with them, had followed Drule and Krog as far as the pen.
Not finding a hole in the cage, they made one. Using the
edges of burnished iron stew tureens, they chipped away
enough sapling bars and lashings for the gully dwarves to
come tumbling out, and a flood of crouched Talls right
behind them. Pushing past and through the gully dwarves as
though they were not there, the Talls grabbed up fallen
weapons and launched a murderous attack on the stunned
and disorganized slavers.
The minute Gorge III, Highbulp of This Place and
Those Other Places Too, was free of captivity, he threw
back his shoulders, donned his most regal pose and issued
the orders of a true leader. “Everybody run like crazy!” he
commanded.
*****
It was many hours later, and broad daylight, when the
reunited Clan of Bulp paused on the devastated lower slopes
of the Khalkist Mountains to regroup. Through night and
morning they had fled, each and severally. But now Gorge
remembered that he had sore feet and decided it was a good
time to stop and reassert his authority. He proclaimed a
temporary This Place, and by threes and fives they gathered
around him.
There was one small problem. Through it all, nobody
had thought to tell Gorge about Krog, so when the Lady
Drule and her band showed up, shrieks and screams filled
the hazy air and they found a This Place with no one in
attendance except old Hunch, sitting on a rock.
Drule looked around in confusion. “Where Highbulp?
Where ever’body go?”
“All run an’ hide.” Hunch shrugged.
“Why?”
“Dunno. Didn’ say. Ever’body just holler an’ run an’
hide.”
Impatiently, Drule set her fists on her hips, stamped her
foot, and shouted, “Gorge! Where you?”
Here and there, shadows moved. From brushy crevices
and piles of stone, faces peered out. The Highbulp’s voice
said, “Yes, dear?”
“What goin’ on?” the Lady Drule demanded. “You
playin’ game?”
More of the gully dwarves peered from hiding places,
all gaping at the towering Krog. “What that you got with
you, dear?” the Highbulp called.
Drule looked up at the ogre, then turned toward the
voice. “Nothin’! Just Krog! Stop fool ’round!”
Reassurance didn’t come easily, but lapse of attention
did, and soon the whole tribe was gathered.
Within an hour, they had stew on, and the Lady Drule
handed a tureen to Gorge III. He sniffed, tasted, and
proclaimed, “This superi . . . excep . . . pretty good stew!
What in it?”
“Cave bear an’ skinny green plant,” she said. “An’
mushroom an’ tall-grass seed an’ leftover bird nest.”
He took another sip and nodded. “Good stuff. Best I…
CAVE BEAR? Where get cave bear?”
Offhandedly, Drule pointed at the hulking Krog, who
was waiting for the crowd around the stew pot to disperse
so that he could finish the pot. “Krog get,” she said. “Krog
not much for hunt rats, but bash bears real good.”
“Krog,” the Highbulp said, scowling in thought as he
studied the amiable monster. He hadn’t really thought much
about Krog since the first shock of encounter, but when he
did, troubling notions tumbled around in his head. He
glanced at Drule suspiciously. “Krog call you Mama,” he
said. “You been up to somethin’, dear?”
“Krog lost, needed mama.” She shrugged. “Keeps
callin’ me that.”
“Oh.” Gorge sipped at his stew, relieved but still
troubled. “Dear, wha’ happen to Talls at slave camp? Some-
thin’ squash ’em?”
“Mostly Krog,” she explained. “He got th’ hang of
bashin’ Talls pretty quick. Had lotta fun.”
“Hmph!” Gorge sat in thought for a time, then asked,
“How you an’ others find us?”
Again she pointed at the huge creature nearby. “Krog
find place. Krog pretty handy have around, right?”
“Right.” The Highbulp scowled. Tossing aside his
empty tureen, he stalked away, sulking.
The Lady Drule stared after him, then beckoned the
Grand Notioner. “Hunch, what wrong with Highbulp?”
“Highbulp?” Hunch shrugged. “Highbulp is Highbulp.
That his main problem.”
“What that mean?”
“Highbulp gotta be Highbulp alla time,” he explained,
puzzling it out as he went. “Gotta be big cheese, top turkey,
main mullet, otherwise, no good be Highbulp.”
“So what?”
“So now Krog big hero. Ever’body lookin’ up to Krog.