Once again she is in the body of her ancient snake-self, outside the cavern, moving through familiar woods, although with an unfamiliar ground-level perspective. She realizes she has emerged on the side of the mountain, some distance above the village of her people but not so far below the shrine of the Lamia.

She thinks for a moment about the village, and the small homes scattered through the region nearby. The people of the region live comfortably, if somewhat primitively by other standards. The rugged land is bountiful for these people who understand it, and their culture is rich. From this abundance they have some commerce with neighbors to the south, which adds to their comfort.

But now she recalls with a surge of emotion the events that are never far from her thoughts. This commerce did not always bring good things, for there had arrived from one of those southern lands a stranger, a smooth-tongued man who spoke of marvels he had witnessed, great walled villages built of stone, with many tribes living within and around them, and the mysterious cults espoused by such peoples.

He told stories of many-tiered shrines that rose to the sky, the tops of which were inhabited by gods of the heavens, where men like himself conducted powerful ceremonies, full of magic, to gain favor with those gods and ensure the great walled villages would prosper. He spoke of how men in those regions diverted great rivers into vast fields where they grew enough grain to feed the multitudes, along with great captive herds of cattle, and how artificers within the walled cities crafted marvel after marvel for the use and pleasure of other inhabitants. 

These stories and his ingratiating ways had won him favor among the folk of the region. These innocent people had not suspected how his evil intentions would defile their own sacred shrine.

Now she slides up toward that shrine, making her way to a spot she knows well, high on the side of the sacred grotto, above the shrine and overlooking it. There she conceals her long body in the shrubbery, to not be surprised by some other visitor, and gazes down upon the familiar scene below.

She can see several young women, her friends of many years, going about their small affairs. It is a proud duty of the young women of the region to tend the shrine, and they vie to be worthy of the privilege and honor of the task.

The shrine is small and rustic, a simple structure of stone and wood, designed to give shelter and seclusion to anyone who comes to the grotto to pay homage to the earth-mother. The girls have little to do other than keep it clear of leaves and other small debris that tends to gather in the grotto, minister to the needs of the occasional visitor, and make their own devotions. She is mildly surprised to see more than two in attendance.

Behind the shrine, deeper in the grotto, she can see the mouth of the cavern. This opening is lined with stones to form a low well-like wall. The people of the region believe this well-mouth opens into the earth mother's womb. She recalls fondly how each season the Lamia performs a small but awe-provoking ceremony as the people drop their gifts of seed and other fruits into the womb, to help ensure the earth will bring forth abundantly.

The Lamia, her own mother, was the priestess of the shrine, keeper of the well-mouth of the abyss, the entrance to the dark womb of earth. She was a shaman who understood the ways of the great mother and her children, and whose deep wisdom came from her ability to understand and interpret the spirit voices of all creatures and all things. The Lamia trained the girls who attended the shrine, and from among them would one day have chosen a successor as shaman and priestess.

But now she sees something that chills her reptilian blood, and fires her spirit with thirst for retribution. For a man emerges from the shrine, the very usurper who sacrificed her mother and sister, and tried to do the same to her. It is obvious that he has just had his way with the young attendant, one of her friends, who follows him from the shrine. This new horror brings back to her anew the horrors of that evil day...