The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

Immediately in front of the King - who had turned round to speak to his people before
going on board the ship - there was a little chair on wheels, and, harnessed to it, a little
donkey: not much bigger than a big retriever. In this chair sat a fat little dwarf. He was as
richly dressed as the King, but because of his fatness and because he was sitting hunched
up among cushions, the effect was quite different: it made him look like a shapeless little
bundle of fur and silk and velvet. He was as old as the King, but more hale and hearty,
with very keen eyes. His bare head, which was bald and extremely large, shone like a
gigantic billiard ball in the sunset light.
Farther back, in a half-circle, stood what Jill at once knew to be the courtiers. They were
well worth looking at for their clothes and armour alone. As far as that went, they looked
more like a flower-bed than a crowd. But what really made Jill open her eyes and mouth
as wide as they would go, was the people themselves. If "people" was the right word. For
only about one in every five was human. The rest were things you never see in our world.
Fauns, satyrs, centaurs: Jill could give a name to these, for she had seen pictures of them.
Dwarfs too. And there were a lot of animals she knew as well; bears, badgers, moles,
leopards, mice, and various birds. But then they were so very different from the animals
which one called by the same names in England. Some of them were much bigger - the
mice, for instance, stood on their hind legs and were over two feet high. But quite apart
from that, they all looked different. You could see by the expression in their faces that
they could talk and think just as well as you could.
"Golly!" thought Jill. "So it's true after all." But next moment she added, "I wonder are
they friendly?" For she had just noticed, on the outskirts of the crowd, one or two giants
and some people whom she couldn't give a name to at all.
At that moment Aslan and the signs rushed back into her mind. She had forgotten all
about them for the last half-hour.
"Scrubb!" she whispered, grabbing his arm. "Scrubb, quick! Do you see anyone you
know?"
"So you've turned up again, have you?" said Scrubb disagreeably (for which he had some
reason). "Well, keep quiet, can't you? I want to listen."
"Don't be a fool," said Jill. "There isn't a moment to lose. Don't you see some old friend
here? Because you've got to go and speak to him at once."
"What are you talking about?" said Scrubb.
"It's Aslan - the Lion - says you've got to," said Jill despairingly. "I've seen him."
"Oh, you have, have you? What did he say?"