Feet of Clay

dwarf? Sorry. That was a joke.”
    “There must be more interesting things. Hair. Clothes. People.”
    “Good grief. You mean girl talk ?”
    “I don’t know, I’ve never talked girl talk before,” said Cheery. “Dwarfs just talk.”
    “It’s like that in the Watch, too.” said Angua. “You can be any sex you like provided you act male. There’s no men and women in the Watch, just a bunch of lads. You’ll soon learn the language. Basically it’s how much beer you supped last night, how strong the curry was you had afterwards, and where you were sick. Just think egotesticle. You’ll soon get the hang of it. And you’ll have to be prepared for sexually explicit jokes in the Watch House.”
    Cheery blushed.
    “Mind you, that seems to have ended now,” said Angua.
    “Why? Did you complain?”
    “No, after I joined in it all seemed to stop,” said Angua. “And, you know, they didn’t laugh? Not even when I did the hand gestures too? I thought that was unfair. Mind you, some of them were quite small gestures.”
    “There’s no help for it, I’ll have to move out,” sighed Cheery. “I feel all…wrong.”
    Angua looked down at the little figure trudging along beside her. She recognized the symptoms. Everyone needed their own space, just like Angua did, and sometimes that space was inside their heads. And she liked Cheery, oddly enough. Possibly it was because of her earnestness. Or the fact that she was the only person apart from Carrot who didn’t look slightly frightened when they talked to her. And that was because she didn’t know . Angua wanted to preserve that ignorance as a small precious thing, but she could tell when someone needed a little change in their lives.
    “We’re going quite close to Elm Street,” she said, carefully. “Just, er, drop in for a while. I’ve got some stuff you could borrow…”
    I won’t be needing it , she told herself. When I go, I won’t be able to carry much .

    Constable Downspout watched the fog. Watching was, after staying in one place, the thing he did best. But he was also good at keeping quite still. Not making any noise whatsoever was another of his best features. When it came to doing absolutely nothing at all he was among the finest. But it was keeping completely motionless in one place that was his forte. If there were a rollcall for the world’s champion non-movers, he wouldn’t even turn up.
    Now, chin on his hands, he watched the fog.
    The clouds had settled somewhat so that up here, six stories above the streets, it was possible to believe you were on a beach at the edge of a cold, moonlit sea. The occasional tall tower or steeple rose out of the clouds, but all sounds were muffled and pulled in on themselves. Midnight came and went.
    Constable Downspout watched, and thought about pigeons.
    Constable Downspout had very few desires in life, and almost all of them involved pigeons.

    A group of figures lurched, staggered, or in one case rolled through the fog like the Four Horsemen of a small Apocalypse. One had a duck, on his head, and because he was almost entirely sane except for this one strange particular he was known as the Duck Man. One coughed and expectorated repeatedly, and hence was called Coffin Henry. One, a legless man on a small wheeled trolley, was for no apparent reason called Arnold Sideways. And the fourth, for some very good reasons indeed, was Foul Ole Ron.
    Ron had a small grayish-brown, torn-eared terrier on the end of a string, although in truth it would be hard for an observer to know exactly who was leading whom and who, when push came to shove, would be the one to fold at the knees if the other one shouted “Sit!” Because, although trained canines as aids for those bereft of sight, and even of hearing, have frequently been used throughout the universe, Foul Ole Ron was the first person ever to own a Thinking-Brain Dog.
    The beggars, led by the dog, were heading for the dark arch of Misbegot Bridge, which they called Home. At least, one of them called it “Home”; the others respectively called it “Haaawrk haaawrk HRRaawrk ptui!”, “Heheheh! Whoops!”, and “Buggrit, millennium hand and shrimp!”
    As they stumbled along the riverside they passed a can from hand to hand, drinking appreciatively and occasionally belching.
    The dog stopped. The beggars shunted to a halt behind it.
    A figure came towards them along the riverside.
    “Ye gods!”
    “Ptui!”
    “Whoops!”
    Buggrit?”
    The beggars