Chapter 6 Chapter VI The Adventures of Eustace

At that moment, everyone else was washing their hands and faces in the river, preparing to eat and rest.The three strongest archers went to the mountains north of the bay and brought back a pair of wild goats, which were being roasted on the fire at this time.Caspian had ordered a cask of wine to be brought ashore, Archenland strong, to be drunk with water, more than enough for all to drink.So far, the work is going well, and everyone eats happily.It was only after another portion of mutton that Edmund said, "Where's that bastard Eustace?" Meanwhile Eustace stared about the strange valley. "

The valley is narrow and deep, and the surrounding cliffs are very steep, and the valley is like a big pit or moat.The bottom, though rocky, was grassy, ​​and Eustace saw here and there black spots of charred black, like the scorched marks on the sides of a railway embankment in dry summer.Fifteen yards away from him was a clear, smooth pool of water.At first, there was nothing else in the valley; no beasts, no birds, no insects.The sun was shining straight down, and the ferocious peaks and peaks looked down at the edge of the valley. Of course Eustace realized that he had climbed to the other side of the ridge in the mist.So he immediately looked back to see the way back.But he couldn't help trembling when he saw it.It was obvious that he was lucky enough to find this - the only way down - a long green tunnel, steep and narrow, with towering cliffs on both sides.There is no other way back.Now that he has seen the actual situation, can he still go up?When he thought of this idea, his head was dizzy.

He turned his head again, thinking that it would be better to drink in the pond first anyway.Unexpectedly, he had just turned his head, and before he took a step into the valley, he heard a voice behind him.Although the sound was small, it sounded loud enough in the incomparable silence.He was so frightened that he froze in place for a while before turning his head to look. At the bottom of the cliff, not far to his left, was a low black hole—perhaps the entrance to a cave.Two wisps of thin smoke came out of the hole.Just below the black hole the pile of loose stones moved (that was the sound he heard), as if something were crawling in the shadows behind.

Sure enough, something was crawling.Worse still, it crawled out.If Edmund and Lucy, you're sure you'll know it, you'll know it too, but Eustace hasn't read a single book.He hadn't even imagined the thing that crawled out—a long lead gray nose, dark red eyes, no feathers or fur on its body, a long and soft body, crawling on the ground, with the bent legs raised Taller than the back, spider-like legs, murderous claws, bat-wings rattling harshly on stones, and a tail long and old.The two streams of smoke came from its two nostrils.The word dragon never occurred to him, and even if he did, things were not much better.

However, if he knew something about dragons, perhaps he would not be so surprised by the dragon's behavior.The dragon didn't sit up and flap its wings, or blow a stream of flame from its mouth.The smoke from its nostrils was like fire smoke, and it didn't take long to disappear.It didn't seem to notice Eustace, but crawled very slowly towards the pool, resting many times as it crawled.It seemed to Eustace, in spite of his fear, that it was an old, wretched monster.He wondered if he dared to rush over and climb up the hill.But if he made a noise, it might come back, might come to life.Maybe it's just pretending, anyway, what's the use of trying to climb up and escape from flying monsters?

It climbed to the pond and slid its chin covered with terrible scales onto the gravel layer, but before it could drink the water, it made a loud rattling sound, like the sharpness of a flying crane. After twisting and struggling a few times, it He just turned over and lay on his side, motionless, with one paw still up in the air.A little black blood gushed out of the gaping mouth.The smoke in the nostrils also turned black for a moment, and then drifted away.There was no more movement. For a long time Eustace did not move.Maybe it was the monster's trick, a trick to lure the outsider to his death.But you can't keep waiting.He took a step closer, took two more steps and stopped.The dragon remained motionless.He also noticed that the red fire in its eyes had also disappeared.He finally walked up to it.This time he was absolutely sure it was dead.He chattered and touched it; nothing happened.

