great swirling loops of it twirled up the walls or wound intricately through one another like the guts of some great and glowing beast tavi stared at them for a moment , in confusion and incomprehension it was beautiful , in a bizarre , alien way-strange and unsettling and fascinating he jerked his eyes from one of the more intricate structures and moved closer to a wall , where it would be less likely for a newly entered keeper to simply bump into him , looking around , struggling to orient himself according to kitai 's description he paced deeper into the eerie stillness inside the tree , around a mound of whirled croach that looked like an anthill and forward through a small field of lumpy croach , which could have contained another thousand keepers , silent beneath the surface he found the mushrooms in a ring at the center of the field , just as kitai had said they grew at the base of a glowing mound twice the height of a man , as big around as a small house the mound pulsed with greenish light , and tavi thought he could see the shadow of something dark , something slender within he drew closer , a sensation of raw dread flowing over him like an icy bath , even worse than the soaked blanket he wore as a cloak his knees grew weaker , and his breathing , despite his best efforts , became ragged kitai was rather -pretty , he thought though she was a savage , there was something about her face , her eyes , that he found intriguing if she was n't dressed , up in a ragged smock ( which really was shamefully short now that he thought about it ) , she might look more like a girl , less wild of course , he had begun to see her without the smock if he had told her to get more into the water , she might have taken it off altogether the thought made his cheeks burn , but lingered in front of him , enticing in its exotic appeal tavi shook his head abruptly what was the matter with him ?