Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

They were all standing by Aslan's side, and on his right, looking out of the door. The bonfire has been extinguished.There is darkness all over the land: indeed you cannot say that you are looking into a wood, if you have not seen the wood, where the shadows end and the stars begin to twinkle.But when Aslan shouted again, they saw another dark figure appear on the left.That is to say, where there were no stars, they saw another black mass; this black mass rose higher and higher, and became the shape of a man, the largest of giants.They all knew the topography of Narnia well, and could tell by eye where the Giant must stand.The giant must have been standing on the moor, which stretched north beyond the Slibe.Then Jill and Eustace remembered how long ago, in those deep holes in the moor, they had seen a great giant sleeping, and they had told them that this giant was called Old Man Time, and that the end of the world had come. That day, he woke up.

"Yes," replied Aslan, though they did not speak, "his name was Time when he lay asleep. Now that he is awake, he shall have a new name." The great giant raised a horn to his lips.They could see the movement by the change of his shadow against the starlight.And after this—and after a while, for the sound was very slow—they heard the sound of the horn: high and violent, hideous, and yet strangely eeriely beautiful.Suddenly the sky was filled with meteors.Even a single meteor is a sight to behold: but now there are dozens, twenty or even hundreds of meteors, finally falling like silvery rain, one after another.Some time after the shower of stars, one or two of them began to think that there was another black shadow against the sky like the shadow of a giant.It's in a very different place, right over people's heads, in what you might call the "roof of the sky."

"It may be a cloud," thought Edmund.In any case, there were no stars there, just darkness.But around it, the meteor rain is still pouring down. Then the starless black block began to grow bigger, spreading out from the center of the sky.Before long, a quarter of the sky was completely dark, then half, and finally the shower of meteors was only falling low near the horizon. With a sense of wonder (and a little creepiness), they suddenly realized what was going on.The unfolding darkness is not cloud at all: it is simply emptiness.The dark part of the sky is the part where not a single star remains.All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.

The last few minutes before the meteor shower is over are very exciting. Meteors began to fall all around them.Meteors in that world were not huge burning stars like the meteors in our world.They are people (Edmund and Lucy met one once).So now they found a shower of gleaming men, all with long hair like fiery silver threads, carrying spears like white-hot metal, coming toward them from the dark air. Pentium down; the speed is faster than the stones falling from the sky.They hissed and fell to the ground, setting the grass on fire.The Meteors were all flying around them, standing somewhere in the back, a little to the right.

This is a great advantage to them, because otherwise, if there were no stars in the sky today, everything would be completely dark, and you wouldn't be able to see anything.In fact, a cluster of stars behind them shone their intense white light forward over their shoulders.They could see the Narnia woods rolling on mile after mile ahead of them, and it looked like they were flooded with bright lights.Almost every bush, almost every blade of grass, has its black shadow behind it.The edges of each leaf are so chiseled that you feel you could run your fingers on them. On the grass before them lay their own shadows.But what is remarkable is the shadow of Aslan.The shadow cascaded to their left, huge and terrifying.And all of this appears under a sky that will never be full of stars today.

The light coming from behind them (slightly to the right) was so strong that it even illuminated the slopes of the northern moors.Something moves there.Huge beasts were creeping downhill into Narnia: gigantic dragons, gigantic lizards, featherless birds with batlike wings.They disappeared into the woods and were silent for a few minutes.Then came—at first from a great distance—the sound of wailing, and then from all directions rustling, clattering, and flapping of wings. The voice is getting closer.It was not long before one could distinguish the bouncing of big feet from the clack of big feet, the clack of small light hooves from the rumble of large heavy hooves.The next thing you can see is the twinkling of thousands of eyes.Finally, from the shadows of the trees, thousands and thousands of beasts of all kinds rushed up the mountain to save their precious lives—human-speaking beasts, dwarves, satyrs, Fauns, giants, Calormenes, Archenlanders, Manoppadians, and strange faeries from far-off islands and strange lands of the West.All these men, beasts, and monsters ran towards the door where Aslan stood.

