~By the Lion's Mane: See You Again~

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Blast it! I thought as I stumbled over yet another loose stone in our mad dash. My ankle turned and I let a curse fly, but I kept stumbling on at the ever-closer sound of the baying hounds.

Behind me I heard Jill cry out and the rattle of overturned rocks, and I looked back to see she’d tripped over her dress again. Behind her, I could see the hounds cresting the hill, and the tops of the giants’ heads bobbing up.

“Damn it, Jill!” I raced back and yanked her to her feet.

Then I turned and continued our mad dash to the base of the ruins, keeping an iron grip on Jill’s sweaty wrist.

Ahead of me, Puddleglum paused for an instant at the base of the huge stone steps and then darted into a tiny crack along the bottom edge.

In my surprise, I let go of Jill and came to a stop in front of it. You’re out of form, Scrubb, I berated myself as I gasped for air. The hole was only about three feet wide and a foot high. My skin crawled as I thought of following Puddleglum in there, but the hounds were closing in.

I flung myself onto my stomach and crawled in, not nearly as quick and smooth as the Marshwiggle. Once inside I remained kneeling, and turned to look out again.

“Jill! Come on, you fool!” The dogs were practically upon her. She cast herself onto the ground and reached out her arms, and I grabbed her hands and yanked her inside.

“Ow!” she yelled. “You scraped me up!”

“Quick, quick. Stones. Fill up the opening!” Puddleglum said from somewhere nearby. At once I began grabbing loose rocks and jamming them into the crevice.

The space we were in dimmed more and more as we frantically blocked the entrance, until it was black as pitch. There was a sudden loud snuffling from the dogs and the dug at the rocks, their claws scraping against the barrier. I felt Jill tremble next to me.

“Farther in, now, quick!” said Puddleglum in a low voice.

“Let’s all hold hands,” Jill suggested, barely above a whisper. I could hear the tremor in her voice.

I cleared my throat. “Good idea, Pole.” It took a moment, but finally I found her hand and grasped it. She clenched mine tightly.

We found that we could stand, and so, with Puddleglum in the lead and me and Jill following, we began our slow progress through the dark.

It didn’t take long for me to have totally lost my sense of direction. I kept stumbling on loose rock, and occasionally we would come up on a dead end and have to turn down a new path. Puddleglum began to muse sulkily if it wouldn’t be better to go back and give ourselves up to the giants for their Autumn Feast.

And then with a cry, Puddleglum was suddenly gone from in front of me. There was a loud rush, and suddenly I was falling and sliding down a steep slope. The ground had given way in front of us, and we were caught up in an avalanche of loose dirt and stones and other rubbish.

I desperately thrust out my foot, hoping to catch something to slow me down, but more and more ground gave way and the downward rush became louder and dustier and rocks tumbled over me, crushing and cutting and scraping, and I choked on the dust and cursed Narnia and giants and the earth.

Somehow at last we tumbled to a stop, and seemed to reach the bottom. The bottom of what, I hadn’t the foggiest. I couldn’t breathe for a moment. The dust was too thick and the impact of the rocks had knocked my breath out. 

I didn’t move or say a word. I focused on feeling out if anything was broken. My entire body was battered and bruised, and my eyes stung with tears from the dust that clouded the air and the pain of hundreds of marks all over my body.

I rolled my eyes around, but it made no difference whether they were open or closed. Everything was just as bloody dark either way.

I finally began to try and shift some rocks off of myself, and then I heard Jill’s voice cut through the utter silence.

“Eustace?” she said in a high voice that I could tell was nearly hysterical.

“I’m here, Jill,” I answered, coughing. My mouth tasted coppery, and I spat out a gritty mouthful of dirt and blood.

I managed to shift off most of the rocks and dirt, and tried to stand. My legs shook uncontrollably, so I sat back down quickly. I heard Puddleglum asking if anyone had any broken bones, and we all three confirmed that we did not.

“We can never get up that again,” I said.

“And have you noticed how warm it is?” said Puddleglum’s voice, somewhere to my right. “That means we’re a long way down. Might be nearly a mile.”

And then we sat in silence. There wasn’t anything to do, so no one suggested we do anything. My head swam. I barely registered Jill saying how thirsty she was, or Puddleglum saying he’d lost his tinderbox.

A lump formed in my throat. I couldn’t believe how horribly we’d muffed this mission Aslan had given us. I felt tears threaten as I thought of Caspian, and Rose, and all the rest of Narnia. I’d failed them. I’d failed Aslan.

Aslan.

I desperately asked Him for help, mouthing words to Him. The Lion was really our only hope.

I continued to mouth prayers to Aslan until I began to grow sleepy. The weariness set in, and dragged me down, and I succumbed.

I woke without warning. The darkness had not changed, but I was suddenly wide awake.

A voice had spoken, and I knew instantly that it was neither of my companions, nor was it the one person I’d been hoping it would be: Aslan.

This voice was flat and toneless, and seemed to match the murk around us.

“What make you here, creatures of the Over-world?”

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A/N: I banged this out today after class, so it's kind of short. But I really wanted to give you guys a new chapter!