The Voyage - Edmund Pevensie

19

When Cas came back to the beach, he had the small group of Lucy, Drinian, Rhince, Gael, Reep, Tavros, and a few other crew members. Once they'd docked, I explained the situation to grim faces.

"He must've been tempted by the treasure," Ed explained as Eustace tried to chew at a gold bangle stuck on his wrist. Surely it had been the bangle that had caused the change.

"Well, anyone knows a dragon's treasure is enchanted," Caspian added unhelpfully. His response was a small snarl from Eustace. "Well, anyone from here..." my brother added lamely.

"Smooth Cas," I whispered. He shot me a scathing look as Lucy helped Eustace get the band off. 

"Is there anyway to change him back?" Edmund asked.

"Not that I know of," Caspian answered. I shrugged my shoulders and looked to Drinian who didn't say anything. Which, in Drinian speak, meant there wasn't. 

"Aunt Alberta will not be pleased," Ed sighed. 

"Oh you never know," I tried. "I bet it'd be nice having you help light the fireplaces." Eustace just hung his head in defeat. "Sorry, too soon?" I asked only to get an elbow to the ribs from Caspian.

"Sorry about the hand, old boy," Reep apologized. Once everyone had come on shore, they'd explained how before Eustace had grabbed me, he'd gone to the Dawn Treader and how he hadn't received a warm welcome. "I can be a little overzealous at times."

"The boats are ready sire," Tavros called, from the shoreline who'd been preparing the now 2 boats to go back to the Dawn Treader.

"We can't leave him alone," Lucy interjected.

"Well, we can't bring him on board, Your Majesty," Drinian said. 

"Drinian, you and the others take one boat back. The rest of us will stay here till morning and work out what to do," Caspian ordered. 

"But you've no provisions. And no means of staying warm Your Majesty," Rhince said. And as much as I didn't want to leave Eustace on his own for the night, Rhince was right. Then, out of nowhere, a jet of flames came from Eustace catching a few small pieces of driftwood and lighting them. 

"You were saying?" Reep asked, and we all chuckled. 

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After gathering wood for Eustace's fire, we all set out blankets and hunkered down for the night. Cas and Ed had set their blankets next to each other to go over maps and supplies lists by the fire while I listened at my spot in-between Eustace and Lucy and Gael. 

Once we had our plan for the next few days at sea anchored out, our conversation slowly stopped as everyone got wrapped up in their own thoughts. It helped that once the sun set, the sky had lit up with thousands upon thousands of stars. They were scattered across the sky like embers, and it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.

Hearing Ed and Cas talking across the fire caught my attention, dragging my gaze from the sky.

"I've never seen these constellations before," Ed was saying. 

"Me neither," Cas said softly. "We're a long way from home." A sudden pang of deep homesickness hit me at my brother's words. With all of the craziness since we'd left on the Dawn Treader, I hadn't really thought of home much. I hoped everyone was doing ok, although I had full trust in Glenstorm to lead Telmar while we were gone. But I couldn't help but think about where we were, and how long we'd been gone. Both Caspian and I had left our kingdom to find these lost lords, but at what cost? As we all sat on this beach, on this small island far from Telmar with no way to find this blue star we needed, and more problems than when we started. After all, Eustace was now a dragon and I had a feeling that if we couldn't find a way to turn him back, he wouldn't be leaving Narnia with his cousins. It wasn't that I didn't want to find the Lords or stop this mist that was splitting families apart. I wanted more than anything to return everyone home. But as I stared up at the thousands of stars above, I couldn't help but admit to myself that finding the Lords potentially wasn't the only reason I came.