This part of the thrilling experience was unique. It seemed like a dream at the time, and it is difficult to remember it properly afterwards.In particular, it is impossible to say how long this situation lasted.Sometimes, it seems like it's only been a few minutes; but, other times, it feels like it's been years.The thing is obvious: Unless the door becomes very large, or the animals suddenly become as small as gnats, there is no way for a large group of animals to try to pass through the door.But no one thought about such issues at the time. All kinds of beings rushed over, and the closer they walked to the stars standing on the ground, their eyes became brighter and brighter.But, when they came up to Aslan, each of them had one of two things, either one or the other.

They all looked straight into Aslan's face; I thought they must, had no choice.Some, looking at Aslan, changed their faces terribly--fear and hatred; except in the talking beasts, the faces of fear and hatred did not appear for a second.You can see them suddenly become dumb beasts.They became ordinary animals.All the animals that looked at Aslan in this way turned suddenly to the right, that is, to Aslan's left, and disappeared (as you have heard) in the great black shadow of Aslan, which It is to the left of the door.The children will never see them again.I don't know what they become.But the other animals looked at Aslan intently, and loved him too, though some of them were also terribly frightened at the same time.All these animals, entering the door, stood on Aslan's right.There were some oddballs among them, too.Eustace even recognized a dwarf who had been one of the dwarfs who had helped their enemies shoot horses with arrows.But he didn't have time to worry about such things (it wasn't his business, anyway), because another great event made him forget everything else.Among the merry people who now came and thronged Tirian and his friends were comrades-in-arms long thought dead: the centaur Wright and the Unicorn Jumbo, the good boar and the good bear and clairvoyance Eagle, dear dog and horse, Poggin the dwarf, and more. "Deeper and higher!" Longwitt shouted loudly, and galloped westward with a rumbling hoof. Although they didn't understand him, his words somehow excited them all. The wild boar happily greeted them. The bear was grunting and talking. Just as the bear was about to nag that he still couldn't understand, he saw the fruit trees behind them. He wobbled quickly to them, and no doubt found food that he knew well. But the dogs stayed wagging their tails; and Poggin stayed, shaking hands and smiling all over his honest face. Jewel the Unicorn laid his gray head on the King's shoulder, and the King Whispering in Jewel's ear, everyone refocused on what they could see from the door.

Dragons and giant lizards now claim Narnia as their world.They run around, uprooting and crunching trees as if they were green onions.In an instant, the woods disappeared.The whole country becomes bare, and you can see shapes of all kinds—all hillocks and holes that you never noticed before.The grass is dead.Tirian soon found that he was looking at a world of bare stone and earth.It's hard to believe that anything ever survived in this place.The monsters themselves were old, lay down, and died.Their flesh shriveled and shriveled, their bones were exposed, and soon they were nothing but gigantic skeletons, lying here and there on the lifeless stone, looking as if they had been dead for thousands of years.For a long time, everything was silent.

Finally, something white—a long, flat streak of white in the light of the standing meteor man—was moving towards them from the east end of the world.The silence was broken by a sound spreading in all directions: first a gurgling, then a rushing, and finally a roaring.Now they could see what was coming, and how fast.It's a wall of bubbling water.The sea is rising.In this world without trees, you can see very clearly.You can see rivers getting wider, lakes getting bigger, separate lakes merging into big lakes, watersheds becoming new lakes, hills becoming islands, and then those islands disappearing.The moorlands to their left and the high mountains to their right crumbled and caved in, splashing and falling into the rising water.The water swirled up to the door (but never through it), so that the foam was splashing about Aslan's front legs.From where they stood to where the water and the sky meet, there is now a great water at the same level everywhere.

