The Dragon in Shallow Waters

The story opens inside a cavernous factory gallery that stretches five hundred feet, its iron girders and towering chimneys dwarfing the workers who push hand‑trucks through rows of massive vats. The air hums with the constant drone of machinery, while the pungent, acrid scent of boiling soap fills the space, a thick, yellow liquid that bubbles and rises as if alive. Down a steep iron stair, the scene shifts to a brighter room where perfume‑making girls tie ribbons around scent bottles, their space scented like an orange grove in full blossom.

Beneath the surface of those vats, the soap behaves oddly—swelling, erupting, then cooling into a cracked, earth‑like skin that resembles a miniature, ever‑changing landscape. The narrator senses something hidden within the viscous depths, a secret presence hinted at by the ever‑shifting surface and a proverb about a dragon in shallow waters. This atmospheric opening sets a tone of industrial mystery, inviting listeners to wonder what unseen force lurks beneath the frothy façade.