Chapter 2: The Dwarf
Judy awoke in the early dawn. She was shivering from the chill of the night. She moved in the mud that had covered her like a soft warm blanket throughout the dark hours and realized that there was no natural heat here anymore. The muck had slowly cooled. That she had remained still allowed the goo next to her absorb the natural warmth from her body and return some of it to her. Once she began moving around she found herself chilled to the bone. Her teeth chattered as she struggled to free herself of the muck.
No easy task that. Judy found herself held fast by invisible forces that sucked her back into the muck. The harder she struggled to break free, the harder the mud held her in place. She panicked and began screaming as she pulled first one foot and then the second free, only to have her head sink completely under the sucking mire. Gasping for air, and in her fear, she used all of her strength and broke free, rising upright, only to feel her feet sinking deeper and deeper in quicksand. Judy thought she was going to be pulled completely under. But then, as the foul muck rose to her breasts, she felt her feet touch hard earth. But she could not move. She lacked the strength to break free of the bonds that held her. She called out for help not expecting anyone to hear her.
Suddenly a rope fell next to her face. "Hold on tight," a strange voice called from the bluff. "I'll pull you out of there."
She grasped the rope and was relieved when it drew taunt, and slowly she felt herself being drawn upward and out of her entrapment. Within minutes she was on solid footing, and she scrambled up the embankment. There she met Oscar, the strange twisted dwarf of the woods.
He was hideous to look at. He had a humped back, a twisted spine that made one leg appear longer than the other, and a distorted face that made him grotesque in appearance. Uneven, extra large yellow teeth. One eye larger than the other. His beard failed to hide the imperfections. In spite of his strange appearance, Oscar was extremely powerful. Thick muscular arms made short work of pulling Judy's naked body from the gripping muck and up the steep embankment. Within minutes she was standing, naked, shivering, and surprisingly self-conscious in front of this strange little creature.
"How did you get in there like that?" he asked.