, the animals starred in awe.

“What kind of torch is that,” asked Vixel.

“It’s metal,” said Scaltard, “Who would make a torch out of metal? Metal doesn’t burn.”

“It’s a different type of torch,” answered Susan, “It doesn’t work by burning. Well it does, but it’s the little thing inside the globe that burns, drawing energy from the batteries…” She stopped, realising she was making no sense. “Here...let me show you. As she switched it on, it cast a pale glow. The cracked lens meant the light was distorted slightly instead of a single beam. The animals all took an involuntary step (or flutter) back.

“Is it magic?” asked Vixel, a little afraid.

“No, not magic,” answered Susan, trying to think how to explain, “In my world some very clever people found a way to… trap…the flame of a torch into this small section called a globe. There are…fuel packs inside the stem of the torch that keep the flame going. You switch it on…no…set it alight by pressing this button here that acts like a flint.”

The animals didn’t look too convinced but accepted her explanation.

“Unfortunately I only have one, so we’ll either have to take turns or we can still collect sticks and grass to make another one.”

“We can take turns,” said Hedegar, “You go ahead first.”

Susan, Scaltard and Vixel made their way cautiously through the gap and found themselves in a passage. The light of the torch wasn’t very bright, but the passage was narrow enough that no-one could get lost. It was quite long and went slightly downhill. They could tell they were nearing the end when the walls started to get a little further apart and the ceiling higher. Suddenly it opened out into a second chamber, slightly smaller than the first.

The first thing Susan noticed was a large chest in the middle of the chamber. There was a strange shape sticking up a little behind it and something a little like torch light coming from behind. Next thing she knew, the shape had grown in height and there was a man standing behind the chest shining a torch at her.

Pointing her torch back at him, she immediately recognised the face of the man.

“David,” she gasped.

*-*-*-*

The young man’s cautious expression relaxed.

“Susan, I’m so glad I found you. Or did you find me? You couldn’t have known I was in this cave?”

“I take it you found the ring I dropped,” she responded a little coldly. She silenced the next thought that came to mind, that perhaps he had somehow taken it from her on purpose that day, but the facts didn’t make that possible.

A strange grunting noise resembling the clearing of one’s throat came from the direction of Scaltard. Susan had temporarily forgotten about her companions.

Oh sorry, “David, this is Scaltard the tortoise and Vixel the fox. Scaltard, Vixel, this is my friend David from my world. He’s a…son of Adam.” All of them looked at her quizzically, and she realised David wouldn’t be the only one doing some explaining.

“Pleased to meet your acquaintance,” said Vixel, the first to remember politeness. As she spoke, David took an involuntary step back and his eyes widened. But he grinned, with a look more of interest than alarm. “So this is Narnia?” he said after only a brief hesitation, “Talking animals. You made it back.”

Susan looked at him and shook her head. “Well actually, no. It’s different world. One that also has talking animals.” She didn’t feel like telling the whole story in this dark room and the torch batteries weren’t going to last forever. She suggested they return to the main chamber where she could introduce David to the others. They all agreed and made their way back, their quest for the seed all but forgotten.

When Susan had introduced David to the others, and explained he was a friend from her world that had come here the same way as she had (though she had not known he would), and they were all seated comfortably in the entrance cave, she turned to him.

“So what are you doing here?” she asked, perhaps a little harshly. She was not sure whether to be angry or flattered that he had clearly followed her here against her wishes. She was confused too. If he had picked up the ring the day she dropped it, why was he not in the Wood between the Worlds before her? He couldn’t have arrived in this world before her since he had no green ring. And how dare he leave his sister behind?

“I told you I didn’t want you going off on your own into strange worlds,” he began, “So when the chance came, I had to take it. I guess you discovered you’d dropped one of the rings when you left London. It was at the bus stop, where we had been waiting. I saw it just as the bus had gone out of sight. I was wearing gloves, you remember; it was a cold morning. I didn’t come at once because I knew it would be a day at least before you left, and I couldn’t simply leave Kathy without making sure she was cared for. So I went back home and arranged for a cousin who had recently moved to London to take care of her. It took a couple days for me to sort out everything or I would have been here sooner.”

Susan nodded, and allowed a brief smile, relieved he had made his sister a priority. “So I understand how you got to the Wood between the Worlds. But how did you get here, and what are you doing in this cave – in that back chamber of all places?”

“Why I was waiting for you to find me,” he answered, with a good natured twinkle in his eye, “I thought to myself, now where would be a good place to find Susan? Oh, in a hidden back chamber of a cave behind a waterfall.”

