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. She raised herself from the hole, dusted herself off,
and started to climb over the boulder, then stopped in
confusion. It didn't FEEL like stone. As she bent to look at
it more closely, the snore came again, then cut off abruptly.
A pair of huge yellow eyes opened directly in front of her.
For an instant, Drule froze in panic, then she pivoted and
tried to run . . . and had nowhere to go. A pair of enormous
hands rose behind her, blocking her escape, and the big
head with
the yellow eyes came upright and gazed at her. Below
the eyes, a huge mouth opened, exposing great, chisellike
teeth. In horror, the Lady Drule gaped at the monster, and it
grinned back, then the big mouth moved, and it spoke one
word. "Mama?"
*****
In the cavern below, the rest of the ladies - and the few
males with them - waited with growing impatience. They
could no longer see the Lady Drule, and could no longer
hear the snoring. There were voices somewhere above - or a
voice and intermittent rumbles of thunder - but they couldn't
hear what was being said.
By threes and fives, they started wandering around the
cavern, looking at the pyrite deposits, the fallen stone,
anything of momentary interest. Several had nearly decided
to go back down the tunnel to the lower cavern and put on a
pot of stew, when the hole above darkened and Drule's
voice came down. "Ever'body come up," she called.
Hunch peered upward. "Lady Drule find others? Find
what's-'is-name . .
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