The Great Bridge from Thoth to Evyan was packed with creatures and equipment. The giant glass tank which Herman had produced stood empty on a hundred-foot long reinforced cart with twenty sets of wheels. Short metal bars extended between each set of wheels to allow eighty wolves to push the enormous transport along once it was filled with water and hopefully, the Asherouboros. A series of two-beast lever pumps stood alongside the cart with hoses stretching from the Circe Sea into their the tank.

Wolves began pumping in a steady rhythm, slowly filling the enormous container with the toxic water of the boiling lake. Closer to the castle entrance at the base of the bridge, a series of makeshift cranes had been constructed from the skeletons of catapults and rigged with pulleys, blocks and tackles. An eighty foot net stretched along the ten cranes, made of the same super-strong fiber woven from Arisha's web as the ropes which supported it. At the base of each crane, a squad of Thothian troops stood ready to pull or lower the net over the edge of bridge.

The gatehouse area was a flurry of nervous activity. Within the large rotunda itself, Chumley, Thoris, and Frega stood and watched as a dozen large burlap sacks were stuffed with fish guts and pieces by several Lokian volunteers. The smell was overwhelming, so much so that the other participants in the day's task, Dema, Robbi, Belinda, and Gladiverserac stood outside the structure, avoiding entrance until all the preliminary preparations were complete.

So strong was the odor that even Gladis, who had a taste for fish parts, found herself scrunching her bill in disgust. It was Belinda who suffered most. She was already queasy due to her condition and the odorous cloud encompassing the gatehouse only multiplied her discomfort.

Robbi looked back and forth among her friends and couldn't help from laughing.
"I can't believe Chumley does this three times a week. It's a wonder he can still smell anything at all."

Dema chuckled.
"He's become quite fond of the monster. He feels some kind of bond with it. On the bright side, if we actually get the Asherouboros out of the Circe Sea and to the ocean, we will no longer have to deal with this stench on otherwise lovely days." She looked over at Belinda who seemed to be turning a shade of green despite her snow-white fur, "Are you alright dear, you don't look well at all?"

Belinda managed a weak smile.
"I think I've just decided to tell Chumley I'm expecting, if nothing else, it will insure I can stay upwind of his projects...this is dreadful."

Dema walked over and gave Belinda a hug.
"Courage, child. If all goes well you'll be back in your rose-scented bed soon."

"After bathing for six hours." Belinda chuckled.

"Hurry, Sir Chumley should," Gladiverserac added, "if much longer this I must smell, I fear that seafood I will forswear."

As if on cue, Chumley stuck his head out of the gatehouse and addressed the old toad.
"We're ready for yah, luv. Bring that nasty old bug juice in 'ere, will yah?"

Dema turned to her friends.
"It appears I have been summoned. Stay out here, no need to subject yourselves to any additional nasal torture. I'll see you in a few minutes." With that, Dema carried her flask of the Xezee potion into the round stone structure.

As bad as the fish-stench was on the outside of the gatehouse, the inside was almost beyond description. After years of feeding the Asherouboros from inside the enclosure, the very walls were now permeated with the smell of rotting fish. Dema looked around at the occupants. Chumley seemed unaffected, she assumed that he had developed a tolerance since it was he who, three times a week, fed the creature with whom he felt a kinship. Frega and Thoris were not faring as well, tears were leaking from their eyes and the big wolf in particular, with his extraordinarily keen sense of smell looked as though needles were being driven into his body.

The Lokians who loaded the sacks of fish-parts had had the good sense to plug their nostrils with bee's wax and seemed oblivious to the aromatic assault. Dema, who in her capacity as an herbalist and healer was well used to a large range of foul odors, was only slightly put out. She approached Chumley and handed him the flask. He held up the small glass globe and stared at the thick green liquid it contained. He turned to the old toad.
"Doesn't seem like much, does it? Ashy's a big fella, are you sure this is enough to get 'im to sleep?"

Dema took the flask from the black rat and slapped him lightly on the head.
"Who's the expert here, Chumley Bilgespike? There's enough venom in this flask to knock out every beast in Thoth."

