There crouched Nat beside the small campfire she had made
in order to keep herself and the prone form of Mary
warm from the bone chilling winds.
The formed town librarian was beginning to envy the monsters
since they seemed immune to things like the cold and damp
that afflicted cloud humans.
With that thought Nat began to wonder about the fate of Ilvir,
who had failed to return from his scouting mission that he had
undertaken half a day ago.
Clearly something had gone horribly wrong but Nat was no
heroine,just the former street beggar child turned town librarian.
So there she was rubbing herself to try to stay warm when the
Hydra ,monstrously huge multi-headed serpent monster that the
Hydra was
slithered in from the dark and took position on the
side of the tiny flickering fire opposite where Mary lay sprawled
and unmoving and Nat,vigourously chattering her teeth and rubbing herself,was most assuredly moving.
This sudden appearance by the uninvited monster caught
Nat so off guard that she just crouched there staring at the
multi-headed female serpent beast.
The Hydra was polite enough and about six of her snaky headed
asked in unison if they could stay and warm themselves by Nats
fire.
What could Nat do ?
Refuse ?
Not a smart idea.
So Nat replied to the affirmative and asked the Hydra
politely if she wanted some of the Pegasus-jerky meat that the
former town librarian had in her sack.
The six snake heads stared back at her ,unblinking,for
a few moments with those slitted reptilian eyes before
one replied
"We will eat what you eat if you will eat what we eat"
Another one said
"You appear chilled and weak cloud human"
a third commented
"hydra food will make you warmer inside cloud human"
Nat didn't actually like where the Hyda was taking this
conversation,being all too well aware that the Hydra seemed to
have taken a interest in Nat in a manner that dwelt less on
Nat as a meal for a monster and more a hint that Nat was
"not hydra"
However since the alternative at the moment that the
snakey heads of the Hydra were pointing towards involved
something unpleasant,the former town librarian accepted the
Hydra's offer.
Several of the Hydra's heads fumbled about in that writhing
mass of necks and the first head slid out,with what looked like
a honey sweet cake of some kind clamped in its fang filled jaws.
The exchange was made and Nat ate hydra food and the Hydra
munched away on Pegasus jerky meat.
Then cme the screams of terror,pain and agony off in the
distance,from the direction Nat had last seen Ilvir heading.