The Call (Lucy/Caspian)

Chapter 8

Caspian awoke suddenly to a deep searing pain in his chest.

He looked around and was surprised to find out he was in his bedroom, lying in his bed. He tried to get up out of the bed, but instantly jerked back and cried out as the intensity of pain in his chest was much more than he could handle.

He tried to look down to see the cause of his misery, but to no avail.

He was shirtless, with a foot wide bounded cloth around his chest and upper torso, which had bled through.

Luckily, he heard the shuffling of feet and soon saw Trufflehunter walk through the entryway.

"Ah yes I see it is time to change your bandages." He said simply and wasted no time in unwrapping the cloth. As he exposed the skin, Caspian looked down in horror at the sight.

Clearly he had been shot with an arrow. As he looked at the hole in his chest he saw it was infected with a purple and green color around the edges of the hole, while bleeding heavily.

Trufflehunter began humming an old Narnian tune and began his routine of cleaning the wound of infection. Once the cloth he was holding to clean the wound touched Caspian's flesh, the King cried out in pain.

"Stop being such a babe, it was only an arrow." Trufflehunter said stubbornly as he once again pushed the cloth down on Caspian's flesh to retrieve the infection.

Caspian grunted. "Perhaps if you were shot with an arrow you wouldn't say the same thing you are telling me now." Caspian said with a painful smirk.

"I have been shot with an arrow boy. And instead of lying in a soft bed healing, I was thrown on your shoulder and treated like a stuffed animal the way you threw me around." He said seriously.

"My apologies Trufflehunter," Caspian chuckled. "But I must say you had it much better than I, because you had me as your healer." Caspian grinned at the badger.

"I think you need your head bandaged like I did when you were running away from your uncle." Trufflehunter threatened pretending to be serious.

"I-"

"Caspian your awake." Peter stated as he, Trumpkin, and Edmund entered Caspian's bedroom, with Rilian on Peters hip. And then it hit him.

Lucy.

It wasn't a dream.

He looked up at Peter and Edmund's concerned faces, and then exchanged thoughts with Peter as they thought the same thing.

Where was Lucy?

"Where's Lucy?" Trumpkin surprisingly asked first.

They all looked at Caspian.

"I don't know. I saw her in the stables before dawn yesterday morning-"

"Caspian you've been asleep for three days." Edmund stated.

"Why was she in the stables so early?" Peter asked making Caspian continue.

"She wanted to see the fauns grave. She said-"

"Mr. Tumnus." Peter corrected stubbornly.

"Yes, I told her it would not be safe if she went alone, but she wouldn't listen to reason." Caspian sighed painfully. "So I went with her."

"What happened?" Peter commanded.

"It happened at the Fords of Beruna. There were riders of thirty men. And they hit me before I thought to look at their armor because I was trying to look after your sister."