The way the old man stumbled up to me, it seemed he was surely drunk, yet his words were clearly spoken.

"I'm here to tell you," he say excitedly, "of a sight I came upon some months ago, when I was moved to walk through the woods alone in the dark, as happens sometimes .." He trailed off, then started with fresh eagerness.

"The path was even beneath my feet, so I let my eyes wander to the leaves above me - was summer still then, you know - and a silver flash caught my eye. So quickly it moved, in curls and spirals, a great pale snake!" His hands made graceful motions in the air. "Nothing so sick as that, though, you understand, this was beautiful. Something right.

And you know, it hovered, it started to drift away, and of course I followed - some beauty, a dreamer's lifeblood!" He laughed a little. "Off the path, between the trees, I could barely keep up but then it stopped! And it descended, and the face of it looked at me, as its body kept writhing. The shame! That I should stand in the regard of such a creature, only myself!" He was nearly wailing now, but caught himself and calmed.

"The face of it - covered in scales, or feathers, and they weren't white or gray as I had thought, but all colors, light and shining. And enormous eyes it had! Like ice, they shone! But even as I noticed them, those big eyes closed.

"Before I could wonder or speak, the face turned away, and with a lash of its body it left me, far quicker than before. In a flash, I thought, was it displeased by me? But I didn't wonder long, for a little chunk of stone hit the ground in front of me, like it flew out of the moon!"

Now the man thrust his hand down the front of his shirt and came up with a long chain necklace. He came close to me, and curiosity bid I lean close to examine the pendant in his shaking hand. It was a stone wrapped in silver wire. I was disappointed.

"That's only moonstone."

"Ain't that fitting!" The man laughed delightedly, without many teeth. "Let me tell you, boy, this old man's seen a lot of things to please a dreamer, but all of 'em fade. But I haven't forgotten the way that thing looked at me, oh no! Never will! It's in all my best dreams now."