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At a wall of rock, Gorge stopped and raised his candle.
"What this?" he demanded.
At his shoulder, his wife and consort, the Lady Drule,
peered at the wall and said, "Rock. Cave have rock walls.
Wouldn't be cave without walls."
Old Hunch, the Grand Notioner of the Bulp Clan,
padded forward, leaned on his mop-handle staff, to ask,
"What Highbulp's problem?"
"Want to know what is that." The Lady Drule pointed at
the wall.
"That wall," Hunch said. "Rock wall. So what?"
"Highbulp doin' inspec . . . explo . . . lookin' 'round,"
Gorge proclaimed. He moistened a finger, touched the wall,
then tasted his finger. "Rock wall," he decided. "Cave got
rock wall this side."
"Other sides, too," Hunch pointed out. "Caves do."
Satisfied, Gorge wandered away from the wall, raised
his eyes to look critically at the rock ceiling, and tripped
over a bump in the rock floor. He sprawled flat and lost his
candle.
"Highbulp clumsy oaf," Drule muttered, helping him to
his feet. Someone returned his candle to him, and he looked
around, found a foot-high ledge, and sat on it. "Bring Royal
Stuff," he ordered.
Several of his subjects scouted around, found the
tattered sack that was the Holder of Royal Stuff, and
brought it to him. Digging into it, throwing aside various
objects - a rabbit skull, a broken spearhead, a battered cup -
Gorge drew forth a broken antler nearly as tall as he was.
An elk antler, it once had been part of a set, attached to a
tanned elk hide. The hide and the other antler were long
gone, but he still had this one, and he raised it like a scepter
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