Chapter Fifty-Five
Robin leapt onto the top of a boulder, and cupped a hand
over his eyes, trying to catch site of the flying vessel. Smarn stood next to
him, his head almost level with Robins, even though Robin stood atop a boulder.
"Ah!"
"You see them?" Smarn asked.
"No. But I see our dinner."
Smarn's tummy grumbled then. He swatted it with a hairy
fist. "Quiet! Smarn busy."
"Ah, my good Little Smarn, your sense of humor has not
excaped you in your old age."
Smarn cuffed at Robin and Robin ducked, then leaped to the
ground. "Come on, catch up if you can, I see dinner running away!"
Robin ran swiftly into the forest their hike had brought
them close to, his long legs swiftly leaving Smarn behind as he took a moment
to consider whether to follow or not. Robin could just be playing one of his
games again. Tricky fellow!
Then he decided to follow when his tummy made another
rumbling sound, a cross between a lion's roar and a hippo coughing.
"Smarn staving!" He roared, then ran after Robin.
Robin cut between one tall tree and the next, dodging larger
boulders, leaping over smaller ones, and making good time as he spotted his
prize not too far ahead. Dinner was not a live animal as Smarn had thought, but
rather a live animal amidst many other, carrying a strange bag in its nose,
just as two others did the same.
Robin recognized the backpacks as something the strangers
had brought, because he had seen similar travelers carry them down from the
upper world in the past to stash their food and other items in. Hence, his hope
for dinner.
He managed to catch up with the tiny pachyderms and the
Mother turned about at the sound of their trumpeting voices and fixed her eyes
on him.
Robin half bowed to her. "I do beg your pardon, Madam,
but I think I could fare better with those, than you and your little
ones."
The Mother Elephant challenged him, raising her nose high,
then standing on her back feet.
Robin grinned. "Surely,
you jest. I wish you no harm."
Then the Mother dropped back to her feet and backed up,
making a kind of whimpering sound as a huge shadow fell across Robin and then
the smaller elephants about her.
"Nor I!" Growled Smarn as he came beside Robin and
put an arm on his friend's shoulder, almost causing Robin to drop to the ground
from the weight of it.
"Hey! Do I look like a leaning post to you, Little
Smarn?"
"Yes." Smarn answered with a snaggled tooth grin.
Robin shook his head, then dropped to his knees before the
frigthtened pachyderms, who huddled about their Mother. He reached into a
leather bag at his belt and withdrew some bread. He began breaking it up and
tossing it to the elephants.
"Robin, that's our dinner!" Smarn warned.
"Was!" Robin flashed his teeth, then continued
dispensing the bread.
In moments the small ones let loose of the backpacks they
had been carrying and swarmed the bread. The Mother eyed Robin warily, gave him
a warning blast of her nose, then came forward for a larger chunk he held out
towards her. "I promise. I am a friend."
The Mother edged closer, sniffed the bread, then sniffed
Robin's face and whipped the bread quickly towards her mouth, where she began
eating it.
Her eyes rolled with pleasure as she did so, causing Robin
and Smarn both to laugh. The baby elephants were frightened for a moment, but
then relaxed when they saw the Mother reach out with her nose for more.
Robin eyed Smarn, who sighed, then opened his own pouch to
retrieve what remaining bread he had. "This is going to cost you,
Robin."
"Doesn't it
always, my little friend?" He responded with a twinkle of his beautiful
eyes.
Smarn tossed him the bread and Robin began breaking it up
further, giving smaller pieces to the smaller elephants who swarmed around him
and Smarn, and a larger piece to the Mother.
Robin sat on his butt and motioned Smarn to sit beside him.
He did so.
"I'm glad someone is enjoying dinner."
"Don't worry." Robin chided his friend. "The
best is yet to be."
He whipped an arrow from its quiver on his back, then
stabbed into the nearest backpack strap, catching it with a barbed tip, then
slowly, but surely drawing it back to him and Smarn as the tiny elepants and
the Mother watched, still eating as they did so, their tiny eyes sparkling with
pleasure. They hadn't tasted such fare in ages.
Robin finally managed to catch the backpack with his hand
and lift it up. He opened it. It was Jimbo's, so naturally the first thing he
saw was...
"Food!" Robin said, showing Smarn.
"Looks funny!" Smarn poked at the contents,
knocking aside something crunchy sounding.
He lifted it out and tried to take a bite. It made a
crunching sound, then he spit it out. "Horrible!"
"Smarn!" Robin teased his friend. "This
way."
Robin took the top of the item, which was a bag of Lay's
potato chips, and ripped it open from the top. He took a whiff, then made a
sour face. Overly salty I think, but eatable I suspect."
"These upworlders eat strange things." Smarn
pointed out, as he took out a lone chip and revolved it in his hand, eyeing it
strange textures.
Then he popped it into his mouth and swallowed. Another
mistake.
He began to gag.
Robin quickly pounded him on the back, then took another
chip and bit down on it. "I saw one of the upworlders do this last time
one came down. This is the way to eat them."
Robin made a face at the taste of all the salt, but loved
the texture of the chip. He began eating more.
Smarn watched for a moment, not sure if this was some kind
of joke or not, then he grabbed the bag and shoved half its contents into his
mouth.
He gave the bag back, then began crunching. His eyes rolled
with pleasure.
"Always the slob, my Little Smarn."
Smarn belched.
The elephants about them all raised their long noses and
trumpeted in reply, as if he were speaking to them in their own language.
Robin burst into laughter.
