Now, ten leagues or more to the west of Turrok, you will find the ruins of the town of Lakeside. Once rich and prosperous, Lakeside was built inside one of the great Chalk Basins, on the shores of a Great Lake, and merchants travelled from many miles around to buy and sell wares in the big markets. In those days everyone from the South of the land had to cross the mighty Teyme to reach Lakeside, or travel round by way of Lun-Darn. The Teyme was treacherous and wide (and indeed still is), and in those days the Elves of Lun-Darn laid sole claim to the river. Their ferry tolls were high, as were the tolls of Lun-Darn.
Well, one day, a group of rich merchants took it upon themselves to finance the digging of two tunnels under the river Teyme – one for travellers from the South, and one for travellers from the North - and the merchants minded to charge their own tolls for the use of them. And all the inhabitants of Lakeside rejoiced, for this would make their town ever more prosperous. Now, this angered the Queen of Lun-Darn, for Lakeside was the bringer of much traffic from the South, and she would lose revenue if everyone used the merchants’ tunnels, so she caused a mighty Bridge of Silver to be built across the river, above the two tunnels, and told the merchants that everyone was to use her bridge, and must pay a toll of one Gold Piece each person.
Now, this was before the Elf Wars, and although the people of Lun-Darn were rich and powerful, no-one yet feared them. So the merchants of Lakeside refused to use the Queen’s Bridge, and bade everyone use the tunnels. After all, what could the Queen do? Well, the Queen was greatly angered at this, and called upon the greatest of her Elfen Sorcerers, and they worked a great Magik, and summoned up a MouthWitch from the Darkest Corners of the Underside of the World!
This MouthWitch was a fearsome creature, with six arms, and six fingers on each arm, and jaws as wide as a hoski is long, and she came and dwelt in the North Tunnel – and she caught the first group of travellers on their way through, and gobbled them up – carts and hoskis and all. The horrific news reached Lakeside at the same time as a message from the Queen, that now they must surely use her Bridge…and the toll was now Two Gold Pieces.
The merchants of Lakeside still refused, and boarded up the North Tunnel, so that only the South Tunnel could be used, and for a while everything went well until the MouthWitch got bored and hungry, and opening her huge mouth she ate her way through the wall of the North Tunnel and into the South Tunnel, and again she fell upon the travellers, bit all their heads off and sucked the blood out. The Queen laughed when she heard, and sent a message to Lakeside. Now everyone had to use the Bridge, and the toll was now Four Gold Pieces.
Well, now neither of the Tunnels was safe, so the merchants sent ten strong warriors into the Tunnels, armed with swords and pikes, and…and other fearsome weapons, the like of which has not been seen since. But the MouthWitch came upon them in the dark and bound them with spells of blindness and confusion, and she devoured them all, using their swords to pick her teeth with. Once more the news reached Lakeside, along with a message from the Queen…and the toll for the Bridge was now Eight Gold Pieces.
So the merchants called the greatest and most renowned wizards from the North and the South and the West, and sent them into the Tunnels to banish the MouthWitch back to World’s End. But the MouthWitch was much more powerful, and she turned their spells back on them, one by one. And when she had finished, they had all been turned into toads, and gronks, and slimy serpents; and she popped them all into her huge mouth, and crunched their bones.
Now the merchants despaired, for the latest message from the Queen of Lun-Darn was that the Bridge toll was now Sixteen Gold Pieces. They sent a decree across the Land that they would pay 100 Gold Pieces to anyone who could kill the MouthWitch. Well, all the warriors of the land refused, as did the wizards, and it seemed no-one could be found to take the challenge…until one day a minstrel arrived in Lakeside, with a small wooden geetar, and a little black dog.
“I will rid you of the MouthWitch” said the minstrel, and the merchants laughed. “How? You are not a powerful wizard, or a mighty warrior! What will you do? Sing her to death?” they said. But the minstrel said nothing, merely picked up his geetar and began to play.
The song he played struck the hearts of all who heard it, and everyone in Lakeside stopped work to listen, and the song was a song of such joy that everyone began to dance and to sing along, and the Magik was such that they all knew the words, but no matter how they tried, they could not stop. And just when they thought they would dance themselves to death, the song changed. And it became a song of deep sorrow, and all who heard it were struck dumb with misery, and tears flowed from every eye, and it seemed that everyone who heard the song would cry themselves into death.
But then the song ended, and the merchants marvelled at such a Magik, and immediately agreed to pay the 100 Gold Pieces to the minstrel if he would rid them of the MouthWitch.
So the minstrel went bravely into the South Tunnel, accompanied by his little black dog, and when he got to the middle of the Tunnel, the MouthWitch appeared in front of him, tall and ferocious, and hungry. She opened her mouth wide, and wider…and wider…and she reached out all six of her arms to the minstrel…and the minstrel began to play his geetar.
He played a song of the desert, a song of the howling sighing winds, the parched and lonely dunes, and the eternal bone-dryness. Well, the MouthWitch paused, and began to feel thirsty. And as the song went on, the MouthWitch’s giant mouth began to feel as dry and thirsty as the desert itself, and she forgot about killing the minstrel, and could only think about slaking her thirst. But under the River Teyme the only thing to drink is the water above, so the MouthWitch opened her mouth and bit her way into the roof of the Tunnel, and the waters of the River Teyme rushed in and drowned both the minstrel and the MouthWitch, flooding both the Tunnels for ever.
So the MouthWitch and the minstrel were never seen or heard from again, but…scarcely a week later, on the other side of the river, the minstrel’s little dog was found…only he was no longer black, his hair had turned bone-white, and to the day of his death he never barked again...
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