Eugene Grode has taken his children Emma and Eustace on a Sunday outing to Byre Deep, a famously bottomless quicksand pit and Site of Special Scientific Interest. Eustace is pontificating. Emma is succumbing to ennui.

The wolf Hyol is giving himself to the Deep in the rite of Siedi, a necessary sacrifice to preserve the increasingly shaken balance of the world. He accepts this fate but not the Grodes' attention. His thoughts are: Do they think me a gawker-show? Will they throw coins??

Eugene is not certain what animals his fur coat was made from, and feels a vague guilt over it. He wonders if Hyol is protesting against the fur trade by choosing an end that renders his pelt inaccessible.

_o0o_

Ten minutes later the Grodes watch the bubbles rise over Hyol's grave. Eustace is pontificating about Canine Death-Wish, Emma is debating whether to push him in or jump in, and Eugene is thinking how much he admired Hyol's kilt. "I have the wrong figure," he tells himself sternly. Hyol, raised up by the Rite as an ethereal presence, hovers unseen over the Deep. He never wants to see another Grode: Do they think I do encores?

(Apologies to Edward Gorey, who drew this stuff better.)