One day, Maron was riding along the seashore when he saw a {guy with a moustache}... tugging a small boat up the beach. The guy's name was Kazan and from the way he was straining-without-stopping it was clear to Maron that the matter was urgent. Maron urged his horse to the spot and shouted (over the sea breezes) "Throw me the rope that's tied around your prow, and we'll help you pull." Kazan was surprised anyone was there on that beach, much less someone who wanted to help. But Kazan was an excellent judge of character, realised Maron was truly a Good Samaritan and so lassoed the rope to him. Maron knotted it around the 'knob' on his saddle, and nudged his horse up the foreshore. Tug. Tug. Sliddddddddeeeee. In a minute the boat was safely away from the pull of the (rapidly outracing) tide.
In a moment Maron jumped down from his horse with a skin of wine; "Drink this," he said giving it to Kazan, "You need it after all that tugging."
Kazan couldn't answer in words, but his expression said he couldn't, not whilst someone else needed it more and first. That's when Maron noticed there was another {guy}... in the boat, lying deathly pale on the planks and clearly Kazan's brother. Kazan was already climbing back into the boat, carrying the wine and saying "Ufa! Ufa! We've landed. We've landed. Wake up Ufa!"
Ufa stirred, opened both eyes blearily, glimpsed the wine his brother was trying to give him and insisted Kazan ought to have a drink first. "You have kept the whole show going for days," Ufa said (his voice was physically weak, but spiritually determined), "Please, you have it first."
"You nearly died," said Kazan, not ashamed to have tears in his eyes, "You have it first."
Maron stepped in with two large scallop shells he'd just retrieved from a rockpool. "Both have it first," he said giving Kazan the shells to hold whilst he took the skin and poured out two drinks, "And please have it with my blessing."
Maron could see at once that Ufa had heart-trouble, and ought to be taken to the centaurs at once. "It's not hopeless," he said to Ufa, "I've been there, and survived that. It's not over. Not at all." Ufa smiled in a humouring way that said "Kazan says that too; not that I believe him, aside the fact he's my brother and he never tells lies." Kazan looked as though he was about to die (at the prospect of his brother dieing-without-trying-to-get-well-instead) and Maron decided that things-not-being-said-aloud-but-meant-in-such-a-way-one-could-understand-them-loud-and-clear must run in their family.
"Can I trust you both to stay here whilst I ride for help?" Maron said, "I mean, stay here not try to carry him to safety singlehanded - " that was to Kazan - "and not die before I get back?" (that was to Ufa).
"No," said Ufa, "And I'm being perfectly honest, because I wanted to die days ago but Kazan has been holding the whole thing together and I couldn't die on him then."
"Yes," said Kazan, and there were tears in his eyes again, like those a firefighter has when he's just fought a terrible blaze and risked his own life to save someone from the inferno.
"So is it yes or no?"
"Yes," said Ufa, "If Kazan says yes, I'll say yes too."
Maron threw himself 'over' his horse and galloped to the nearest centaur's cave. As you know centaurs are the doctors (and priests) of Narnia, they were the ones to call on. Always courageous, the centaurs 'rose to the summons'. About quarter of an hour later, Kazan heard their powerful hooves thundering along the foreshore and looked up to see a party coming towards him carrying a stretcher, their medical kits and bringing a spare (not talking) horse for him to ride. Maron (whose horse was slower than the centaurs) cantered up behind.
When the brothers were safely in the centaur's cave - with Ufa wrapped warmly in fur blankets and given some medicine on a wooden bed, Kazan sitting by the fire with a rug around his shoulders and a mug of hot chocolate - Maron finally had time to get to know them. He knew their names, but not their story.
"Well," said Kazan, "We're both Narnians."
"I guessed that," said one of the centaurs who was grinding up some more medicine in a mortar&pestal, "You have that look about you both."
"He's more Narnian than me," said Ufa, "Really, he is."
"We are both Narnian," said Kazan firmly, "And there it stays."
"I could say I'm not," said Ufa staring at the ceiling in a petulant fashion, "Not after I did."
"Did what?"
"Ended up stranding us both in that boat and nearly dying every last minute of the time it took Kazan to row us back to Narnia," said Ufa. The thought made him faint. He closed his eyes again.
