Tales of the Golden Age ~ Narnia one shots

He should be back by now

December 15th | Prompt: Blood stained snow

Edmund let out a groan as he pulled himself forward, clutching his wounded stomach, and squeezing his eyes shut in pain. He opened them again, knowing he desperately needed to find somewhere to hide or else the wolf might find him again and this time kill him before he could get away. He glanced around looking for something, anything, anywhere he could hide, and finally saw a mound of rocks with an opening he could crawl into.

He attempted to stand again, but fell right back onto the snow, then just crawled the rest of the way to the rocks. When he reached the small shelter, he hesitantly looked down at his stomach. His tunic was drenched in blood around the spot where the wolf had dug its claws into him. Slowly pulling his tunic up to examine the wound, he saw five long, deep scratches, and they were bleeding badly.

You need to stay conscious, you can't pass out, he told himself. Just in case you need to get away again.

He peeked his head outside to see if the wolf was anywhere near, but only saw the streaked blood on the snow where he had been laying. Oh, you idiot. The wolf could see that and know you're here, he thought as he mentally facepalmed. But as his eyes started to slowly slip shut–no matter how hard he tried not to pass out– he didn't even care anymore as it all went black.

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"Where is he? He should be back by now." Peter questioned worriedly.

"He'll be back, it's alright. It's only just got dark." Susan said.

"But what if something happened?" he asked.

"Peter, you can't just automatically assume something bad happened to Edmund just because he hasn't gotten back as soon as he said he would." she argued.

Peter sighed. "Fine. But if he's not back here in an hour, I'm going to look for him." 

Susan resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Why did Peter always worry so much? Edmund was fine, and he would be there soon.

But when an hour had gone by and Edmund still hadn't come back, Peter went out to find him, despite Susan reassuring him that Edmund was fine.

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Peter dismounted his horse, sighing, head turning every which way to see if he could see his brother. He lowered his gaze to the ground in defeat, then his eyes went wide when he saw what was in front of him: blood stained snow.

A million scenarios and questions ran through his head at the sight. Was it Edmund's blood? Was Edmund nearby? How badly was he hurt? What had happened? Was Edmund–

He passed a mound of rocks, and walked a little bit more until he remembered his horse. Turning around to get the horse, he suddenly saw his little brother curled against the rocks. Gasping, he ran forward and fell to his knees beside Edmund.

"Edmund? Ed? Ed!" he gently shook his brother, but then froze when his eyes saw the scratches. "Okay," he mumbled under his breath, picking Edmund up and carrying him to the horse, his mind processing everything as he moved. Edmund was hurt badly, unconscious, still losing blood, and he needed to get him home to Lucy.

When he got him up onto the horse, his fingers searched for a pulse just to make sure, and sure enough there was a light beating. He sighed in relief, then very quickly mounted and yelled, "Hyah!"

He wasn't completely sure how he could even do all of that that quickly, with all the panic he was feeling, but somehow he did. It took about twenty minutes before he reached Cair Paravel.

"Lucy! Lu!" Peter yelled when he walked in, Edmund in his arms. Luckily Lucy had been close by, and ran into the hallway when she heard her name.

"Edmund!" she gasped, seeing the blood, and rushed to give him her cordial. 

Eventually the wounds disappeared, and Edmund grew conscious after a while, immediately drinking some water and having to explain what had happened. Although he had been very afraid while he was stuck out in the cold with the wolf, he was finally at home, warm, safe, and healed.

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Sorry, this may seem rushed 😂 Hope you enjoyed it though! ❤️