So much relieved now that Eustace almost laughed out loud.He couldn't help but began to feel that he didn't see the dragon die, but fought a battle and killed it with his own hands.He stepped over the dragon and walked to the pond to drink water, because it was unbearably hot here.He was not surprised to hear a rumble of thunder.After the thunder, the sun disappeared immediately, and before he finished drinking, big drops of rain began to fall. The weather on this island is really nasty.In an instant Eustace was drenched, and his eyes could not see clearly, for such heavy rain had never been seen in Europe.As long as this heavy rain does not stop, it is useless to try to climb out of the valley.He rushed into the only dragon cave he could see to take shelter from the rain.Then he lay down on the spot, trying desperately to catch his breath.

Most of us know what to see in the dragon's cave, but as I said above, Eustace has only read irrelevant books, and the books talk about imports, exports, government, consumption, and so on. For a class of words, there is no need to talk about dragons.That's why he was so baffled by the ground on which he lay.Some ground was too prickly to be stone, and too hard to be thorny, and there seemed to be a mass of round and flat things that jingled when he moved them.The light at the entrance of the cave was just enough for him to take a closer look.Needless to say, what Eustace saw was exactly what any of us could have told him beforehand—treasure.There were crowns (that's the stinging thing), coins, rings, bracelets, gold ingots, goblets, plates, and treasures.

Eustace, unlike most children, had never valued riches, but he knew at a glance that it was worth a fortune in the new world he had inadvertently broken into from the picture of Lucy's bedroom at home. How useful it will be. "There is no tax here," said he, "and you don't have to hand over your treasures to the government. With them, I can live here—in Calormens, perhaps. It doesn't look fake at all. I don't know how much I've got. Get that bracelet right away--they're supposed to be diamonds in there--and I'm going to put the bracelet on my wrist. It's too big, but if I take this It's not too big to bump all the way up to the elbow. And then fill your pockets with diamonds--that's easier than gold. I wonder when this damn rain will stop?" He sat down on the pile of treasures and compared Wait in a comfortable place, where there are mostly coins.However, after a big shock, especially after walking on a mountain road, people feel very tired after the shock is settled.Eustace fell asleep.

When he fell asleep and fell asleep, the others had already finished their meal and were really anxious about his whereabouts."Eustace! Eustace! Hey, hey, hey!" they yelled until they were all hoarse, and Caspian blew the horn. "He's not nearby, or I would have heard it long ago." Lucy said anxiously with a pale face. "Damn the fellow," said Edmund, "what the hell is he doing sneaking away like that?" "But we must do something," said Lucy. "He may get lost, or fall into a hole, or be caught by wildlings." "Or get killed by some wild beast," said Drinian.

