TCN04 - Prince Caspian, Part 03 of 08

Guest (Male): Last time on Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. First of all, I'm a messenger of King Caspian's.
Lucy: Who's he?
Guest (Male): Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia, and long may he reign. And there's no such person as Aslan. And there are no such things as lions, and there never was a time when animals could talk. Talk! You hear me?
Prince Caspian: Yes, uncle.
Guest (Male): Then let's have no more of it. Prince Caspian, get up!
Doctor Cornelius: Shh. Don't trust the. Do exactly as I tell you. Put on all your clothes. You have a long journey before you. Prince, you must leave this castle at once and go to seek your fortune in the wide world. Your life is in danger here.
Prince Caspian: Why?
Doctor Cornelius: Because you are the true King of Narnia.
Guest (Male): The wind became a tempest. The woods roared and creaked all around them. There came a crash. A tree fell right across the road just behind him. Quiet, Destrier, quiet. It's all right. Lightning flashed and a great crack of thunder seemed to break the sky in two. Destrier bolted.
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Guest (Female): It's a magic wardrobe! There's a wood inside it, and it's snowing, and it's called Narnia! Look!
Focus on the Family: Step through the wardrobe and into a world filled with Marsh-wiggles, unicorns, and animals that talk. Best of all, you'll meet the most incredible lion in literature: Aslan.
Guest (Male): Oh, children!
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Nikabrik: And now, before it wakes up, we must decide what to do with it.
Trumpkin: Kill it. We can't let it live. It'd betray us.
Trufflehunter: We ought to have killed it at once or else let it alone. We can't kill it now, not after we've taken it in and bandaged its head and all. It would be murdering a guest.
Prince Caspian: Gentlemen, whatever you do to me, I hope you'll be kind to my poor horse.
Trumpkin: Your horse had taken flight long before we found you.
Nikabrik: Don't let it talk you around with its pretty words. I still say...
Trufflehunter: Horns and halibuts! Of course we're not going to murder it. For shame, Nikabrik. What do you say, Trufflehunter? What shall we do with it?
Trufflehunter: I shall give it a drink. Here, it's sweet but hot, so be careful.
Prince Caspian: What? What are you? I beg your pardon? You're not a man. You're a badger.
Trufflehunter: I am indeed.
Nikabrik: It doesn't like badgers, you see.
Prince Caspian: It's not that I don't like them. That is to say, I've never seen one that can talk.
Nikabrik: And you've not seen a black dwarf like me, I suppose. Or a red dwarf like Trumpkin here.
Prince Caspian: No, I haven't. Then you are Old Narnians.
Trufflehunter: Sit back, sit back. You're not well. We still have to decide what to do with this human. You two think you do it a great kindness by not letting me kill it.
Nikabrik: But I suppose the upshot is we'll have to keep it a prisoner for life. I'm certainly not going to let it go alive to go back to its own kind and betray us all.
Trufflehunter: Bulbs and bolsters, Nikabrik! Why need you talk so unhandsomely? It isn't the creature's fault that it bashed its head against a tree outside our hole. And I don't think it looks like a traitor.
Prince Caspian: I say, you haven't yet found out whether I want to go back. Well, I don't. I want to stay with you, if you'll let me. I've been looking for people like you all my life.
Nikabrik: A likely story! You're a Telmarine and a human, aren't you? Of course you want to go back to your own kind.
Prince Caspian: Well, even if I did, I couldn't. I was flying for my life when I had my accident. The king wants to kill me.
Trufflehunter: Well, now, you don't say so.
Nikabrik: Hey, what's that? What have you been doing, human, to fall foul of Miraz at your age?
Prince Caspian: He's my uncle.
Nikabrik: Your uncle! Not only a Telmarine, but close kin and heir to our greatest enemy! Are you still mad enough to let this creature live?
Trufflehunter: Now, once and for all, Nikabrik, will you contain yourself, or must Trufflehunter and I sit on your head?
Nikabrik: Bah!
Trufflehunter: You better tell us your story, human.
Prince Caspian: My name is Caspian, and my uncle murdered my father to take the throne. And now that the queen has had a child, they want to kill me. It's as simple as that.
Trufflehunter: Not so simple, I'm afraid. How do you know about us Old Narnians?
Prince Caspian: I heard the story from my nurse, whom my father got rid of because she told them to me. Then my tutor, Doctor Cornelius, taught me about you.
