"Ow," moaned Dorcas.
"Don't make a fuss, I didn't hurt a bit," said Granny Morkie cheerfully, as she examined his leg. "Nothin' broken, but it's a nasty sprain."
The Store nomes looked around the burrow with interest and a certain amount of approval. It was nicely closed in.
"Your ancestors probably lived in holes like this," said Grimma. "Withshelves and things, of course."
"Very nice," said a nome. "Homey. Almost like being under the floor."
"Stinks a bit," said another,
"That'll be the rabbits," said Dorcas, nodding toward the deeperdarkness. "We've heard them rustling about, but they're staying out ofour way. Nooty said he thought there was a fox snuffling around a whileago."
"We'd better get you back as soon as possible," said Grimma. "I don'tthink any fox would bother the pack of us. After all, the local ones knowwho we are. Eat a nome and you die, that's what they've learned."
The nomes shuffled their feet. It was true, of course. The trouble was, they thought, that the person who'd really regret it the most would bethe one nome who was eaten. Knowing that the fox might be given a badtime afterward wouldn't be much consolation.
Besides, they were cold and wet and the burrow, while it wouldn't havesounded like a very comfortable proposition back at the quarry, wassuddenly much better than the horrible night outside. They'd staggeredpast a dozen burrows, calling down into the gloom, before they'd heardNooty's voice answering them.
"I really don't think we need worry," said Grimma. "Foxes learn veryquickly. Isn't that so, Granny?"
"Eh?" said Granny Morkie.
"I was telling everyone how foxes learn quickly," said Grimmadesperately.
"Oh, yes. Right enough," said Granny. "He'll go a long way out of his wayfor something he likes to eat, will your average fox. Especially when it's cold weather."
"I didn't mean that! Why do you have to make everything sound so body
"I'm sure I don't mean to," said Granny Morkie, and sniffed.
"We must get back," said Dorcas firmly. "This snow isn't just going to goaway, is it? I can get along okay if I've got someone to lean on."
"We can make you a stretcher," said Grimma. "Though goodness knows thereisn't much to get back to."
"We saw the humans go up the road," said Nooty. "But we had to go all theway along to the badger tunnel and there were no real paths. Then wetried to cut across the fields at the bottom and that was a mistake, theywere all plowed up. We haven't had anything to eat," he added.
"Don't expect much, then," said Grimma. "The humans took most of oursupplies. They think we're rats."
"Well, that's not so bad," said Dorcas. "We used to encourage them tothink we were, back in the Store. They used to put traps down. We used tohunt rats in the basement and put them in the ~aps, when I was a lad."
"Now they're using poisoned food," said Grimma.
"That's not good."
"Come on. Let's get you back."
The snow was still falling outside, but raggedy fashion, as if the lastflakes in stock were being sold off cheaply. There was a line of redlight in the east -not the dawn, but the promise of the dawn. It didn'tlook cheerful. When the sun did rise, it would find itself locked behindbars of cloud.
They broke off some pieces of dead cow-parsley stalks to make a roughsort of chair for Dorcas, which four nomes could carry. He'd been rightabout the shelter of the hedge. The snow wasn't very deep there, but itmade up for it by being littered with old leaves, twigs, and debris. Itwas slow going.
It must be great to be a human, Grimma thought as thorns the length ofher hand tore at her dress. Masklin was right, this really is theirworld. It's the right size for them. They go where they want and dowhatever they like. We think we do things for ourselves and all we do islive in odd corners of their world-under their floors, stealing things.
The other nomes trudged along in weary silence. The only sound, apartfrom the crunch of feet on snow and leaves, was that of Granny Morkieeating. She'd found some hawthorn berries on a bush and was chewing herway through one with every sign of enjoyment. She'd offered them around, but the other nomes found them bitter and unpleasant.
"Prob'ly an acquired taste," she muttered, glaring at Grimma.
It's one we all are going to have to acquire, thought Grimma, ignoringGranny's hurt stare. The only hope we've got is to split up and leave thequarry in little groups, once we get back. Move out into the country, goback to living in old rabbit holes and eating whatever we can find. Somegroups may survive the winter, once the old people have died off.
And it'll be good-bye electricity, good-bye reading, good-bye bananas ...
But I'll wait at the quarry until Masklin comes back.
"Cheer up, my girl," said Granny Morkie, trying to be friendly. "Don'tlook so gloomy. It may never happen, that's what I always say."
Even Granny was shocked when Grimma looked at her with a face from whichall the color had drained away. The girl's mouth opened and shut a fewtimes.
Then she folded up, very gently, and collapsed to her knees and startedto sob.
It was the most shocking sound they'd heard. Grimma yelled, complained, bullied, and commanded. Hearing her cry was wrong, as though the wholeworld had turned upside down.
"All I did was try to cheer her up," mumbled Granny Morkie.
The embarrassed nomes stood around in a circle. No one dared go nearGrimma. Anything might happen. If you tried to pat her on the shoulderand say "There, there," anything might happen. She might bite your handoff, or anything.
Dorcas looked at the nomes on either side of him sighed, and easedhimself up off his makeshift stretcher. He limped over to Grimma, catching hold of a thorn twig to steady himself.
"You've found us, we're going back to the quarry, everything's allright," he said soothingly.
"It isn't! We'll have to move on!" she sobbed. "You'd have been better off staying in the hole! It's all gone bad!"
"Well, I would have said-" Dorcas began.
"We've got no food and we can't stop the humans and we're trapped in thequarry and I've tried to keep everyone together and now it's all gonebad!"
"We ought to have gone up to that barn right at the start," said Nooty.
"You still could," said Grimma. "All the younger people could. Just getas far away from here as possible!"
"But children couldn't walk it, and old people certainly couldn't managethe snow," said Dorcas. "You know that. You're just despairing."
"We've tried everything! It's just got worse! We thought it would be alovely life in the Outside and now it's all falling to pieces!"
Dorcas gave her a long, blank look.
"We might as well give up right now," she said. "We might as well give upand die right here."
There was a horrified silence.
It was broken by Dorcas.
"Er," he said. "Er. Are you sure? Are you really sure?"
The tone of his voice made Grimma look up.
All the nomes were staring.
There was a fox looking down at them.
It was one of those moments when Time itself freezes solid. Grimma could see the yellow-green glow in the fox's eyes and the cloud of its breath.
Its tongue lolled out.
It looked surprised.
It was new to these parts and had never seen nomes before. Itsnot-very-complicated mind was trying to come to terms with the fact thatthe shape of the nomes-two arms, two legs, a head at the top was a shapeit associated with humans and had learned to avoid, but the size was thesize it had always thought of as a mouthful.
The nomes stood rooted in terror. There was no sense in trying to runaway. A fox had twice as many legs to run after you. You'd end up deadanyway, but at least you wouldn't end up dead and out of breath aswell.