| Who could have been here? Fred had assumed that the location of the
lair was known only to Astra and himself. And why would whoever had been
here want the dragons' heads, claws and whatever had been taken from their
bellies? (Fred had no inclination to poke about inside the gaping wounds
to try to determine what internal organs, if any, had been removed.) Fred
could only speculate that the items might have been taken for use in some
magic rite. Like Astra, the dwarves did not seem bothered by the dragons'
mutilation. Their attention was fixed on the heaps of coins and jewels.
Fred's thoughts were interrupted by Tarin coming over to where he and
Astra stood and saying: "That's enough daydreaming, you two. Here are shovels
and sacks. You can help us to collect the treasure. And no pocketing any
for yourselves." So Fred and Astra, and Rift too, began filling the sacks
that they had been given.
Minestus' hoard was so large that, even though much of it was inaccessible
under fallen rock, Fred estimated that it would take several hours to collect
it all. That was assuming that the dwarves wouldn't want to try to excavate
the rubble to get at the rest. He hoped that they wouldn't; that could
take days. He wondered if they had waggons waiting outside; he thought
that it wouldn't be possible to take so much away otherwise.
The dwarves had brought plenty of empty sacks. As soon as one sack had
been filled, a replacement was handed out. Fred, Astra and Rift were soon
bathed in sweat. (Dwarves apparently did not sweat.) The pile of full sacks
steadily grew, but even after an hour's work the piles of gold and gems
yet to be collected did not seem to have diminished by much. There was
even more treasure here than Fred had at first estimated.
Fred was concerned for the effect that the work might have on Astra.
He asked her: "Is so much exertion wise, given your condition?" She gave
him a withering look, but then relented and said: "Well, I doubt that asking
Tarin to let me off shovelling would be very well received. Actually, I
feel very fit, and it's not a problem. It's hard to be sure given the circumstances,
but I think I am only at about the five month stage, though I do seem to
have been getting bigger alarmingly quickly recently."
-
 A little later, they
heard a distant rumble from the tunnel by which they had entered. It was
probably nothing serious, but even the dwarves paused in their shovelling
and looked anxious.
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