Nikabrik: What's your Doctor Cornelius know about it?
Prince Caspian: He's part dwarf, but he disguises it well.
Trufflehunter: Well, now, this is the strangest thing I ever heard.
Nikabrik: I don't like it. I didn't know there were stories about us still told among the humans. The less they know about us, the better. That old nurse, now, she'd better have held her tongue. It's all mixed up with that tutor. A renegade dwarf, I hate him. I hate him worse than the humans. You mark my words, no good will come of it.
Trufflehunter: Don't you go talking about things you don't understand, Nikabrik. You dwarves are as forgetful and changeable as the humans themselves. I'm a beast, I am, and a badger what's more. We don't change. We hold on. I say great good will come of it. This is the true King of Narnia we've got here, a true king coming back to true Narnia. And we beasts remember, even if dwarves forget, that Narnia was never right except when a son of Adam was king.
Nikabrik: Whistles and whirligigs, Trufflehunter! You don't mean you want to give the country to humans?
Trufflehunter: I said nothing about that. It's not men's country, but a country for a man to be king of. We badgers have long enough memories to know that. Why, bless us all, wasn't the High King Peter a man?
Nikabrik: Do you believe all those old stories?
Trufflehunter: I tell you, we don't change, we beasts. We don't forget. I believe in the High King Peter and the rest that reigned at Cair Paravel as firmly as I believe in Aslan himself.
Nikabrik: As firmly as that, I dare say, but who believes in Aslan nowadays?
Prince Caspian: I do. And if I hadn't believed in him before, I would now. You see, back there among the humans, the people who laughed at Aslan would have laughed at stories about talking beasts and dwarves.
Nikabrik: Oh, they might have.
Prince Caspian: Sometimes I did wonder if there really was such a person as Aslan. But then sometimes I wondered if there were really people like you. Yet there you are.
Nikabrik: This is all a lot of useless talk, badger. The High King Peter and the rest may have been men, but they were a different sort of man. This is one of the cursed Telmarines. He has hunted beasts for sport, haven't you now?
Prince Caspian: Well, to tell you the truth, I have. But they weren't talking beasts.
Nikabrik: It's all the same thing.
Trufflehunter: No, no, no, you know it isn't. You know very well that the beasts in Narnia nowadays are different and are no more than the poor, dumb, witless creatures you'd find in Calormen or Telmar. They're smaller too. They're far more different from us than the half-dwarves are from you. Caspian, as long as you will be true to Old Narnia, you shall be my king, whatever they say. Long life to your majesty!
Trumpkin: That's enough for me. I say we take the lad to the others and see what they have to say.
Prince Caspian: What others?
Trumpkin: We will go first into the mountains to the three Bulgy Bears.
Guest (Male): And so we did.
Lucy: You're Trumpkin the dwarf then?
Trumpkin: I am. Oh, don't stop. What happened next? Well, Trufflehunter roused the three Bulgy Bears from their sleep and explained everything to them. The brown bears said, just as Trufflehunter had said, that a son of Adam ought to be King of Narnia, and all kissed Caspian. Very wet, snuffy kisses they were, and offered him some honey. After that, we went to Pattertwig the squirrel, who suggested that he should take messages to our other friends, inviting them to a feast and counsel on Dancing Lawn at midnight three nights ahead. Our next visit was to the seven brothers of Shuddering Wood, dwarves one and all. The seven brothers did not take to Caspian at first and were doubtful that he was a friend and not an enemy. At last, they were persuaded and even gave us all gifts of mail shirts and helmets and swords. For the seven brothers of Shuddering Wood are artisans of metal and steel. The workmanship of the arms was far finer than any Caspian had ever seen, and he gladly accepted the dwarf-made sword instead of his own, which looked, in comparison, as feeble as a toy and as clumsy as a stick. A little further on, we reached the five black dwarves. They looked suspiciously at Caspian, but in the end, the eldest of them said...
Guest (Male): Well, if he is against Miraz, we'll have him for king. Shall we go further up in the mountains for you, up to the crags? There's an ogre or two, a hag that we could introduce you to up there. What do you think?
Prince Caspian: No, thank you.
Trufflehunter: I should think not indeed. We want none of that sort on our side. We should not have Aslan for a friend if we brought in that kind of rabble.
Nikabrik: Aslan! Do you believe in Aslan, Nikabrik? I'd believe in anyone or anything that'll batter these cursed Telmarine barbarians to pieces or drive them out of Narnia. Anyone or anything, Aslan or the White Witch. Do you understand?
