Androcles and the Lion (play) run from his Roman persecutors. While hiding in the forest he comes upon a wild lion who approaches him with a wounded paw. His wife runs off. Androcles sees that the cause of the animal's distress is a large thorn embedded in its paw, which he draws out while soothing the lion in baby language. Androcles is captured and is sent to the Colosseum to be executed with other Christians in gladiatorial combat. They are joined by a new Christian convert called Ferrovius, who struggles to reconcile his Christian principles with his violent inclinations. The Roman captain guarding them is
From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet demons, it was subsequently collected in the expanded version of "Deathbird Stories", published in 2011 by Subterranean Press. From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet "From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet" is a work by Harlan Ellison, a collection of 26 (one for each letter of the alphabet) extremely short stories on abstract and basically unrelated topics, displaying various aspects of Ellison's preoccupations with morality, mythology, the trivia of history, and humor. He wrote the collection in three days in the window of a bookstore. "From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet" appeared in the October