“Oh, do be serious,” said Susan, a little irritated that he was teasing her in front of her new friends, “And just how exactly did you know we were coming?”

“I didn’t really,” he answered, becoming more serious. “When I arrived in the Wood, I had no idea how I would find you. I never expected all the pools to be quite so identical. Well…I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that. Actually, it took me a while, on first coming out of our pool to remember what I was even doing there. It was a strange feeling, but for a while it seemed I’d always been there. Until I saw a little guinea-pig walking up to me. He seemed quite determined and nudged my hand to get my attention. I noticed he had a green and yellow ring tied around his neck, and a note. That was when it came back to me. I remembered you mentioning the guinea-pigs and how we had laughed at it. Then I read your note. Come to think of it, you can’t blame me for coming after you; you were the one who left the green ring for me.” He stifled another mischievous grin.

“I left that ring so you could get back to earth; with express instructions as to how to get back to earth. Not so you could follow me. Besides, how did you find this world? Of all the pools to choose from, how did you know it was this?”

“I didn’t,” he answered, “I had no idea whether I’d chosen the right world or not. Not until you shone that torch in my face back there. Although the guinea-pig helped me; he was the one who led me to it.”

Oh, the guinea-pig, of course. That animal was both a help and a nuisance.

“That silly guinea-pig! He was supposed to show you how to get back to earth,” grumbled Susan, still pretending to be annoyed.

“Well, okay,” confessed David, “I may have asked him if he happened to know where you had gone.”

Susan glared at him.

“Hey, I went there with the intention of finding you. I wasn’t about to give up. I had no idea whether or not he understood me. But he led me to the pool and here I am. He’s really quite intelligent that creature.”

Susan nodded. “Although I asked him the way to Narnia, and he brought me here instead.” That had been plaguing her all along. This was the wrong world, and yet it happened to be the one world that was in need of a human to read the mysterious clue.

“Well he knew which pool I was looking for,” answered David. “By the way, you never told me the rings acted like magnets. I brought the guinea-pig with me. Not intentionally. He practically jumped into my arms as I was stepping into the pool.”

Susan turned her eyes away slightly. “Yeah, I forgot about that part until I was in the Wood, or I would have…” she broke off, realising she was about to confess how if she had remembered that part she would probably have gone back and asked him to come with her after discovering the second ring was missing. “But wait, you said you brought the guinea-pig with you. Where is he?” she added, quickly changing the topic and grateful it was too dark for her reddening cheeks to show.

“Well that brings us to the next part of the story. We spent the night in the cave last night. He was still asleep when I woke this morning, so I left him while I went outside to scout the landscape and check whether it was safe. When I came back at lunch time, he had disappeared. I was hoping he had gone exploring one of the other chambers and not wondered outside somewhere. I was looking for him in the other chamber when you arrived.”

“You just left him here by himself all morning?” asked Susan slightly incredulous.

“I thought it was safer for him in the cave. And he seems to be somewhat intelligent, so I figured he’d feel the same.”

“What do you mean safer? It’s perfectly safe here.”

“For a human, perhaps, but not for a smaller creature like a guinea-pig. As soon as we arrived yesterday afternoon, we were greeted by a screeching cry. There was a massive eagle, larger than any I’ve ever seen in our world. He spotted the guinea-pig and started swooping down on him. The guinea-pig took fright, and started running. I never knew such a small creature could run so fast. We weren’t far from the waterfall and I’m not sure how he knew it was there, but the guinea-pig found the path to the cave and made a run for safety. It was a close call. I think the eagle would have gotten him if he hadn’t reached the curtain of water just in time. Once the eagle had given up, I made my way to the cave. The guinea-pig was a little shaken, but recovered quickly. We spent the night there, afraid that the eagle might return.”

“Excuse me, sir?” put in Hedegar suddenly. The animals had been listening to the exchange quietly until now. “Did you say you saw an eagle? There have been no eagles in these parts for ages.”

“It looked to me like an eagle, or at least what we call an eagle in our world, only bigger,” he answered with a frown.

“Strange,” said Scaltard, “I wonder what it means?”

“So here you are,” said Susan, turning back to David. “You made your way to this world (against my wishes) and just happened to be in the cave we were searching in. What now?”

“Well that’s up to you, Susan. I think it’s time you told me about your adventure,” answered David, “What has happened since you arrived and what are you and your friends doing in this cave?”