Trufflehunter: Silence, silence! You do not know what you're saying. She was a worse enemy than Miraz and all his race.
Nikabrik: Not to the dwarves, she wasn't. Isn't that right, friends?
Trufflehunter: Come along, we have many more to meet.
Prince Caspian: Like who?
Trufflehunter: Glenstorm the centaur, for one.
Prince Caspian: Centaur?
Trufflehunter: Yes, Glenstorm is a centaur and a prophet and a stargazer.
Prince Caspian: Then he probably already knows we're coming.
Trufflehunter: I wouldn't be surprised.
Glenstorm: Yes, yes, I've been waiting for you. Long live the king. I and my sons are ready for war. When is the battle to be joined?
Prince Caspian: Battle? Do you mean a real war to drive Miraz out of Narnia?
Glenstorm: What else?
Prince Caspian: I suppose I'd had some vague idea that we'd, well, you know, occasionally raid a farmstead or attack a party of hunters if it ventured too far into these southern wilds.
Glenstorm: Does your majesty usually wear his mail and sword for occasional raids? Is it possible, Glenstorm? The time is ripe. I watch the skies, badger, for it is mine to watch as it is yours to remember. Tarva and Alambil have met in the halls of High Heaven, and on earth a son of Adam has once more arisen to rule and name the creatures. The hour has struck. Our counsel at the Dancing Lawn must be a counsel of war.
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Guest (Male): The great night came and all whom we had invited were there. Bulgy bears and red dwarves and black dwarves, moles and badgers, hares and hedgehogs, and five satyrs as red as foxes, and a whole contingent of talking mice, armed to the teeth and following a shrill trumpet.
Reepicheep: Your majesty.
Prince Caspian: What? Someone speak?
Reepicheep: Behind you, sire, at your feet. It's the mouse, Reepicheep.
Prince Caspian: Mouse? But wait. Oh, hello.
Reepicheep: There are twelve of us, sire, and I place all the resources of my people unreservedly at your majesty's disposal.
Prince Caspian: Well, thank you, Reepicheep.
Guest (Male): Some owls came, as did the old raven of Ravenscar. Last of all, with the centaurs, came a small but genuine giant, Wimbleweather of Deadman's Hill, carrying on his back a basket full of rather seasick dwarves who had accepted his offer of a lift and were now wishing they'd walked instead. The feast began with music and dance from the fauns. I could tell from his expression that Caspian had never seen the likes of them before, with their curly heads and little horns, their naked torsos and their legs and feet like those of goats. We all joined in the dance with them, except Nikabrik, who stayed off to the side and looked on in silence. We decided to hold the Council of War immediately, then have our banquet afterwards. Everyone sat down in a great circle, and when we got Pattertwig to stop running to and fro and telling all the creatures to be silent, Caspian, feeling a little nervous, got up.
Prince Caspian: Narnians, I'd like to welcome you to...
Guest (Male): Prince Caspian, with respect, sire.
Prince Caspian: What's wrong, Camillo?
Guest (Male): My hair sense tells me there's a man somewhere near.
Trufflehunter: Yes, smells like a man, and yet not quite like a man.
Guest (Male): Whatever it is, Trufflehunter, it is getting steadily nearer.
Prince Caspian: Two badgers and you three dwarves, will you both be at the ready? Go softly off to meet it.
Doctor Cornelius: There's no need. I'm here and unarmed.
Prince Caspian: Doctor Cornelius! Hello, my prince.
Nikabrik: A renegade dwarf! A half-and-half! Shall I pass my sword to his throat?
Trumpkin: Be quiet, Nikabrik. The creature can't help its ancestry.
Prince Caspian: Oh, this is the greatest friend and the savior of my life. And anyone who doesn't like his company may leave my army at once. Dearest doctor, I am glad to see you again. However did you find us out?
Doctor Cornelius: By a little use of simple magic, your majesty. But there's no time to go into that now. We must all fly from this place at once. You're already betrayed and Miraz is on the move. Before midday tomorrow, you will be surrounded.
Prince Caspian: Betrayed? By whom?
