The Dragon's Skin

In C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a disagreeable boy named Eustace Scrubb falls asleep on a dragon's treasure hoard and wakes to find he has become a dragon himself. His greed has reshaped him from the outside in — and from the inside out.

Desperate to become himself again, Eustace tries to scratch off his scales. He peels back one layer, and there's just another beneath it. He digs deeper — still more scales. No matter how hard he claws at himself, he cannot reach the real Eustace hiding underneath. The dragon-skin goes all the way down.

Then Aslan appears. The great lion tells Eustace he must undress. When Eustace protests that he has already tried, Aslan says simply, "You will have to let me do it."

What follows is painful — deeper than Eustace expects. Aslan's claws go where Eustace's could not reach. But when it's over, Eustace is plunged into a clear pool of water, and he is a boy again. Really himself, perhaps for the first time.