TCN04 - Prince Caspian, Part 05 of 08

Host: Last time on Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia.
Guest (Male): So it was your horn, Sue, that dragged us all off that seat on the platform yesterday.
Guest (Female): Do let's get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we can.
Guest (Male): If we've got lost coming, what chance have we of finding our way back again? We might as well give the whole thing up.
Guest (Male): Miraz will have finished with Caspian before we get there at any rate.
Guest (Female): Look!
Guest (Male): What?
Guest (Female): Look!
Guest (Male): What?
Guest (Female): The Lion! Aslan himself.
Host: The most beloved children series.
Guest (Female): And what wonderful adventures we shall have.
Guest (Female): Oh, I do wish we knew the story that's behind all this.
Host: Brought to glorious life.
Guest (Female): It's the army! It's Rabadaash and he's coming this way.
Guest (Male): Quick! We must get to Anvard before them.
Guest (Male): Tomorrow, I will begin the conquest of the world.
Host: And coming to an imagination near you.
Guest (Male): There's not much point in finding a magic ring that lets you into other worlds if you're afraid to look at them when you've got there.
Host: C.S. Lewis's classic Narnia series, available for you to cherish in your own home. Produced by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre, stories like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader now can be yours.
Host: Call our toll-free number at 1-800, the letter A, Family, or visit our website at radiotheatre.org. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre, set sail for adventure.
Host: Hey, this is Dr. Greg Smalley from Focus on the Family. If you're married, you know it takes work for two lives to become one. Your wins and losses are often tied to who you are and how you work together.
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Host: To keep along the edge of the gorge was not so easy as it had looked. Before they'd gone many yards, they were confronted with young fir woods growing on the very edge. And after they'd tried to go through these, stopping and pushing for about ten minutes.
Host: They realized that in there, it would take them an hour to do half a mile. So, they came back and out again and decided to go round the fir woods. This took them much further to their right than they wanted to go, far out of sight of the cliffs and the sound of the river, till they began to be afraid they'd lost it altogether.
Host: Nobody knew the time, but it was getting to the hottest part of the day. When they were able at last to go back to the edge of the gorge, they found the cliffs on their side of it a good deal lower and more broken.
Host: Soon they found a way down into the gorge and continued the journey at the river's edge. As they went on, the rush began to fall more and more steeply. Their journey became more and more of a climb and less and less of a walk. In places even a dangerous climb over slippery rock with a nasty drop into dark chasms, and the river roaring angrily at the bottom.
Host: It was maddening. Everyone knew that once they were out of the gorge on that side, they would have only a smooth slope and a fairly short walk to Caspian's headquarters. But the cliffs remained cruel and no break appeared.
Host: Of course, if the children had attempted a journey like this a few days ago in England, they'd have been in trouble. I think I've explained before how Narnia was altering them. Even Lucy was by now, so to speak, only one-third of a little girl going to boarding school for the first time, and two-thirds of Queen Lucy of Narnia.
Host: Finally, the river gorge had just made a bend, and the whole view spread out beneath them.
Guest (Female): At last! Oh, hurrah!
Guest (Female): Those are, or were, the walls of Beruna over there.
Guest (Male): And there's the bridge.
Guest (Female): Yes.
Host: You can't help feeling stronger when you look at a place where you won a glorious victory, not to mention a kingdom, hundreds of years ago.
Host: They were all getting on at a quicker pace now. The going became easier. Though there were still sheer cliffs on their left, the ground was becoming lower on their right. Soon it was no longer a gorge at all, only a valley.
Host: Then, all at once,
Guest (Female): What was that?
Guest (Male): Down! Get down!
Guest (Female): Oh!
Guest (Male): Somebody's shooting arrows at us! Quick! Get back!
Guest (Female): To where?
Guest (Male): Back up the hill! Come on! Hurry! Come on! Move!
Guest (Female): Oh!
Guest (Male): Quick! Get down! Keep down! Keep down!
Guest (Female): Oh!
Host: Whoever is loosing those arrows doesn't seem to be following us.
Guest (Male): That's a relief. They're only sentries, I expect. But it means that Miraz has an outpost down there. I ought to have my head smacked for bringing us this way at all.
Guest (Male): Oh, on the contrary, Your Majesty. For one thing, it wasn't you, it was your royal brother, King Edmund, who first suggested going by Glasswater.
Guest (Female): I'm afraid Trumpkin's right.
Guest (Male): And for another, if we'd gone my way, we'd have walked straight into that new outpost more likely, or at least had just the same trouble avoiding it. Oh, I think this Glasswater route has turned out for the best.
Guest (Female): Ah, well, I suppose we'll have to go right up to the gorge again now.
