July252009
"Stranger! Halt and regard me!”
Wary, I halted. Couldn’t see a damned thing through that fog, though.
“Hello,” I said. “Where are you?”
Just then, the fogs broke for a moment and I beheld a huge head, eyes on level with my own. They belonged to what seemed a giant body, sunk up to it’s shoulders in a quag. The head was bald, the skin pale as a milk, with a stony texture to it. The dark eyes probably seemed even darker than they really were by way of a contrast.
“I see,” I said then. “You are in a bit of a fix. Can you free your arms?”
“If I strain mightily,” came the reply.
“Well, let me check about for something stable you can grab onto. You ought to have a pretty good reach there.”
“No. That is not necessary.”
“Don’t you want to get out? I thought that was why you hollered.”
“Oh, no. I simply wanted you to regard me.”
I moved nearer and stared, for the fog was beginning to shift again.
“All right,” I said. “I have seen you.”
“Do you feel my plight?”
“Not particularly, if you will not help yourself or accept help."
— Roger Zelazny: The Chronicles of Amber - The Courts of Chaos
