CHAPTER 14
“That’s where I will need your help—all of you; including your help, if you will give it, Terri,” Albert said.
“Help with what?” the big flying Lizard asked.
“Help in creating a monolith, engraving those prophecies I mentioned onto it, and then encasing the monolith in amber. We’ve got to make sure to nip Nazism in the bud.”
“All down but nine. Set ‘em up on the other alley, pard,” I said to Albert. To be truthful, I did understand some of what he was saying, but by no means all of it.
“A monolith is a large smooth stone upon which laws or forceful commands or prophecies are chiseled,” Albert explained. “Here, let’s all of us climb out of this, and I’ll show you,” he then said, grabbing the Compressor/Decompressor wand from under the seat as he stepped out of the Zenia Zephyr.
Once we had all clambered out and assembled in a semi-circle around Albert (Terri remained standing on the cowling, but pivoted 180 degrees on her feet so as to face us all—doing yet more harm to the Zephyr’s paint job as her claws scraped across the shiny surface), he explained to us in more detail about the monolith and its purpose.
Albert then asked Tubthumper to step forward. When she did, he passed the wand over her, causing her to return to her natural size.
“Thunder and Lightning! That’s more like it!” Terri said. “You look definitely mastodonish now,” she added, with a nod of approval.
Albert left Drako and Marmalade at their larger-than-natural size, as there was no reason to compress them and return them to their normal size yet. He then assigned jobs to all of us: I was to find a smooth stone large enough to serve as a monolith, about six feet high and a foot thick—or a larger piece that could be ‘sculpted’ down to that smaller size. We would also need to find a stone that could be fashioned into a chisel, and another one that could be used as a mallet. That would be the first step.
For their part, Stripes, Marmalade, and Drako were to gather the amber by ‘tapping’ the trees in the area and collecting the tree resin. Terri, who had agreed to help, was to fly the tree resin to wherever I found a suitable stone, a load at a time, until there was enough of the golden-hued gooey drippings to cover the monolith.
For the time being, Tubthumper was to ‘cool her heels’ with Albert, as he waited for me to find a suitable block of stone to be used for the monolith. This she gladly did—literally—by wading into the nearby marsh and flopping herself down into it, first on one side, and then the other, trumpeting and grunting her enjoyment of the ablution.
To make a long story shorter, I soon found a nice smooth piece of granite, as well as plenty of smaller pieces that had broken off of it, among which were two that could be used for the chisel and the mallet. So, after a short rest in the shade to gather my breath and my thoughts, I trotted back and reported my find to Albert.
Albert called Tubthumper from her bath and I then led both of them to the spot, Albert and I riding on the Elephant’s back—Albert because he didn’t want to get his shoes wet, and me so that I could better recognize the spot where I had found the suitable granite. That was my story, anyway. To be honest, I could easily follow my nose to the spot, but I wanted the experience of riding on an Elephant’s back. I knew the dogs back home would be jealous when I told them about it.
It was easy work for Tubthumper to break off a piece of the granite according to the dimensions Albert wanted, using her head to crack the rock into the prescribed size.
Albert discovered a piece about eight inches long and an inch in diameter that would serve well as the chisel.
As for a mallet, all that was really needed was a stone about the size of an Ostrich’s egg. I showed Tubthumper the fairly round stone I had selected for this purpose, and she picked it up with her trunk and used it to strike the chisel that Albert held, as he changed its position and angle slightly with each blow of Tubthumper’s makeshift mallet so as to record the message he had composed.
Meanwhile, the first load of amber (currently tree resin that would later become amber, that is) was ready, and Terri located us by following the sharp, rhythmic report of the stone on the chisel, and deposited it near the base of the monolith. She watched the chiseling work for a while, pretending to be able to read it (although she was looking at it upside down), then flew back for the next load.
Albert engraved the message about the dramatic events that had taken place in the past (or would take place in the future, reckoning from the time period we were now inhabiting) in three languages: English, German, and Piglatin (which he calls Yglatinpay). He was confident that the eventual finder of the monolith would know at least one of those languages.
As Albert and Tubthumper toiled away at their task, I sat on my haunches, watching and waiting. My paws are neither suited for chiseling nor malleting.
On the other side of the marsh, Stripes methodically stripped off the bark with his big, strong paws, while Marmalade and Drako continued scratching at the exposed portion left behind until the resin was released.
Terri kept jabbering the whole time as she watched the trio work, waiting for another load to carry off. She continued to tease Drako about her diminutive size. From the standpoint of the Pterodactyl, Drako was small, as the only reference point she had were the giants that she lived among.
When Terri got tired of chaffing Drako, she started gossiping about how dumb her neighbor Steve the Stegosaurus was, telling Drako, Stripes and Marmalade of the silly things Steve did that supposedly proved his lack of intelligence.
In due time, enough amber had been gathered and delivered, and Albert had finished the engraving of the weighty words on the monolith.
“Now for the finishing touch and flourish!” Albert said.
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