Dor halted, dismayed. This time there was no doubt: no one passed this close to such a lair without paying the price. Dragons were the lords of the jungle, as a class; specific monsters might prevail against specific dragons; but overall, dragons governed the wilds much as Man governed the tames.
They could hear the dragon cubs entertaining themselves with some poor prey, happily scorching each potential route of escape. Dragon cubs needed practice to get their scorching up to par. A stationary target sufficed only up to a point; after that they needed live lures, to get their reflexes and aim properly tracked.
'Smash?is there?' Dor asked, dreading the answer.
'Hot,' the nearest stone agreed warmly. Crunch grimaced, and this time not even an ogress would have mistaken his ire. He stomped up to the scene of the crime. The ground danced under the impact of his footfalls, but the dragon's lair seemed secure.
The lair's entrance was a narrow cleft that only the narrow torso of a small dragon could pass through. Crunch put one hand at each side of it and sent a brutal surge of power galumphing through his massively muscles. The rock split asunder, and suddenly entrance was ogre-sized. The dragons were exposed, in their conservative nest of diamonds and heat-resistant jewels. The thing about fire-breathing dragons was that ordinary nest material led to burn up or melt or scorch unpleasantly, so diamonds were a dragon's best friend, a little ogre, no larger than Dor himself, stood amid three winged dragonets while the dragonlady glared benignly on. The ogreling was stoutly structured and would probably have been a match for any single dragon his size, but the three were making things hot for him. There were scorch marks all about, though the little ogre seemed as yet unhurt. Dragons did like to play with their food before roasting it
Crunch did not even growl. He just leaned over and looked at the dragoness-and the smoke issuing from her mouth sank like chill fog to the floor. For Crunch massed as much as she did, and it would be redundant to specify the power-to-mass ratio of ogres. She was not up to this snuff, not even with a belly full of fuel. She never moved a muscle, petrified as if she had locked gazes with a gorgon.
Now Smash advanced on one dragonet. 'Me tweak you tail, you big o'l snail!' he cried gleefully. He hauled on the tail, swung the dragon around, and hurled it carelessly against the far wall.
The second little dragon opened its mouth and wafted out a small column of fire. Smash exhaled with such force that the flame rammed right back inside the dragon, who was immediately overcome by a heated fit of coughing.
The third dragonet, no coward, pounced on Smash with all four clawed feet extended. Smash raised one fist. The dragon landed squarely on it, its head and tail whipping around to smack into each other. It fell on the bed of diamonds, stunned.
Even the littlest ogre was tougher than its weight in dragons, when the odds were evened. Dor had not believed this, before; he had thought it was mere folklore.
'Now games are through, to home with you,' Crunch said, reaching in to lift his son out of the lair by his tough scruff of the neck. With his other fist, Crunch struck the nest so hard that the diamonds bounced out in a cloud, scattering all over the landscape. The dragoness winced; she would have a tedious cleanup chore to do. Without a backward glance at her, they tramped away. Except for Grundy, who couldn't resist putting in a last word: 'Good thing for you, you didn't hurt the tyke,' he called to the dragon lady. 'If you had, Crunch might have gotten angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.'
Fortunately, Crunch was now in a good mood. 'Little man help we; how pay we fee?' the ogre inquired of Dor.
Abashed, Dor demurred. 'We were glad to help,' he said. 'We have to get home now.'
Crunch considered. This took some time; he was big but not smart. He addressed Grundy: 'Golem tell true: what can me do?'
'Oh, Dor doesn't really need any help,' Grundy said. 'He's a Magician.'
Crunch swelled up ominously. 'Me get mad, when truth not had.'
Daunted, Grundy responded quickly. 'Well, the boys around Castle Roogna do tease Dor a little. He's not as big and strong as the big boys, but he has more magic, so they sort of-'
Crunch cut him off with an impatient gesture. The ogre picked Dor up gently in one huge hand- fortunately not by the scruff of the neck-and carried him north along the path. Such was the ogre's stride, they were very soon at the edge of the Castle Roogna orchard. He set Dor down and stood silently while boy and golem proceeded forward.
'Thanks for the lift,' Dor said weakly. He was certainly glad this monster was a vegetarian.
Crunch did not respond. Frozen in his hunched-over posture, he most resembled the massive stump of a burned-out gnarlbole tree.
Awkwardly, Dor went on toward his home, passing near the umbrella tree. As luck would have it, the two bullies were still there. Both jumped up when they saw Dor, and eager for sport, ran out to bar his way. 'The little snooper's back!' Horsejaw cried. 'What's he doing on a path meant for people?'
'I wouldn't,' Grundy said warningly?For answer, a little snake landed on his head. A sonic boom went off behind Dor. The boys laughed.
Then the ground shuddered. The bullies looked around wildly, fearing an avalanche from nowhere. There was another shudder, jarring Dor's teeth. It was the ogre tramping forward under full steam.
Horsejaw's mouth fell open as he saw that monster bearing down on him. He was too startled to move. The other boy tried to run, but the ground shook so violently that he fell on his face and lay there. Several small snakes appeared, squiggled nervously, and vanished; no help there. If there were any more sonic booms, they were drowned out by the violence of the ogre's approach.
Crunch strode up until he loomed over the small party, his thick torso dwarfing the slender metal trunk of a nearby ironwood tree. 'Dor me friend,' he thundered distinctly, and the umbrella tree collapsed into shambles with the vibration. 'Help he lend.' Small cracks opened in the hard ground of the path, and somewhere a heavy branch crashed to the forest floor. 'If laugh at lad, me might get mad.' And he swung one clublike fist around in a great circle, barely over Horsejaw's head, so that the wind made the bully's hair stand on end. At least, Dor thought it was the wind that did it; the boy looked terrified.
The ogre's fist smashed into the trunk of the iron-wood tree. There was a nearly deafening clang. A