"We were on a ship," said Kazan, "Not a good one."
"It would have been a good one if it had been what it promised," came Ufa's insistence.
"It wasn't as good as it promised, it was nothing # like it promised, it was a leaky bucket," said Kazan firmly. "Worse."
"Alright, sort-of. I mean, if it had been what it promised it would have been a {six-star luxury liner}..." said Ufa.
Maron decided that the two brothers loved each other, even though they disagreed about many things.
"We were on this rusty-bucket of a so-called ship," said Kazan "No, don't interrupt. It wasn't what it promised, so you have to say it lied."
"Yes, it lied." Ufa paused. "It did lie." Just being able to tell the truth was liberating! "It did too lie! # that was an awful ship!"
(Now we're getting somewhere, thought Maron).
"The captain wasn't on board, but the first mate was acting as though he was in charge, and more important than the captain 'ever could possibly be'," continued Kazan, "Which made me realise we should have got off right there."
"I said we shouldn't," said Ufa with shame, lifting himself onto one elbow, "It was not Kazan's fault we were on that ship still. It was mine. I said we had to endure it, because surely that would encourage everyone to live up to their promises, rather than give up."
"There was nothing to 'give up'," said Kazan, "Everything good had already been given up on that ship a long time ago, given up and given over. Us being there wasn't encouraging them to try bringing it back on board; it was just 'reminding' them that there was another way of going about things, a way they had no intention whatever of going back too."
"You never gave up on me," said Ufa to Kazan, "I couldn't give up on them."
"There's this difference between the two cases," said Kazan (to Ufa), "The difference between Aslan's Country and the Dark Place."
Ufa gave his brother a glance that said "I don't deserve to have a brother as good as you" and lay down again.
"The ship hatched a plan," Kazan continued to everyone else in the room, "They threw a party that night on board, invited us along with everyone else, but made sure that somehow we were there as the waiters (even though we were paying passengers) whilst the other passengers got to dine at our expense. And carrying all those trays and boxes and loads strained my brother's physical heart, even though his emotional heart forced himself to keep going when he ought to have stopped. I'm a bit bigger and stronger physically than him (I'm the elder) so - and this I really am ashamed of - I didn't notice that he was running on willpower rather than reserves. Then he finally did collapse, and the first mate came over 'all concerned' and assured us he had a special 'recovery pod' just for these sort of cases. It was pitch black on deck, I had Ufa in my arms and the first mate prodded me in the direction of this 'recovery pod'. Couldn't see a thing, but I got in because I thought 'Just this once I've got to trust someone I don't trust, because that's what Ufa would do'. Then someone whacked me on the head and I passed out.
"I woke up in that boat, with Ufa, and nothing in sight but waves and a few clouds. That was the 'recovery pod'! The worst boat they had on the ship, something they dismissed as a 'stupid old thing' and banished to the box-room (as it were). Well, I began to see why when I started to look around it for emergency gear. They hadn't banished it for being a bad boat, they'd banished it for being a sound one! Rock solid! Did have emergency gear still stowed under the seat, a paddle, even a sunshade. And some rations. And some emergency medicine too - the sort that's first-aid for absolutely everything-in-one. I actually laughed. Then Ufa came around and asked me what the joke was and I said 'The worst people in the world threw us into something they thought was the worst thing in the world, only since they have everything backwards they actually threw us into something of a decent billet!'
"And after that I used the compass (also in the kit!) to set a course for Narnia, and here we are." (Pause). "Thankyou." (Blink, blink). "By the Grace of Aslan we're both alive, and thankyou. For coming to our aid, and making us welcome."
"Any friend of Aslan is a friend of ours!" said the centaurs, clapping Kazan on the back, "Welcome home! You and Ufa. And next time you want to take a voyage, come with us and the king! You really will have the best of everything and don't say 'I'm not good enough' 'cause you are."
"Anything given to a good person creates more good," said Maron, "But it's just the opposite for a bad person. So, there's nothing here for the bad, but everything for the good. You two are good, so welcome home!"
Source:
http://crafting.squidoo.com/the-winter-village-the-christmas-toyshop-make-a-christmas-toyshop-display-with-these-free-papercrafts
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