before he could get off the back porch and catch me, and I
have to confess that it was a little exciting to tease him like
that, even though I knew I shouldn’t if I wanted to live a
long time.
Unfortunately, I had never expected to fall down in the
Wylmeens’ garden, though I had long ago figured out from
the number of close calls that I’d had with Mud that falling
down meant I would probably not get a second chance to
get out of the garden in one piece. I heard Mud coming off
the back porch, and I looked up over the vines in front of
my face to see him hurtling across the garden right at me,
moving like a wild black shadow with white moons for
eyes. I couldn’t see much of him but I saw enough, so I
wrapped my arms over my head and curled up and hoped
the Wylmeens would be able to call him off me before I
looked like that wolverine.
Mud was on me in a rush. Then he was over and past me,
and I heard a shriek that could have awakened a graveyard
full of dead people. Mud was snarling and fighting, and
someone was screaming, and I decided it was time to get
out of there no matter what had happened to my ankle. I
started to crawl away on my hands and knees as fast as I
could, but as I was trying to leave I heard Goodwife Filster
screaming “HELP ME!” at the top of her lungs, and I did
what I had never thought I would do. I crawled back to save
her.
Humans think that because I’m a kender I am not
supposed to be afraid of anything, and I guess it’s true, but I
must admit that my stomach turned over when I saw how
big Mud was and what he was doing to Goodwife Filster on
the ground. Mud wasn’t paying any attention to me, so I
crawled over and got up on my knees and banged him twice
on his dog butt with the satchel. It was like hitting a tree
stump for all the good it did, and the satchel handle broke
right then anyway, and the facts machine fell out in the dirt