It came like a shadow, slinking from the trees on the opposite bank of the stream. Millisant's hackles bristled, and she backed away from the door, into the shadows of the room. On it came, crossing the stream now. Shrouded in robes of ebony, it crept toward the house. It crouched outside the door, its head cocked to one side, and it snuffled at the air. Millisant hid in the shadows, as silent as the intruder himself, her lips pulled back from her teeth. She gathered her paws under her body, her muscles tensed like iron springs. She dug her claws into the packed earthen floor.
The intruder rose and crept to the door, stopping beneath the lintel. It gazed into the room, and seeing the gully dwarves huddled asleep on the floor, it hissed in what might have been glee. It turned, and Millisant saw its face. For a moment, all courage left her.
It wasn't a human face. From beneath its voluminous hood there protruded a long reptilian snout. Twin horns like those of a ram curled to either side of its head, while the back of its robes stirred as its wings rose. A long serpentine tail thrashed free of the robes and thudded excitedly on the ground. It took one step into the room, drawing a dagger from the folds of its robes as it entered.
With but one thought-the protection of her charges-Millisant silently launched herself at the draconian. By some sixth sense, he turned just in time to see an bear trap of yellow teeth rising to his throat. Millisant was a boar hound, a huge dog, nearly as tall as the draconian when standing on her hind legs, so when she struck, her weight lifted and carried them both through the door and outside the house. With a choking scream, the draconian beat his heelspurs upon the ground, his throat locked in Millisant's powerful jaws. In his death throes, he slashed her legs with his dagger, but she didn't let go until he grew still. She released him, and only just in time. Before his head hit the ground, his flesh turned to stone. She yelped and dashed away, her tail tucked between her legs.
The gully dwarves had awakened at the sounds of the battle. Glabella was the first to the door. She rushed outside and found Millisant cowering at the edge of the stream, and a draconian lying on the ground before the door. She nearly bowled over Uhoh on her way back into the house. She scrambled into the loft and hid.
Hurling a curse over his shoulder, Uhoh stepped outside and nearly tripped over the prone draconian. A scream from the house spun him around in time to see Lumpo standing in the doorway with his eyes rolling back in his head. He sank like an empty sack on the doorstep.
Uhoh shoved his fists on his hips and stomped one foot. "Why you scared? This slagd dead!" he shouted.
"Shhhhhh! Maybe only sleeping!" Glabella hissed from the loft.
"Look, dead like stone!" Uhoh said as he kicked the draconian. He regretted that demonstration as he hopped around holding his stubbed toe. He fell to the ground and pulled off his shoe, fully expecting to see his toe swollen as big as a peach. He stuck it in his mouth and sucked it like a thumb.
Meanwhile, Millisant limped to Uhoh's side. While he sucked his toe, he stroked and petted her. She fawned and wagged her tail, all the while favoring her injured leg. Noticing this, Uhoh spit out his toe and examined her forelegs. His hands came away red with blood.
"Me scared!" Glabella wailed to the heavens.
"Shut up and come here!" Uhoh shouted. "Millisant hurt! Bring medicine."
By holding Millisant's injured leg, Uhoh helped her limp into the cottage. As he passed Lumpo's still form, he kicked the unconscious gully dwarf. "Get up! Put wood on fire!" he ordered.
"Wha… what?" Lumpo mumbled.
"Put wood on fire!" Uhoh shouted in anger.
"I not know how," Lumpo said.
"Take one stick, put on fire, blow," Uhoh said as he helped the injured hound lay by the fireplace. Glabella scurried down the ladder from the loft and went in search of her bag.
"I not know how," Lumpo whined.
"Do it!" Uhoh screamed.
To his everlasting surprise, Lumpo actually managed to stoke up the fire. Soon, a warm blaze filled the room with light. Carefully, tenderly, Uhoh cleansed Millisant's wounds. Glabella busied herself with various charms, feathers, and small dead mummified animals reputed to have magical powers in gully dwarf lore. She waved these in the air and uttered innocuous phrases, only stopping occasionally to assure Millisant of her imminent recovery.
Uhoh bound Millisant's wounds with strips torn from Nalvarre's blanket, then helped settle her comfortably by the fire. Millisant thumped the floor with her tail and gobbled down the scraps from last night's supper as Uhoh fed them to her. Lumpo stood in the corner with his mouth hanging open, eyeing each bite as it passed from the plate to the dog's waiting mouth. Suddenly, Glabella shouted and shook a chicken foot in Millisant's face, then stepped back proudly with her hands on her hips.
"There, that do it. Chicken foot cure work every time," she said.
With Millisant taken care of, Uhoh remember his shoe and stepped outside to get it. His foot was cold, especially his toe. So it was with complete surprise that he found the stone dead draconian gone. Only a pile of dust marked where it had lain. He sidestepped to where his shoe lay, and without ever turning his back on the dust, stumbled quickly though the door. He slammed it shut and pushed the table up against it.
"Slagd gone!" he gasped at his companions' puzzled looks.
"See, I say! I say, slagd only sleeping. I say, he not dead. Now what we do?" Glabella despaired.
"We go," Uhoh said. "Now. We go to Town. We stay here too long."
"Now?" Lumpo moaned as he rubbed his belly.
"Now," Uhoh said. He pulled Lumpo's bag from its hiding place in the corner and threw it at him.
"Get food, much as you can carry," he ordered.
Lumpo looked at his bag. "Me need bigger sack," he muttered as he stuffed apples into it.
In minutes, they were ready. Their bags were packed with food, and Lumpo had indeed found a large canvas sack, which he filled in Nalvarre's forbidden root cellar. He slung it over his back, looking very much like a small soot-begrimed Yulefather with his bag of toys. When everyone was ready, Uhoh pushed the table away from the door. Millisant rose and hobbled to his side.
"What we do with her?" Glabella asked.
Uhoh looked into the eyes of the hound, and a deep regret brought tears to his eyes. If he took her, she might not survive the journey, but he truly didn't wish to leave her behind. She'd saved his life twice now, and unlike most gully dwarves, Uhoh did know the meaning of thankfulness. At last, and with much sadness, he made up his mind.
"Millisant stay here. We lock door. Nalvarre come home tomorrow and take care of her. He good man, good innkeeper," he said.
It truly broke Uhoh's heart to have to push Millisant back and shut the door on her. She pawed and whined, not understanding, but her injuries prevented her from bulling her way past the gully dwarves. By standing on Lumpo's shoulders, Glabella was able to work the latch that locked the door. That done, they gathered their bags and, without a word, set out.
Millisant's howls followed them down the mountainside.
Nalvarre stumbled from the valley forest near daybreak, but weary as he was, he didn't stop. Fear drove him onward. He feared not for himself but for the gully dwarves he'd left on the mountainside. Clearly they were involved in something much more sinister than he first suspected. The manner of Lord Gunthar's death chimed too closely with the way Uhoh's Papa had met his end. Whatever the dwarves' involvement, they were in danger, and he'd left them unprotected.