~*T*~.

"Hey," Myrtle accosted the three girls, and Tom-the-Jade-who-was-a-diadem, "I need your help a few minutes."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, next ingredient I need is blood of an enemy, and I have one who killed me."

"What do you need?"

"I need someone to collect blood and someone to hold her nose, and I've only got Peter."

"Ah. Let us put our projects up, and we'll meet you there."

~*i*~

"So why are we going to hold a basilisk's nose?" Amy asked.

"She doesn't like it, so to fulfill some harvesting requirement, probably."

Lisa sighed, "Do Tom's other rocks keep you around, too?"

"I think, but don't want to test, all of us would have to be killed."

"That's good. See, Tom, I wasn't lying, we will be loved forever."

Tom-the-Jade-who-was-a-diadem cuddled closer.

Lisa gave him a pat.

~*i*~

"So," Taylor told Lisa, "There's a pressure point right inside her nostril, put your thumb on the outside, reach in, and squeeze."

The basilisk stiffened, "That hurts! Why are you doing that!?" She tried to pull back, and Taylor squeezed a little harder, "Oww! Stop!"

"Don't move," Amy told her, "She's getting a vial of blood, then we can let you go."

"Oww! Bitch! I'm gonna bite you if you stab me!"

"It's just a little needle," Peter called, wielding a horse syringe, with a 12-gauge needle.

"You're lying! I can smell it!"

"It'd be a big needle to me, but I'm a lot smaller than you are!" Peter said, before she stabbed the needle under the scale Myrtle indicated.

"I'm gonna get you! Eat you, shit out your bones, and crush your skull under my belly!"

"All done!" Myrtle said, "If you promise not to hurt my Peter you can go into the forest and eat as many giant spiders as you can catch!"

"How giant?"

"Bigger than horses."

"OK, I won't hurt your Peter, even if she's a horrible, snake-tormenting bitch."

"Stay away from the centaurs, they're dangerous," Taylor said, letting go of the basilisk's nose, "It's nice to see you again," she gave her a quick kiss on the snout, "Sorry 'bout the hold, but you needed to be upset about the blood."

"Oh, OK. Can I go eat spiders now?"

"Yes, you can," Myrtle told her.

~*i*~

"Barty Crouch, Jr!" Peter called suddenly.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"You're right. Two more," Myrtle said.

"Rib removal," Lisa elaborated.

"Oh, yes. Yuck."

"Why were you talking about removing ribs?"

"Bones of my mother, blood of my enemy, and flesh of my servant, at the winter solstice, the rebirth of the year."

Peter turned to Amy, "Can you grow parts back? The more important the part is to me, the better the ritual will work, but," she cups and jiggles, "I'd really miss one of them. If you can't," she shrugs, "But I'd like Myrtle to be able to play with them properly."

"I should be able to. Where are you going to do the ritual?"

"We're talking about the room of lost things, but I'm not sure about overflow," Myrtle said, "Typically this ritual is very dark, and done at the summer solstice, when the year starts downhill."

"Hmm," Amy said, "Typically it is also done with an intent to spread misery and death, too."

"I don't know," Myrtle said, "I'd prefer to do it somewhere else, anyway."

"Oh, and while I'm asking favors," Peter said, "I want a prettier name, but," she shrugged again, "We haven't found one we liked."

"Elisabeth," Taylor started out naming British queens.

Myrtle shook her head.

"Mary."

Peter rubbed her chin with her knuckles, then shook her head.

"Victoria."

Peter looked at Myrtle, cocked her head to the side. Myrtle returned a half-shrug and a smile.

"I think I like that."

~*i*~

The Basilisk didn't know she wasn't a snake, and it really didn't matter to her as she crept along the spider-trail, eyes squinted mostly closed, nictating membranes closed, navigating as much by smell and thermal sensors. Ever-widening swaths of dead creatures make it hard to be sneaky.

The spiders were at the end of the spider-trail, and the Basilisk opened her eyes wide, gazed over the big, juicy spiders, and they dropped dead. Hundreds stampeded away, and the Basilisk smiled, licked her nose, and started with the biggest.

Crunchy, furry exoskeleton made them a little hard to swallow, but she'd grown a lot since the last time she had spiders. Spiders, like locusts, don't have eyelids, making them much easier to catch, and a baby basilisk's favorite food. She wiggled her neck from side to side, shoving the first spider down her throat.

After the second spider she looked over her pile of food, huffed, and swallowed a third.

She nuzzled a fourth large spider, sighed, and started back to her room, "Maybe I can bring someone to collect my food?"

~*i*~

"Hello?"

"Hello!"

"HELLO."

"HELLO!"

"What, I was asleep."

"Oh, sorry. I have a lot of dead spiders, could you pick them up for me? And preserve them for later?"

"Human refrigerator, how glamorous," Taylor complained, "Sure, let's go."

~*i*~

Taylor, barefoot in her nightgown, hopped off the Basilisk's back. "How many of these do you want?"

"All of them?"

"How small of a spider will you eat? Most of these guys are crab size and smaller."

The Basilisk pondered a moment, "Big enough."

"This big?" Taylor pointed at a spider the size of a large dog.

"Yeah, about that big."

~*i*~

Taylor stuffs the last preserved spider into a corner, "All done."

"Thank you," the Basilisk said, then rubbed the side of her face against Taylor's side.

Taylor giggled, and patted her nose, "Good night."

~*T*~