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Finally the day of their joining arrived, and in keeping with tradition, Misty-Water arose at dawn to go alone to a quiet pool in the nearby forest to bathe and then to garb herself in the soft white deerskin garboas not supposed to look upon her that day until the tihtly closed as he lay on his pallet while Misty-Water gathered up her ceree "Hurry back," he said softly as she went out into the h that touched his very heart

The sun rose above the deep forest to the east, and the blue shadows of radually faded as that arbed himself with some care, and then he waited

But Misty-Water did not return

By boas frantic Misty-Water was as i, and nobody could take this long to bathe Finally Longbow cast custo the path that led to the quiet pool in the forest And when he reached it, his heart stopped

Hisfacedown in the still water of the pool

Desperately Longbow rushed into the water, gathered her in his are of the pool He laid her facedown on the moss and pressed her back as One-Who-Heals had instructed the youngvictibow tried to revive her, Misty-Water showed not the faintest sign of life

In agony Longbow raised his face and howled as allfaded from his life

When Longbow, insensible with grief, carried the still body of Misty-Water back to the village, Chief Old-Bear wept, but in time he sent for the shaman of the tribe, One-Who-Heals "She could not have drowned, could she?" the sorrowing chief demanded "She swam very well, and that pool in the forest is not deep"

"She was not drowned, Old-Bear," One-Who-Heals replied gris It was venom that took her life"

"There are no venoion," Old-Bear protested

One-Who-Heals pointed at the s this large It is -h There are h Old stories seldom have much truth to them, but it seeht well be true It was That-Called-the-Vlagh that ave them venom so that they would need no weapons"

"Why would a servant of the Vlagh kill our beloved Misty-Water?" Old-Bear derief

"There are rurows restless and that it sends its servants out of the Wasteland into the coastal doht come to know of our weaknesses Those servants do not wish to be seen, I think, so they will most probably kill any of us who happen to see them, so that they may continue to watch us and to carry what they have seen back to the Vlagh"

"It h return to the Wasteland with this knowledge," Old-Bear said gririeffor eternal hatred, and I think That-Called-the-Vlagh ret what its servants have done this day"

"Send hioes to the hunt, rieve first, though He’ll think rief has run its course, and while he grieves, I will use the tih so that I can advise him of their peculiarities"

It was late in the winter of the following year when Old-Bear decided that it bow to the lodge of One-Who-Heals, for Longbow’s grief showed no signs of fading, and so he bleakly co son to acco snow to the shae, and when they entered, One-Who-Heals opened a bundle of dried bones and spread them out upon a blanket for them to see "Since little is known of the creatures of the Wasteland who serve That-Called-the-Vlagh, I thought it ht better understand its peculiarities," he told thebow asked in a flat, unebow After the death of Misty-Water, I went out to trap one of them They know very little about the forest, so it’s easy to conceal a trap from them I found ht have so a pit and concealed it under fallen leaves and twigs It was a fairly deep pit, and I lined the bottom with sharpened stakes, and then, when it ell-concealed, I waited It took a while, but finally one of the Vlagh’s servants fell intoworked out quite well, except that it took the creature two days to finish dying Then I pulled it up out of the pit and boiled all the ht better see its peculiarities" One-Who-Heals shrugged "After we’ve learned e need to know, you ift to her spirit"

Longbow’s eyes, which had seeht please her spirit at that," he conceded, "and ht even please her spirit reed

"Now, then," the sha up the skull, "notice that this creature’s fangs are folded back to keep thes of a veno forhen the creature strikes This is how it hides its weapons until it attacks" He set the skull aside and picked up the bones of one of the creature’s ar the outer sides of its arm fros of wasps or hornets The spines, like the fangs, are venoht until the creature wishes to attack Then they spring forward Be hen you approach one of these creatures, Longbow, for they can h has made a very effective killer, but it has to be close to kill It cannot kill froreat distance"