"Oh, it'd be nice if it really killed me," Reince muttered. "Mr. Reince," said Reepicheep, "you never said a word of disgrace. The fellow is not my friend, but he is a kinsman to the queen, and as long as he is our fellow-shipper To find him, to avenge his death, is a matter of our honor." "Of course we'll have to go find him (if we can find him)," said Caspian feebly, "and that's what we hate about it. It's a search party, and endless trouble. Eustace Really annoying!" Meanwhile Eustace was sleeping and sleeping and sleeping until his arms ached.The moon was shining on the entrance of the cave, and the treasures all over the floor seemed to become more comfortable.In fact, he didn't feel comfortable at all.At the beginning, the pain in his arm made him inexplicable, but soon he remembered that the handcuffs he had just rolled onto the elbows had become surprisingly tight.His arm must have swelled up while he was asleep (it was his left arm). He moved his right arm to touch his left, but he stopped before moving an inch, biting his lip in horror.For just a short distance in front of him, and a little to the right, the moonlight shone clearly in the hole, and he saw a terrible shape moving.He knew the shape: it was a dragon melon.He moved his hand, and it moved, and when he stopped, it remained still. - "Oh, what a fool I am," thought Eustace, "of course the monster has a companion, and it's lying beside me." For a moment he didn't dare to move.He saw two wisps of thin smoke rising in front of his eyes, against the moonlight, the smoke was black; just like the smoke from the nose of the dragon just before he died.It was alarming, and he held his breath.The two wisps of smoke disappeared.He couldn't hold it for long, and slipped out quietly in one breath; two streaks of black smoke appeared in front of him immediately.But until now, he still doesn't know the truth.Before long he decided to grope cautiously sideways to the left, trying to sneak out of the hole.Maybe the monster was asleep - anyway, that was his only way out.But before he leaned over to touch the left side, of course he could not avoid looking to the left first.Oh, it's scary!There is also a dragon claw over there. If anyone saw Eustace weeping at this moment, it would not be to blame him.He was surprised to see that his own tears had splashed a large amount on the treasure in front of him.The tears also seemed surprisingly hot; they were still steaming. But it's no use crying.He had to find a way to get out from between the two dragons. He begins to stretch his right arm.The dragon on his right also moves exactly the same forelegs and claws.So he thought, try the left arm, the dragon's forelegs on the other side of the mouth move exactly the same. One side, no matter what he does, the two dragons will learn from him He couldn't take it anymore, so he ran away as soon as possible. When he rushed out of the cave, he heard only tinkling, clicking, clanging of gold, and creaking of stones. He thought that the two dragons were following him.He didn't dare to look back, and rushed to the pond.The twisted shape of the dead dragon lying in the moonlight was enough to scare anyone to death, but he couldn't care less now.All he wanted was to be in the water. Unexpectedly, just as he walked to the pond, two things happened.The first, which was a bolt from the blue to him, was that he had been running on all fours—why on earth had he been doing this?The second thing, when he was lying on the surface of the water, he thought there was another dragon in the pond looking up at him.But at once he understood the truth.The dragon face in the pond turned out to be his own reflection.There is no doubt about this.It moves when he moves, it opens when he opens his mouth, and it also shuts when he closes his mouth. When he fell asleep, he turned into a dragon.Sleeping in the dragon's cellar, with greedy dragon-like thoughts in his heart, he turned into a dragon himself. Then everything became clear.It turned out that there were no two dragons beside him in the cave.The left and right paws turned out to be his own left and right hands.The two wisps of smoke turned out to be coming from his own nostrils.As for the pain in his left arm (or what he used to be), he can now squint his left eye to see what's going on.It turned out that the hand anchor that was just worn on the child's upper arm was too small and too small for the dragon's stubby foreleg.The bracelet is deeply embedded in the scaly flesh, so that the flesh on both sides bulges, Kaka jumped straight.He used his dragon teeth to bite the place, but he couldn't bite it off. Although it still hurts, his first feeling is relief, now there is nothing to be afraid of.Now he himself was a monster to be feared, and nothing in the world but knights (and not all knights) dared attack him.Now he could even settle with Caspian and Edmund... - But when he was thinking about it, he knew in his heart that he didn't want to settle the score.He wants to make friends.He wants to go back among humans, chat and laugh with everyone, and share everything.He understood that he had become a monster cut off from the whole human race.A terrible sense of loneliness came over me.He begins to understand that other people are not demons at all.He couldn't help but wonder if he was the good guy he always thought he was.He longed to hear their voices.He would be grateful for even a kind word from Reepicheep. The poor dragon, who had been Eustace, wept aloud at the thought.A mighty dragon was crying to death in a desolate valley under the moon. The scene and the sound were simply unimaginable. At last he resolved to try and find his way back to the coast.He understood now that Caspian would