~By the Lion's Mane: The Call~

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

We went ashore the next morning in the little rowboat kept for such purposes. I sat up as straight and tall as I could, craning my head around to observe the island. Everything about the land was sharp and rough. The cliffs and mountains were jagged and steep, like teeth jutting into the sky. The trees were weathered and twisted, the dark green grass on the slopes coarse. There were numerous waterfalls pouring down from the cliff sides, and a whitewater stream jetted out into the bay, which was as smooth as glass.

On shore, we set about the work that was to be done. Caspian sent me and two other men to go hunt for some game. I strapped my quiver of red-feathered arrows to my back and strung my longbow. I still preferred the elegant curve and quicker restring of the longbow, even though the Telmarine men with me both carried crossbows, which shot arrows with more power, but took longer to reload.

We spent most of the day trekking over the unfamiliar turf, up and down steep, shale-covered precipices.  At last we came to a small flattened area of the hills that was so high up there were only a few twisted pines and that tough, dark green grass of the mountains. Here, a small herd of wild goats were grazing. They were brown, gray, or black, with long horns that curved outwards. I motioned to the others and held my finger to my lips. We slowly crept forward.

There were about sixteen, mostly female, with a few kids.  The males stayed off to the side of the herd, and that’s where I aimed my arrow. I held out my bow, slowly pulling back the string until my fingertips brushed the right corner of my mouth. I aimed for the largest male, and released. With a twang, the arrow flew away from me, quickly finding its target and burying itself just behind the ram’s front left leg. The goat fell with one pitiful bleat as the others trotted away in alarm. My companions quickly took aim and managed to kill another before the herd disappeared into the mountainside again.

We collected our kills, and I swung my goat up over my shoulders. I couldn’t help but feel smug that I had gotten the biggest one, and despite the protests of my companions, I insisted on carrying the heavy animal myself.

We made our way back to the camp on the beach, taking a bit longer since a heavy, cold fog rolled in, muffling all sounds and making it hard to see more than a few feet ahead. But soon we broke out of the cedar forest onto the rocky soil of the beach, where the others had felled one of the gnarled pine trees and built a bonfire.

We roasted the goats and drank the strong Archenlandian wine from aboard the Dawn Treader, who was sitting very pitiful and ragged in the bay. We had a hot, filling dinner for the first time in weeks.

It was only after we had finished that Edmund looked around with a puzzled look on his face and said, “Where’s Eustace got off to?” We all looked around, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Perhaps he wandered off in the woods, to observe the insects...” I suggested weakly, remembering Edmund’s descriptions of the bugs that Eustace collected and kept pinned in glass frames.

We started searching the piney forest nearby, sounding Caspian’s horn and calling his name.

Lucy turned pale and began to fret. “Oh, he’s nowhere near or else he’d have heard that!” she said, pulling on one of her braids.

Edmund was storming around in anger, although I knew he was using his rage to hide how worried he was. “Damn him! Why on earth would he want to slink away like this for?!”

He continued to pace as I tried to calm him down, but the truth was that I was worried too. As much as I disliked the little son of a bitch, I didn’t want him to get hurt.

“But we must do something!” Lucy cried. “He may have got lost, or fallen into a hole, or been captured by savages.”

“Or killed by wild beasts,” Drinian interjected helpfully.