Your guide bolts into the brush at the sound of

light laughter. You find a woman in a clearing off the path up

ahead. She smiles and invites you to sit. "Let me tell you about

the secret of the woods." A tiny salamander slips over your hand and rests

on her knee. "Oh, I see you've already met him," she says and

gestures to the stag hiding in the bush. Shirley laughs at the salamander as

it chases a mosquito, and she suddenly disappears.

She touched him once, she touched him twice, and three times with her horn;

And there he fell, and where he fell, he rose a unicorn.

The guards have fled their trusting land, all undefended lies;

And through the wood invaders ride with darkness in their eyes.

Without alarms they practice charms that drive away the light,

And shadow into Darken wood is made that evil night.

And afterward with sword and spear, and hoof and horn and hound,

They hunted down King Perises men and ran them all to ground.