My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and once they did I saw that
the trunk was hollowed out to the extent of eight feet in diameter, with
two stairways, one up and another down, filling either corner of the
small entry room in which I found myself. Observing that my vision was
returned enough to see, the strange creature which had greeted me led me
down the descending staircase for a short way, until we came into a
cavern which was delved beneath the roots of the tree.

The walls and floor of the cavern, or more accurately, the sitting room,
for such it appeared to be, were paneled with a thick, heavy wood with
an almost artificially symmetric grain, and the ceiling was done in
diagonal boards of the same. Sitting in the center of the room was a
brick-laid pit in which burned an illuminating fire, and around it was
placed an odd covering frame that caught up the smoke and channeled it
via underground passages to some distant wilderness, where its sightless
remnants would dissipate into the atmosphere unnoticed. On the near side
of the fire was a round table flanked by four large, comfortable chairs,
padded by cushions made from the same material as the various carpets
and tapestries around the room.

There were two more of the strange creatures seated at the table, called
Canitaurs as I later found out, and as they are closely entwined with my
story, being prominent participants, I will describe them in some detail
here. They stood erect like a man, yet were quite contrasted in
appearance. Their skin for one was covered in a thick, impenetrable coat
of hair, much like a dog or a bear's. Their hands, also, were less
distinct in the fingers, though but slightly, and their limbs were a
little longer and thicker than a man's. The two most notable
differences, however, were the formation of their shoulders and chest,