Basically, I don't own anything, so there.
Both Max and Jack continued calling for Eustace till Jack remembered, "Max, he won't hear us; he's asleep at the bottom of the valley."
"Well, we must find him," Max declared heroically as she grabbed Jack's sword and bow and arrows and shoved them into Jack's hands. "Gather everyone you can; we'll form a brute squad! We must find Eustace!" she cried with authority.
Jack nodded, put on her cloak that looked like it belonged to the Dread Pirate Roberts, and went to gather a search party. She came upon Caspian and the others talking.
"Of course we've got to find him, if we can." said Caspian wearily. "That's the nuisance of it. It means a search party and endless trouble. Bother Eustace."
Jack coughed to get his attention. Everyone looked at her. "We must gather a brute squad, ahem, a search party!" she ordered, "Though eventually he will be back, but it is better than sitting here idly."
Everyone was silent, which was a usual occurrence after Jack and Max said something. They studied her. She looked as if she were with a Hun.
Edmund coughed, "Yes, we must go, um you're going I presume?" he looked at Jack, who lifted an eyebrow.
"Yes," she replied slowly, "and Max of course. Hmm, where is she?" As if on cue, a stray arrow shot through the group and lodged itself into the trunk of the tree Lucy was leaning on, which caused her to scream. The arrow was followed by a very apologetic Max, muttering something about rehearsing.
The only thing that was apprehended from her rambling was, "And then, it hit a shield, and yeah. Er, sorry, but there is a group of men readying to search."
"Well," Caspian cleared his throat, "very good. We shall go then."
The search party was organized and ready to go. Caspian, Drinian, Rhine and Edmund were discussing in what direction to go when Max cried, "Stop gassing on infidels and follow us!" With that, Max and Jack set up the same hill Eustace had earlier. Not sure what to do, the rest just followed. All they found was a dead dragon, which alarmed Edmund more than a boy his age should have been alarmed.
"It looks as if it just died." Jack examined it closer.
"It probably ate the little brat and died of him: he'd poison anything," said Rhince.
Max stuck her tongue out at him.
Later that evening they returned, exhausted. Jack and Max both fell asleep, only to be softly woken up by Edmund saying there was another dragon.
"Perhaps it'll go away." offered Lucy, ever the optimist.
"It'll be worse if it does," replied Edmund, with a shiver, "because then we shan't know where it is. If there's a wasp in the room I like to be able to see it."
"Well good thing there aren't any wasps around here! And good thing we aren't in a room!" Max thought she was pretty savvy with that remark and an attempt at Jack's "Duh, you maladjustive maniopath!" look.
The rest of the night dragged on and when everyone sat down to eat Max and Jack went to the beach to see the dragon.
"DRAGON!" cried Max, pointing to poor Eustace.
"Oh, he's sad." cooed Jack.
"And his arm hurts," put in Max.
"Wait, how did we know that?"
"We must be like dragon riders or something," said Max.
"Dragon riders," Jack repeated under her breath. She stepped forward and began gently speaking to Eustace, "Please, don't cry. I mean, oh, your poor arm."
"We'll fix it, like Eustace's splinter, except not the same," said Max. "Because I don't think I have enough bandages to make another sling." Jack and Max both kissed their hands and touched Eustace's arm.
"Oh, he's warm," said Jack, who is almost always cold.
Just then almost the whole crew came to the edge of the beach. They were armed to the teeth and ready for a battle. It looked to the crew that Jack and Max were in a potentially bad situation.
Caspian groaned, "The blasted girls got themselves caught by the dragon."
"But we must save them sire," said Reepicheep, ever the hero.
"Of course, we must," Caspian muttered, his patience running thin.
It didn't take long for the group to form a plan, and Edmund and Reepicheep were marching with a group of men to meet the dragon.
Max and Jack stared at them with disbelief. What on earth were they doing?
Max was looking at the men standing in full armor marching towards them when she felt something grab her. She tried to call out, but a hand muffled any attempt to cry.
A voice hissed, "Quiet."
She obeyed, though she wasn't sure why. Then she realized she was being flung over someone's shoulders, and that someone was Caspian. He began carrying her off, and her senses returned.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she yelled, "LEMEGO! Dysfunctional FOOL!" Max realized they were being carried into the forest.
Jack was screaming, at, her captor, "MR. STUBBLY IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN..."
Max continued screaming at Caspian, till she heard Jack yelling something in Spanish. Now, Jack speaking in Spanish is an amazing thing. If you have ever been in a Spanish class with her you would have heard her mumble at least once "Dos ninos blancos in mi leche." and that she wished she was still in French class, and she didn't care that no around there spoke French.
All Max caught was, "su espada." Which she knew was a word so she called back, "SU MADRE TIENE UN ESPADA."
"NO," cried Jack in frustration, she pointed at the back of Quin's knees and made a swinging action. Max caught on. She wasn't sure how she did, but she did.
Max pulled her sword out and nailed Caspian in the back of the knees with the flat of the sword. Caspian's legs gave way and they tumbled to the ground.
Max jumped up, pointed her sword at Caspian and began yelling, "I DIDN'T NEED TO BE SAVED! YOU NEVER LISTEN! HAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG!"
Quin saw his king go down and stopped.
"Hey, Mr. Stubbly, Quin, um could you possibly put me down," said Jack. He did so and she gently smoothed out her dress, and proceeded to stop Max from passing out because of yelling at Caspian.
