shoulders. He backed out, sniffling in frustration, and heard the voices again — various voices, close enough now that he could almost make out the words.
Knowing nothing else to do, Krog lay beside the hole, listening. The sound soothed and comforted him. He was not alone after all. He sniffled again, and tears glistened in his eyes as he closed them.
The old seep wound upward, and upward again, and the gully dwarves followed it, their candles casting weird shadows on the stone walls. It was slow going. Whatever had made the cavern shake and had sealed its entrance, had littered the tunnel with shards and slabs of broken rock. Footing was tricky, requiring more concentration than most of the Lady Drule's followers could maintain in a place with so many distractions — layers of fresh stone to be looked at and tasted, small, furry things to be noted in case there was time later for a rat hunt, and their own distorted shadows bobbing here and there.
As a result, the journey was punctuated with thuds and bumps, trips and falls, and a running commentary up and down the line:
'Look here! Pretty shine.'
'What that over there? Dragon?'
'Not dragon, dummy, just bat shadow.'
'Oops!' Thud.
'Hey, floor bouncy 1'
'Not bouncy. You fall on me. Get off.'
'Somethin' shiny there? Nope, just Bipp's eyes.'
'Anybody bring stew?'
'Where we goin', anyway?'
'To find Highbulp.'
'Find Highbulp? Why?'
'Dunno. Lady Drule say so.'
Then, from the head of the line, 'Sh!'
The Lady Drule had rounded a bend and saw light ahead. She stopped, and several of her followers bumped into her. 'Sh!' she repeated.
Behind her, around the bend, someone complained, 'Hunch! Get staff off my foot!' Then, 'Hunch? Hunch! Wake up, get staff off my foot!'
There were sounds of a tussle, and the Grand Notioner's voice, 'What? What goin' on?'
The Lady Drule turned, frowning. She put a finger to her lips. 'Sh!'
This time the message was relayed back down the line, and there was silence. She turned again, peering toward the dim light ahead. The tunnel seemed to widen there, and something glistened. Raising her hand to keep the rest hushed, Drule crept forward. Another cavern was just ahead, its floor strewn with broken rock and glitters of pyrite, and the light came from overhead. She tiptoed into the open, peering around. The light was daylight and came from a hole in the ceiling. There was no sign of the Highbulp and his explorers, but among the glitters lay two or three candles, a forage pouch, and a shoe. The others had been here.
The Lady Drule's ears perked at a sound that was like faraway thunder — or someone snoring. It came from overhead, and her eyes brightened. 'Gorge?' she called softly. 'Highbulp, where you?'
'Lady Drule find Highbulp?' someone asked.
'Must be close,' someone else suggested. 'Sure sounds like him snorin'.'
Drule looked up at the opening in the ceiling, then handed her candle to the one nearest her. 'All wait here,' she said. 'Maybe they up there. I go see.'
Clambering onto a pile of fallen stone, she found handholds on the stone wall and climbed toward the light. The opening above was small — about two feet across — but it was big enough for any gully dwarf to go through.
The Lady Drule climbed, then hoisted herself into the hole. The sound of snoring came again, very close. If that was Gorge snoring, he was outdoing himself. She had never heard even the Highbulp sleep so loudly.
With a final pull, she raised her head above the hole and looked around. She was on a hilltop littered with stone. Fragments and grotesque shapes were all around, and a particularly ugly large boulder blocked her view on one side. She raised herself from the hole, dusted herself off, and started to climb over the boulder, then stopped in confusion. It didn't feel like stone. As she bent to look at it more closely, the snore came again, then cut off abruptly. A pair of huge yellow eyes opened directly in front of her. For an instant, Drule froze in panic, then she pivoted and tried to run… and had nowhere to go. A pair of enormous hands rose behind her, blocking her escape, and the big head with the yellow eyes came upright and gazed at her. Below the eyes, a huge mouth opened, exposing great, chisellike teeth. In horror, the Lady Drule gaped at the monster, and it grinned back, then the big mouth moved, and it spoke one word. 'Mama?'
In the cavern below, the rest of the ladies — and the few males with them — waited with growing impatience. They could no longer see the Lady Drule, and could no longer hear the snoring. There were voices somewhere above — or a voice and intermittent rumbles of thunder — but they couldn't hear what was being said.
By threes and fives, they started wandering around the cavern, looking at the pyrite deposits, the fallen stone, anything of momentary interest. Several had nearly decided to go back down the tunnel to the lower cavern and put on a pot of stew, when the hole above darkened and Drule's voice came down. 'Ever'body come up,' she called.
Hunch peered upward. 'Lady Drule find others? Find what's-'is-name… th' Highbulp?'
'Not here,' she called back. 'Tracks, though. Maybe we follow an' find.'
The first ones to the top glanced at the Lady Drule, started to hoist themselves out of the hole, then spotted the huge, ugly creature crouched nearby — its gaze fixed lovingly on Drule — and retreated in panic, dislodging those below them. Within seconds, there was a tumbling pile of gully dwarves on the cavern floor and nobody climbing.
The Lady Drule appeared at the opening again, looked at them curiously. 'What happen? Ever'body fall down?'
'What that you got up there?' someone asked. 'Big, ugly thing.'
'Oh.' She glanced around, then looked down again. 'That just Krog. Stop wastin' time! Come up.'
Several of them began climbing again. Heads reached the surface and poked out, wide eyes looking past Drule at the creature still squatting nearby.
'That Krog?' someone asked.
'Krog,' Drule assured them.
'What Krog?' another demanded.
'Dunno,' she shrugged. 'Just Krog. That all he remember. All come on now. Got to find Highbulp.'
'Why?' several of them wondered. Then one added, 'We don' like Krog. Make him go 'way.'
Drule stamped her foot impatiently, then turned and walked to Krog. 'Go 'way, Krog,' she said. 'Shoo!'
Obediently, the creature stood and backed away several steps.
'More go 'way than that!' somebody called from the hole.
'Shoo!' Drule repeated, waving her arms at Krog. 'Shoo! Shoo!'
Looking very puzzled, the creature retreated farther, then squatted on its haunches again, a smile of contentment on its face.
It was some time before the Lady Drule got all of her people out of the hole. When she did, they crowded around her, staring at the creature she had found. She was so hemmed in that she could hardly move, and began pushing her way out of the crowd.
' 'Nough look at Krog!' she commanded. 'Come on. We gotta look for Highbulp!'
A layer of dust had settled on the hilltop, and there were tracks all around. Three distinct sizes of footprints — gully dwarf prints, human prints twice their size, and Krog prints twice the size of the human prints.
She showed the rest of them the tracks, then pointed. 'Highbulp an' rest go that way with Talls.'
Hunch stared at the tracks, frowning. 'Highbulp real dimwit to go with Talls,' he declared. 'Why do that?'
