Inklings // July 2020: The Silver Chair

Hello, all my readers!

The first "blogging event" that I participated in, was a monthly link up called Inkling Explorations. It was hosted by Heidi, and this is how it worked: Each month she would have a prompt and bloggers could join in talking about their favorite scene from a book or movie that involved that. I participated in July 2016, August 2016, and September 2016. After that, Heidi stopped doing them.

Well, my exciting news for today is that Heidi has started them up on her blog Along the Brandywine! I am so pumped to be joining again!

July 2020's prompt: A scene on the edge of a cliff

Naturally, I'll be talking about one of the books from my favorite series, The Chronicles of Narnia! This excerpt (copied exactly from my edition) is from book 4, The Silver Chair. I love this book, and in fact, it is the only book that I have read three times! Enjoy this scene!

Note: There aren't spoilers here, as the scene I am putting happens in the first chapter, but you'll probably be very confused if you haven't read the pages that come before this.

'Right ahead there were no trees; only blue sky. They went straight on without speaking till suddenly Jill heard Scrubb say, "Look out!" and felt herself jerked back. They were at the very edge of a cliff.

Jill was one of those lucky people who have a good head for heights. She didn't mind in the least standing on the edge of a precipice. She was rather annoyed with Scrubb for pulling her back---"just as if I was a kid," she said---and she wrenched her hand out of his. When she saw how very white he had turned, she despised him.

"What's the matter?" she said. And to show that she was not afraid she stood very near the edge indeed; in fact, a good deal nearer than even she liked. Then she looked down.

She now realized that Scrubb had some excuse for looking white, for no cliff in out world is to be compared with this. Imagine yourself at the top of the very hightest cliff you know. And imagine yourself looking down to the very bottom. And them imagine that the precipice goes on below that, as far again, ten times as far, twenty times as far. And when you've looked down all that distance imagine little white things that might, at first glance, be mistaken for sheep, but presently you realise that they are clouds---not little wreathes of mist but the enormous white, puffy clouds which are themselves as big as most mountains. And at last, in between those clouds, you get your first glimpse of the real bottom, so far away that you can't make out whether it's field or wood, or land of water: further below those clouds than you are above them.

Jill stared at it. Then she thought the perhaps, after all, she would step back a foot or so from the edge; but she didn't like to for fear of what Scrubb would think. Then she suddenly decided that she didn't care what he thought, and that she would jolly well get away from that horrible edge and never laugh at anyone for not liking heights again. But when she tried to move, she found she couldn't. Her legs seemed to have turned into putty. Everything was swimming before her eyes.

"What are you doing, Pole? Come back---blithering little idiot!" shouted Scrubb. But his voice seemed to be coming from a long way off. She felt him grabbing at her. But by now she had no control over her own arms and legs. There was a moment's struggling on the cliff edge. Jill was too frightened and dizzy to know quite what she was doing, but two things she remembered as long as she lived (they often came back to her in dreams). One was that she had wrenched herself free of Scrubb's clutches; the other was that, at the same moment, Scrubb himself, with a terrified scream, had lost his balance and gone hurtling to the depths.

Fortunately she was given no time to think over what she had done. Some huge, brightly coloured animal had rushed to the edge of the cliff. It was lying down, leaning over, and (this was the odd thing) blowing. Not roaring or snorting but just blowing from its wide-opened mouth; blowing out as steadily as a vacuum cleaner sucks in. Jill was lying so close to the creature that she could feel the breath vibrating steadily through its body. She was lying still beacuse she couldn't get up. She was nearly fainting: indeed, she wished she could really faint, but faints don't come for the asking. At last she saw, far away below her, a tiny black speck floating away from the cliff and slightly upwards. As it rose, it also got further away. By the time it was nearly on a level with the cliff top it was so far off that she lost sight of it. It was obviously moving away from them at a great speed. Jill couldn't help thinking that the creature at her side was blowing it away.

So she turned and looked at the creature. It was a lion.'

Source: Art by jet097
Found on Pinterest

There you have it! You'll have to read the book to find out what happens!
Heidi will link up eveyone's posts at the end of the month, so be sure to keep an eye out HERE.

Readers, what are your thoughts on The Silver Chair, the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia (some say it is the sixth, but nope, don't read them that way)? Are you more like Jill or Eustace when it comes to heights? Thanks for reading, and stay safe and healthy!

MovieCritic