Greyfax Grimwald Read Online Free

his head to look at Dwarf.
    “It might be, Dwarf, that we were a little overanxious to be on our way. Don’t you think we could stay just a while longer? I’m sure we must go and all, but won’t tomorrow or the next day do just as well?” The little gray form had found a small rock, smooth and white and round, and began rolling it across his broad velvet stomach, moving it from paw to paw, then dribbling it up deftly to balance it on the end of his nose.
    Dwarf sighed and looked away toward the Great River. He could barely remember his crossing. All the time before that was faint and dim—the dragons, and moving about in the time of trouble, when the World Before Time was filled with armies, men and elves, and dwarfs, and animals warring against the dragon hordes. Those memories drifted on in their cloaks, lingering only long enough to dim Dwarf’s vision for a moment or two, then passing into the light of the Meadows of the Sun.
    Bear broke the silence that had fallen over the friends with a slight hissing snarl. His ears were straight back, his hackles rising and his great body raised to strike.
    “What is it, Bear?” cried Dwarf.
    “I’m not sure. Something has been here before us. I thought I picked up the scent before, but I wasn’t sure. Now I know something crossed, went a little way, then returned, or was destroyed.”
    “Whatever was it, I wonder? Man?” asked Otter.
    “This was nothing from Mankind. I don’t know what, but it stinks of something that means danger.”
    Otter picked up his nose to the wind, shuffled and searched, but could only barely pick up the faintest trace of anything out of the ordinary. He had long been in the Meadows of the Sun, and nothing there had ever had the least unpleasant thing about it, so quite naturally he was the longest in finding truth to what Bear had scented out.
    Finally Bear lowered himself to all fours, shuffled this way and that over the ground where he’d found the scent, laid back one ear, then the other, wagged his tail once, raised himself to his full height, low ered himself again in confusion, and announced, “I think I’m right, but I can’t say as I’ve ever run across this particular scent.”
    “It’s not man,” affirmed Otter, poking his head up suddenly from a nearby patch of wild flowers. Poof, the little gray head with its twitching whiskers was gone.
    “No, it’s certainly not man,” said Bear, looking to where Otter had been.
    “And it’s nothing else I’ve ever known,” came the voice again, this time from a berry patch. Otter scampered out with fresh blueberry juice dripping from his chin. Carefully wiping it with his tongue, he went on. “What do you think, Dwarf?”
    “I’m not sure what to make of it, but whatever it was was bad. Most unusual for this part of the world. It reminds me of before, when the stench of the dragon was heavy on us, even to the very edge of the River. If that’s so, we have no time to lose.”
    “I think you’re right, friend Dwarf, and I think we’d best move on now.”
    Bear looked to his friends for consent. All agreed they might as well go on now as not, and Dwarf led the way to the raging flow of Calix Stay. They went single file, in animal fashion. Dwarf gave his last in structions, repeated the words they were to say twice, and cautioned them into silence. Then he twirled thrice about himself, rubbed the dragon stone, and called the words forth. The rampaging torrents and tides of Calix Stay held their breath the barest moment, and Otter and Bear called out the words Dwarf had told them. The silver mist receded, the bright fields of the Meadows of the Sun dark ened, a great whooshing darkness engulfed the
    friends, and after a ray of brilliant light broke over the waters, all was silence and dark, and they had entered once more the World Before lime. The stillness of their passage echoed in their ears, and the strange new surroundings loomed ominously before them, dark and cold It took