Miss Tern's menagerie was the loop of Miss Tern. The loop was partially fictionalized in The Tale of Pensevus, a story featured in the unabridged Tales of the Peculiar.
History[]
After Miss Tern graduated from Miss Avocet's ymbryne academy, she established this loop for peculiar animals. Unfortunately, in the closing days of World War I in 1918, she was killed by a hollowgast, causing the loop to collapse and the bombs she had been holding at bay to fall on the house. Her sister, Miss Hawksbill, who had a loop nearby, was able to rescue many of her animal wards with the aid of a talented taxidermist, preserving lives and voices in the heads of the ones that had lost their bodies. After the loop's collapse, Miss Hawksbill remained near so she could still sometimes visit her sister.
There were stories of the menagerie being overrun by enemy soldiers, an event later featured in The Tale of Pensevus.
The Desolations of Devil's Acre[]
Description[]
The loop entrance is located in the bear pit of a town zoo, through a wooden door in the side wall. On the other side, Jacques the grimbear guards the entrance. The day is sunny and cloudless, and the war, though close, has not yet overrun the town, though it would soon.
The house is a grand old chateau with a triple-peaked roof, a beautiful domed entryway, fancy woodwork, and a colonnade framing the ground floor. Much of it is covered by a drape of leaves and vines, which was originally meant to camouflage the house from bomb-dropping airplanes. Miss Tern did not have the chance to remove it before making the loop. The peculiar animals live downstairs, while Miss Tern lives upstairs.
A small tear in the membrane leads to the present.
Gallery[]