Guest (Female): Lucy, you're a hero. That's the nearest you've got today to saying, "I told you so."
Guest (Male): Let's get on.
Guest (Male): And as soon as we're well up into the forest, I'm going to light a fire and cook supper. And I have no doubt that after a good night's sleep, we'll reach King Caspian tomorrow.
Guest (Female): Yes.
Guest (Male): Come on. Come on.
Guest (Female): Peter?
Guest (Female): Where am I?
Guest (Female): A wood.
Guest (Female): Yes.
Guest (Female): We're still in Narnia.
Guest (Female): But what do I hear?
Guest (Female): Am I dreaming?
Host: Lucy got up, trembling with excitement, with fear. The moon was so bright that the whole forest landscape around her was almost as clear as day, though it looked wilder. Straight ahead there was open grass to where a glade of trees began. Lucy looked very hard at the trees of that glade.
Guest (Female): Why, I do believe they're moving! They're walking about!
Host: She walked towards them, her heart beating wildly.
Guest (Female): Oh, they're moving! The trees really are moving!
Host: The first tree she looked at seemed at first glance to be not a tree at all, but a huge man with a shaggy beard and great bushes of hair. She was not frightened. She'd seen such things before. But when she looked again, he was only a tree, though he was still moving.
Host: You couldn't see whether he had feet or roots, of course, because when trees move, they don't walk on the surface of the earth, they wade in it as we do in water. Same thing happened with every tree she looked at. At one moment they seemed to be the friendly, lovely, giant and giantess forms which the tree people put on when some good magic has called them into full life.
Host: Next moment, they all looked like trees again. But when they looked like trees, it was like strangely human trees. And when they looked like people, it was like strangely branchy and leafy people. And all the time, there was that strange, lilting, rustling, cool, merry noise, and that moving in and out of one another as if in a complicated country dance.
Guest (Female): Oh, pardon me, I didn't mean to get in the way.
Host: They're almost awake, but not quite.
Guest (Female): Oops! Pardon me.
Host: Yes, I'm coming!
Host: Lucy went fearlessly through the trees, leaping this way and that to avoid being run into. She was only half interested in them. She wanted to get beyond for something else, for it was beyond the trees that the voice had called.
Host: Finally, she stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely lights and shadows. A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all around it. And then, oh joy! For he was there, the huge lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.
Guest (Male): Lucy!
Guest (Female): Aslan! Oh, Aslan! Dear Aslan, at last!
Host: The great beast rolled over on his side, so that Lucy fell half-sitting and half-lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all around her. She gazed up into the large, wise face.
Guest (Male): Welcome, child.
Guest (Female): Aslan! Oh, you're bigger than you were.
Guest (Male): That is because you are older, little one.
Guest (Female): Not because you are?
Guest (Male): I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.
Guest (Female): Oh, Aslan.
Guest (Male): Lucy, we must not stay here for long. You have work in hand, and much time has been lost today.
Guest (Female): Yes, wasn't it a shame? I saw you, but they wouldn't believe me. They were also
Guest (Female): I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start criticizing the others, but it wasn't my fault anyway. Was it?
Guest (Female): Was it?
Guest (Female): Oh, Aslan, you don't mean it was? I couldn't have left the others and come up to you alone.
Guest (Female): Don't look at me like that.
Guest (Female): Well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn't have been alone, I know. Not if I was with you.
Guest (Female): But what would have been the good?
Guest (Female): You mean that it would have turned out all right somehow?
Guest (Female): But how?
Guest (Female): Please, Aslan, am I not to know?
Guest (Male): To know what would have happened, child? No. Nobody is ever told that.
Guest (Female): Oh, dear.
Guest (Male): But anyone can find out what will happen if you go back to the others now and wake them up and tell them you have seen me again, and that you must all get up at once and follow me. What will happen? There is only one way of finding out.
Guest (Female): Do you mean that's what you want me to do?
Guest (Male): Yes, little one.
Guest (Female): Will the others see you too?
Guest (Male): Certainly not at first. Later on, it depends.
Guest (Female): But they won't believe me!
Guest (Male): It doesn't matter.
Guest (Female): Oh, dear. And I was so pleased at finding you again. And I thought you'd let me stay. And I thought you'd come roaring in and frighten all my enemies away, like last time.
Guest (Female): And now everything's going to be horrid.
Guest (Male): It is hard for you, little one, but things never happen the same way twice. It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now.
Guest (Female): Yes, Aslan. I'm sorry.
Guest (Female): I'm ready now.
Guest (Male): Ah! Now you are a lioness! And now all of Narnia will be renewed. But come, we have no time to lose. I will walk with you to the edge of your camp, then you must awaken the others and tell them to follow. If they will not, then you at least must follow me alone.
