with a graveyard tan carrying a cross

The scholar in Caiaphas nearly trilled with excitement when the male admitted he did not know the origin of the name -- gently, her brow furrowed and she pushed over a frond of ferns and came closer, settling not too far from him all lithe and catlike.

She looked at him carefully before speaking, wondering how best to articulate the explanation. Gingerly she raised a front paw and drew what resembled a circle in the moist and insensate earth. The childish scrawl was crude, and where the base of the circle started she applied a strange arrow-like formation with a singular claw and looked up, circumspect and pondering.

"The ouroboros, or as the Greeks called them, οὐροβόρος ὄφις is a symbol of eternal recurrence. Similar to a phoenix, which never dies. Some cultures have used the symbol to express ad infinitum an existence that does not wax or wane. It is usually a snake depicted eating its tail. In the Norse culture.." She paused, and for a moment her unkind voice seemed almost fond as she recalled the stories of her upbringing: "In Norse, we know it to be Jormungandr, the Serpent of Midgard whose unravellings will end the world." She finished with a dark flourish and offered a bland smile.

"Is that explanation enough for you? Surely, whoever named the place had a reason for it. Do you know of the reason?"