The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

the bolt and opened the door. Tirian thought he could hear the Cat purring as it walked
into the dark doorway.
"Aii-aii-aouwee! -" The most horrible caterwaul you ever heard made everyone jump.
You have been wakened yourself by cats quarrelling or making love on the roof in the
middle of the night: you know the sound.
This was worse. The Ape was knocked head over heels by Ginger coming back out of the
stable at top speed. If you had not known he was a cat, you might have thought he was a
ginger-coloured streak of lightning. He shot across the open grass, back into the crowd.
No one wants to meet a cat in that state. You could see animals getting out of his way to
left and right. He dashed up a tree, whisked around, and hung head downwards. His tail
was bristled out till it was nearly as thick as his whole body: his eyes were like saucers of
green fire: along his back every single hair stood on end.
"I'd give my beard," whispered Poggin, "to know whether that brute is only acting or
whether it has really found something in there that frightened it!"
"Peace, friend," said Tirian, for the Captain and the Ape were also whispering and he
wanted to hear what they said. He did not succeed, except that he heard the Ape once
more whimpering "My head, my head," but he got the idea that those two were almost as
puzzled by the cat's behaviour as himself.
"Now, Ginger," said the Captain. "Enough of that noise. Tell them what thou hast seen."
"Aii - Aii - Aaow - Awah," screamed the Cat.
"Art thou not called a Talking Beast?" said the Captain. "Then hold thy devilish noise and
talk."
What followed was rather horrible. Tirian felt quite certain (and so did the others) that the
Cat was trying to say something: but nothing came out of his mouth except the ordinary,
ugly cat-noises you might hear from any angry or frightened old Tom in a backyard in
England. And the longer he caterwauled the less like a Talking Beast he looked. Uneasy
whimperings and little sharp squeals broke out from among the other Animals.
"Look, look!" said the voice of the Bear. "It can't talk. It has forgotten how to talk! It has
gone back to being a dumb beast. Look at its face." Everyone saw that it was true. And
then the greatest terror of all fell upon those Narnians. For every one of them had been
taught - when it was only a chick or a puppy or a cub - how Aslan at the beginning of the
world had turned the beasts of Narnia into Talking Beasts and warned them that if they
weren't good they might one day be turned back again and be like the poor witless
animals one meets in other countries. "And now it is coming upon us," they moaned.
"Mercy! Mercy!" wailed the Beasts. "Spare us, Lord Shift, stand between us and Aslan,
you must always go in and speak to him for us. We daren't, we daren't."