Chapter 2

Eustace just stood there in awe, he couldn't believe it, he did it, he made it back. He now realized that a small part of him didn't really think that it would work; that he would find the wardrobe, go inside, only to be standing in an empty wardrobe like an idiot.

Closing his eyes he took a deep breath in through his nose, the scent of flowers, trees, and the clean, fresh air all hitting his senses at once. Slowly, he reopened his eyes and they immediately landed on the lamp post again. There was something so mysterious about it.

Living in the city he had seen thousands of lamp post before, but this one was different, it was alone. There were vines growing up it all the way to the top of the post and stopping right before it met the light at the top. There were small green leaves and bright pink flowers growing on the vine, and that just added to it's serenity. Even with it's chipping paint and rustic feel, he had never seen anything so beautiful.

He walked over to it and reached out to touch one of the flower pedals. The flower immediately snapped shut, the pedals spiraling around as it closed, he jerked his hand away just before it closed on his finger. As soon as he pulled away and the flower realized that it had not closed on anything, it slowly spiraled open again the pedals circling in the opposite direction as it did. This only enthralled Eustace even more by the lamp post. Walking around the post, he studied the entire thing, occasionally touching a pedal and quickly moving his hand away as he watched it close. He did this for several minutes, but eventually decided to go exploring.

There were several paths leading from the lamp post all forking off in different directions: One path was curvy and disappeared into the dark forest before you could see where it really lead to or if it ended right there, another path was straight and clear, with lots of light shining on it, and was very easy to see, one path was covered in thick brush that seemed very hard to get through without causing meager cuts and scratches, and the last path had trees that grew so close together along the path that it made it very dark and spooky looking. Eustace decided to go on the light, straight path sense it seemed like the easiest way to go, and that way he could see more in a shorter amount of time.

So, deciding that, that logic was as good as any, he started down the path, excited by the prospect of the grand adventure he was about to have.

As he walked down the path his head was far from idle, it swiveled in every direction trying to see everything of this Land that he could. When he looked up he could see the blindingly bright sun shining down through the tree branches and their plentiful leaves and creating streaks of light where it broke through and hit the ground.

It was a beautiful day, not a single cloud in the sky, it only lightened his spirit and made this day even better.

The path was very straight, he could see a long way down it, but as far as he could see the path just keep going on until a slight turn at the end of it where he could no longer see where it lead to. He didn't mind though, he liked walking, he found it relaxing.

But, as Eustace walked along the path he started to get an uneasy feeling that he was being watched. He stopped and did a 360 turn around himself, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just trees. He looked up at the branches that weren't hidden by the dense coverage of leaves, but still saw nothing. Shaking his head, he kept going.

He had never done anything like this before; living in the city, there wasn't anywhere you could really go for a hike in the woods, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about food or shelter.

At the thought of food, his stomach started to growl which reminded him that he had skipped breakfast that morning. He was much to nervous to eat, what with not knowing whether or not his plan was going to even work. But, now that it had he was very aware of his growing hunger. Telling himself that he would figure something out, he made up his mind that he would just try to take his mind off of it, and worry about it later.

He tried to focus his mind on his surroundings, but that uneasy feeling was still nagging at him. He was almost sure that he was being watched but tried to brush it off. He got scared very easily, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin this for him. He had done things way scarier than this before the last time he came to Narnia, this is nothing, he tried to tell himself. But suddenly the trees started to grow a little closer together the farther he walked, which made everything seem darker, and the wind started to pick up and sounded like some unknown creature whispering his name in a blood curdling tone.

"Calm down," he said out loud. "Your braver than this. Your a force to be recon with!"

A tree branch snapping suddenly made him jump so high that his feet left the ground, and startled a high pitched shriek from his lips. He scrambled behind a tree and turned his back to it, leaning all of his weight on it's rough surface. He bent forward, bracing his hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath after being scared right out of him. Another snap of a twig made him shoot upright again, his whole body becoming as stiff as a board. Breathing heavily, he slowly turned his heads and peaked around the tree, just enough so that he could get a good view of what could be seen of the forest behind him without revealing to much of his face in case someone was there.

A black streak caught the corner of his eye, but passed out of his vision to quickly to make out what it was. He craned his neck a little farther so that he could see a little more still trying not to expose himself to much. But still, there was nothing.

A scuffling sound that seemed to come from behind his now completely turned back made his head snap back around to the other side of the tree and he carefully peaked his head around that side his entire body fully facing the tree now. Nothing.

"Look up," these words that were spoken in almost a bored sounding voice came from above his head. But just as he looked up to see who had spoken them the mysterious figure jumped out of the tree and landed behind him.