never have sent the boat away without him.He was convinced that he would find a way to make people understand who he was. He drank it hard and fast, and then almost ate the dead dragon. (I know it sounds frightening, but it's not so frightening when you think about it.) It took him halfway through to realize what he was doing; because, to tell you the truth, though his brain was still Eustace's But the taste and digestibility of the dragon's.And there is nothing dragons like more than fresh dragon meat.That's why you can't find a second dragon in the same place. So he turned and climbed out of the valley.When he started to climb, he jumped, but he didn't know that he flew up as soon as he jumped.He had completely forgotten his wings, which was a great surprise to him--he hadn't had a surprise in a long time.He flew high into the sky and saw countless mountain tops spread out under him in the moonlight.He could see the bay like a silver plate, with the Dawn Treader at anchor, and the fires glowing in the woods by the beach.He glides from a high place, heading straight for them. Lucy was sleeping deeply, because she had been looking forward to the good news from the search team, and she didn't go to sleep until they came back.The search team, led by Caspian himself, came back very late, exhausted.The news they brought was disturbing.They found no trace of Eustace, but saw a dead dragon in a valley.They all looked for it as best they could, and everyone assured the others that there seemed to be no other dragons around, and the dragon died about three o'clock that afternoon (that's when they saw it), see It's unlikely that I just ate someone just a few hours ago. "Unless it ate the kid and killed it, he's poisonous to everything," Reines said.But this was said in a low voice, and no one heard it. But that night Lucy was gently woken up by someone, and saw that all the staff were tightly packed together, talking in a low voice. "What's the matter?" said Lucy. "We must all stand firm," Caspian was saying, "a dragon just flew over the treetops and landed on the beach. Yes, I'm afraid it was between us and the ship. Arrows are no use against a dragon." Yes. Dragons are not afraid of fire at all." "Your Majesty's word," Reepicheep began. "No, Reepicheep," said the king very firmly, "you must not fight him alone. Unless you promise to obey me in this matter, I will tie you up. We will only have to watch him closely, and God will As soon as it is light, go to the bay and fight it. I lead. King Edmund is on my right, Lord Drinian is on my left. There is no other disposition. It will be light in an hour or two. In an hour Dinner will be served, and the rest of the wine will be brought. Also, everything must be done quietly." "Perhaps it will go away," said Lucy. "It would be worse if it went away," said Fly Edmund, "because then we wouldn't know where he was.If there's a wasp in the house, I'd like to see it. " It was difficult for the rest of the night, and though it was known that a little should be eaten at the beginning of the meal, many found themselves without appetite.The hours seemed to go on forever, and when the dark sky was beginning to lighten, and the birds began to chirp here and there, and it was colder and wetter around than they had been all night, Caspian said, "Now, my friends." ' They were swarming up, all swords drawn, huddled together, Lucy in the middle, Reepicheep on her shoulders.It was better than waiting, and everyone felt that other people were more amiable than usual.After a while they pushed forward.When they came to the edge of the wood, it was getting brighter again.There on the sand lay the dragon, like a big dragon kick, like a pliable eel, like a big four-legged wriggling snake, huge and hideous in shape with a humped back. Who would have thought that the dragon saw them not only did not lift up and breath out fire smoke, but instead Backed off--almost waddled back into the shallows. "Why does it shake its head like that," said Edmund. "It's nodding this time," said Caspian. "What's coming out of its eyes," Drinian said. "Oh, you can't see it," said Lucy, "it's crying. It's tears. "I don't believe it, Your Majesty," said Drinian, "that's what eels are, and want to dissuade you." "He shook his head when you said that," said Edmund, "as if to say no. Look, he shook his head again." "Do you think it understands what we're talking about?" asked Lucy. The dragon nodded desperately. Reepicheep slipped off Lucy's shoulders and stepped forward. "Dragon," it shrieked, "can you understand the words? The dragon nodded. "Can you speak?" It shook its head. "Then," said Reepicheep, "it's no use asking you questions. But if you'd like to promise us friendship, put your left front leg up over your head." The dragon did so, but clumsily, for the leg was sore and swollen with the golden bandage. "Oh, the leg," said Lucy, "there's something wrong with it. Poor thing—that's what it's crying about. Maybe it's coming to us, like it was at Androgers." , and the lion." "Look, Lucy," said Caspian, "the dragon is very clever, but perhaps he is deceiving." However, Lucy was already running forward, and Reepicheep quickly followed with his short legs, and of course the boys and Drinian followed. "Show me poor Paw," said Lucy, "and I may be able to cure it." The dragon who had been Eustace stretched out his sore leg in delight, remembering Lucy's kindness to cure him of seasickness when he was not a dragon.But he was disappointed, the potion only slightly reduced the swelling and relieved the pain, but it couldn't dissolve the gold bracelet. While they were all gathered around to see her being treated, Caspian suddenly cried out: "Look!" He stared at the gold bracelet.