THE BAIT

(Very, VERY Important Note: This story was inspired by @crabmouse 's image set : https://budgetpixel.com/p/87570 There, a woman in a cage in a dark night swanp was accompanied by this intriguing premise by Crabmouse : 'Adventurer, you come across a damsel in distress calling out for help! What do you do? Perhaps the old key you found in the thicket goes to the cage?" Immediatley, something went 'click' in my mind and I answered: 'Challenge accepted" Indeed, a Very Clever, Very Wise, Very, VERY Handsome Wizard took up the Challenge immediately. It turned out there was a problem, though. I took the image as something separate and totally unrelated to Crabmouse's work , having no connections and signifcance beyond itself. When I told her that I was writing a story about the woman in the cage, I was QUITE surprised when she answered: - "You mean Cynthia?" - "Uhh, she's got a name?" I asked back. Yes, not a very clever question - OF COURSE she had a name! It was just that I realized that this was an already established character. Checking back through Crabmouse's body of work, I discovered that during my long summer absence she had crafted a whole beautiful world full of Witches, Magical luminous Cats etc. (I had left things at Magma, the spaceship-dwelling cat and his friends) So, turns out that the woman in the cage was Cynthia, a Witch that is charminlgy ...uhh, bonkers, to put it that way. She had many images and stories already in her record and it also turned out that the image's premise was totally unlike the generic Damsel-In-Distress I had taken it for. I was already several pages in my story by then, though. And my woman in the cage had absolutely nothing in common with Cynthia. Heck, she had a totally different name, to say the least. So, I contacted Crabmouse and told her about it. She told me it was OK to publish the story when it was finished, as long as I cleared up things for the readers. So: I hereby swear on my Wizard's Honor, that the story that follows has absolutely nothing to do with Crabmouse's charming, witty and beautful world. The only connection was the inspiration one image from that world provided for me. AND ESPECIALLY: MY WOMAN IN THE CAGE IS NOT CYNTHIA. AT ALL. DEFINITLEY NOT . Any resemblance with Cynthia is uhh... well, quite reasonable, to be honest, but it is due solely to my... uh... hasty - to put it that way - decision, to make a stoy about an image, without first checking its background. There. I explained all. So, now, please, Crabmouse, don't have those Witches Hex me or anything. ...Pretty Please?) ON TO THE STORY NOW: It was a Dark Night, in a Cold, Dank Swamp.....