Turning quickly on the balls of his feet, he bent his knees, and quickly balled his hands into fists, and threw his arms up to cover his face, bent at the elbow to encounter his adversary, and protect himself from the violent attack that was all completely in his head, another high pitched squeak escaping him.

After a while of staying in this position though a throat clearing made him open one eye only to find a girl that seemed to be no older than he was, standing right in front of him, her hands propped on her hips and a looked of dry amusement on her face.

"You done yet," she said with a smirk and a roll of the eyes.

Face turning bright red, he dropped his protective stance and straightened himself, trying and failing to pull together some dignity.

"Sorry," he said, then blurted. "I thought you might try to kill me."

Her eyebrows almost rose clear off her forehead at that defensive statement.

"Kill you, you say? Now why of earth would I want to do that?" she said.

"I don't know, that was before I knew that you were only a girl."

Impossibly, her eyebrows rose even higher.

"Only a girl? Why look whose on his high horse, your only a boy, I don't see what that has to do with anything. At least I don't scream and duck behind trees every time I hear a twig snap. For all you new I could have been a rabbit," she said and leaned her back against the tree opposite him, arms crossed in a nonchalant manner.

When his face turned even redder she smiled an easy smile at him. It was a smile that reached her eyes, lit up her face and was full of playful amusement. It was then that he noticed how attractive she was: her jet black hair was pulled back in a loose braid that almost reached her waist and had stringy pieces of hair falling out of it and framing her face. The darkness of her hair made her electric blue eyes seem even brighter and bigger then they already were. Eustace could see the love, kindness and joy as well as the pain and hardships in them that she must had faced just by looking into them – they told a story. She wasn't very tall, but the maturity that she carried herself with made up for what she lacked in height and made her look older. She wore a tattered dark green shirt that was a little to big for her, and a pair of tight black braise and tired black boots. Nothing she wore seemed to fit her properly and they were all so shaggy that they looked like they could fall right off of her in a cloud of dust at any second. But despite all this, her face and hands were very clean, and he could tell that she took care of herself.

"Are you just going to stand there staring at me all day? Because that's fine, but standing out in the open like this isn't such a good idea, we should keep moving."

"No, I just – wait, what do you mean 'we'?"

"Your alone, in the woods, with no weapon. Your making yourself to easy of a target, and I'm bored and need something to do. Do you really think that wandering around the forest with no protection, alone, is a good idea?" she said, putting extra strain on the word 'alone'.

"Your alone," he said defensively.

"Yeah, but I have a sword," she countered, gesturing to the sword that hung from around her waist. It was concealed in a black shaft that blended into her pants that he didn't noticed before.

"Well I have a knife," he said, just then remembering the small pocket knife that he kept in his pants pocket.

"Well, I know how to use it," she said pointedly.

Eustace opened his mouth as if to respond to that, but then snapped it closed again and instead puffed his cheeks full of air and blew it back out all at once, his eyes traveling around the expanse of the forest, but avoiding her all together.

This made her smile that easy smile again. "I could teach you," she said.

"I don't need your help. I can protect myself just fine, thank you very much. And I don't remember inviting you to come with me anyway," said Eustace in a last ditch effort to try to look braver than he actually felt.

"Look, I know these woods better than anyone, its dangerous out here - Really dangerous. You may not think that I could help you now, but trust me, you will when my practiced sword hand saves your life," she said, some of her earlier amusement slipping away.

"Trust you? How can I trust you, I don't even know you name?"

Smile returning, she pushed herself with both hands off the tree trunk and strode over to him and stretched out her hand. "I'm Sasha," she said.

"Sasha what?"

"Just Sasha," she said.

"Eustace," he said shaking her hand.

"Eustace what?"

"You didn't give me a last name," he said smirking.

Smirking back at him, she propped her hands on her hips again. "So, what do you say – partners?"

"Just because you told me your name doesn't change the fact that I still have no idea who you are," he said looking her up and down.

She took two steps towards him, so close now that he could smell her. She smelled of pine and wild flowers, it was a very nice scent really that only added to her beauty.

"I could train you with that knife of yours, I could show to make a bow out of thing you find out here in the woods, and also how to hunt with it. I could show you all the easy paths and short cuts to take to get to wherever you need to go, and show you which plants are edible... and which ones are poison," said Sasha.

An odd feeling started to nag at him that told him that inviting her to come with him (wherever it was that he was going) wasn't such a good idea.

She was to close now, much to close, he could barely think straight, but somehow he found the strength to get himself out of the the trapped position he was in, unpinned his back from the tree and walked around her. She instantly flipped herself around so now she was the one with her back to the tree.

"Thanks, but I'm fine on my own," he said, and with that he turned his back to her and started back down the path. He didn't look back, but he could feel her eyes staring into his back as he walked away from her.