CHAPTER 1: By Caldron Pool
"What's that?"
The Donkey looked to where the Ape was pointing and saw something large and yellow floating just below the waterfall. "I don't know, Shift," he said.
"Go and get it for me. I need to see what it is."
"Alright, Shift."
The Donkey stood at the rocky shore of the waterfall and stared at the merciless, foamy water, and shivered. He looked about him for a safe place to step in, a place where the waves didn't splash against the jutting rocks.
"Hurry up, Puzzle!" Shift shouted out, "It's starting to get cold here!"
You're telling me, Puzzle thought, and jumped into the ruthless waters of Caldron Pool. He was met with a rush of water and foam, and he couldn't see a thing. He struggled to swim back to the surface. When he did manage to stick his head out of water, he was struck by the force of the waterfall itself, plunging down on him. It pushed him back underwater, so deep down that he could barely breathe. He swam towards what he thought was safety, and swam up to the water's surface again. He spotted the yellow object afloat nearby, and swam towards it. He barely managed to catch hold of it with his teeth, and swam back to Shift, numb with cold.
"It looks like some kind of rug," Puzzle said, after he tossed it on the ground.
"It's not a rug, you ass," Shift picked it up, "It's a lion's skin." As he spread the skin out onto the grass, he started to think of an ugly plan, a plan even uglier than his own features.
"Puzzle," he said slyly, "You've been my friend for a long time, and you've done so much for me. How about I make it up to you by making you a nice warm winter coat."
"Out of what?"
"What do you think? This lion-skin, obviously."
"I don't think that's right."
Shift's temper was starting to run thin. "What are you talking about?"
"Wouldn't it be disrespectful to the Great Lion?" Puzzle lowered his voice into a whisper, "To Aslan?"
Shift nearly rolled his eyes. "How could it be disrespectful? I am doing a good deed for my best friend. I'm sure Aslan would be honoured that I am using a skin of his kind for such a noble deed."
Puzzle found this very convincing. "Of course, you're right, Shift."
"As always. Now why don't you go to Chippingford and get some oranges and bananas from the market.
"Alright, Shift."
Once the Donkey was out of sight, Shift went home to his tree and made some modifications to the lion-skin. Even though the lion whom the skin belonged to was unusually small, the body was still to big for someone of Puzzle's proportions, and the neck was too small. He adjusted the skin so that it would fit Puzzle, and also make Puzzle look like a lion of looked at from a certain distance away in the moonlight.
When Puzzle came back from his trip to Chippingford, he was exhausted and cold, and the only thing he wanted to do just then was fall down onto the grass and sleep.
"Where's the food?" Shift asked him.
"There was no food," Puzzle muttered, "No oranges, no bananas. It wasn't even market day. Now let me sleep."
"You can't sleep now! You have to try on the coat I made you."
"Now?"
"Yes, Puzzle. Now."
"Alright, Shift."
After a lot of pulling, pushing, and Shift shouting "Stand still!", they finally got Puzzle into the coat. Shift tied the legs and tail onto Puzzle's legs and tail.
"Amazing! You look just like a real lion!" Shift lied.
"Really?"
"Really! In fact, you could even pass for Aslan himself!"
"I would never do that."
"But think of all the things you could do! Everyone would do anything you tell them."
"I don't want to tell them anything."
"But with my brains, and your lion-skin, we could do so much good together. We could make everything right in Narnia!"
"Isn't everything right already?"
"How could everything be right when there is no food? You saw it yourself. We could make market day everyday!"
"Would there be sugar?"
"Of course."
Again, Puzzle found this very convincing. "Alright, Shift. I'll do it. But I still think it's wrong. What if the Great Lion sees us like this?"
"I told you before, he'd be very happy with us. And anyway, he won't see us like this. Nobody's seen him in centuries, and nobody will."
At that exact moment, a deafening clap of thunder roared overhead, and the earth trembled so much that both Shift and Puzzle fell flat on their faces.
"I knew it!" Puzzle exclaimed as soon as he got up and regained his balance, "That was a sign from the Great Lion! We're doing something awful!"
"No!" Shift shook Puzzle hard, "It's a sign the other way. Aslan definitely wants us to keep going with this. After all, what could an ass know about signs?"
Puzzle thought about this. Yet again, he found Shift's arguments very convincing.
"Alright, Shift," he finally said.