The Stone God Awakens

Before dusk, they made another transfer via a liana complex. They proceeded along this branch until Ghlikh saw a huge hole at the juncture of a trunk and a branch on a nearby trunk. He said that they could lodge in this hole, although they might have to drive out whatever animals were using it for a home.

"There are many such holes, quite large, in The Tree," he said. "Usually where a branch starts out from the trunk."

"I've never seen any before," Ulysses said.

"You didn't know where to look," Ghlikh said, smiling.

Ulysses was silent for a while. He could not get over his suspicions of this creature. Yet he might be doing him an injustice. And Ghlikh was probably even more eager than he to find a comfortable, easily defended place. On the other hand, a good defensive place could be a good place for an enemy to bottle you up in. What if the leopard-men followed them here and then surrounded it?

At last, he made up his mind. His people needed a place where they could relax, relatively speaking. Also, his wounded needed tending, and some of them would have to be carried if they pushed on right now.

"Very well," he said. "We'll camp in that hole for tonight."

He did not say that he pla

There was no occupant to be driven out, though cracked bones and fresh droppings indicated that the owner, a large animal, might be coming back soon. He ordered the excrement carried out and thrown over the side, and the party moved in. The entrance was about twenty feet wide and seven high; the cave was a hemisphere about forty feet across. The walls were so smooth and polished, they looked as if they had been carved out. Ghlikh assured him that this was a natural phenomenon.

Dead wood was brought in and piled up to block off most of the entrance, and a fire was built. The wind carried some smoke inside but not enough to make it too uncomfortable.

Ulysses sat with his back against the glossy wall, and, after a while, Awina sat down next to him. She licked her arms and legs and belly for a while and then applied the cleansing saliva to her hands and wiped them over her face and ears. It was amazing what the saliva could do. In a few minutes, her fur, which had reeked of sweat and blood, was odourless. The Wufea paid for this with hair balls in the stomach, but they took a medicine of various herbs to get rid of the balls.

Ulysses liked the results of the cleansing, but he disliked seeing them do it. The actions were too animal-like.

"The warriors are disheartened," she said after sitting by him in silence for many minutes.

"Indeed?" he said. "They do seem quiet. But I had thought that was because they are very tired." "There is that. But they are also gloomy. They whisper among themselves. They say that you, of course, are a great god, being the stone god. But here we are on the very body of Wurutana himself. And you are a tiny god compared to Wurutana. You have not been able to keep all of us alive. We are only a little way on our expedition, and we have lost many."

"I made it clear before we started that some would die," Ulysses said. "You did not say all would die." "Not all have died." "Not yet," she said.

Then, seeing him frown, she continued, "I do not say that, Lord! They say that! And not all of them, by any means! But enough so that even those who have spoken are pondering the words of fear. And some have spoken of the Wuggrud."

She used the word Ugorto, her pronunciation of the—to her—difficult sounds and difficult combinations thereof.

"The Wuggrud? Ah, yes, Ghlikh spoke of them. They are supposed to be giants who eat strangers. Huge ill-smelling creatures. Tell me, Awina, have you or any of our people ever seen a Wuggrud?"

Awina turned her dark-blue eyes toward him. She licked her black lips as if they had suddenly become dry.

"No, Lord. None of us have seen them. But we have heard of them. Our mothers have told us stories about them. Our ancestors knew them when we lived closer to Wurutana. And Ghlikh has seen them."

"So Ghlikh has been talking?"

He stood up and stretched and then sat down again. He had been about to walk across the cave but remembered that it was the mortal who came to see the god, not the god the mortal. He called, "Ghlikh! On the double!"

The tiny man scrambled to his feet and waddled across the floor. He stood before Ulysses and said, "What is it, my Lord!"

"Why do you spread stories about the Wuggrud? Are you trying to dishearten my warriors?"

Ghlikh's face was expressionless. He said, "Never would I do that, my Lord. No, I have not spread stories. I have merely answered, truthfully, the questions your warriors put to me about the Wuggrud."

"Are they as monstrous as the tales have it?"

Ghlikh smiled and said, "Nobody could be that monstrous, my Lord. But they are bad enough."

"Are we in their territory?"

"If you are in Wurutana, you are in their territory."

"I wish we could see a few and get our arrows into them. Then we'd shake this fear out of my men."

"The thing about a Wuggrud," Ghlikh said, "is that you will see them, sooner or later. But by then it may be too late."

"Now you're trying to scare me."

Ghlikh raised his brows. "I, Lord? Try to scare a god? Not I, Lord!"

Then he said, "It is Wurutana, not the Wuggrud, that have thrown your brave warriors into such a blue funk."

"They are brave!"

He thought, I will tell them that there is nothing to be done about Wurutana itself. It is just a tree. A mighty big one. But it is a mindless plant which can do nothing to them. And the others, the Khrauszmiddum and the Wuggrud, are only the lice on the plant.

He would wait until morning to tell this. Just now, they were too tired and dull. After a night's rest and a good breakfast, he would tell them that they could rest for a few days. And he would give them an inspiring speech.

He walked around, made sure that there was plenty of firewood and that guards had been appointed. Then he sat down again, and while he was thinking about his speech, he fell asleep.

At first, he thought that he was being awakened for the guard duty which he had insisted on standing. Then he realised that he was being rolled over, and his hands were tied behind him.

A voice said something in an unfamiliar tongue. The voice was the deepest basso he had ever heard.

He looked up. Torches were flaring in the dome. Giants held them. Beings seven feet tall, even eight feet tall. They had very short legs, very long trunks and long bulky arms. They were naked, and their hair distribution was much like a man's except for the fur across the belly and the groin. The skin was as pale as a blond Swede's, and the hair was reddish or brown. Their faces were humanoid, but prognathous, with dark round wet noses. Their ears were pointed and set high on their heads. They stank of sweat, garbage and excrement.

They carried huge knobbed clubs, long-handled wooden mallets and spears with fire- hardened points.

The thing—he must be a Wuggrud—spoke again. His teeth were widely separated and sharp.

There was a piping sound. It took a few seconds to grasp that the thin voice was Ghlikh's and that he was speaking to the Wuggrud in his language.

Ulysses felt such rage that he should have been able to tear apart the bonds around his wrists. But they held.

He said, "You foul stinking treacherous animal! I should have killed you!"

Ghlikh, smiling, turned and said, "Yes, you should have, my Lord!"

He spat on Ulysses and then kicked him in the ribs. The kick hurt the man's delicate foot more than it hurt Ulysses. The Wuggrud growled something, and Ghlikh hopped away.