You are in a beautiful boucolic countryside. Sunny day and all, wildflowers. A very fat squirrel lumbers past you, breathing heavily as it carries a bag of grain. He sees you, stops, drops the sack down and theatrically raises his little squirrel arms to the sky. "No, can you believe it? The granary is full, you'd think they will now let me go take it easy, you'd think they say "enough grain", but Noooooooo!" He picks up the sack and heavily scurries away as you are shaking your head. You are not sure why you are here. You are not sure where "here" is. You were on your way to the Dark Tower because something keeps messing up the fiber optic cable up there. You got lost and had to ask directions from this shifty fellow - conversation that you are now beginning to regret more and more. The way he pointed his finger and cackled "La Belle Dame Sans Merci!" really made you uneasy. You are on a horse. [[Keep riding|Willow]]Lo! Tolkien voice-over "In the midst of it there wound lazily a dark river of brown water, bordered with ancient willows, arched over with willows, blocked with fallen willows, and flecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves. The air was thick with them, fluttering yellow from the branches; for there was a warm and gentle breeze blowing softly in the valley, and the reeds were rustling, and the willow-boughs were creaking." You see what Tolkien's voice just said. Your inner voice tells you to avoid the willows and just keep on riding in the pretty meadows. Your curiosity (or is it the hand fate?) votes "willows". [[Heed your inner voice|willow2]] [[Heed your curiousity|knight1]]You turn your horse around and drive back into the pretty sun-lit countryside. As you keep on riding, the picture keeps tilting and panning and no matter what you do, you are headed for the willows [[obey your fate|knight1]] [[fight for free will|willow2]]Under the biggest willow, you see a loitering knight. He is alone. He is pale, woe-beggone and haggard. On his anguish-moist fever-dewn brow is a lily. You kneel next to him and ask how you can be of help. The knight whispers in a coarse voice that he needs something to eat and drink before he can speak. To feed the knight, you need to take grain from the full granaries of the fat squirrels. For the drink, purify water from the river and put it to boil in a kettle over fire. [[Go get the grain|squirrelfight]] [[Get water|pail]] [[Abanon the knight|willow2]]Ride back and find squirrel granary. You need to take a sack of grain. If fat squirrel tries fighting, you need to fight it. [img[squirrel1.jpg]]. [[Ride to the Granary|Fight1]] Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.You ride acorss the field to the edge of the forest. You see a little squirrel warehouse. It is the size of a double-wide! Banners with slogans "Кто не работает- тот не ест!", "No work - no food!", "Meet and exceed your grain collection quota!" decorate the walls. You realize these are tapestries, with inexpert squirrel lettering in a combination gothic/pravda font. Obviously, squirrels are not good at making signs and banners. A big fat squirrel is sitting at a flat log near the entrance. "May I help you?" it asks menacingly. Battle scene follows. If you win - grab a sack of grain and run! [[Back to the knight|knight2]]Double-click this passage to edit it.