Memory #17: Jill Is Given A Task
Jan. 22nd, 2013 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maidmalapertGame: Gifts with the Green Knight
Form: Springerle cookies
Uses: 1/5
Type: Significant Neutral
Eustace has just fallen over the cliff, and Jill is crying about it. This memory starts when she stops crying and sits up. She's terribly thirsty, and she thinks that she can hear running water, so she gets up and starts to sneak through the woods from tree to tree, looking around cautiously for the lion she saw before. After a little while, she finds the stream in an open glade… but between her and the stream lies the lion. It looks her straight in the eyes, and she knows she can't run. But she can't go forward, either. She stands very still for what seems like hours, until she's so thirsty that she starts to think she wouldn't mind being eaten by a lion if she could get a drink of water, first.
Then the lion speaks to her: "If you're thirsty, come and drink." His voice isn't like a man's — it's 'deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice.' She's still afraid, but the quality of her fear changes. The lion asks if she's thirsty, and she replies that she's dying of thirst. He tells her again to come and drink, and she asks if he would mind going away while she does — his only reply is a low growl and a look. Looking at him, Jill realizes 'that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.' She asks if he'll promise not to do anything to her, but he won't; at this point she's so thirsty that she takes a step forward anyway.
' "Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.'
Jill waffles a bit more, but suddenly makes up her mind to come and drink. When she has quenched her thirst, she gets up, and the Lion tells her to come to him. She does, standing right between his paws. He questions her about what happened to Eustace, and she answers honestly. He becomes a little less stern and tells her that Eustace is safe, in Narnia, but that her task will be harder because of what she's done. She finds out that he's the Somebody she and Eustace were petitioning to let them into Narnia in the first place, but the Lion says that they wouldn't have been able to call on him if he hadn't already been calling on them. Then he gives her the task: to seek the lost prince of Narnia. He gives her four signs to follow, and makes her memorize them. He's very patient about this, and she plucks up her courage to ask how she's supposed to get to Narnia.
He says he'll blow her there as he did Eustace, and takes her back to the cliff's edge at once, admonishing her again to remember and repeat the signs. He makes a pretty long speech about it, starting before they're actually at the edge of the cliff… but as he finishes speaking, she looks back, and realizes she's already floating through the air; he blew her away without her noticing. She finds that floating on the breath of the Lion is extremely comfortable. She even falls asleep for a few hours. She ends up flying through a cloud and getting very wet, and watching the mountains and forests and sea go by underneath her, getting lower and lower, and finally she flies over a green lawn, a bright ship, and a brilliantly clothed crowd, landing by a river under a thicket of trees, right beside Eustace. The first thing she notices is how grubby and unimpressive he looks; the second is how wet her clothes are.
* Aslan is terrifying and amazing
* Floating over Narnia, also amazing!
* +100 general shame
* Wow we were actually terrible at following those signs
Form: Springerle cookies
Uses: 1/5
Type: Significant Neutral
Eustace has just fallen over the cliff, and Jill is crying about it. This memory starts when she stops crying and sits up. She's terribly thirsty, and she thinks that she can hear running water, so she gets up and starts to sneak through the woods from tree to tree, looking around cautiously for the lion she saw before. After a little while, she finds the stream in an open glade… but between her and the stream lies the lion. It looks her straight in the eyes, and she knows she can't run. But she can't go forward, either. She stands very still for what seems like hours, until she's so thirsty that she starts to think she wouldn't mind being eaten by a lion if she could get a drink of water, first.
Then the lion speaks to her: "If you're thirsty, come and drink." His voice isn't like a man's — it's 'deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice.' She's still afraid, but the quality of her fear changes. The lion asks if she's thirsty, and she replies that she's dying of thirst. He tells her again to come and drink, and she asks if he would mind going away while she does — his only reply is a low growl and a look. Looking at him, Jill realizes 'that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.' She asks if he'll promise not to do anything to her, but he won't; at this point she's so thirsty that she takes a step forward anyway.
' "Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.'
Jill waffles a bit more, but suddenly makes up her mind to come and drink. When she has quenched her thirst, she gets up, and the Lion tells her to come to him. She does, standing right between his paws. He questions her about what happened to Eustace, and she answers honestly. He becomes a little less stern and tells her that Eustace is safe, in Narnia, but that her task will be harder because of what she's done. She finds out that he's the Somebody she and Eustace were petitioning to let them into Narnia in the first place, but the Lion says that they wouldn't have been able to call on him if he hadn't already been calling on them. Then he gives her the task: to seek the lost prince of Narnia. He gives her four signs to follow, and makes her memorize them. He's very patient about this, and she plucks up her courage to ask how she's supposed to get to Narnia.
He says he'll blow her there as he did Eustace, and takes her back to the cliff's edge at once, admonishing her again to remember and repeat the signs. He makes a pretty long speech about it, starting before they're actually at the edge of the cliff… but as he finishes speaking, she looks back, and realizes she's already floating through the air; he blew her away without her noticing. She finds that floating on the breath of the Lion is extremely comfortable. She even falls asleep for a few hours. She ends up flying through a cloud and getting very wet, and watching the mountains and forests and sea go by underneath her, getting lower and lower, and finally she flies over a green lawn, a bright ship, and a brilliantly clothed crowd, landing by a river under a thicket of trees, right beside Eustace. The first thing she notices is how grubby and unimpressive he looks; the second is how wet her clothes are.
* Aslan is terrifying and amazing
* Floating over Narnia, also amazing!
* +100 general shame
* Wow we were actually terrible at following those signs
