Excerpt from Miist (Book One of The Bone Grit Historeum)

 

     Perderly was a town known for its many eccentric fountains. They came bronze, stone, pewter, enormous and tiny as a cup. They danced as maidens, roared beast-like and even hopped from place to place in the shady grass.

 

Every one of them was enchanted. For a coin tossed into their waters some, like the maidens would offer a sip that made the drinker possessed of sudden courage. Some fountains bestowed hidden surprises - the bigger the coin, the bigger the surprise. Some offered themselves freely in an assortment of flavours but if they didn’t like you, beware the flavour! Some fountains bore secret water spirits that granted wishes, some bore advice or prophecy.

 

One fountain would actually let a person sleep in its basin without drowning, but yet another would reach up and drown anyone who took of its water without tossing a coin.