The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

"Goodnight, goodnight," said the Beasts, rubbing their noses against his knees. "We will
come back - if we can." Then they all pattered away and the wood seemed darker and
colder and lonelier than it had been before they came.
The stars came out and time went slowly on - imagine how slowly - while that last King
of Narnia stood stiff and sore and upright against the tree in his bonds. But at last
something happened.
Far away there appeared a red light. Then it disappeared for a moment and came back
again, bigger and stronger. Then he could see dark shapes going to and fro on this side of
the light and carrying bundles and throwing them down. He knew now what he was
looking at. It was a bonfire, newly lit, and people were throwing bundles of brushwood
on to it. Presently it blazed up and Tirian could see that it was on the very top of the hill.
He could see quite clearly the stable behind it, all lit up in the red glow, and a great crowd
of Beasts and Men between the fire and himself. A small figure, hunched up beside the
fire, must be the Ape. It was saying something to the crowd, but he could not hear what.
Then it went and bowed three times to the ground in front of the door of the stable. Then
it got up and opened the door. And something on four legs - something that walked rather
stiffly - came out of the stable and stood facing the crowd.
A great wailing or howling went up, so loud that Tirian could hear some of the words.
"Aslan! Aslan! Aslan!" cried the Beasts. "Speak to us. Comfort us. Be angry with us no
more."
From where Tirian was he could not make out very clearly what the thing was; but he
could see that it was yellow and hairy. He had never seen the Great Lion. He had never
seen a common lion. He couldn't be sure that what he saw was not the real Aslan. He had
not expected Aslan to look like that stiff thing which stood and said nothing. But how
could one be sure? For a moment horrible thoughts went through his mind: then he
remembered the nonsense about Tash and Aslan being the same and knew that the whole
thing must be a cheat.
The Ape put his head close up to the yellow thing's head as if he were listening to
something it was whispering to him. Then he turned and spoke to the crowd, and the
crowd wailed again. Then the yellow thing turned clumsily round and walked - you might
almost say, waddled - back into the stable and the Ape shut the door behind it. After that
the fire must have been put out for the light vanished quite suddenly, and Tirian was once
more alone with the cold and the darkness.
He thought of other Kings who had lived and died in Narnia in old times and it seemed to
him that none of them had ever been so unlucky as himself. He thought of his greatgrandfather's
great-grandfather King Rilian who had been stolen away by a Witch when
he was only a young prince and kept hidden for years in the dark caves beneath the land
of the Northern Giants. But then it had all come; right in the end, for two mysterious