Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker Page B

Frek.”
    Startled, Frek flew straight up into the air and found a perch on the high bare limb of a rotted-out mapine tree, pale in the darkness. He’d just remembered he was in the Grulloo Woods. The clearing beyond the dead tree was a pool of night.
    â€œHow do you know my name?” called Frek into the gloom.
    â€œYour dog told me,” said the little voice, growing conversational. “He said you might come. Please help me. I’m trapped.”
    â€œHow do you mean?” asked Frek.
    â€œMy long, clever tail,” came the raspy tenor from the blackness. “It’s pinched. I was splitting logs this afternoon to get at the veins of nutfungus. It’s got a spicy taste my folk are fond of. I was holding the wedge with my tail, and when those counselors came buzzing in I was so frightened that I let the wedge pop out. The log snapped shut on me.” The unseen little man dropped his tone nearly to a whisper. “If Okky finds me like this I’ll meet a sorry end. Hop down here and free me, Frek. Drive in the wedge and pry the log open.”
    Frek was on the point of flapping down when something stopped him. “You have a tail?”
    â€œA fine woodsy one,” confided the voice, growing stronger again. “It looks like a stick, but it’s terribly strong and leathery. I can lie in a bush and stick my tail up into the air and when a little bird lands on it— zickzack, Jeroon’s got his lunch! Come on, boy, don’t keep me waiting.”
    â€œYou’re a Grulloo,” exclaimed Frek. “You eat people.”
    â€œYour Gov promotes that toony tale to make you hate us. Grulloos all cannibals? Poppycock! I live on fruit, vegetables, and the odd fowl. I’m a simple woodsman; I gather what I can—rugmoss, nutfungus, please plant seeds—and I barter my takings for what I can get from my fellow Grulloos. Groceries, in the main, with the rest going toward furnishing and decorating my burrow. I’ve a hand-made chair, a bed, and a fine Grulloo carpet of cultured rugmoss. Once my home’s to the liking of my Ennie, the two of us can hatch out an egg, Gaia willing. Yes, yes, Grulloos are family people, as peaceable as you Nubbies. Precious few of us are man-eaters.” The Grulloo lowered his voice again. “But if I’m trapped here much longer, it’s the dreadful Okky who’ll make a meal of me. She eats her victims’ heads, you know, starting with the nose and ending with the brain. I’ve chanced upon her grisly leavings more than once. It’s said that Okky sells our refined cerebral essences to NuBioCom, as she’s got no eggs to offer them. Free me, Frek, free me before Okky finds us. She’ll eat you, too!”
    â€œYou won’t hurt me?” asked Frek.
    â€œAid me this once and I’m your friend forever. Such larks we’ll have, Frek. I’ve always wanted to know a Nubby. Jeroon’s my name. I’m the fellow to have at your side.”
    â€œI do need help,” said Frek. “The counselors broke my memory.”
    â€œPeeked you, they did, eh? I’ve got some stim cells in my burrow that’ll heal that. Come on down here, boy. My axe is next to me, but the wedge flew off to the other side of the clearing.”
    Still Frek hesitated. “Can I look at you first? Can you make a light?”
    The Grulloo grumbled a bit and began rustling in the dark. A spark shone as he fired up a matchbud and lit his—pipe? Except in toons, Frek had never seen anyone smoke before.
    In the darkness of the woods, the glow of the pipe was enough to light the clearing. The Grulloo was little more than a man’s head with a pair of arms—or were they legs? Little legs with hands that he walked upon. He had a big nose and browned, leathery skin. His eyes were hidden by the brim of a dark blue felt cap worn tight and low on his head. He carried a knife tucked beneath a strap of the