A dozen white crows appeared, circling the ringfort, flying low above the collapsed banks of the enclosure. As they flew a mist formed in their wake. She tried to escape, but the mist hemmed her in. It could only have been a couple of metres thick, but even though she seemed to run through it for minutes at a time, as soon as she stopped she found herself still in the ringfort. She panicked and began to weep.
"Please – let me out!" she cried in despair. "Let me out!"
A strange creature materialised in the centre of the enclosure. Shaped in the form of a basilisk, with scaly tail and reptilian claws, its forepart had the long sleek underside of a fish, but the elongated face was that of a man, with a tuft of black hair on the top of its head, luminous devouring eyes and a toothless fish-l
