Chapter 8

"Boggles?" said Damon in wonder. "You don't get very of them up here."

"Uh huh. Five of them – nasty things too."

"I would think that you would have enough since to stay away from them. But, of course, you just had to go looking for a fight."

"Well, I could hardly leave him to get torn to pieces."

Ever since they had started walking again, Sasha had recapped everything that had happened to them in the woods. Neither of them seemed to notice that he was there as well, so Eustace just hung back like he usually did and stared at their backs.

It had begun to trickle rain, so Damon and Sasha decided that they would all go to a small cavern about a mile away before the storm clouds hit them. They were much to out in the open, and didn't want to chance getting struck by lightning.

Damon broke off from Sasha's side and and waited for him to catch up, while Sasha kept walking.

"So, Eustace, ever seen a giant before?"

Eustace shot him a glance out of the corner of his eye. "No."

"Their not so bad really, at least not the ones that you come across here-"

"Whats Sasha's deal?" he interrupted bitterly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why does everything about her have to be such a big secret? I'm sure there must have been a faster way to get to Aslan, and yet she took us here, and couldn't even tell me that it was because she was looking for you."

"Sasha," he sighed. "She likes to make people feel uncomfortable. She loves awkward – thrives on it. It's comfortable she has a problem with. She's been that way since she was a little girl."

Eustace held his breath. This was the first bit of real information that he had gotten since coming to Narnia. Maybe he could get Damon to talk if Sasha wouldn't.

"Why don't you guys live together. I mean, don't you have a place to live?"

Damon's expression changed then, and he berated himself for asking to big a question so soon. He should have asked him something easier first. But, this was something that had been nagging at the back of his mind for some time now, and he really wanted to know the answer.

"No, we don't, it was burned down when we were children."

"Was burned down? Do you mean to say that someone started the fire on purpose?"

Damon didn't look at him, and it was impossible to read his expression.

"No," he whispered. "No, it must have been an accident."

Eustace knew that he wasn't telling him something, but didn't think he should push him on the topic.

"What happened to your parents?"

"Dead," he said, with another blank expression.

"I'm so sorry."

He gave him a wry smile and shrugged.

"So, where do you live now?"

"Out here," he said, gesturing to the wide expanse of land before them. "Sometimes in caves, sometimes just plain on the ground."

"And Sasha?"

"...She prefers the woods,"

"Why's that?"

"It's where we lived with our parents."

Eustace felt his heart squeeze with sympathy for the girl. It must have been hard to lose both of your parents at the same time. She couldn't even part with the land in which she had lived with them, instead of following the family that still did.

"Why did you leave?"

Just as Damon started to relax, when the questions no longer concerned him, he tensed at that question, and Eustace wondered again if he had pushed him to hard.

"It's complicated."

Usually, he would have been mad to receive that answer yet again, but he had already told him more than he could have hoped for, so he figured that he would let him keep the secret of why he had parted from his sister.

He looked to her now. Her sure movements as she walked. Her soft, dark hair. Her long, slender legs... Damon's hand waving in front of his face.

"You still there?" he said sarcastically.

Eustace snapped out of his thoughts and flushed. "Oh, uh, yeah, sorry."

Damon looked from him to Sasha and back again, a look of fake astonishment spreading across his face.

"You're in love with my sister!"

Eustace gave him a playful shove. "I am not."

Damon started laughing uncontrollably at his desperate denial, and to his horror, he heard Sasha laughing as well.

"How flattering," she said with a smirk, looking back at him.

Eustace's face burned bright red. Of course he thought she was pretty, who wouldn't?

"Well mate," he said patting him on the back. "Good luck with that." He started laughing again.

He made joke after painful joke about him and Sasha as they crossed the rough land before them until they finally came to the cavern they were looking for. By the time they did, all of their faces were completely red: Damon's from laughing so hard, Sasha's from annoyance, and Eustace's from embarrassment.

The cavern was a bit tight, the walls on either side of them reaching just above their heads. The rock dripped with water, but the top of the cavern sloped up and over, preventing the water from hitting anything underneath it, save for a sliver running through the middle.

There was a small path cut out of the rock that made it easier to slide down it to the ground below. One by one, they each plopped down and out of the drizzling rain, before it really started to pick up. They were protected from it here, under the outcrop of rock above them.

Eustace didn't know what to expect, but he certainly didn't expect to see what looked like a little makeshift room. There was a thick wool blanket spread across one wall of rock, just out of the rain enough to where it wouldn't get wet. There was a gas lantern unlit, sitting by the top of it, and a pack fill with objects unknown at the bottom, a pan for cooking tied around the strap.

"Welcome to my home," said Damon brightly.

A drip of water plopped down onto his blanket then, and Eustace thought that it was the sorriest excuse for a home that he had ever seen.

