Alex and the Druids’ Eclipse

The door creaked open, just a smidgeon, and into the shaft of light was thrust a sliver of the old woman's face revealing only her hideous, crooked, hooked nose. Shadows encircled and hid her from full view, but through the murkiness of the interior Alex could just make out a pair of predatory eyes, as black and forbidding as the bottom of a disused mine shaft on a dark night, encased in the folds of her dry, crusty, pockmarked skin. Suddenly, the door was flung wide open with such a force that Alex was sure it was going to hit the ground and turn to dust. He leapt back and threw his arms up in front of his face to avoid being hit by flying debris, but the door remained on its great wooded hinges, creaking loudly as it swung back and forth in the rising wind. Alex lowered his arms and forced himself to look towards the entrance of the hovel, and there he saw Tanguistl, her eyes crinkling, her thin cracked lips gaping, revealing the full repulsiveness of her toothless smile, as her expression twisted into one of complete and utter joy at the sight of Alex and Merlin.