Bestiary Observations

“Thought to be a variant of mandragora, for the vines that reach up from its collar, covering its face like a mask.

Notes the famed naturalist Melrose: ‘It weareth its skin in layers, much like to the root of similar name, perhaps for the proffering of protection ‘gainst the cold. Men say the great gaping orifice on its face was gouged by a shard of ice born of a midsummer blizzard. Though its former mouth was passing small, befitting naught but low whimp’ring, its prodigious new one screameth full loud and full much as the foul beast could want, thence earning it its name.’”