Doctor Cornelius: By your horse, Destrier. The poor brute knew no better. He went dawdling back to his stable in the castle and then the secret of your flight was out. I made myself scarce, having no wish to be questioned about it in Miraz's torture chamber. I had a pretty good guess from my crystal as to where I should find you, but all day, and that was the day before yesterday, I saw Miraz's tracking parties out in the woods. And yesterday, I learned that his army is out. I don't think some of your pure-blooded dwarves have as much woodcraft as might be expected. You left tracks all over the place. Great carelessness. At any rate, something has warned Miraz that Old Narnia is not as dead as he'd hoped, and he's on the move.
Reepicheep: Hurrah! Let them come. That's all I ask is that the king will put me and my people in the front.
Guest (Male): By the lion, it's a mouse. Senior mouse, I desire your better acquaintance. I am honored by meeting so valiant a beast.
Reepicheep: My friendship you shall have, learned man. And any dwarf or giant in the army who does not give you good language shall have my sword to reckon with.
Nikabrik: Is there time for this foolery? What are our plans: battle or flight?
Trumpkin: Battle if need be, but we're hardly ready for it yet, and this is no very defensible place.
Prince Caspian: Yes, I don't like the idea of running away.
Guest (Male): Near him. Whatever we do, don't let's have any running. Especially not before supper, and not too soon after it neither.
Glenstorm: Well said, bear. But those who run first do not always run last. And why should we let the enemy choose our position instead of choosing it ourselves? Let us find a strong place.
Trufflehunter: Glenstorm's advice is wise, majesty, very wise.
Prince Caspian: But where are we to go?
Doctor Cornelius: Your majesty and all you variety of creatures, I think we must fly east and down the river to the Great Woods. The Telmarines hate that region. They've always been afraid of the sea and of something that may come over the sea. That is why they have let the Great Woods grow up. If tradition speak true, the ancient Cair Paravel was at the river mouth. All that part is friendly to us and hateful to our enemies. We must go to Aslan's How.
Prince Caspian: Aslan's How? What is it?
Doctor Cornelius: It lies within the skirts of the Great Woods, and it is a huge mound which Narnians raised in very ancient times over a very magical place where there stood, and perhaps still stands, a very magical stone. The mound is all hollowed out and contains galleries and caves, and the stone is in the central cave of all. There is room in the mound for all our stores, and those of us who have most need of cover and are most accustomed to underground life can be lodged in the caves. The rest of us can lie in the woods. At a pinch, all of us except this worthy giant could retreat into the mound itself, and there we should be beyond the reach of every danger except famine.
Trufflehunter: It's a good thing we have a learned man among us.
Nikabrik: Soup and celery! I wish our leaders would think less about these old wives' tales and more about vittles and arms.
Trufflehunter: I approve of Doctor Cornelius's proposal.
Prince Caspian: So do I. To Aslan's How!
Glenstorm: Now, before we ate?
Prince Caspian: Now, we've no time to lose.
Glenstorm: I was afraid you were going to say that.
Prince Caspian: What's wrong, Trufflehunter? You look thoughtful.
Trufflehunter: It's nothing, sire. I was thinking, if only we could wake the spirits of the trees and the wells.
Prince Caspian: Can't we?
Trufflehunter: No. We have no power over them. Since the humans came into the land, felling forests and defiling streams, the dryads and naiads have sunk into a deep sleep. Who knows if ever they will stir again? And that is a great loss to our side. The Telmarines are horribly afraid of the woods, and once the trees moved in anger, our enemies would go mad with fright and be chased out of Narnia as quick as their legs could carry them.
Nikabrik: What imaginations you animals have! But why stop at trees and water? Wouldn't it be even nicer if the stones started throwing themselves at old Miraz? Aslan's How is around the next bend.
Prince Caspian: Oh, good. The sun is coming up and everyone is tired. We could do with a rest.
Trumpkin: Aslan's How was certainly an awesome place.
Edmund: You don't have to explain it, Trumpkin. We know it well.
Lucy: Wait, Edmund. Perhaps we don't.
Edmund: Huh?
Lucy: Everything has changed, remember.
Edmund: Oh, yes. Good point. In our day, it was a round green hill on top of another hill, with a clear view and beautiful...
Trumpkin: I'm afraid it isn't so clear anymore. It's all grown over with trees. And there's a low doorway leading into it. The tunnels inside are a perfect maze until you get to know them.
Lucy: Tell us what happened there, Trumpkin.
