Visibly Invisible 3: Voyage of the dawn treader

(Pilot) Chapter 1: Hard to explain

~1 year later~

Dylexia's POV:

My gaze lazily flicked among the dozens of wall racks and the shiny, inviting accessories that seemed to tease me with the extremely high price tags pasted smugly on them. Teria looked back at me and sighed exasperatedly.

'Dy, if you're not gonna buy anything, can we go back?' she asked in a bored, take-me-home tone. I shrugged.

'I warned you I was just going for window shopping. This…,' I gestured around the shop. '…is window shopping,'

'Staring around at racks and bags longingly, yeah pretty much,'

Another year had passed. Teria had helped me get over the sadness bouts and was truly being a friend I always wanted. She friggin got me a Prada handbag on the sweet seventeen. Although I seemed to pass as carefree, the nightmares I had every night were only bore patiently by me. I was trying to buy Teria something for her seventeenth that was two days away, but the prices were making me flinch inwardly. Prada? I couldn't even afford the non branded things.

'I don't need anything. Does that help, let's just go. If you give me your smelly socks for my b-day, does this look like a face that cares?' I laughed as she made a funny face, and put her arm playfully around my neck, before I gasped and ran to a hanger, detaching myself immediately.

'No way, only sixteen bucks and way cool!' I eyed the purple and white sparkly party dress and looked at Teria expectantly. She sighed.

'What kind of a sick minded person would reject that?' she asked me and I squealed, taking it off the hanger. Well, there was one problem solved.

-XX

'Thank you,' I beamed at the cashier before taking the shopping bag and thrusting it into Teria's arms, who seemed to be taken off guard and lost her balance and fell back with a squeal. I tried to grab her arm but someone was quicker than me.

I watched in shock as an arm grabbed her and the person pulled him to her chest. My gaze travelled to his face, and I suddenly felt, wow if I wasn't madly in love with Ed, he could've been the one.

Olive green eyes scanned Teria's face as she kept her eyes squeezed shut and a mop of dark, black hair fell over his forehead in a very uh…heroic way. His arms were muscled, his chest extremely toned and he was one to die for. But no, I eyed him normally; he had NOTHING on Ed.

Teria opened her eyes half scared and locked his gaze with his, her eyebrows furrowed.

'Uh...you can let go now,'

He immediately dropped her; I fought back laughter.

'Sorry,' his voice was lyrical and soft. Teria blushed as she stood up, dusting her jeans. I rolled my eyes at the intimate soul-mate moment and looked around the shop again until a shop display in a toy shop directly opposite to the store caught my eye and I stared at it, transfixed.

It was the picture of a large ship with a dragon's exterior and an extremely Narnian appearance. The boy was by my side in an instant.

'You like that picture, huh? Wanna take a closer look?' I looked at him in disbelief. Did he just flirt with a girl he'd never even seen in his life?

'I'm not flirting,' he threw his hands in the air, looking at Teria as she joined me, shopping bag recovered and all. 'You're not flirting,' I repeated after him and Teria scoffed.

'The guy who has the nerve to drop me, yeah, he is so innocent,'

'I didn't know it counted in the criteria,' he threw back coolly, before turning to me.

'My dad owns that toy store, you can come over,'

'Are you sure it's okay?' I asked him with a raised eyebrow, and Teria tugged at my arm.

'My feet are killing me, no please,' I grinned teasingly before pulling her with me.

-XX

'It is just a friggin ship. A ship,' Teria dryly reminded me for the millionth time as I ran my fingers on it over and over. I just did what I'm good at; I stuck my tongue out at her.

'You didn't tell me your name,' Teria snapped at the boy who had dropped her and he grinned.

'Shane,'

'What a horrendous name,' she muttered before pulling at me again.

'If I get cramps, you'll pay for the massages, so move it,' she threw at me and pulled at me before I noticed a movement in the picture and focused on the spot.

'T, it moved,'

'What moved?'

'The water, it moved…look,' I saw a wave crashing in the boat's side gently and a bird flying across the deck, before going out of view. Teria tugged at my arm again.

'Dy, nothing is moving, the guy is watching, don't break down,' she whispered as I felt Shane's T-shirt clad shoulder bump into mine and he too focused with me.

'She's saying the water's moving?' he said in a disbelieving voice, staring at Teria over my head, who I felt nodded, but I was too overcome with excitement to pay attention. Could it really be I was going back to Narnia?

A spray of water suddenly hit the three of us and I squealed in excitement as Shane stood tongue tied and Teria grabbed my arm.

'Narnia,' we whispered together as the water started coming out of the painting, flooding the entire store, and submerging us at the bottom. I kicked desperately, wondering what kind of sick game Trusty Boy was playing, when he obviously knew I couldn't swim. As I coughed and felt water enter my system, an arm roughly grabbed mine and pulled me to surface where I coughed and tried to regain my breathe, staring at Shane who looked shocked but composed, struggling to keep his head above the water. The sun temporarily blinded me, before my foot collided with something hard below the water and my forehead hit a massive golden wall. As I tried to keep from crying out, I noticed that it wasn't a wall at all; it was…wait it was that ship from the painting.