Guest (Female): All right, Aslan. I mustn't think about it. I must just do it.
Guest (Female): Peter!
Guest (Male): Wake up. Quick! Aslan is here. He says we've got to follow him at once.
Guest (Male): Certainly, Loo. Whatever you like.
Guest (Female): Oh, Peter!
Guest (Female): Susan!
Guest (Female): What?
Guest (Female): Aslan is here. He says we've got to follow him.
Guest (Female): You've been dreaming, Lucy. Go to sleep again.
Guest (Female): Edmund!
Guest (Male): What's wrong?
Guest (Female): Aslan is here and he wants us to follow him at once.
Guest (Male): Aslan? Where?
Guest (Female): There! Don't you see? Just this side of the trees.
Guest (Male): No. There's nothing there. Oh.
Guest (Female): You've got dazzled and muddled with the moonlight. One does, you know. I thought I saw something for a moment myself. It's only an optical, what do you call it?
Guest (Female): I can see him all the time. He's looking straight at us.
Guest (Male): Then why can't I see him?
Guest (Female): He said you might not be able to.
Guest (Male): Why?
Guest (Female): I don't know. That's just what he said.
Guest (Male): Oh, bother it all! I wish you wouldn't keep on saying things, but I suppose we'll have to wake the others. Right, everyone up! Wake up! Peter, Susan, Trumpkin!
Guest (Male): Lucy's trying to tell us something.
Guest (Female): What?
Guest (Female): I'm only trying to say that Aslan is here, and he wants us to follow him.
Guest (Male): Aslan? Where is he, then?
Guest (Female): Over there!
Guest (Male): Where? I can't see anything. Can you, Susan?
Guest (Female): No, of course I can't. Because there isn't anything to see.
Guest (Female): But she's been dreaming.
Guest (Male): Do lie down and go to sleep, Lucy.
Guest (Female): I do hope that you will all come with me because, because I'll have to go with him whether anyone else does or not.
Guest (Female): Don't talk nonsense! Of course you can't go off on your own. Don't let her, Peter. She's being downright stubborn.
Guest (Male): I'll go with her if she must go. She's been right before.
Guest (Male): I know she has, and she may have been right this morning. We certainly had no luck going down the gorge. Still, at this hour of the night. And why should Aslan be invisible to us? He never used to be. It's not like him.
Guest (Male): What does Trumpkin say?
Guest (Male): I'm a plain dwarf who doesn't think there's much chance of finding a road by night where you couldn't find one by day. And I have no use for magic lions which are talking lions and don't talk, and friendly lions, though they don't do us any good, and whoppin' big lions, though nobody can see them. It's all bilge and beanstalks as far as I can see.
Guest (Female): Oh, he's beating his paw on the ground for us to hurry. We must go now!
Guest (Female): At least, I must.
Guest (Female): You've no right to try and force the rest of us like that. It's four to one and you're the youngest.
Guest (Male): Oh, come on! We've got to go! There'll be no peace till we do!
Guest (Male): All right. On the march then.
Guest (Female): Supposing I start behaving like Lucy. I might threaten to stay here whether the rest of you went on or not. I jolly well think I shall.
Guest (Male): Obey the high King, Your Majesty, and let's be off. If I'm not allowed to sleep, I'd assume march to stand here talking.
Guest (Male): All right, Lucy. Which way?
Guest (Female): He's over there. Wait. He's turning now. We're to follow him through those trees. They were dancing a moment ago.
Guest (Female): Dancing?
Guest (Male): Dancing? They're not dancing now!
Guest (Male): Cups and kettledrums. We're headed straight for the gorge, I know it. I hope this madness isn't going to end in a moonlight climb and broken necks.
Host: For a long way Aslan went along the top of the precipices. Then he came to a place where some little trees grew right at the edge. He turned and disappeared among them.
Guest (Female): Lucy held her breath, for it looked as if he'd plunged over the cliff. But she was too busy following him to stop and think about this. She quickened her pace and was soon among the trees herself.
Guest (Female): Lucy! Look out for goodness sake! You're right on the edge of the gorge!
Guest (Female): It's all right!
Guest (Female): No, she's right, Peter. Look, it's a steep path.
Guest (Male): Well, I never. It goes slantwise down into the gorge between the rocks. You'd never see it unless you were looking for it. This way.
Guest (Male): Look, look ahead. What's that shadow crawling in front of us?
Guest (Female): It's his shadow.
Guest (Male): What? I do believe you're right, Luce. I can't think how I didn't see it before.
Guest (Male): Where's he?
Guest (Female): With his shadow, of course. Can't you see him?
Guest (Male): Well, I almost thought I did for a moment. It's such bad light.
