text: [Themes: Fantasy, dragon, fairy tale]
  
  "My hike was long, ov?r this peak.
  More than a day, less than a week.
  Come hear the tale I have to speak,
  Hey diddle diddle aye-oh.
  
  "A brand new town I soon shall see.
  New people, I shall sing for thee.
  A happy bard then I shall be,
  Hey diddle diddle aye-oh.
  
  "But first I must find food to eat.
  I ate my cheese! I ate my meat!
  An apple core would be a treat,
  Hey diddle diddle aye-oh.
  
  "No rabbits found I for my pot.
  I looked for roots. I found them not.
  These hunger pains! They must be fought!
  Hey diddle diddle aye-oh.
  
  "Why do no birds fly overhead?
  Would not roast fowl taste good with bread?
  When was the last time that I fed?
  Hey diddle diddle aye-oh."
  
  The Fox, The Dragon, and The Stale Loaf of Bread
  
  You are on a lonely mountain trail. Trees grow sparsely this high up on the mountain, and even less so back up the trail to the northeast. To the west, the trail heads down past the treeline into a forest.
  
  And not a moment too soon. You are positively famished.
  
  [Author's Note: This is the beginning of an unusual fairy tale. Written for IntroComp 2005. Eleven locations.]
  
  > About yourself
  Since you are a bard, you are cursed with natural good looks. Clear, unblemished skin. Thick wavy black hair. Eyes so deep a brown, one could gaze into them forever. Except for that birthmark on your never-you-mind-where, you would be just about perfect.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a walking stick
  a knife (worn on your right hip)
  your moneypurse (worn on your left hip and closed)
  a rucksack (which is closed)
  
  > open the rucksack
  You open the rucksack, revealing a tinderbox, your lute and a bag of spices.
  
  > look at the spices
  It is a tiny brown bag of soft leather that contains your motley collection of spices. It is laced tightly closed.
  
  > open the bag
  You open the bag, revealing mixed spices.
  
  > eat spices
  You cannot eat spices by themselves! You would only make yourself sick if you did that.
  
  > look at the spices
  A mixture of salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and chives - but mostly salt. When you are lucky enough to catch wild game, you like to sprinkle on a little of this onto the meat to make it extra tasty. Just looking at the spices makes your mouth water.
  
  > taste the spices
  You moisten a finger and dab a little of the mixed spices onto your tongue. Mmm. Salty.
  
  > look at the knife
  A short servicable knife. It would not be much good in a fight, but every bit helps.
  
  > examine the purse
  A small cloth moneypurse, dyed black.
  
  > examine the stick
  It is a sturdy walking stick just over five feet long. You made it yourself by trimming a fallen tree branch that you found soon after you began your trek through the mountains almost a week ago.
  
  > look at the lute
  Your lute is perhaps your most prized possession, since it provides you with your livelihood, but you could build another if you had to. Master Dorien showed you how to carve its pear-shaped body out of pine, how to lightly string it with catgut so the instrument does not break under its own tension, and (of course) how to tune the thing fifty times a day. It is very lightweight and somewhat delicate.
  
  > Play lute
  (first taking the lute)
  You play a few chords on the lute.
  
  > Sing
  Your singing is delightful.
  
  > examine the tinder
  A small battered tinderbox made of tin, containing the necessary tools for lighting a fire. Your father helped you put it together when you were a boy, and it is the oldest thing you own.
  
  > open the tinderbox
  [You do not need to open or close the tinderbox. Just type LIGHT <object> WITH TINDERBOX when you want to start a fire.]
  
  > Go west
  You make your way down the mountain. As you pass the treeline, you hear a loud SNAP! followed by a sharp cry of pain.
  
  The mountain trail continues under a canopy of tall shady pine trees. The trail continues down to the southwest, and up to the east.
  
  To one side, you see a fox, its hind leg caught fast in a steel trap.
  
  > examine the trap
  The steel trap is like a jaw: two rows of zigzag metal "teeth" hinged on one side, with a heavy spring holding them clamped together.
  
  Well, almost together. The steel trap is currently clamped around the hind leg of a fox.
  
  > pry the trap with the stick
  And lose a potential meal?
  
  > look at the fox
  This is a full-grown lady fox, with a cloth cap on her head and a steel trap on one leg. Despite her obvious pain, she neither cries nor whimpers, but watches your every move with wide brown eyes.
  
  Your stomach chooses this moment to growl.
  
  > eat the fox
  Before you can eat the fox, you will have to kill it. You take out your knife. But the sight of the knife terrifies the captured animal! "DON'T EAT ME!" it says weakly.
  
  The words, faint as they are, freeze you where you stand. It's not merely that you're never heard a fox speak before. You haven't. But somehow, she has invoked magic here. Like a ritual. Or a promise. Or an oath.
  
  "DON'T EAT ME," the fox says again, stronger now. Or perhaps the world has gone silent instead, to hear her all the better. "If you spare me and free me, I will help you later. You will not regret it.
  
  > No
  The scene darkens briefly as a cloud passes over the face of the sun. "So be it," says the fox, and says no more.
  
  > eat the fox
  You quickly slice open the fox's neck; it dies instantly. Blood now stains your knife and hands, but that couldn't be helped.
  
  You have never eaten fox before, but doubtless it is similar to rabbit.
  
  > Cook fox
  (first taking the dead fox)
  It is too awkward and messy to carry both fox and trap together. You must remove the trap first.
  
  You wonder which part of the fox might be the most tasty.
  
  > remove the fox
  (first taking the dead fox)
  It is too awkward and messy to carry both fox and trap together. You must remove the trap first.
  
  > pry trap
  What do you want to pry the steel trap with?
  
  > Stick
  It's awkward, but using the walking stick as a lever, you successfully pry the steel trap open. After the fox's leg falls free, you carefully SNAP the trap closed and pick up both it and the fox's body. Waste not, want not.
  
  > Cook fox
  You have yet to skin the animal first.
  
  > Skin fox
  You remove the bloodied cloth cap from the dead fox.
  
  You begin the messy work of skinning the fox. First you turn the fox onto its back and make a long vertical incision...
  
  Let us make a long story shorter. When you are done, you have a carcass of uncooked fox meat and a fox pelt. Incidently, you made a bundle with the fox's cap and the unedible bits and chucked it far off into the forest. You also cleaned off your knife and put it back on your hip.
  
  > eat the fox
  Which do you mean, the fox pelt or the fox carcass?
  
  > examine pelt
  It has soft fox fur on one side, and bloody skin on the other. You are not sure what it is worth, but perhaps you can trade it for a nice bottle of wine.
  
  > Light stick with tinder
  (first taking the tinderbox)
  This dangerous act would achieve little.