Moving Pictures (Discworld 10)

The bark brought several small shards of stone down from the ceiling.

'Aha!' said Rock. Several other troll heads appeared behind him as Victor and Ginger stared out of the hole.

'They not little children,' muttered the one who had been complaining about the eating ban. 'They look stringy.'

'I tell you before,' said Rock menacingly, 'no eating people. It cause no end of trouble.'

'Why not just one leg? Then everyone'll be-'

Rock picked up a half-ton slab in one hand, weighed it thoughtfully, and then hit the other troll so hard with it that it broke.

'I tell you before,' he told the recumbent figure, 'it trolls like you getting us a bad name. How can we take rightful place in brotherhood of sapient species with defective trolls like you letting side down alter time?'

He reached through the hole and pulled Victor out bodily.

'Thanks, Rock. Er. There's Ginger in there, too.'

Rock gave him a crafty nudge that bruised a couple of ribs.

'So I see,' he said. 'And she wearing very pretty silk neggleliggle. You find nice place to indulge in bit of “What is the health of your parent?” and the Disc move for you, yeah?' The other trolls grinned.

'Uh, yes, I suppose-' Victor began.

'That's not true at all!' snapped Ginger, as she was helped through the hole. 'We weren't-'

'Yes, it is!' said Victor, making furious signals with his hands and eyebrows. 'It's absolutely true! You're absolutely right, Rock!'

'Yeah,' said one of the trolls behind Rock. 'I seen them on the clicks. He kissing her and carrying her off the whole time.'

'Now listen,' Ginger began.

'And now we get out of here fast,' said Rock. 'This whole ceiling looking very defective to me. Could go at any time.'

Victor glanced up. Several of the blocks were dipping ominously.

'You're right,' he said. He grabbed the arm of the protesting Ginger and hustled her along the passage. The trolls gathered up the fallen compatriot who did not know how to behave in polite company and plodded after them.

'That was disgusting, giving them the impression that-' Ginger hissed.

'Shut up!' snapped Victor. 'What did you want me to say, hmm? I mean, what sort of explanation do you think would fit? What would you like people to know?'

She hesitated.

'Well, all right,' she conceded. 'But you could have thought of something else. You could have said we were exploring, or looking for, for fossils-' her voice trailed off.

'Yes, in the middle of the night with you in a silk neggleliggle,' said Victor. 'What is a neggleliggle, anyway?'

'He meant negligee,' said Ginger.

'Come on, let's get back to town. Afterwards I might just have time to have a couple of hours' sleep.'

'What do you mean, afterwards?'

'We're going to have to buy these lads a big drink-'

There was a low rumble from the hill. A cloud of dust billowed out of the doorway and covered the trolls. The rest of the roof had gone.

'And that's it,' said Victor. 'It's over. Can you make the sleepwalking part of you understand that? It's no good trying to get in any more, there isn't any way. It's buried. It's over. Thank goodness.'