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THE RETURN OF THE LION To keep along the edge of the ge was not so easy as it had looked. Before they had gone ny yards they were fronted with young fir woods growing on the ery edge, and after they had tried to gh these, stooping and pushing for about ten hey realized that, in there, it would take thean hour to do half a le. So they ca bad out again and decided to go round the fir wood. This took thenbsp; ch farther to their right than they wao go, far out of sight of the cliffs and out of sound of the rier, till they began to be afraid they had lost it aogether. Nobody khe ti, but it was getting to the hottest part of the day.
When they were able at st to go back to the edge of the ge (nearly a le below the point frowhich they had started) they found the cliffs on their side of it a good deal lower and re broken. Soon they found a way down into the ge and tihe jour the riers edge. But first they had a rest and a long drink. No one was talking any re about breakfast, or een dinner, with Caspian.
They y hae been wise to stick to the Rush instead of going along the top. It kept thesure of their dire: and eer sihe fir wood they had all been afraid of being forced too far out of theiurse and losing theeles in the wood. It was an old and pathless forest, and yould not keep anything like a straighurse in it. Patches of hopeless brales, fallen trees, boggy pces and dense undergrowth would be always getting in your way. But the ge of the Rush was not at all a nice pbsp; for traelliher. I an, it was not a nice pce for people in a hurry. For an afternoons rale ending in a piic tea it would hae been delightful. It had eerything you nbsuld want on an oasion of that sort - ruling waterfalls, siler cascades, deep, aeloured pools, ssy rocks, and deep ss on the banks in which yould sink oer your ankles, eery kind of fern, jewel-like dragon flies, sotis a hawk oerhead and once (Peter and Trukin. both thought) an eagle. But ourse what the children and the Dwarf wao see as soon as possible was the Great Rier below the and Beruna, and the way to Asns How.
As they went on, the Rush began to fall re aeeply. Their journey beca re and re of a cli and less and less of a walk - in pces een a dangerous cli oer slippery rock with a nasty drop into dark chas, and the rier r angrily at the botto
You y be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any pce where theuld cli the but those cliffs reined cruel. It was ddening, because eeryone khat if ohey were out of the ge on that side, they would hae only a soth slope and a fairly short walk to Caspians headquarters.
The boys and the Dwarf were now in faour of lighting a fire anoking their bear-at. Susan didnt want this; she only wanted, as she said, quot;to get on and finish it a out of these beastly woodsquot;. Lucy was far too tired and serable to hae any opinion about anything. But as there was no dry wood to be had, it ttered ery little what ahought. The boys began to wonder if raw at was really as nasty as they had always been told. Trukin assured theit was.
Ourse, if the children had atteted a journey like this a few days ago in Engnd, they would hae been knocked up. I think I hae epined before how Narnia was aering the Een Lucy was by now, so to speak, only ohird of a little girl going to b school for the first ti, and two-thirds of Queen Lucy of Narnia.
quot;At st!quot; said Susan.
quot;Oh, hurray!quot; said Peter.
The rier ge had just de a bend and the whole iew spread out beh the Theuld see open try stretg before theto the horizon and, between it and the the broad siler ribbon of the Great Rier. Theuld see the specially broad and shallow pce which had once been the Fords of Beruna but was now spanned by a long, ny-arched bridge. There was a little town at the far end of it.
quot;By Joe,quot; said Ednd. quot;We fought the Battle of Beruna just where that town is!”
This cheered the boys re than anything. You t help feeling stronger when you look at a pce where you won a glorious ictory not to ntion a kingdo hundreds of years ago. Peter and Ednd were soon so busy talking about the battle that they fot their sore feet and the heay drag of their il shirts on their shoulders. The Dwarf was ied too.
They were all getting on at a quicker paow. The going beca easier. Though there were still sheer cliffs on their left, the ground was being lower on their right. Soon it was all, only a alley. There were erfalls and presently they were in fairly thick woods again.
