Parley. She has walked miles and miles and slogged fathoms endless, through peaks and troughs and spiny forests searching for a Wise Snake to consult and get advice from regarding the terms of her release, only to find that she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line because the Snake is all but quoting Kiko Veneno*. The Proctors tailing her are likewise frustrated and as footsore a she is. An all-round bummer, I’d say. Back to the Road and better luck next time, girl.

* Las cosas que yo se

las sabe un tonto cualquiera.

Mi corazón va solito

por la carretera.

Byakhee. It’s a little known fact that teddy bears like to have a baby just as much as babies like to have a teddy bear. On the whole, though, teddies tend to look after their babies better than the other way around. This one here, a keen Byakhee watcher, has taken his young miss out to The Edges on an Anomaly Reconnaissance Expedition for the first time. Baby is duly impressed. Her own teddy cannot believe its cute glass- button eyes; it thinks the world a mighty strange place.

Useful note for users of Transport for London and/or British rail “services.. Byakhees are plug-ugly and none too clever, to be sure, but they are very comfy, pretty reliable and easy to summon and make them do your bidding, if you know the right spells. I recommend them as an alternative to what Mr. Khan has to offer the common or garden travelling peon. As for their proverbial infamous smell, I daresay it cannot be worse than the fragrances that emanate from any London Tube burrow on any given day. You’re welcome.

Wise Dragon. ‘ppy No-Year everyone!Here be a small vignette of home life, love and angst in the Marginal Outer Limits. This is for the Red Baron and the Ferret. May your hovercraft be forever full of eels, as my mate the Beast of Balfron Tower used to say many, many centuries a-gone.