Is the ‘Beast’ alone?

Another public warning flyer front and back:

The snake like creature has struck once again.  The story begins on Thursday, when Yang Moreau was trying to get to his barge he was chased down by the snake.  He tried to escape but it followed him wherever he went until he escaped inside the Gangplank.

He stayed in there and others went inside past the snake that was sitting nearby, including the Melnik’s, the Mayor, and Mrs. Underby.  Eventually one of them left the door open and the snake made his way inside and attacked Yang…though he left everyone else alone, almost as if it had been ordered to attack him!  We will get to that in a moment.

Eventually the crowded bar either forced it to retreat or it simply choose to leave, the accounts differ on this fact, and it found an easier prey in a poor street urchin.

Yang called for help but when they arrived the snake had already escaped to the depths below with it’s prize in it’s mouth.

But why is the snake so selective in who it kills?  Can it truly just be hunger or is there a more sinister force behind it’s attacks?

At least one eyewitness has seen Phaedra with the snake on more than one occassion and even she has admitted that it has never attacked her.  Could she have been training this snake to kill as one trains an attack dog?  Or perhaps it was sent ahead by another Underby to make way for his return!

Worse, we have photographic evidence of others standing perfectly at ease with the snake and not attacking them such as Caspian Moonstone, who managed to pose for three different pictures with the snake just staring at him!  Since the other photographers aren’t in the same shot despite those extreme angles the snake must have stood still for them! 1 2 3

Look at him standing there with his arms crossed confidently, as if he knew it wouldn’t attack him!

But the snake has also been seen regularly outside of the Gangplank and Fullarton House.  Why would it keep returning there if Miss Macbain or Mr. Victor have not been encouraging it?!  Could they be the ones who have kept it coming back by feeding it or encouraging it in some way!?

Last but not least Amadeus, the owner of the aquarium, has been trying to capture the snake alive for some
time, but how do we know that he wasn’t the one who brought it here
from afar in the first place!  He might have unneccesarily jeopordized
countless citizens by turning away our tourists revenue!  Who knows how many have been scared away just from the news of it being here, and instead are spending their money at Caledon?!  And there’s also the fact that it ‘escaped’ from the aquarium’s cell after he had caught it!

But if you ask the opinion of this reporter, they are all in this together, every last one of them!

((The day after this was printed, the man who wrote it was not only fired but was never seen in town again. 

While most of the town never became aware of this, the ones that did suspected foul play was involved by any or all of the people he accused above.  The truth was that some of them had intended to have a ‘word’ with this gentlemen and were also disappointed because no matter where they looked they couldn’t find him either.  This was because the man had realized he had no money and that he might be in some amount of danger.  He decided to capatalize on the reward being offered and got killed while trying to capture the snake alive.

As he had spent the last month or so of his life writing warnings about how dangerous the snake was, it was no surprise his last words were, ”I hate irony.”))