Lost and Found

14: All too real

26th April

"Peter?"

Peter frowned slightly as he woke, hearing his name being whispered. At first he thought it was Susan, but when he opened his eyes he was shocked to find Lucy stood beside his hammock, a look of hope on her face. "Lu?" He asked, voice still thick with sleep but full of confusion.

Lucy gave him a sheepish smile. "Hey." She murmered.

Peter blinked and slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes before staring at his sister. "What are you doing here?" He asked, glancing across the tent and seeing that Susan was still asleep.

Lucy shrugged a little. "I wanted to help find Edmund." She said quietly. 

Peter sighed sadly, but couldn't help but smile slightly. "Did you come alone?" He asked.

Lucy shook her head. "Orious and a few others have come too." She told him. "They're outside."

Peter nodded a little. "Well, there's been no luck in finding him." He sighed sadly. "But we did find a part of his tunic which he'd ripped off, so we know we're on the right path... well, we knew we were, we might not be anymore."

Lucy sighed. "We'll find him Peter." She said gently. "Hopefully before tomorrow."

Peter looked down at the blanket covering his legs and slowly shook his head. "And if we haven't then tomorrow's gonna be treated like any other day." He said firmly.

Lucy stared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath. "But it's your 20th birthday." She mumbled.

But Peter immediately shook his head. "It - it won't be the same without Ed." He choked, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing back his tears.

Lucy sighed. "We'll just see what today brings eh?" She said, taking a deep breath. "You never know, we could've found him by tomorrow."

"That's what Susan said." Peter murmered, shaking his head a little.

Lucy swallowed hard before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you get ready and we'll begin searching again?" She suggested.

Peter swallowed hard and ran a hand through his tangled hair, nodding his head slightly and climbing out the hammock. "Yeah." He murmered.

Lucy smiled softly at him before walking across the tent to wake Susan up.

Peter sighed as he grabbed his cloak from where he'd hung it the night before, already knowing that this was gonna be a long day.

👑👑👑

"We've only got a couple more hours before we leave this desert."

Edmund couldn't help but sigh in relief as he overheard this, and almost slipped down another dune, but just about managed to stay on his feet, for which he was grateful for... he didn't know if he could take another beating just yet.

"And then from there, it's only about three hours to the house."

House? Edmund swallowed hard. This was becoming all too real for him, and he just couldn't help but wonder where an earth Peter and his sisters were.

He had no doubt that they were out searching for him, and he knew it sounded rather mean, but he just wished they'd hurry up.

"The sooner we get there the better." One man spat, and Edmund felt a tug on his rope. "We need this money."

Edmund couldn't help but roll his eyes, but then all of a sudden a though occured to him. They were going to Calormen.

Narnia and Calormen didn't exactly have the most... peaceful relationship, and if they knew that King Edmund the Just was in their country, they'd be sure to kidnap him and hold him for ransom or something stupid... or more dangerous. Edmund swallowed hard, they could actually kill him.

He made up his mind in an instant, whoever he was being sent to work for, he couldn't reveal who he was. No matter what.

They continued walking for an hour, before sure enough they left the desert, and as they walked, Edmund was relieved at the reduce in temperature, even if it was only the slightest bit cooler.

He was still hot though, way too hot. But he told himself that he could get through another few hours, he had to, otherwise Aslan knows what kind of trouble he'd get himself into.

👑👑👑

"Why don't we stop and have some lunch?" Susan suggested with a sigh, bringing the whole search party to a stop.

Peter sighed and stared at her, before eventually nodding his head, and walking straight over to Orious. "How much of Narnia have we searched?" He asked, aware of everyone settling down to eat.

The Centaur sighed at him. "Almost three quarters of Narnia, your majesty." He replied. "It'll take us maybe another day or two to search the rest."

Peter nodded, seeming to be deep in thought before he finaly spoke again. "Once we've searched the whole of Narnia." He said somewhat firmly. "I want this search party to go over and search it again, whilst me, Susan and Lucy go off into Archenland to search."

Orious nodded slowly. "I will come with you." He said. "And Mr.Tumnus and Philip I dare say will be coming to." He nodded over at the small group and at Tumnus and Philip, who had come with the search party and were currently sat with Lucy, all deep in conversation.

Peter took a deep breath and nodded his agreement. "Thank you Orious."

"A pleasure sir." The centaur replied with a bow.

Peter sighed and joined Susan, who was sat against a tree, frowning a little. "You alright?" He asked.

Susan glanced up at him. "I suppose." She mumbled.

Peter bit his lip. "I just said to Orious that we should search the rest of Narnia and then go into Archenland to search, whilst most of the search pary re search Narnia."

Susan nodded. "That sounds like a good plan." She breathed.

Peter swallowed hard before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Like you're always saying." He sighed. "We will find him."

Susan smiled. "No matter what."

👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