Lost and Found

8. He's my brother

Where are you Edmund?
Peter swallowed hard as he leant against a tree, running a hand over his face as he let out a sigh.

It was starting to get dark now, and he kept telling himself that he should turn back, it would take a few hours and by now Susan was probably extremely angry at him for going off to search by himself.

But at the same time he wanted to continue searching. Edmund could be miles away by now, he could even be out of Narnia for all Peter knew, and this made him worry.
All he wanted to do was find his brother, before anything happened to him, but with a sinking heart he came to the decision that he really should go back, and he could continue searching tomorrow.

So with a sigh he stood up straight again, turned around and headed back in the direction of Cair.

It was almost four hours by the time he reached the main doors, and he was absolutely exhausted.
His legs ached like anything and his eyes were drooping, and he knew it was selfish, but he just couldn't help but feel glad that he was back, if only for the night.

Entering the castle he immediately headed for his room, wanting to freshen up a bit before going off to explain to his sisters why he'd left on his own, but he stopped dead when he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with Lucy.

Upon seeing Peter, Lucy's eyes went wide and she rushed over, flinging her arms around his neck. "You did come back." She muttered in his ear.

Peter sighed even as he hugged her back. "Yeah I came back." He mumbled.

Lucy slowly pulled away and glanced up at him. "We've been worried sick." She explained. "We just woke up and you were gone!"

"Sorry about that." Peter murmered. "But I had to try and find Ed."

Lucy nodded slowly. "We figured that eventually." She said slowly. "But I'm warning you now, Susan's not very happy."

"Yeah I know." Peter sighed. "Where is she?"

Lucy sighed. "Pacing the library." She muttered.

Peter raised an eyebrow. "And she tells me off when I pace." He muttered, heading down the corridor towards the library, Lucy following quickly behind.

Stepping into the library Peter's eyes instantly fell on his younger sister, who was indeed pacing back and forth.
She looked up when the door opened and her eyes went wide upon seeing Peter. "Peter!" She exclaimed.

Peter sighed and walked over, stopping when he was only a few feet away from her. "Hey Su." He mumbled.

"I can't believe you went off by yourself!" Susan exclaimed. "You could've been hurt?!"

"But I'm fine." Peter replied. "And I - I had to atleast try and find him."

"You couldn't of just waited a couple more hours?" Susan said, noticing Lucy sink down into a nearby chair.

"No I couldn't." Peter replied firmly. "He's my brother, Susan!"

"He's my brother too!" Susan exclaimed. "Atleast I had enough sense to not go wondering around the woods in the pitch black, which you've already done twice by the way!" She paused for a moment. "Aslan knows what could be in those woods at night! Alright it might've been okay the first time, you had other people with you, but going alone was just stupid."

Peter glared at her. "Well I'm sorry if I want to find my brother." He muttered, flopping down onto the sofa. "Which didn't happen anyway."

Susan sighed when she heard Peter's voice crack on the last sentence, and slowly sat down beside him. "We will find him Peter." She said gently.

"That's going well." Peter snorted.

"Peter it's only been, what, two days?" Susan said. "We'll find him, it just may take a while."

Peter swallowed hard before slowly nodding. "I know we will." He said. "Because I won't stop until we do."

Susan nodded and smiled gently at him. "Right." She breathed after a moment. "I'm going to find you something to eat, and then you can get some sleep."

Peter nodded a little and watched with a sigh as Susan slowly left the room.

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23rd April

Edmund swallowed hard as he staggered along through the woods, squinting in the rising sun which was, at that moment, practically blinding him.

They'd been walking for what felt like days at this point, having walked for the whole night bar two hours, and Edmund really wasn't sure how much longer he could cope.

The other boy seemed to be doing okay, well, better than Edmund anyway, and the men didn't seem at all effected by all the walking, or by the heat.

It was starting, once again, to get extremely hot, leaving Edmund taking deep, slow breaths and trying to ignore the thirst he felt.

He wondered when he'd be given more water. He hoped it would be soon, because if it wasn't, Edmund feared he might very well collapse again.

Trapped in his thoughts Edmund hardly even noticed the rock sticking from the ground, and let out a gasp as he hit the floor, banging his chin against a tree root, causing him to bite his tongue, hard.

Groaning and shuddering at the taste of blood, he went to get up, only to be held down by one of the men.

He frowned at this, and managed to turn around and kneel instead of laying on the floor, coming face to face with a very angry looking man, who Edmund, by now, had figured was probably the leader.

The man didn't say anything but it was clear that he wasn't happy.

Edmund could do nothing but brace himself as he raised his hand, feeling the back of it collide with his cheek a second later.

He had no time to recover before a fist hit him in the stomach, causing him to double over with a groan.

"Leave him alone!"

Edmund's eyes snapped open (him having squeezed them shut against the pain) and glanced over at the other boy.

"All he did was trip!" Logan said. "That's no reason to beat up the poor kid!"

"He's holding us all up and needs to learn." The man spat back, and Edmund could only watch as one of the men hit him across the back of the head with the hilt of his dagger.

The boy collapsed, but it was clear that he hadn't been knocked unconscious, much to Edmund's relief.

"Come on." The leader grumbled. "Let's get moving."

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