"Nice," said Sasha, taking her own pack from her shoulder and setting it down beside his.

The first crack of thunder erupted then, causing only Eustace to jump.

The thunderstorm lasted longer than they thought. They had lit the lantern and all huddled around it to get warmer. The temperature had dropped considerably as the day went on, and they had eaten the last of their food hours ago.

"Well, this is fun," smiled Damon, causing Sasha to groan.

Eustace learned earlier on that Damon talked a considerable amount more than Sasha did. He was happy to talk to Eustace and it didn't seem like anything could break his spirit. He knew that he had made the right choice in letting him come with them.

Eustace smiled at him now. "Yeah, this is great."

Sasha looked up at them like they were both crazy. "Fun? You think this is fun? I'm freezing and hungry, and I'm getting sore from sitting in the same position for so long."

"Then just change positions," said Damon, as if that would solve all of her problems.

Eustace laughed.

She just rolled her eyes at him, and turn around, reaching for her pack. Pulling out the blanket that they had used the night before, she wrapped herself in it then turned back to the fire to warm her hands.

Water dripped steadily from the walls of the cavern, splashing to the ground in a perfect rhythm. The ground slanted downward from where they were sitting, so the water that hit the ground beside them trickled away, forming a little stream on the other side of the cavern. It never hit them, and yet Eustace felt damp and cold.

He brought his hands up on either side of his arms and rubbed them quickly up and down, trying to generate some heat. Sasha notice and offered him some of her blanket, which he gladly took and wrapped around himself. With their body heat combined, he was much warmer, and his shivering body started to relax a bit.

Damon smiled at them.

"How sweet," he said. "I'm starting to feel a bit like a third wheel now. Don't worry about me though, I'm fine, I can keep myself warm, it's okay."

"No one cares Damon," said Sasha.

Damon held his hands over his heart mockingly, eyes widening in shock.

"I invited you into my home, let you warm up with my fire, and this is how I'm treated?!"

They both laughed now. They were so cold and hungry that even the smallest things would seem funny to them at the moment, though Eustace couldn't have said why. Maybe they were hallucinating already. Or maybe because laughing made them feel warmer.

Just then, Eustace remembered that Sasha had promised him that she would train him in knife throwing. There really wasn't anywhere up here to practice. They could hardly throw knifes at rock. But, when he voiced this concern to her, Damon cut in, waving it off.

"There's a river that runs along a ravine about ten miles away from here, due north. There are trees growing all around, hiding it from view, but it's easy enough to find. It's in the direction were heading, so we can stop there for the night tomorrow. Looks like we won't be doing anymore walking today though."

Eustace looked up at the sky at that, and noted that it indeed looked darker instead of lighter. The storm was defiantly not clearing – they would have to spend the night here. He didn't mind – he was glad to have a break.

The sky had been dark for a long time since the storm started, and it was impossible to tell what time of the day it was, but he could feel the tiredness creeping in despite this fact. He gave a wide yawn, that made Damon yawn, and his yawn made Sasha yawn. The thrum of the rain was making them all tired – that, mixed with the exhaustion of walking for hours and hours on end, and the lack of food in their stomachs.

"I don't know about you guys, but if this rain isn't going to stop, than I'm going to sleep," said Sasha.

"Good idea. We can all be put out of our misery," smirked Damon.

Sasha turned away then, taking the blanket with her and laying it across the dry side of the cavern, and Damon did the same, positioning his just below hers. That's when Eustace realized that there were only two blankets, and three of them. Damon seemed to notice this as well and smirked over at him as he straightened his blanket.

"Don't have one of your own mate?"

"Could I share with you?" he asked, painfully aware of Sasha's gaze on him.

"Sorry, but I need my space. Why, I can barely even fit the blanket all the way around myself... Sasha's much thinner though..."

Eustace glared when he saw the glint in his eye. He knew what he was trying to do, and the looked that he shot him told him so, but that only seemed to make his mischievous look burn brighter.

"It's okay Eustace, I really don't mind," came Sasha's soft voice from behind him.

His shoulders sunk in defeat. It looked like he would be spending another night with Sasha's small body painfully close to his own, which also meant that he would be partaking in another sleepless night.

Sighing, he turn back around to find her already curled up on half of the blanket, the other half wrapped around herself, leaving a small space for him to lie down next to her. Eustace took the space and laid down beside her, trying to pull some of the blanket around him as well, but not really succeeding in doing so.

Sasha murmured softly and rolled over so that she was facing him, and curled up around him, slipping her arm around his waist and pulling him close, nuzzling her face into his chest. Despite himself, Eustace smiled, and kissed the top of her head.

I guess this isn't so bad, he thought.