And in a split second, I wondered what we'd explain to Shane who'd be freaking out once we were on safer…uh…surfaces. I wondered where Teria was before my body started to go underwater and Shane pulled me up again, and I noticed he had a knocked out Teria on his back; practically.

'Normally I'd be asking you where the hell the store went,' he panted with effort, pulling the both of us towards the ship. '…but right now, I think I need to survive first,'

I smiled, despite myself before something thin hit me on the head and I squealed, detaching myself from Shane and pulling it off, before he saved me from going underwater for the millionth time. It turned out to be a rope, and I instantly grabbed it, tugging it a little and it went right up, making me shiver as air hit my soaked body. My feet hit solid wood and I let go of the rope which fell right back to Shane, but I didn't care about him right now. I was just staring open mouthed at Lucy who was staring as astonished at me, before we lost it and ran to each other.

'Dy, I had a kind of a hunch it was you!' she squealed, pulling me in a hug and I hugged back, before staring over my shoulder at Shane who appeared, coughing, dumping Teria on the ground for the second time that day.

'Never…am I…,' he coughed again, and I found Lucy eying him curiously.

'Who is that?'

'That's Shane, he's…I really just met him, and he got dragged with us,' I replied truthfully as he pulled himself to his feet, looking at Lucy and her apparent 1940's clothing.

'Okay, I'm officially freaked. Please tell me I'm not in a painting,'

'You're not,' I agreed. 'You're in Narnia,'

'Where is that? Some secluded island in an effing painting? I wanna go back right now,'

'He's sounding like Eustace,' Lucy groaned and I raised an eyebrow.

'Who?'

My question was answered as a blonde boy with a very um…interestingly shaped nose and bad aura coming out of him. He looked pale and shaken, followed by Ed, who seemed to be dried out now. My heart skipped several beats as our gazes locked and I beamed at him as did he, before he walked over to me and pulled me in a hug which I whole heartedly returned.

'I missed you,' he whispered in my ear, before I heard Teria groan and detached myself, smiling at him and ran to her.

'Are you alright?' I asked her, shaking her as she sat up, glaring immediately at Shane.

'What the hell is he doing…?' her sentence was punctured by a cough, and I rubbed her back, fighting the urge to smile at Shane's horrified expression.

'If I'm not supposed to be here, why the hell…send me back right now,' he shot at Ed who looked at him with furrowed eye brows.

'And you are?'

'Shane, and I want to go back,'

'Well you can't if Aslan has seen it fit to bring you here,' Lucy brightly supplied, causing the new boy, Eustace to snort.

'As if,'

'And who's…,' Shane's eyes widened, as a Minotaur came from behind a curtain causing me to flinch.

So you know what he did? He fainted.

-XX

Shane was stubbornly sitting on an empty wine barrel, watching as Ed and Caspian dueled playfully, me cheering and Lucy standing on a secluded corner, staring at the water.

'This is madness,' Shane mumbled, and I grinned.

'When I first came here, a Minotaur hung me upside down,' I tried to brighten him and he looked at me, shocked.

'You've been here before?'

'Twice, and trust me, it's not a bad place,'

'Yeah, the king's nice,' Shane agreed, looking at the duel.

'That's my boyfriend,' I made conversation, pointing to Ed and he grunted. I felt awkward; Teria was lying down so I was stuck with the newbie, and the disgruntled cousin.

'So, Dylexia, right? How old are you?' he asked me with a smile and I stared at him, confused before replying.

'I'm seventeen,' I kept my reply short, and he smiled.

'I'll really have to get used to the fact that I'm in a painting on the wall of my dad's toy store,'

'Toy store, I'm in a painting on the wall of my house, bloody traitor,' Eustace piped up in a bad mood tone.

'The painting was just a source for Trusty boy to get us here,' I said in a know it all voice, before both the boys looked at me.

'Who's trusty boy?'

Ed walked over with a grin as everyone went to work and I held out my glass of water to him which he sipped gratefully.

'Hi Reep,' I greeted good naturedly, wondering why he was there, as the adorable mouse trotted to me, causing Shane to flinch.

'First a Minotaur, now a walking mouse? Great,'

'I talk too,' Reep replied indignantly and Shane's jaw dropped open. I just looked at Ed as he smiled back, closing my ears against Eustace's "unhygienic quarters and unchartered waters" rant. Until Ed suddenly said 'he's just warming up,' that I came back to real world. My mind told me to enjoy the time we had together while we had the chance, even if it meant looking at each other and smiling.

Hello, Narnia.

Well, surprise, surprise. I didn't disappoint, did I? And I sure shocked you! Well, I got reviews and PM's asking me to update so I did. Hope you like this installment.

R&R.