A glass slid towards him.
SAME AGAIN, said a voice out of the shadows.
'Er,' said the barman. 'Yeah. Sure. What was it?'
ANYTHING.
The barman filled it with rum. It was pulled away.
The barman sought for something to say. For some reason, he was feeling terrified.
'Don't see you in here, much,' he managed.
I COME FOR THE ATMOSPHERE. SAME AGAIN.
'Work in Holy Wood, do you?'said the barman, topping up the glass quickly. It vanished again.
NOT FOR SOME TIME. SAME AGAIN.
The barman hesitated. He was, at heart, a kindly soul. 'You don't think you've had enough, do you?' he said.
I KNOW EXACTLY WHEN I'VE HAD ENOUGH.
'Everyone says that, though.'
I KNOW WHEN. EVERYONE'S HAD ENOUGH.
There was something very odd about that voice. The barman wasn't quite sure that he was hearing it with his ears. 'Oh. Well, er,' he said. 'Same again?'
NO. BUSY DAY TOMORROW. KEEP THE CHANGE.
A handful of coins slid across the counter. They felt icy cold, and most of them were heavily corroded.
'Oh, er-' the barman began.
The door opened and shut, letting in a cold blast of air despite the warmth of the night.
The barman wiped the top of the bar in a distracted way, carefully avoiding the coins.
'You see some funny types, running a bar,' he muttered. A voice by his ear said, I FORGOT. A PACKET OF NUTS, PLEASE.
Snow glittered on the rimward outriders of the Ramtop mountains, that great world-spanning range which, where it curves around the Circle Sea, forms a natural wall between Klatch and the great flat Sto plains.
It was the home of rogue glaciers and prowling avalanches and high, silent fields of snow.
And yetis. Yetis are a high-altitude species of troll, and quite unaware that eating people is out of fashion. Their view is: if it moves, eat it. If it doesn't, then wait for it to move. And then eat it.
They'd been listening all day to the sounds. Echoes had bounced from peak to peak along the frozen ranges until, now, it was a steady dull rumble.
'My cousin', said one of them, idly probing a hollow tooth with a claw, 'said they was enormous grey animals. Elephants.'
'Bigger'n us?' said the other yeti.
'Nearly as bigger'n us,' said the first yeti. 'Loads of them, he said. More than he could count.'
The second yeti sniffed the wind and appeared to consider this.
'Yeah, well,' he said, gloomily. 'Your cousin can't count above one.'