Then - all at once - whizz, and a sound rather like the stroke of a woodpecker. The children were still w where (ages ago) they had heard a sound just like that and why they disliked it so, when Trukin shouted, quot;Down, at the sa nt f Lucy (who happeo be o hi ft down into the bra. Peter, who had been looking up to see if huld spot a squirrel, had seen what it was - a long cruel arrow had sunk into a tree trunk just aboe his head. As he pulled Susan down and dropped hielf, another ca rasping oer his shoulder and struck the ground at his si;s..;/sde.
quot;Quick! Quick! Get back! ?9９lib.Crquot; parukin.
They turned and wriggled along uphill, uhe bra ad clouds of horribly buzzing flies. Arrows whizzed round the Oruck Susa with a sharp ping and gnced off. They crawled quicker. Soured off the Then they ran, stooping nearly double. The boys held their swords in their hands for fear they would trip theup.
It was heart-breaking work - all uphill again, back oer the ground they had already traelled. When they fe that they realluldnt run any re, een to sae their lies, they all dropped down in the da ss beside a waterfall and behind a big boulder, panting. They were surprised to see how high they had already got.
They listened ily and heard no sound of pursuit.
quot;So thats all right,quot; said Trukin, drawing a deep breath. quot;Theyre not searg the wood. Only sentries, I epect. But it ans that Miraz has an outpost down there. Bottles and battledores! though, it was a hing.”
quot;I ought to hae head scked fing us this way at all,quot; said Peter.
quot;Orary, your Majesty,quot; said the Dwarf. quot;For ohing it wasnt you, it was your royal brother, King Ednd, who first suggested going by Gsswater.”
quot;Iafraid the D.L.F.s right,quot; said Ednd, who had quite holy fotten this eer sihings began going wrong.
quot;And for another,quot; tirukin, quot;if wed gone way, wed hae walked straight into that new outpost, st likely; or at least had just the sa trouble aoiding it. I think this Gsswater route has turned out for the best.”
quot;A blessing in disguise,quot; said Susan.
quot;So disguise!quot; said Ednd.
quot;I suppose well hae to ght up the ge again no;quot; said Lucy.
quot;Lu, youre a hero,quot; said Peter. quot;Thats the youe got today to saying I told you so. Lets get on.”
quot;And as soon as were well up into the forest,quot; said Trukin, quot;whateer anyone says, Igoing to light a fire anok supper. But we st get well away fronbsp; here.”
There is o describe how they toiled back up the ge. It retty hard work, but oddly enough eeryo re cheerful. They were getting their sed wind; and the word supper had had a wonderful effect.
They reached the fir wood which had caused theso ch trouble while it was still daylight, and biouacked in a hollow just aboe it. It was tedious gathering the firewood; but it was grand when the fire bzed up and they began produg the da and sary parcels of bear-at which would hae been so ery unattractie to anyone who ?had spent the day indoors. The Dwarf had splendid ideas abouokery. Eabsp; apple (they still had a few of these) was ed up in bears at - as if it was to be apple duling with at instead of pastry, only ch thicker - and spiked on a sharp stid then roasted. And the juice of the apple worked all through the at, like apple sauce with roast pork. Bear that has lied too other anils is not ery nibsp; but bear that has had plenty of honey and fruit is ecellent, and this turned out to be that sort of bear. It was a truly glorious al. And, ourse, no washing up - only lying babsp; and watg the ske froTrukins pipe and stretg oired legs and chatting. Eeryo quite hopeful now about finding King Caspian torrow aing Miraz in a few days. It y not hae been sensible of theto feel like this, but they did.
They dropped off to sleep one by one, but all pretty quickly.
Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you igine, with the feeling that the oice she liked best in the world had been calling her na. She thought at first it was her fathers oice, but that did not seequite right. Thehought it eters oice, but that did not seeto fit either. She did not want to get up; not because she was still tired - orary she was wonderfully rested and all the aches had gone froher bones - but because she fe so etrely happy and fortable. She was looking straight up at the Narnian o;big.９９ｌiｂ?;/bign, which is rger than ours, and at the starry sky, for the  ce where they had biouacked aratiely open.
quot;Lucy,quot; ca the call agaiher her fathers oior Peters. She sat up, treling with et but not with fear. The on was sht that the whole forest ndscape around her was alst as clear as day, though it looked wilder. Behind her was the fir wood; away tht the jagged cliff-tops on the far side of the ge; straight ahead, open grass to where a gde of trees began about a bow-shot away. Lucy looked ery hard at the trees of that gde.
quot;Why, I do beliee theyre ing,quot; she said to herself. quot;Theyre walking about.”
She got up, her heart beating wildly, and walked towards the There was certainly a noise in the gde, a noise such as trees ke in a high wind, though there was no wind tonight. Yet it was ly an ordinary treeher. Lucy fe there was a tune in
it, but shuld not catch the tune ahan she had been able to catch the words wherees had so nearly talked to her the night before. But there was, at least, a li; she fe her ow wanting to dance as she got nearer. And now there was no doubt that the trees were really ing ing in and out through one another as if in a plicated try dance. (quot;And I suppose,quot; thought Lucy, quot;when trees da st be a ery, ery try dandeed.) She was alst ang thenow.
The first tree she looked at seed at first go be not a tree at all but a huge n with a shaggy beard and great bushes of hair. She was nhtened: she had seen such things before. But when she looked again he was only a tree, though he was still ing.
Youldnt see whether he had feet or roots, ourse, because when trees e they dont walk on the surface of the earth; they wade in it as we do in water. The sa thing happened with eery tree she looked at. At o they seed to be the friendly, loely giant and giantess for which the tree-people put on when so good gic has called theinto full life: nt they all looked like trees again. But when they looked like trees, it was like strangely hun trees, and when they looked like people, it was like strangely branchy and leafy people - and all the ti that queer liing, rustling, erry noise.
quot;They are alst awake, not quite,quot; said Lucy. She knew she herself was wide awake, wider than anyone usually is.
She went fearlessly in ang the dang herself as she leaped this way and that to aoid being run into by these huge partners. But she was only half ied in the She wao get beyond theto sothing else; it was frobeyond thethat the dear oice had called.
She soon got through the(half w whether she had been using her ar to push branches aside, or to take hands in a Great with big dancers who stooped to reach her) for they were really a ring of trees round a tral open pce. She stepped out froang their shifting fusion of loely lights and shadows.
A circle of grass, soth as a w her eyes, with dark trees dang all round it.
And then - oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the onlight, with his huge bck shadow underh hi
But for the ent of his tail he ght hae been a stone lion, but Lueer thought of that. She opped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to hi She fe her heart would burst if she lost a nt. And the thing she knew was that she was kissing hiand putting her ar as far round his neck as shuld and burying her fa the beautiful rich silkiness of his ne.
quot;Asn, Asn. Dear Asn,quot; sobbed Lucy. quot;At st.”
The great beast rolled oer on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lyiween his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her h his tongue. His warbreath ca all round her. She gazed up into the rge wise face.
quot;Wele, child,quot; he said.
quot;Asn,quot; said Lucy, quot;youre bigger.”
quot;That is because you are older, little one,quot; answered he.
quot;Not because you are?”
quot;I anot. But eery year you grow, you will find bigger.”
For a ti she was so happy that she did not want to speak. But Asn spoke.
quot;Lucy,quot; he said, quot;we st not lie here for long. You hae work in hand, and ch ti has been lost today.”
quot;Yes, wasnt it a sha?quot; said Lucy. quot;I saw you all right. They wouldnt beliee .
Theyre all so -”
Frosowhere deep inside Asns body there ca the fai suggestion of a growl.
quot;Isorry,quot; said Lucy, who uood so of his ods. quot;I dido start snging the others. But it wasnt fau anyway, was it?”
The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
quot;Oh, Asn,quot; said Lucy. quot;You dont an it was? Hould I - uldnt hae left the others and e up to you alone, hould I? Dont look at like that . . . oh well, I suppose uld. Yes, and it wouldnt hae been alone, I know, not if I was with you. But what would hae been the good?”
