affame_le_geant_the_strange_woman fyn gula "seien sie ruhig!" a voice from inside the cart shouted. the tone was motherly. saumboo, trying to be cautiously polite at the unexpected arrival of the spegnere, instantly recognized the german term "to be quiet" and immediately zippered his lips. he knew the voice didn't belong to the spegnere for if it did speak he figured it would be in italian, but more than likely it would simply lash out with another guttural roar. therefore, he was curious who the voice belonged to. there was a heavy leather harness with forged iron fasteners hooking the spegnere to the cart. leather reins with sleigh bells attached led from a snaffle bit in its mouth to the driver who stood tall in the cart. this is who the matriarcal voice belonged to. she was a strange-looking skinny woman, although it was hard to tell how thin she was because the black, marc jacobs cloak she was wearing drooped over her in copious folds and appeared like the hanger was still inside it. her black hair, shiny as a raven, was tightly rolled into two cinnamon buns on the side of her head. she wore large, black-framed glasses just like elvis costello and they hid her pale face that puppertwinkle thought looked like a greek statue.her lipstick was lavendar, as was her mascara. her hands were the only other skin exposed and they possessed narrow, gnarly fingers like aged dandelion roots. the nails were long and painted black and reflected the sun in each one, ten dots of light. she clicked her tongue and the spegnere padded forward. the strange woman swung the cart around slightly and the sleigh bells jingled with an eerie resonance. saumboo listened for some kind of statement, tensing his muscles. as the cart came to a stop again, puppertwinkle saw something written on the locust boards. he read the words spraypainted on the left side. the message seemed to be applied in relative haste for the red paint ran on some of the letters like blood from a fresh wound. puppertwinkle whispered the words to saumboo as the strange woman applied the cart brake and prepared to dismount. this is what it said: "nehmen sie mit dem verstand wahr, was auge nicht sehen kann." saumboo translated the message to himself and somehow felt a tinge of comfort. oh, how naive we can be. "perceive with the mind what the eye cannot see." 020505 ... fyn_gula puppertwinkle wondered if boffden would ever send help along the bianca strada again. 021216 what's it to you? who go blather from