Chumley smiled and gave Dema a firm kiss on the forehead.
"Ah didn't mean to question yah, luv. 'Ow long will Ashy be out after 'e eats it?"

Dema rubbed the spot Chumley had kissed her and made an annoyed face. She smiled despite herself and answered.
"Your pet should snooze for a few days at least," she saw the look of concern on the rat's face, "oh, don't worry, he'll be none the worse for wear, dear. He'll probably appreciate the rest."

"Well, let's do it then, shall we?" Chumley said unstoppering the flask.

Frega spoke up.
"Are you going to divide the potion among the four sacks or put it all in one?"

"Ah'm not sure, what do you guys think?" Chumley asked.

Thoris offered his opinion.
"I've theen you feeding it. He's usually a little cautiouth with the firtht thack, he might not eat it if it tathtes thtrange, but by the thecond thack, he'th gulping it like there'th no tomorrow, tho I think we should put the potion in the thecond thack."

"That sounds reasonable," Frega agreed, "I think we should lower the net before the feeding commences so we don't spook the beast. I'll go inform the catapult crews to lower the net over the side of the bridge."

Chumley laughed.
"You just can't take the smell anymore, can ye," he waved his paw, "well, off with ya then, get the net lowered and ah'll spike Ashy's chow."

"Targas be praised," Frega muttered, "I fear my sense of smell is ruined forever."

Thoris looked pleadingly toward Frega.
"I'll come out and help you thupervithe the net lowering."

Chumley clapped Thoris playfully on the back.
"Cowards, both of you, be off with yah then. Imagine, grown beasts afraid of a sloight aroma."

"Slight?!" Frega protested, "The reek in here could rust steel. Come Thoris, let us escape this torture pit and lower the net. After we have Chumley's friend safely in the tank, I believe several hours of bathing will be in order."

Thoris and Frega exited the gatehouse with Dema in their wake. The fours sacks of fish guts were lined up against the wall under the flagpole used to ferry the food over the lake. The first sack was secured to the line on the pole, ready to entice the Asherouboros once the net was lowered. Chumley walked to the second sack and carefully emptied the flask's viscous green venom over its contents.

The previous three months had been confusing for the Asherouboros. In the time since the creature had secured a sort of peace after consuming Khalis four years earlier, each day of its life was a journey of self-awareness. Despite being an almost eternal creature, older than even Arisha, with several millennia of existence, it was in many ways still a child.

The vast majority of its countless years had been spent spiraling deeper and deeper into madness, tortured by the insatiable craving for Arisha's essence, for the taste and smell of magic. It was the unquestioned lord of the Circe Sea, its realm, inhospitable, dark, and dangerous. Until its need for the essence was quenched, there was no thought within the mighty beast's head save the painful hunger within its soul and body. When the veil was finally lifted, when its need was finally met, a new and amazing condition overcame the Asherouboros, calm. With this calm, the clouds of madness began to lift and pain was replaced by curiosity, anger by acceptance, and desperation by a small degree of contentment.

It began to recognize creatures it had once seen only as sustenance or foes. Its encounters with the small rat who fed it were anticipated by the beast, not simply for the food, but because the contact felt strangely comforting. It could remember through the haze of its previous insanity that it had battled the small creature, bitten it and tasted it. In turn the rodent had sliced its eye, which was still blind and milky-white, unhealed to this day. Yet there was no resentment in the monster's thoughts, it was more of a warrior's respect, an old enemy in a new circumstance.

The beast did not understand the concept of friendship, its self-awareness was too new, its thoughts still too jumbled, but it felt it, none the less. It felt it as a yearning, a hunger for the rat's presence, but not a painful one, not like its craving for the essence had been. The desire for companionship that the beast felt was new to it as well, but not unpleasant or maddening.

