Not long ago and not very far from here, there were Two small Towns, which were built on either side of a great gorge. The gorge itself had been cut through the rock by a swiftly flowing river, which still ran, far down at the bottom of the gorge. The Two Towns both claimed the chasm as their own and believed that the border that separated them was, respectively, positioned on the opposite cliff edge from themselves. Both towns claimed that the gorge lay within their territory. There did not appear to be any benefit gained from owning the gorge other than the fact that both towns believed that they were named after the gorge and that those names were different.
There was, however, little communication between the towns as the nearest crossing point on the river was several miles upstream and yet a simmering rivalry was felt in both towns. Exacerbated by the fact that they could not help but see their rivals several times a day across the wide chasm, this rivalry coloured their days with dark thoughts.
Then, one winters day, a great storm caused a massive landslide just downstream from the towns and a deep lake was formed from which a beautiful waterfall fell, over the blockage and down into the remnants of the lower gorge. As if this was not trauma enough for the towns, a Great Water Serpent came to live in the lake and proceeded to make its daily meal of livestock from both banks of its new home. Now, for the first time, the Two Towns had a common problem. At first, both towns decided that, contrary to their earlier assertions that it was they who owned the gorge, now, the other town was responsible for resolving the crisis. Whilst the wrangling about whose duty it was to rid the lake of the serpent raged, the serpent was growing ever larger and the livestock on both sides of the lake was dwindling at a alarming rate.
Eventually, when no solutions had been found, someone suggested that they contact the Guardians of the Cave who were known to solve difficult problems without causing too many ramifications.
The Guardian duly arrived, and having been told all about the problem and the rivalry between the towns, he began by laying out some possible solutions.
The first, that they could join together in an effort to breakdown the landslide which had caused the lake to form, was possible with little danger and a lot of hard work, but rejected as both towns saw the new lake as an opportunity to catch fish.
The second solution was to hunt the Great Serpent and put an end to it, but this would be dangerous as no one from either town had experience with such an exploit.
The third was to make a giant net, and with the townsfolk working from both sides of the lake, they would pull the net along the lake and trap the serpent, making it easier to despatch it once it had become entangled in the mesh of the net. This, then, was the idea that was decided upon.
The Guardians of the Cave 