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Greenbeard had lain down on his high bed. Wenda and Mara had stayed on the ground, tucking themselves underneath two fir trees, making a soft bed of the many years' fall of needles.
Wenda could feel it coming. It was not far away.
Pada and Muna stood close to each other as two peas in a pod. Their noses twitched and their wide eyes betrayed fear and the awareness that something that threatened their lives was near.
Fir Hill was not enough to hold back the shadow. It had felt so near most of the day and night, but now seemed remote. It was not; rather, it had diffused itself over great spaces so as to be harder to detect. Suddenly it closed on Fir Hill.
Wenda's lips betrayed a bare hiccup, but Mara saw the whites of her eyes. Her face darkened.
"Wenda! Wenda!" Mara cried fearfully.
The shadow found the two-souled woman. The other woman would be next, then the Ent. It wanted this second soul, sweet to the taste, all mute fear and despair. It consumed.
Wenda seemed to be choking in her sleep, her body shaking and fighting against itself in seeming, her arms flailing.
"Araṛma calls you, foul beast!" cried a sharp voice from very close by. Of a sudden Wenda's contorting body fell back and she seemed as one dead.
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