In the last days of Narnia, an ape named Shift lives in a tree house close to a great waterfall near the Western Wild. No one can recall when Shift first came to reside there because he is so old: “the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine” (7). Since few talking animals, humans, or dwarfs live in this area, Shift has only one neighbor: a donkey named Puzzle. Although Shift and Puzzle refer to each other as friends, Puzzle is more like Shift’s servant. Puzzle knows that Shift is smarter than he is, and the donkey ends up doing all of the work.

One day, Shift sees a lion skin floating in the Caldron Pool. He convinces Puzzle to retrieve it: Shift has the idea of sewing the lion skin so Puzzle can wear it to impersonate Aslan, the “Great Lion,” and get everyone to do whatever he tells them. Puzzle is horrified by the thought of disrespecting Aslan and does not want to wear the lion skin, but he reluctantly agrees when Shift pressures him. Part of Puzzle’s face is visible through the mouth of the lion’s head; if an observer does not look closely, they might mistake the donkey for a lion, but no one who has seen a real lion would be fooled.