When Menegal awoke, it was dawn. He glanced at the tired Hilfarey at his side. Sitting up and trying to rise, he fell backward onto the pallet and realized he could not stand, unless with great pain on account of his ankle.

“You will not be able to stand for a while. Therefore, I have provided this,” said Hilfarey, lifting up a crutch made of wood with some linen tied around the top for comfort. Hilfarey then helped Menegal arise and showed him how to walk with it. After learning to walk in a new fashion, he thanked Hilfarey and went to Golwitch’s tent.

When going in the tent he saw that Golwitch was not awake.

“Golwitch! Golwitch! Awake!” cried Menegal, turning Golwitch over on his back. When Menegal turned him over, Golwitch’s arm fell into Menegal’s lap, revealing two fang marks, dripping blood.

“But snake bites do not bleed,” said Menegal, feeling for a pulse. He found none. He then tried to listen for a sound of breath and beat of heart. All was lifeless. A tear trickled from Menegal’s eye.

Looking up from Golwitch, he glanced at the end of the mat and saw a snake on the ground waiting to spring at him. Quickly thinking and acting, Menegal put his crutch in front of him as a shield. Springing, the snake wrapped itself around the crutch, thinking it was the victim’s leg. Taking up the crutch, Menegal struck it against the ground five times with the snake still wrapped around it, crushing it. After the snake was dead, he pulled the disfigured snake off his crutch and bent over it. It was a kind unknown to him. It was black with red surrounding its eyes. When he stooped lower, the snake vanished from sight so that no trace of it was to be found.

Standing up quickly with a frightened look in his blue eyes, he pushed his thick hair from his face with a trembling hand; and covering the body of Golwitch, he rushed from that grieving place to the councilor of Leonidas’s army.