He turned to the gnome, transfixing Kali in an intense
gaze. “I must help her recover, little healer. What can I do
to help?”
Kali stammered and stuttered, but at last instructed the
man Oster in some simple methods of healing, little more
than the applying of cold compresses and the like. Then he
left his two charges alone and fled the house. He needed to
think about what had just transpired and, more
importantly, to confirm his immediate fears concerning
the dragon’s demise.
Kali went from house to house, a long, tedious
business that took most of the rest of the day. This is not
because the gnomish community was large – it was not –
but at every house, a visiting gnome must make pleasant
conversation, have tea, report on any recent findings, have
some more tea, look at the host’s latest researches, make
more pleasant conversations, and so forth, before pressing
on. Kali hoped he was not offending others by refusing a
third helping of tea, but after the sixth house he was
beginning to slosh as he walked.
At the seventh house, the one belonging to
Archimedorastimor the Lesser, son of Archimedorastimor
the Greater (and the Later), Kali found the answer he
feared. The Archimedorastimors (father and son) had both
been involved with astronomy and had long been
wondering what to do with their time when it was overcast
or daylight. While most gnomes in the field simply
attempted to build large towers to get above the clouds
and beyond the sun, the Archimedorastimors (Archies for
short) instead came up with the novel idea of firing their
telescopes from large catapults to get above the clouds and
the sun. Other gnomes scoffed at the foolishness of the
theory and went back to building towers. But Archie
father and son went on experimenting until the time, three
years ago, when Archie father built an explosive catapult
and launched his entire laboratory into the air, from
whence it never came down. Archie, son of Archie, had
since continued his father’s research, but (save for creating
a combination parachute and pillow) had added little to the
science. Occasionally, however, he managed to launch a
large rock that would fall down on a building or three.
In any event, it was at the seventh house that Kali
found the answer he was dreading. Yes, five days back
Archie had been out in the field experimenting with a new
astronomical catapult, and from that testing he had just
returned. The experiment had been a failure because
something large and lumbering had gotten in the way at
the last moment. The large and lumbering something
sounded to Kali suspiciously dragonlike. When he
proposed this theory, Archie did admit that the lumbering
something was more than a little reptilian in appearance.
Further, it made a sudden and steep dive after it flew into
his rock. Kali took tea and made small conversation for
the rest of the afternoon, adjuring Archie not to mention
the details of this experiment to the new outsiders – Oster
and the warrior-woman. Archie promised and also said he
would be by later to surrender when he had finished his
journal.
Kali, having resolved the first problem, now turned to
the second. The warrior-woman was a Dragon Highlord
(whatever that was), and had taken Oster as a prisoner – in
a mean fashion at that. The Highlord’s armor, which Kali
had hidden in a back room, apparently had concealed the
fact that she was a woman. Oster was now smitten (as
only humans can be smitten) with her in her true
appearance. When the woman awakened again, Kali
figured, she would probably be mean to Oster again.
Oster would be hurt that this radiant creature was not only
not named Columbine, but was also the individual that
was so mean to him before.
That would make TWO people that the gnomes had
surrendered to unhappy.
That would not do at all.
When Kali returned to his house, he found that the
man Oster had gathered some wildflowers and placed
them in a vase by the woman’s sickbed. Kali decided the
man had not been addled by the fall after all. From the