Trumpkin: It was after we had taken up our quarters in and around the How that fortune turned against us. King Miraz's scouts soon found our new lair, and he and his army arrived on the edge of the wood. As so often happens, the enemy turned out stronger than we had reckoned. And though Miraz's men may have been afraid of going into the wood, they were even more afraid of Miraz. Thus there was fighting on most days, and sometimes by night as well. But our army had, on the whole, the worst of it. At last, there came a night when everything had gone as badly as possible, and the rain which had been falling heavily all day had ceased at nightfall only to give place to raw cold. That morning, Caspian had arranged what was his biggest battle yet, and we had all hung our hopes on it. But it failed. All our strategy fell apart on the battlefield. Our army suffered badly and done the enemy little harm. Few of us had not lost blood. So, it was a very somber council who met in the secret and magical chamber at the heart of Aslan's How.
Prince Caspian: We can't continue this way. The morale of our company couldn't be lower.
Doctor Cornelius: True.
Prince Caspian: And what are we to do?
Doctor Cornelius: With respect, if your majesty is ever to use the magic horn, I think the time has now come.
Prince Caspian: We are certainly in great need. But it is hard to be sure we are at our greatest. Supposing they came in even worse need and we had already used it?
Nikabrik: By that argument, your majesty will never use it until it's too late.
Trufflehunter: I agree with that.
Prince Caspian: What do you think, Trumpkin?
Trumpkin: No, as for me, your majesty knows I think the horn and that bit of broken stone called the Stone Table and your Great King Peter and your lion Aslan are all eggs in moonshine. It's all one to me when your majesty blows the horn. All I insist on is that the army is told nothing about it. There's no good raising hopes of magical help which, as I think, are sure to be disappointed.
Prince Caspian: Right. Then in the name of Aslan, we will blow Queen Susan's horn.
Doctor Cornelius: There is one thing, sire, that should perhaps be done first. We do not know what form the help will take. It might call Aslan himself from oversea, but I think it more likely to call Peter the High King and his mighty consorts down from the high past. But in either case, I do not think we can be sure that the help will come to this very spot.
Trumpkin: You never said a truer word.
Doctor Cornelius: I think that they, or he, will come back to one or other of the ancient places of Narnia. This where we now sit is the most ancient and most deeply magical of all. And here I think the answer is likeliest to come. But there are two others. One is Lantern Waste, upriver west of Beaver's Dam, where the royal children first appeared in Narnia, as the records tell. And the other is down at the river mouth, where their castle of Cair Paravel once stood. And if Aslan himself comes, that would be the very best place for meeting him too. For every story says that he is the son of the great emperor over the sea, and over the sea he will pass. Now, I should very much like to send messengers to both places: to Lantern Waste and the river mouth, to receive them, or him, or it.
Nikabrik: Just as I thought. The first result of all this foolery is not to bring us help but to lose us two fighters.
Prince Caspian: Well, who would you think of sending, Doctor Cornelius?
Trufflehunter: Squirrels are best for getting through enemy country without being caught.
Nikabrik: All our squirrels are rather flighty. The only one I trust on a job like that would be Pattertwig.
Prince Caspian: Let it be Pattertwig then. And who for our other messenger? Why, I know you'd go, Trufflehunter. But you haven't the speed. Nor you, Doctor Cornelius.
Nikabrik: I won't go. With all these humans and beasts about, there must be a dwarf here to see that the dwarves are fairly treated.
Trumpkin: Thumps and thunderstorms! Is that how you speak to the king? Send me, sire. I'll go.
Prince Caspian: But I thought you didn't believe in the horn, Trumpkin.
Trumpkin: No more I do, your majesty. But what's that got to do with it? I might as well die on a wild goose chase as die here. You are my king. I know the difference between giving advice and taking orders. You've had my advice, and now it's time for orders.
Prince Caspian: I'll never forget this, Trumpkin. Send for Pattertwig, one of you.
Trufflehunter: I'll see to it.
Prince Caspian: And when shall I blow the horn?
Doctor Cornelius: I would wait for sunrise, your majesty. That sometimes has an effect in operations of this kind of magic. Sunrise it'll be then.
Focus on the Family: Next time on Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia.
Trumpkin: The whole air was full of it, loud as thunder but far longer. And I said to myself, "If that's not the horn, call me a rabbit."
Susan: So it was your horn, Sue, that dragged us all off that seats on the platform yesterday.
Guest (Male): Both swords were out in a moment, and the three others jumped off the dais and stood watching.
Lucy: Look! What? Look! The lion! Aslan himself!
Doug Gresham: 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.