2000-08-25: Snake Shipment Slithers Away!
Greetings readers. Today I bring you news of a reptilian nature. It seems a shipment of serpents was headed to the Moonglow Zoo and due to some unmentioned circumstances, the delivery crates burst open, setting the creatures slithering to their freedom.
I had been passing through Moonglow on my way to a Lecture at the Lycaeum when the town crier began to give his call for assistance. Not one for passing up a good news story, I grabbed quill and parchment and dashed southward towards the Zoo.
Coming around on the east side of the zoo I saw that the ground looked uneven and was moving. I paused to consider the area when I heard a cry off to the south. The uneven ground was actually serpents slithering along! Big ones, little ones, even some of those little chilly ones. I bet the Zoo Keeper was not happy to lose these specimens!
It seemed futile to catch the beasts and soon folk began to set upon them as the snakes seemed intent on biting anyone and anything that came near them. Fortunately there were no Silver serpents in the shipment. I’m not sure I’d have stayed around to chronicle the event had they been there.
At times the ground was just a heaving mass of bodies, both snake and human. Some folk were bitten and you could hear their cries for aid as their bodies spasmed with the effects of the poison. Some folk did not reach a healer in time and succumbed to the virulent venom in their veins. Fortunately some wandering healers were nearby and they assisted those folk who fell.
It took some time, but eventually the stalwart fighters managed to capture and kill all the vicious vipers. The zookeepers’ assistant came out to thank the folk and apologized for the trouble. I must say, watching this batch of forked-tongued creatures was probably more interesting than listening to their counterparts up in the Lycaeum!
This is Cara Newsman. Until next time, may the Virtues be with you.
