9 The Not Rock (1/2)
It was hard to measure time, but it was still daylight. The three of them were dropped blinking into a sparkling cavern. The satyrs clung to each of her arms and in that still space it was like being inside an amethyst geode. One large enough to accommodate five or six double-decker buses, and currently accommodating only one, in the form of a large black dragon with her wings folded and tucked and neck drawn back like a resting heron.
The dragon's body had passed over them and she turned to back into the space and wiggled her ass-end in comfortably.The roughly egg-shaped interior tapered out slightly to the wide round entrance.The facets of he huge crystals created giant stopped up to the opening but from where they stood all that could be seen was a jagged bite of roiling, stormy sky.
[It's like the sky still wants me.]
HoneyBeard looked around.He stamped his hoof down on Nelda's shoe to hold her in place.
”Ouch!” [I mean, I'm wearing steel-tied show, but still.]
He then grabbed a large purple rock and shoved it into Nelda's arms. ”Here. Hold this.”
”Oof.”
The rock was about the size of a beach ball and the weight of lead.Nelda and BugleHead collapsed in a heap.She ended up cross-legged with the sparkling rock in her lap.
After a moment processing the surprise Nelda realized: ”Oh. Why didn't we think of this before?”
HoneyBeard replied, ”Because you're all idiots.”
#
BugleHead disentangled himself, and the two satyrs hopped nimbly up the rocks to look out the entrance.Nelda could hear the tone of their conversation but not the words. Something to the effect of….
HoneyBeard: Grump, grump, grump, grump, grump.
BugleHead: Bippity boppity boo.
HoneyBeard: Bah Humbug.
The dragon closed its eyes and sighed. Nelda sat there uncomfortable in every sense of the word. [Is it asleep.Am I meant to leave?]
Then the golden eyes flicked open again. ”Yourself is a puzzle,” it [she?] said. ”Yourself is like a god among cockroaches.But a cockroach god is still a god.So, a certain respect is accorded.”
”Thank you?”
”That yourself can fly shows yourself has acquired a spark of the divine.That yourself is so bad at it suggested this might have been an accident. But looking at you, there is a chance….”The dragon sighed. ”But this one will assist.”
”Again, very grateful.”
”Hmmm.” The dragon had been sitting with her front legs tucked inwards like a cat.Like an enormous smug terrifying dinosaur-cat. ”She reached out one of those giant front paw-hands and reached out to the side where there was kind of beach of small pieces broken from the crystals around the size of marbles.
Somehow between two giant finger-claws she picked up one small piece, brought it over to Nelda and said, ”Take this.”
In terms of the relative size it was a little like a human trying to hand a cockroach a grain of sand.Nelda put out her hand and when the dragon dropped the little stone she managed to catch it.
In that moment Nelda was struck with a sudden sense of breathlessness and bone-ache. Startled she dropped the small stone.
The dragon sighed again.”Pick it up. That is a stone of not flying.”
That was a slightly bemusing concept, but it seemed wise to oblige the enormous dagger-mawed dragon.Nelda groped and picked up a small stone from between the crevices of the large ones.
”That's not it,” the dragon said.