Jack stood between the rabid Max and the surprised Caspian, I say surprised because Max had snapped, and such a good tempered person snapping is a surprise indeed. Max was yelling about not needing to be saved and the like. All the while Jack calmly told her to calm down, she was being un-Jedi like.
"OH MY FREEKIN LANTA! YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO RESCUE EVERY SKIPPING GIRL IN THE SKIPPING UNIVERSE, YOU DERANGED MEATBALL! You're DUMB, and you STINK! And you're dumb and STUPID! You! You...YOU! JIST JIST, ARG! AND YOU STINK AND YOU'RE STUPID! AND...YOU'RE... DUMB! You MEATBALL!"
Caspian's eyes were as big as a television screen. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but there was no way you two could have handled a dragon, I wasn't about to leave you two to your death."
Max went silent.
Jack took a deep breath, and turned around to face the King. "My dear King," she said between her teeth, on the verge of losing it herself, "We are NOT damsels in distress and we certainly don't need some snot nosed knight in shining armor to save us."
Caspian wasn't sure how to respond. He look from one of the girls to the other and then over at Quin who was doing his best to stay out of this whole thing.
Max's face softened and she whispered, "Eustace."
"What?" snapped Jack, still peeved.
"Oh, Yoda and all things green, the dragon," Max turned and began running to the beach.
It took Jack a split second to make the connection, gave one last frown to Caspian, and sprinted after her friend. When Jack reached the beach Lucy was speaking.
"Oh look, there's something wrong with its leg. The poor thing--that's probably what it was crying about. Perhaps he came to us to be cured like in Androcles and the lion."
Max, followed closely by Jack, ran over to the poor dragon and said to Lucy, "Please use your cordial to heal him."
Lucy without hesitation ran over to Eustace, and then of course Edmund, Reepicheep, Drinian and Caspian, who had brushed himself off and wasn't about to be left out, came too. Lucy put some drops on the dragon's arm, and the dragon seemed a little more comfortable.
"Look," said Caspian pointing the bracelet, "It is the Lord Octesian's arm-ring."
"Villain," Reepicheep said shrilly (and if it was Mr. Weller Sr. from the Pickwick Papers, he would have said "Willain!") Reepicheep, who is not Mr. Weller Sr. continued. "Have you devoured a Narnian Lord?"
"Don't be silly of course he hasn't," said Jack defending poor Eustace.
"He is under enchantment, he use to be human," explained Max.
"You mean Lord Octesian?" asked Drinian.
"No," Jack said as she looked up on the dragon's face, "Eustace."
Eustace nodded his head and began crying.
"Aw, poor little, er big guy! That's alright! We'll get you back, right as rain!" comforted Max.
Of course they were all very anxious to hear his story, but he couldn't speak. More than once in the days that followed he attempted to write it for them on the sand. But this never succeeded. In the first place Eustace had no idea how to tell a story straight. And for another thing, the muscles and nerves of the dragon claws that he had to use had never learned to write and were not built for writing anyway. As a result he never got nearly to the end before the tide came in and washed away all the writing except the bits he had already trodden on or accidentally swished out with his tail. And all that anyone had seen would be something like this – the dots are for the bits he had smugged out –
I WNET TO SLEE...RAGOS AGRONS I MEAN DRAGONS CAVE CAUSE ITWAS DEAD AND AINING SO HAR...WOKE UP AND COU...GET OFFF MI ARM OH BOTHER...
It was, however, clear to everyone that Eustace's character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon. He was anxious to help, and help he did. He brought timber and animals to camp, and scouted and took people on he back to see the island. Jack and Max immediately claimed him as their own dragon. After all, they were dragon riders. Once Eustace even saved Jack and Max, and here is the story:
Jack looked back at Max who was lagging, and skipping, yes skipping through the field of flowers. Jack rolled her eyes and sat on large rock, crossed her legs and began rubbing her temples. If only Master Rusco could see her Padawan now, skipping through the flower field being about as productive as when they spin around staring at Mr. Taylor's ceiling during Outdoor ED.
"Will you please get your rear in gear and get up here?" Jack called to the hippy dancing Max, "if you want to eat we have to catch something."
Max looked at Jack, as if she were snapping back to reality. She gathered up her skirts, took one step and was down. Max cried out some inaudible words.
"Will you hurry?" Jack cried impatiently.
"MY ANKLE!" Max yelled.
Jack slowly got up and trudged back to the howling Max. Max sat on the ground her foot in the air, shaking it around, like when you sit on your legs and they fall asleep which is nearly what did happen.
"I can't feel it," Max whinged as she pointed to her foot.
Jack gave her the huh-look.
"It's all tingly," Max explained.
"Really?" said Jack her eyes getting large, "Can I poke it?"
"No, you can't poke it!" Max howled, grabbing her foot to protect it.
Jack looked at the area of ground about foot or so away from Max; it was trampled down from Max's frivolity, but wait what is this Max trampled down. Jack bent down and with her dress skirt picked it up. It was a tall thin plant with yellow flowers. The plant was torn up, and its precious juices were exposed.
"Aconitum lycoctonum," said Jack displaying the flower for Max, "Wolfsbane."
(The story is To Be Continued...)
Cliffhanger!
Or...aconitum lycoctonum hanger!