Other new feelings and instincts intruded on the beast's thoughts, especially over the past few months. Something invisible was calling it, something to the west, something far from the shores of the Circe Sea. Each day it would swim past the maelstroms and boiling patches of the lake, drawn to the western shore by an unknown and growing attraction. It could sense the presence of a frightful force, but it did not feel fear. The force seemed to grow stronger every day, more threatening and more infuriating. The Asherouboros would raise itself out of the water and scream a chilling, ululating screech of challenge towards the force each day. The challenge went unanswered. This day had been no different.

After awakening from an image-filled sleep, the monster found itself drawn to the west to roar another threat to the unseen presence. Frustrated yet again, it wound its way through the murky depths toward the Black City of Thoth, to the base of the great bridge where it knew that food would be waiting and hoped the odd small rat would be as well.

The Asherouboros was aware of the increased activity upon the bridge over the past few days. It watched the toiling and building with interest, swimming lazily back and forth along the span of the bridge. Above the odor of strange beasts, the creature could detect the smell of fish and knew it would soon be fed. Floating above a calm patch of water a hundred yards from the bridge it waited for its meal, taking little heed of the continued activity and creatures scurrying about.

Thoris and Frega gratefully exited the gatehouse and made their way to the crane-crews, where they began the process of lowering the massive net into the Circe Sea. The idea was to let the net rest on the bottom, which was relatively shallow right next to the bridge, no more than twenty feet below the surface of the water. With luck, the Asherouboros would pass out directly above the submerged net and could be hauled out with relative ease despite its generous bulk.

Dema, Gladiverserac, Belinda, and Robbi retreated from the bridge to the second level of the castle entrance where they could oversee everything happening on the bridge and lake with ease. This, however, was not the only reason for their withdrawal, as Robbi explained to Gladis.
"I'm a bit nervous about being around the Asherouboros. Even though Chumley assures me that Ashy no longer goes berserk when he senses Arisha's essence, I'd rather not test it. The last time I was in the monster's presence was when I fought Khalis. The only reason he ate her instead of me was because she was closer. Besides, it's much more comfortable up here and a whole lot less smelly."

"That's enough reason for me," Belinda chuckled, "it feels good to be able to breath again."

Gladis giggled.
"And I, once more doth have a taste for fish."

"You've got a stronger stomach than me, my dear. I rather like this view myself, though. We can watch the coming chaos in comfort."

"Dema, shame on you!" Robbi said lightly,
"They're doing their best and I'm sure they'll be successful."

"Oh, I do as well, Robbi, but they are males, so they'll make the whole operation twice as difficult as it needs to be. It should be quite a show. I think I'll run to my quarters and get us a nice pot of tea and some lemon cookies before the performance commences."

Thoris and Frega supervised the lowering of the net. The half dozen re-engineered catapults supporting the net extended fifteen feet over the edge of the bridge. The main arm of each makeshift crane stood thirty feet high, secured at a forty-five degree angle to a sturdy wooden base which in turn was bolted to the bridge. Due to the angle and height of the arms, the plan was to position the tank and its supporting cart beneath the arms of the six cranes.

Each arm was attached to its base with a pair of ratcheted hinges and had blocks and tackles running from the top of the beam to the opposite wall of the bridge. This setup, in theory, would allow the arms to be drawn back over the bridge once the creature was secure in the net and allow it to be lowered into the tank.

Lowering the net itself went smoothly and in a short time it lay at the bottom of the Circe Sea, directly below the feeding station. The tank was about two-thirds full and resting on the giant wagon slightly further down the bridge. Frega positioned himself at the head of the hundred-foot long cart and ordered his wolves to take their posts in preparation for pushing the tank to its position beneath the cranes. On his command, eighty wolves pushed with all their strength. Loud grunts filled the air and soon the incredibly heavy wagon was moving at a slow steady pace toward the crane setup. When it arrived at its resting point beneath the crane arms, Frega walked quickly to the gatehouse to inform Chumley that all the necessary preparations were in place.

