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. The
fermenting halted, images vanished. The voices went silent as the
surface of the putrid slime lay still, unmoving.
Out of the pit rose a comely young maiden with platinum
blonde tresses and (and this is the strangest thing, William
thought) a hideous serpentine monster straining at the end of a
chain leash.
The huge monster towered high above the mist and slime,
writhing and coiling. William cringed as the reptile's head parted
and became five separate entities twisting above the demented
maw.
"Oh, pay no attention to that confounded show-off," huffed the
maiden in a surprisingly baritone voice. She gave the leash a
violent tug and the hideous creature was jerked, choking and
sputtering, into an attentive pose.
At least the maiden appeared to be young-and beautiful to
gaze upon. But William thought he heard the sound of creaking
joints, a sort of arthritic crackle, and there was a frostiness in her
smile that made him shudder.
"Your name?"
"William Sweetwater."
She seemed to be perched on a giant mottled toadstool with an ink
bottle, quill pen, and sheet of parchment at the ready. She wore a
black robe. Two black velvet slippers poked from beneath her
garment. A battered wooden staff rested at her side. The hideous
serpent creature was trying its hardest to peek over her shoulder as
she furiously began to scribble, but she took malicious delight in
fidgeting this way and that in order to block its view
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