“Into the pit, the pit, the black pit, when the souls scream and the worms coil…” Halla seized on the excuse gratefully and rose to her feet. “You’ve upset the bird,” she said. The bird in question was a small, finch-like creature that could have perched easily on Halla’s smallest finger, had she been foolish enough to stick her finger in its cage, which she wasn’t. It had a red beak and red eyes and most of the time it sang a repetitive three-note song that went, “tweedle-tweedle-twee!” Occasionally, its eyes would flash green and it would begin roaring in an impossibly deep voice about the
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