Chumley lowered the first, un-drugged sack of fish over the porch of the gatehouse and waited. As the soggy burlap touched the sea, a rainbow-hued slick of fish oils began to spread outward in the direction of the Asherouboros, who still hovered calmly a hundred yards into the Circe Sea. It did not take the beast long to catch the scent. Its nostrils flared slightly and it began a lazy swim to where it had been fed these past few years. When it reached the sack, the creature paused and raised its head out of the water, looking up toward Chumley who was leaning out over the ledge, watching. Re-submerging, the Asherouboros opened its fearsome maw and engulfed the sack, swallowing it in a single gulp.

Chumley retrieved the rope and secured the second sack of fish, the one soaked in Xezee potion, to the rope on the pole. Before lowering it, he spoke to the great beast.
"Ah'm sorry for doin' this to yah, ah truly am, but our 'opes are ridin' on yah, mah scaly friend. For what it's worth, ah think you'll like the endless blue ocean a lot more than your present murky 'ome." He began lowering the sack, stopped and continued his one-sided conversation, "Oh yeah, ah almost forgot, Arisha sent yah a gift, a goin' away present, ah suppose, but yah don't get it till you're in your new 'ome. Ah'm fairly sure you'll like it, rememberin' as ah do the relish with which you munched Khalis. Ah shouldn't be tellin' this, but seein' as we're such chums, ah will, won't ah? It's the good stuff she's givin' yah, 'er essence it is...pure too, no nasty witch around it, is there? Anyway that's waitin' at journey's end, so be a good boy and eat your dinner."

Chumley continued lowering the sack until it was just above the surface, not wishing to disperse the potion into the sea. The Asherouboros circled for a moment, then raised out of the water and engulfed the sack.
The creature noticed an odd new taste in the second bag of fish-parts, but hunger overcame caution and soon the sack was totally consumed.

As it awaited its next course, a drossiness began to overcome the beast. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation, it was a feeling of lightness, a detachment from its body. The Asherouboros drifted into a deep, deep sleep. Visions and dreams of places it had never been, of beings it had never seen, cascaded through its mind's eye as the creature's massive body went limp and floated gently at the side of the bridge.

Chumley looked down at the floating leviathan with a combination of satisfaction and concern. The beast floated directly over the net, bobbing lazily on the choppy swells. The rat stared at the hulk intently, looking desperately for signs of life, afraid that the venom may have been too potent. He let out a long sigh of relief when the Asherouboros shuddered slightly in its dreams. Regaining his sense of purpose, Chumley rushed out of the gatehouse and gave the signal to begin hoisting the net.

The tank-wagon had completed its trek and was situated beneath the angled beams holding the net over the edge of the bridge. The wolves who had pushed it to its present position abandoned the cart and integrated themselves among the Thothians set to man the cranes. Each beam had four sets of ropes rigged with blocks, tackles, and pulleys. Two of the sets were for raising the net and the remaining two for drawing the beam back on its hinge to draw the net up and over the tank where its contents could be released.

On Frega's command the twelve teams manning the six beams began pulling in unison. Even before the net reached the floating Asherouboros, it was slow going. The rigging was setup for maximum lifting power so it required ten feet of pulling to raise the net a mere six inches.

Thoris had joined Chumley at the edge of the bridge. Each maneuvered long poles to guide the massive floating beast to the center of the net. When the net eventually reached the beast, it was well centered. Chumley crossed his fingers as the net continued to raise. The Asherouboros was sixty feet long and weighed in excess of thirty tons, it would take all the strength of the cranes, ropes, and especially the beasts to get the creature safely up on the bridge and into the tank. The beams creaked in loud protest as the full weight of the beast strained against the six converted catapults. Beasts grunted in syncopated exertion as, inch by inch, the Asherouboros was lifted from the Circe Sea.

At a large window in the second level of the castle, Dema and her tea circle watched the process with fascination. Gladis shook her head in admiration while munching on lemon cookies. She turned to Belinda.
"Planned well has thine husband, a clever beast he is."

Belinda snorted.
"Not in all things, Gladis. He still has no clue he going to be a father...that tidbit he will discover tonight before he takes his monster friend to the shore."

Robbi perked up.
"You've decided to tell him! Marvelous, I was hoping you would."

