stood among the rubble teetered and fell, and a cloud of dust rose to blank out everything from sight. Below the dancing rubble, a deep, cavernous rumble sounded, and in its echoes came a muted roar of surprise and outrage. The very ground seemed to fall, resettling several feet lower than it had been.
For a time there was silence, then the dust blanketing the ground shifted and a small head came up. 'Wha' happen?' Tagg asked.
Around him, others arose from the dust, wide-eyed and shaken. Plit and Gogy appeared first, then old Gandy, coughing and spitting dust.
'Wha' happen?' someone echoed Tagg's question.
Gandy looked around, bewildered. Then he looked up and blinked. 'Fling-thing fall down,' he said.
Not far away, the maze of timbers that had been a discobel was now an entirely different maze. It had rolled over, its timbers realigning in the process. At first the gully dwarves could see no movement there, then there were scuffing sounds and Clout appeared, crawling from a gap between broken spars. He got out, dusted himself off and blinked at the rest of them.
'Where Clout been?' Gandy demanded.
Clout held up a sturdy cylinder of polished wood. 'Got new bashin' tool,' he explained. 'Wha' happen out here?'
The carefully-collected pile of rocks was gone — scattered all over the clearing. Gandy sighed and began again to pick up stones. The others watched for a moment, then joined him. And as other gully dwarves appeared, chattering, Gandy silenced them with a glare. 'No talk,' he snapped. 'Get rocks.'
Soon there were dozens of them there, all busily picking up stones. And then more, and then still more.
Suddenly, Tagg glanced around and saw Minna beside him, gathering rocks. He blinked, frowned and remembered. 'What Minna doin' out here?' he asked.
'Gettin' little rocks,' she explained. 'Somebody say to.'
'Where dragon? Let everybody go?'
'Hole fall down,' she said. 'Dragon can't move. Foun' new gully, though, for come out.'
'Oh.' He looked around. There were gully dwarves everywhere, all collecting stones. But to Tagg, that didn't seem quite as important as it had before. He went and found Gandy, and explained the situation to him. 'Dragon don' got everybody anymore.' he said. 'Look.'
It took a lot longer for Gandy to get everyone to stop collecting rocks than it had taken to get them to start. Inertia is a powerful force among gully dwarves. But finally they were all gathered around Gandy and someone asked, 'What we do now?'
'Dunno,' he said. 'Ask Highbulp.' He turned full circle, searching. 'Where what's-'is-name?'
'Who?'
'Th' Highbulp! Ol' Glitch. Where th' Highbulp?'
None of them knew, so they went looking for Glitch I. They found him, eventually, right where they had left him.
Glitch had slept through the 'earthquake,' only to wake up and find everyone gone. He sat up, rubbed his eyes and noticed that the stones had shifted and a new tunnel had opened. So he headed that way, grumbling. It was just like his subjects to wander off and leave their leader to catch up when he got around to it.
He was just ducking to step through the opening when a voice behind him said, 'Oh, all right! Let's make a deal!'
At first he couldn't see who had spoken. Sometime during his nap, a whole new rockfall seemed to have filled about half of the cavern. Huge slabs of stone had crashed down from above, and torrents of gravel with them. He peered here and there, then found the speaker: a big, angry green eye stared back at him from the depths of a crevice among the stone.
'Who that?' Glitch asked, backing hastily away.
'Verden Leafglow, you little imbecile!' The crackling voice subsided into a rasp of resignation. 'I'm ready to make a deal.'
'What kin' deal?' He hugged the cavern wall, ready to flee at an instant.
'I'm trapped here,' the dragon voice admitted. 'The hill fell in on me, and I can't move.' The statement wasn't entirely true. She knew she could fight free if she had to, but the effort it would take to get loose — in her condition — might kill her. 'I need help,' she said.
The Highbulp relaxed slightly. 'What kin' help?'
'The same thing I needed before!' the answer was almost a roar of aggravation. Then the dragon sighed and lowered her voice. 'My self-stone. I told you about my self-stone. Remember?'
It took a bit of head-scratching, but then the Highbulp remembered. 'Little stone? 'Bout this big? Special stone?'
'That's the one. I need it, and I need you and your… your people to find it for me.'
The Highbulp scowled in deep thought, scuffing the ground with his toe. Then his eyes lighted with a shrewd look. 'What in it for me?' he asked.
The deep growl that seeped through the fallen stone mixed irritation and controlled rage, but Verden held herself in check. She was trapped, but not helpless. It would be the work of a moment to free a claw and rend the arrogant little nuisance to shreds. But that wouldn't solve her problem. 'What do you want?' she asked.
When the rest of his tribe found him — right where they had left him — Glitch I, Highbulp Etc., was sitting on a rock in the rockfall cavern, his chin resting on his knuckles. At first, he seemed to be deep in thought; then the other dwarves noticed that he was asleep.
They gathered around him, curious. Old Gandy walked around him, then prodded him with his mop handle staff to get his attention. 'What Highbulp doin'?' he asked.
Glitch blinked, raised his head and looked around. 'What?'
'Why Highbulp sittin' here?'
'Thinkin',' Glitch said, irritated at being awakened. 'Highbulp doin' big think.'
'Soun' 'sleep, thinkin'? Think 'bout what?'
Glitch scratched his head, trying to remember what he had been thinking about. From the shadowed rockfall beyond, a voice thin with exasperation said, 'He's trying to decide what he wants from me.'
The voice so startled the gully dwarves that several of them tripped over others, and for a moment the place was a tumble of confusion. Then Gandy stooped to look under the rocks. 'Dragon? That still you?'
'It's still me,' Verden Leaf glow assured him. 'I can't believe that little oaf went to sleep. I thought he was thinking.'
'Highbulp always go to sleep, when try to think,' Gandy explained. 'Think about what?'
'I am prepared to offer you stinking little… you people… something that you want, in return for delivery of my self-stone.
So what in the name of the Gods is it that you want?'
Gully dwarves tumbled about again, some diving for cover, some running for the exit. With a hiss, Verden exhaled a jet of noxious vapor — just a small stream, but aimed directly at the exit tunnel. Gully dwarves darting into the mist recoiled, gasping and coughing, tumbling backward as the green fumes assailed them. 'No running away!' Verden commanded. 'We are going to settle this, here and now! Tell me what you idiots want.'
The Grand Notioner looked around him, puzzled. 'Want? Dunno. Anybody know what we want?'
'Stew,' several offered. 'Out,' a few others said. 'Rats?' someone wondered.
'Make up your minds,' the dragon hissed.
'We find self-stone, give to you, you give us somethin'?' Gandy pressed, trying to get it clear.
'Yes.'
'What you give us?'
'I don't know!I'm trying to get you to…!'
Gully dwarves were diving, tumbling and rolling everywhere. The Highbulp tried to hide behind the stew pot, then sniffed at its aroma and realized that he was hungry.
With an effort, Verden lowered her voice again, speaking very slowly.
'I… am… trying… to… find… out… what… you… want,' she said.
Gandy peeped out from behind a rock. 'Oh,' he said. 'Okay. Highbulp, what we want?'