Guest (Male): Get on, King Edmund, get on.
Guest (Male): But it's so steep. I'm liable to fall.
Guest (Male): Oh, do stop grousing, Susan. Give me your hand. Why, a baby could get down here.
Guest (Male): Listen!
Host: In a few minutes, they were at the bottom, and the roaring of water filled their ears. Treading delicately like a cat, Aslan stepped from stone to stone across the stream. In the middle, he stopped, bent down to drink, and as he raised his shaggy head dripping from the water, he turned to face them.
Guest (Female): It's him! I see him! Oh, Aslan!
Guest (Male): You see him, Peter?
Guest (Male): Where?
Guest (Female): He stopped for a drink, but now he's moving up the far side of the rush.
Guest (Male): I, I think I saw something. But it's so tricky in the moonlight. On we go, though, and three cheers for Lucy. I don't feel half so tired now either.
Host: Aslan, without hesitation, led them to their left further up the gorge. The whole journey was odd and dreamlike. The roaring stream, the wet grass, the shimmering cliffs which they were approaching, and always the glorious, silently pacing beast ahead.
Guest (Male): Wait! There he is! I see him now!
Guest (Female): Oh, Peter!
Host: Presently, they came to another steep path up the face of the farther precipice. These were far higher than the ones they'd just ascended, and the journey up them was a long and tedious zigzag.
Host: Lucy was alarmed when the tail and hind legs of Aslan disappeared over the top, but with one last effort, she scrambled after him and came out, rather shaky legged and breathless, on the hill they had been trying to reach ever since they left Glasswater.
Host: The long gentle slope stretched up to where it vanished in a glimmer of trees about half a mile away.
Guest (Female): Oh!
Host: It was the Hill of the Stone Table. The others climbed up behind her, and they walked after Aslan.
Guest (Female): Lucy.
Guest (Female): Yes.
Guest (Female): I, I see him now. I'm sorry.
Guest (Female): That's all right. But I've been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him. He, I mean yesterday, when he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight. I mean, deep down inside.
Guest (Female): But I just wanted to get out of the woods and, oh, I don't know. Whatever am I going to say to him?
Guest (Female): Perhaps you won't have to say much.
Guest (Male): There's the Great Mound. Aslan's how. How they don't keep a very good watch. We ought to have been challenged before now.
Guest (Male): Quiet. Aslan has stopped.
Guest (Female): He wants us to come forward.
Guest (Male): Oh, Aslan, I'm so glad. And I'm so sorry. I've been leading them the wrong way ever since we started, and especially yesterday morning.
Guest (Male): My dear son, Edmund.
Guest (Male): Aslan?
Guest (Male): Well done.
Guest (Male): Oh, thank you, Aslan.
Guest (Male): Susan, come closer.
Guest (Female): Oh, Aslan.
Guest (Male): You have listened to your fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you.
Guest (Male): Forget them. Are you brave again?
Guest (Female): A little, Aslan.
Guest (Male): And now. Where is this little dwarf? This famous swordsman and archer, who does not believe in lions. Come here, son of Earth. Come here.
Guest (Male): The children who knew Aslan well enough to see that he liked the dwarf very much, were not disturbed, but it was quite another thing for Trumpkin, who never seen a lion before, let alone this lion.
Guest (Male): Aslan pounced. Have you ever seen a very young kitten being carried in the mother cat's mouth? It was like that. The dwarf, hunched up in a little miserable ball, hung from Aslan's mouth. The lion gave him one shake, and all his armor rattled like a tinker's pack, and then, presto! The dwarf flew up in the air.
Guest (Male): He was as safe as if he'd been in bed, but he didn't feel so. As he came down, the huge, velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother's arms and set him right way up on the ground. Son of Earth, shall we be friends?
Guest (Male): Yes, yes, yes.
Guest (Male): Now the moon is setting. Look behind you. There is the dawn beginning. We have no time to lose. You three, you sons of Adam, and son of Earth, hasten into the mound and deal with what you will find there.
Guest (Male): Yes, Aslan.
Guest (Female): But what do you want us to do, Aslan?
Guest (Male): Wait and watch.
Host: Next time on Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia.
Guest (Male): Stand aside then. Let all this work.
Guest (Male): Help will come. Maybe even now at the door.
Guest (Male): I mean a power so much greater than Aslan's that it held Narnia spellbound for years and years.
Guest (Male): You mean the White Witch?
Guest (Male): You can't mean her.
Guest (Male): Yes, I mean the Witch.
Guest (Male): Is this open treason, dwarf?
Guest (Male): We must go in now.
Guest (Male): Right. Come on.
Guest (Male): Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is a production of Focus on the Family. I'm Doug Gresham. Thank you for listening.