Moving pictures

He threaded his way through a maze of treetrunk legs to the bar, barked sharply, and dropped Gaspode on the floor.

He looked expectant.

The buzz of conversation stopped.

'Is that Laddie?' said a troll. 'What he want?'

Gaspode wandered groggily to the nearest troll and tugged politely at a trailing strip of rusty chain mail.

' 'Scuse me,' he said.

'He bloody intelligent dog,' said another troll, idly kicking Gaspode aside. 'I see him in click yesterday. He can play dead and count up to five.'

'That two more than you can, then.' This got a round of laughter. [23]

'No, shut up. I reckon', said the first troll, 'he trying to tell us something.'

'-'scuse me?'

'You only got to look at the way he leaping about and barking.'

'That right. I saw him in this click, he showing people where to find lost children in caves.'

'-'scuse me?'

A troll brow wrinkled. 'To eat 'em, you mean?'

'No, to bring 'em outside.'

'What, like for a barbecue sort of thing?'

'-'scuse me?'

Another foot caught Gaspode on the side of his bullet head.

'Could be he found some more. Look at the way he running back and forwards to the door. He one clever dog.'

'We could go look,' said the first troll.

'Good idea. It seem like ages since I had my tea.'

'Listen, you not allowed to eat people in Holy Wood. It get us bad name! Also Silicon Anti- Defamation League be down on you like a ton of rectangular building things.'

'Yeah, but could be a reward or something.'

'-'SCUSE ME?'

'Right! Also, big improvement for troll image viz-ah-viz public relations if we find lost children.'

'And even if we don't, we can eat the dog, right?'

The bar emptied, leaving only the usual clouds of smoke, cauldrons of molten troll drinks, Ruby idly scraping the congealed lava off the mugs, and a small, weary, moth-eaten dog.

The small, weary, moth-eaten dog thought hard about the difference between looking and acting like a wonder dog and merely being one.

It said 'Bugger.'

Victor remembered being frightened of tigers when he was young. In vain did people point