Cookie, monster? Bang! Bang! Bang!

 “How doth the little crocodile

  Improve his shining tail,

 And pour the waters of the Nile

  On every golden scale!"

 “How cheerfully he seems to grin,

  How neatly spreads his claws,

 And welcomes little fishes in

  With gently smiling jaws!"

-Excerpt from Alice in Wonder Land

by Lewis Carroll

I

From the folds of busy city chimes a tune reached out, unheard by human ears, but all too keen to make itself known to one amongst them this chilly night. It pierced concrete, metal, and bone, the divine calling raced to its mark, old Gerald Leto. He, unsuspecting, tripped to a halt grasping his chest. The old man, large as a walrus and dressed in a charcoal three button suit with matching heavy wool overcoat froze on the spot. The tone struck like a blow and resonated profoundly, it was audible honey to his soul, licking his mood clean and mind blank of all other tasks.

“By Athal,” he muttered, turning towards the direction it came from. “Did you hear that too? Or was that you my other?” But no one was waiting for him, just a stretch of empty sidewalk. “Someone must have arrived,” he concluded. Changing direction from the hotel, he headed across the street to the Lincoln Park Zoo, a block and a street away. Once there he soon found the source of the melody and for the second time that night halted in surprise.

“Nay," he uttered, drawing the word out like a sigh. It was as he suspected but not what he imagined. Something had indeed arrived, but what it was certainly had no business being here. Yet there the tree stood, and it was like none around it. Where they were slender, arms to the sky and void of leaf, this one was stumpy, the trunk as thick around as a cow and its limbs curled and twisted out low to the ground like an amber octopus.

“Look at this," Leto proclaimed. “I scarcely believe it; the Kasvir Tree, it is here!” Stepping from the path he approached it, arms outstretched. He hugged the trunk, pressing his body against it, cheek to the bark. “Delightful old friend.” He smiled. “Oh what impossible joy to see you again.”

With his left hand Leto searched and let out a grunt when he discovered the mechanism he sought. “Vreindschap,” the old man commanded, then activated the dial. The tree rumbled in response. Leto stepped back and watched as the truck shifted. Before him, in the recesses, an opening took shape and within it a door, with a large silver knocker at its center, emerged. The old Ambassador put his hand to it, and it clicked then swung inward. There was light and heat within.

"The days and hours I could have counted, but  still I would not know how long it has been since I entered here." Leto said and crossed the threshold. "Will you be who I find? Is this of your doing, my other? Have you finally sent for me?"

He took three steps into a hallway and it was exactly as he remembered. A pentagon shaped space with four doors in addition to the one he had come in through. There was a multitude of polished wood, as you might expect from a room inside a tree; the floor, the beams, the doors and the molding, all had black inscriptions burnt into them, and everywhere slender roots crept and crawled. Leto’s breath trembled at the familiar sights. He looked at his hands; they were shaking.

“Steady on old man,” he comforted himself, then inhaled through his nose before slowly exhaling. “It smells like home,” he whispered. “So sorry you had to miss this Leto. It should be you, not I, granted this gift.”