The Stone God Awakens

The wings were bone and membrane, the ends attached to the mound of muscle on the back. He had six limbs, the first six-limbed mammal Ulysses had ever seen. But it might not be the last. This planet—or this Earth—had to have many strange things in store for him.

The face was triangular. The head was bulging, round and totally bald. The ears were so big they looked like auxiliary wings. The eyes were large for the face and from a distance looked pale.

There did not seem to be a hair on the naked creature.

The man was smiling as he swept down and half-folded his wings and dropped onto his ski

"Greetings, god of stone! Ghlikh greets you and wishes you a long godhood!"

Ulysses understood him well enough, but he could not speak the trade language with any fluency as yet. He said, "Can you speak Wufea?"

"Easily. One of my favourite languages," Ghlikh said. "We Dhulhulikh speak many tongues, of which Wufea is one of the least difficult."

Ulysses said, "What news do you bring, Ghlikh?"

"Much to amuse and inform. But with your permission, my Lord, we will put that off until later. At the moment, I am empowered by the Wagarondit to speak first with you. They wish you well, which they should, since you are also their god—they think."

The bat-man's tone was slightly sarcastic. Ulysses looked hard at him, but Ghlikh only smiled, exposing long yellowish teeth.

Ulysses said, "They think?"

"Well," Ghlikh answered, "they ca

Ulysses wanted to push on and ignore the creature, who was making him somewhat queasy. But Awina had told him that the bat-people were the couriers, the representatives, the gossipers, and the functionaries of many things. It was protocol that a bat-man act as arbitrator between two parties who wished to make arrangements for peace, trade or sometimes for a limited war. In addition, the batmen sometimes became traders themselves, flying in with small, lightweight, but much desired goods from some unknown country, perhaps their own.

"You tell them that I was attacked by two of their number. And for this I punished all of them," Ulysses said.

"I will tell them so," Ghlikh said. "And do you plan any more punishment?"

"Not unless they do something to deserve it."

Ghlikh hesitated and swallowed audibly, his craggy Adam's apple jumping like a monkey on a stick. Evidently he was not as superior as he pretended to be. Or perhaps he knew that he was vulnerable while on the ground, however lofty his opinion of himself was.

"The Wagarondit say that it is only fair that they should ask even a god to prove that he is a god."

Awina, standing behind Ulysses, whispered, "Lord, forgive me. But a word of advice might help. These arrogant Wagarondit need a lesson, and if you let them push you around ..."

Ulysses agreed with her, but he did not want advice unless he asked for it. He held up his hand to indicate that she should be quiet. To Ghlikh he said, "I do not have to prove anything, but I can be petitioned."

Ghlikh smiled as if he had guessed that Ulysses would say that. The sun struck pale flames in his cat-yellow eyes. He said, "The Wagarondit, then, beg you to kill The Old Being With The Long Hand. The monster has been ravaging the fields and even the villages for many years. He has destroyed many crops and storehouses and sometimes puts entire villages close to starvation. The Old Being has killed many warriors close to starvation. The Old Being has killed many warriors sent out against him, crippled others, and always conquered. Or he has run away, eluding whole hunting parties, only to show up elsewhere and tromp down and eat whole fields of corn or crush houses and push over great palisades of heavy logs."

"I will consider their petition," Ulysses said, "and I will answer in the next few days. Meanwhile, unless there is something else to talk about, let us go on."

"There is only trivia, news and gossip I bring from many villages of many tribes of different peoples," Ghlikh said. "You may find some of it entertaining or even instructive, my Lord."

Ulysses did not know if that last was a sneer at the supposed omniscience of a god, but he decided to let it pass. However, if it became necessary, he would grab hold of the ski

They walked down the hill and across the floor of the valley, passing over a wooden bridge over a creek about three hundred feet wide. On the other side were fields of corn and other plants and also meadows on which a red-wooled sheep with three crumpled horns chomped on the long blue-green grass. The number of stone and wooden hoes and scythes left in the fields showed that the women and children had been working up to the last moment.

To the beat of the drums, the Wufea marched up to the gates, and here Ulysses confronted the chiefs and the priests. The bat-man had launched himself from the hillside and had flown above them as they had marched across the valley. Now he glided in and landed a few feet away from Ulysses, ru

There was more talk, conducted with Ghlikh as go-between. Then the overchief, Djiidaumokh, sank to his knees and rubbed Ulysses' hand on his forehead. The other chiefs and priests followed, and Ulysses and his band entered the village.

There were several days of feasting and speech-making before Ulysses continued his march. He visited ten Wagarondit villages in all. Ulysses was curious about what payment Ghlikh got for his services. Ghlikh by now rode with them on the back of a Wagarondit brave, his bandy legs wrapped around the thick furry neck.

"My payment!" he said, waving his hand airily. "Oh, I am fed and lodged and a few other of my needs are taken care of. I am a simple person. I only want to talk to many different peoples, to converse, to satisfy my curiosity and theirs, to be of service. I derive my greatest joy from being of service."

"That is all you ask?"

"Oh, sometimes I accept a few baubles, some gemstones or excellently carved figurines or objects like that. But my main item of trade is information," Ulysses did not comment, but he felt that there was more to Ghlikh's business than he said. On the way back to the first Wagarondit village, the chief, Djiidaumokh, asked him what he meant to do about the Old Being With The Long Hand. "The people of Nisheymanakh, the third village we visited, have sent a messenger saying that The Old Being has ravaged one of their fields again. He killed two warriors who went after him." Ulysses sighed. Noblesse oblige could not be put off. He said, "Let us go after this creature at once." He called Ghlikh to him and said, "Have the Wagarondit ever used you to locate The Old Being With The Long Hand?" "Never," Ghlikh said. "Why not?" "They never thought of it, I suppose." "And you never thought of telling them how valuable you could be?" "No. I suppose that The Old Being is more valuable to me alive than dead. If he is dead, then I have just that much less exciting news." "You will locate The Old Being," Ulysses said. Ghlikh's eyes narrowed, and his thin lips became a thread. But he said, "Of course, my Lord." Ulysses knew from conversations he had overheard that at least four generations of Wagarondit had known The Old Being. But he was not always in Wagarondit territory. Sometimes he disappeared for years, and he must then be ravaging the unknown peoples to the north, the west and perhaps in the great forest to the east. He was a huge animal and he had a big territory to cover. From the description he had pieced together, Ulysses knew that The Old Being had to be an elephant of some sort. But what an elephant! He must be twenty feet high at the shoulder and he had four tusks! The upper tusks curved upward and the lower tusks curved down and back. The Long Hand was the proboscis.