Belinda became serious.
"It's no fair to him for me not to tell him. He's going on a dangerous journey, meeting a terrifying foe. I want him to have a reason to be careful, to come home to me."

Robbi embraced her friend and spoke soothingly.
"He has you, sweetie, that's more reason than he needs to return safely, he loves you with all his heart, but I still agree with your decision one hundred per cent. I think knowing you are having a child will calm him. In my mind, Chumley's greatest worry is the fear of leaving you alone and having you forget him..."

Belinda protested loudly.
"I'd never forget him!"

Dema smiled and patted Belinda's hand.
"We know, we know, but again, as I seem to have to remind you girls constantly, he's a man and can't help himself from thinking stupid thoughts...even I wouldn't be able to forget him...,"  the old toad laughed loudly, "and I've been trying to for years."

Belinda giggled despite her concern.
"I'm being silly, I know. Let's have some more tea."

Dema nodded.
"Now there's a sensible thought."

When the net was raised to nearly its maximum height, the ropes were secured and every beast on the bridge paused for a brief while, staring at the legendary creature hanging, entwined, above the roiling sea. The Asherouboros hung gently swinging, taking up fully two-thirds of the net strung across the six converted catapults. The fire-hardened beams strained and creaked beneath the enormous weight of the beast.

The next step in transferring the Asherouboros into the tank again required the combined power of the Lokian and Thothian crews of the catapults. Moving from the now secured lifting lines to the rigged ropes securing the hinged beams to their bases, they took up their positions and began to pull. Slowly the angled beams began to shift to an upright position, slowly swinging the Asherouboros from over the Circe Sea to its required location on the bridge over the partially filled tank. When the shift was completed and beams nearly vertical, the beast hung directly over its new temporary home.

Frega gave the signal to begin lowering. Slowly the net descended. As the bulk of the beast was lowered into the tank, the water level raised, until finally, liquid spilled from around the top of the enclosure and the monster was completely contained in the tank.

Thoris and Frega walked the circumference of the tank, checking for leaks and flaws, while Chumley instructed a crew of wolves in releasing the net and drawing it out from under the Asherouboros' body. When the net was withdrawn and everyone was satisfied with the integrity of the enclosure, a spontaneous cheer echoed across the Evyan Bridge. Wolves and Thothians loudly congratulated each other before collapsing in well-earned exhaustion and finding comfortable spots to rest on and around the catapults.

Chumley stood at the foot of the tank, pressing his paws and face against the glass and staring into the cloudy olive-tinted water. The Asherouboros' massive head faced the small rat perhaps a yard from where Chumley leaned. Its eyes were closed, but its nostrils flared each few seconds as it breathed in the soupy lake-water.
"Sleep well, mah friend, you've got an 'ard job ahead of yah. I 'ope yah ain't too fond of this nasty excuse for water. I reckon you'll be right shocked by 'ow clean the real ocean is, won't yah. Don't you fret now, ah'm comin' with yah, ain't ah? Can't let mah pal make that long trip by 'imself, can ah? Ah'll be right at your side till we get yah to your new 'ome."

Dema got up from the castle window and finished the remainder of her tea.
"That went surprisingly well."

"Very well indeed," Robbi agreed as she walked over to Gladiverserac. She placed her paw on the albatross' shoulder, "Gladis, we need to get ready to leave for World's End. When we get there, we'll prepare for the Asherouboros' arrival."

"Prepare, I will," Gladis nodded, "my saddle, I shall don and food I shall procure. At what time doth thou wish to depart?"

"As soon as possible, I think. It will probably take Frega and his wolves at least a week to get to World's End, even with the added teams of moose and reindeer pullers, but I'll need to arrange for a ship or two and get them fitted and supplied," she smiled, "hopefully we'll have time to find out if there is any news from Xenoth."

Belinda stood and began to walk back into the castle. She turned to her friends.
"As for me, I'm going back to my rooms to prepare to say farewell to Chumley and figure out how I'm going to tell him he's going to be a father," she laughed, "that's assuming he's done comforting Ashy, of course."