Asn said nothing.
quot;You an,quot; said Lucy rather faintly, quot;that it would hae turned out all right - sohow?
But how? Please, Asn! AI not to know?”
quot;To know what would hae happened, child?quot; said Asn. quot;No. Nobody is eer told that.”
quot;Oh dear,quot; said Lucy.
quot;But anyone find out what will happen,quot; said Asn. quot;If you go back to the others now, and wake theup; aheyou hae seen again; and that you st all get up at ond follow - what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”
quot;Do you an that is what you wao do?quot; gasped Lucy.
quot;Yes, little one,quot; said Asn.
quot;Will the others see you too?quot; asked Lucy.
quot;Certainly not at first,quot; said Asn. quot;Later on, it depends.”
quot;But they wont beliee !quot; said Lucy.
quot;It doesnt tter,quot; said Asn.
quot;Oh dear, oh dear,quot; said Lucy. quot;And I was so pleased at finding you again. And I thought youd let stay. And I thought youd e r in and frighten all the enees away - like st ti. And hing is going to be horrid.”
quot;It is hard for you, little one,quot; said Asn. quot;But things neer happen the sa way twice.
It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now.”
Lucy buried her head in his o hide frohis face. But there st hae been gi his ne. Shuld feel lion-strength going into her. Quite suddenly she sat up.
quot;Isorry, Asn,quot; she said. quot;Iready now.”
quot;Now you are a lioness,quot; said Asn. quot;And now all Narnia will be renewed. But e.
We hae no ti to lose.”
He got up and walked with stately, noiseless paces back to the be of dang trees through which she had just e: and Lucy went with hi ying a rather trelous hand on his he trees parted to let thethrough and for one sed assud their hun for pletely. Lucy had a glise of tall and loely wood-gods and wood-goddesses all bowing to the Lio nt they were trees again, but still bowing, with such graceful sweeps of brand trunk that their bowing was itself a kind of dance.
quot;Now, child,quot; said Asn, when they had left the trees behind the quot;I will wait here. Go and wake the others aheto follow. If they will not, then you at least st follow alone.”
It is a terrible thing to hae to wake four people, all older than yourself and all ery tired, for the purpose of telling thesothing they probably wont beliee and king thedo sothing they certainly wont like. quot;I stnt think about it, I st just do it,”
thought Lucy.
She went to Peter first and shook hi quot;Peter,quot; she whispered in his ear, quot;wake up. Quick.
Asn is here. He says wee got to follow hiat once.”
quot;Certainly, Lu. Whateer you like,quot; said Peter uedly. This was eng, but as Peter instantly rolled round ao sleep again it wasnt ch use.
Theried Susan. Susan did really wake up, but only to say i annoying grown-up oice, quot;Youe been dreang, Lucy. Go to sleep again.”
She tackled Ed. It was ery difficu to wake hi but when at st she had do he was really awake and sat up.
quot;Eh?quot; he said in a gruy oice. quot;What are you talking about?”
She said it all ain. This was one of the worst parts of her job, for each ti she said it, it sounded less ing.
quot;Asn!quot; said Ednd, juing up. quot;Hurray! Where?”
Lucy turned back to where shuld see the Lion waiting, his patient eyes fied upon her. quot;There,quot; she said, pointing.
quot;Where?quot; asked Ednd again.
quot;There. There. Dont you see? Just this side of the trees.”
Ednd stared hard for a while ;/aand then said, quot;No. Theres nothing there. Youe got dazzled and ddled with the onlight. One does, you know. I thought I saw sothing for a nt self. Its only an optical what-do-you-call-it.”
quot;I see hiall the ti,quot; said Lucy. quot;Hes looking straight at us.”
quot;Then why t I see hi”
quot;He said you ghtnt be able to.”
quot;Why?”
quot;I dont know. Thats what he said.”
quot;Oh, bother it all,quot; said Ednd. quot;I do wish you wouldnt keep on seeing things. But I suppose well hae to wake the others.”
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