Light began to appear in the outside world.A somber and ominous twilight stretched across the horizon, growing wider and brighter until at last they scarcely noticed the light of the stars standing behind them.Finally, the sun came up.As the sun rose, Lord Digory and Lady Polly looked at each other and nodded slightly: these two old men, in a strange world, had once seen a dying sun, so they knew at once is also dying.The sun was three times, even twenty times larger than its normal size, dark red in color.When the sun's rays fell on the burly time giant, the giant also turned red.In the reflection of the sun, the whole boundless and desolate water looked as red as blood. Then the moon came up, and its position was all wrong, very close to the sun, and it looked red too.When the sun saw the moon, it began to shoot a huge flame towards the moon, like a red beard or a serpent.The sun is like an octopus trying to pull the moon into its tentacles.Maybe the sun is really pulling the moon.In any case, the moon was moving towards the sun, slowly at first, but then faster and faster, and finally, the long flame of the sun licked around the moon, and the two came together and formed a big ball, like a big ball. Pile of burning coals.Chunks of fire fell from the great ball and fell into the sea, from which clouds of steam rose. Then Aslan said: "Now be the end." The Time-Giant threw his horn into the sea.Then he stretched out an arm—miles long and dark-looking—through the sky until his hand touched the sun.He took the sun and squeezed the sun in his hand like you squeeze an orange.The world was completely dark immediately. "Peter, High King of Narnia," said Aslan, "close the door." Peter shivered with cold, leaned out into the darkness, and closed the door.The door was scraped on ice when he pulled it open.Then, rather clumsily (for, even for a moment, his hands were numb and blue with cold.) he produced a golden key, and locked the door. + Strange enough was the sight they saw from the door.But, stranger than any of these sights, was that, looking round the door, they found themselves in a warm day, with a blue sky above their heads, flowers at their feet, and a smile on Aslan's face. in the eyes.Aslan turned around quickly, squatted lower, slapped his body with his tail, and shot out like a golden arrow. "Come, run deeper! Come, run higher!" Aslan turned around and shouted.But who could keep up with Aslan's pace? They all followed Aslan westward. "It's over," said Peter. "Night has come over Narnia. What's the matter, Lucy? You're not crying, are you? Aslan is leading the way, and we're all here!" "Peter, don't tell me not to cry," said Lucy. "I'm sure Aslan wouldn't. I'm sure it's all very well to mourn for Narnia. Think of falling dead outside the door and freezing to death." all men and beasts." "Yes, I do hope," said Jill, "that it will go on. I know it can't happen in our world. I don't think it will happen in Narnia." "I saw Narnia come to be," said Lord Digory, "and I don't think I should live to see it die." "Sir," said Tirian, "ladies are right to weep. I wept myself, you see. I saw my mother die. What world do I know but Narnia? It's not a question of morality, But it would be a huge faux pas if we didn't mourn it." They walked away from the door, from the dwarves who still sat huddled together in the well-made stable.They walked and talked, talking to each other of the old wars, the old peace, the old kings, and all the glory of Narnia. The dogs are still with them.They also took part in the conversation, but not much, for they were so busy running first and second, and running into the grass to smell it, that they sneezed.Suddenly they caught a scent which seemed to excite them greatly.They all started arguing about it: "Yes, it's - no, it's not - that's what I said - anyone can smell what it is - get your big nose out of the way The dog came to sniff." "What's this, guys?" Peter asked. "A Calormene, my lord," said the dogs simultaneously. "Then lead everyone to find him," Peter said, "whether he greets us with peace or war, he should be welcomed by us." The dogs ran ahead, and were presently back, running as fast as they could, shouting that the man was indeed a Calormene soldier. (Human-speaking dogs, like dogs in general, act as if they think that what they are doing right now, whatever it is, is important. The others followed the leading dog, and found a young Calormene soldier sitting under a chestnut tree by a clear stream.This soldier is Emeth.Immediately he stood up and bowed solemnly. "Sir," he said to Peter, "I don't know whether you are my friend or my enemy; but I am proud of both. Did not a poet say that a noble friend is the best gift , and a noble enemy is the next best gift." "Sir," said Peter, "I don't know what war needs to be fought between you and me." "Please tell us, who are you and what happened to you?" Jill said. "If it's a long story, let's all have a drink and then sit down and talk," barked the dogs. "We're out of breath." "Of course you'll be panting, if you keep running about like you did," said Eustace. So they all sat down on the grass.The dogs had a noisy drink in the stream, and sat down to listen to the story. They sat upright, panting, with their tongues sticking out of their mouths, slightly to one side.But Jewel stood still, polishing its horns on its sides.