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Perhaps I have died and I really a point

He opened his eyes again

"Wow!" said Eric, his eyes glea in the sae So, to Rincewind's annoyance, was the parrot It was perching inspeculatively at the cosht alned to be seen froned to be lived on But he had to admit that it was impressive

The sun was about to rise on the far rilittered around half the circu its sweep across the dark, massive landscape

Below, harshly lit in the arid vacuum of space, Great A'Tuin the world turtle toiled under the weight of Creation On his - or her, the iant elephants strained to support the Disc itself

There ht start with a ball of molten iron and then coat it with successive layers of rock, like an old-fashioned gobstopper And you'd have a very efficient planet, but it wouldn't look so nice Besides, things would drop off the bottoood," said the parrot "Polly want a continent" "It's so big," breathed Eric "Yes," said Rincewind flatly He felt that so more was expected of hi doubt about all this If he was for the sake of argus had happened to hiht have died and not noticed it in the confusion, then he still didn't quite see how the world was his to give away (Rincewind had been told that death was just like going into another room The difference is, when you shout, "Where's my clean socks?", no-one answers) He was pretty sure that it had owners who felt the saet son for it," he said "In blood" "Whose?" said Eric "Yours, I think," said Rincewind "Or bird blood will do, at a pinch" He glared

rowled at him "Aren't I allowed to try it out first?" "What?" "Well suppose it doesn't work? I' for it until I've seen it work" Rincewind stared at the boy Then he looked down at the broad panoradoe? he thought I wonder how I

survived? "It's the world," he said patiently "Of course it will bloody ork I mean, look at it Hurricanes, continental drift, rainfall cycle - it's all there All ticking over like a bloody watch It'll last you a lifetiave the world a critical examination He wore the expression of soifts in life seem to require the psychic equivalent of two U2 batteries and the shops won't be open until after the holidays

"There's got to be tribute," he said flatly "You what?" "The kings of the world," said Eric "They've got to paythis, haven't you," said Rincewind sarcastically "Just

tribute? You don't fancy the moon while we're up here? This week's special offer, one free satellite with every world doave a sigh of long-suffering patience "Minerals," he said "Ores You know" Rincewind coloured "I don't think a lad your age should be thinking of -"

"I s It's no use to me if it's just a load of rock" Rincewind looked down The Discworld's tiny e, and shed a pale radiance across the jigsaw pattern of land and sea

"Oh, I don't know It looks quite nice," he volunteered "Look, it's dark now Perhaps everyone can pay you tribute in the ht you ers a careful exaood at snapping theave it another try

When he opened his eyes again he was standing up to his ankles in st Rincewind's talents was his skill in running ahich over the years he had elevated to the status of a genuinely pure science; it didn'tas you were fleeing It was flight alone that counted I run, therefore I am; more correctly, I run, therefore with any luck I'll still be

But he was also skilled in languages and in practical geography He could shout `help!` in fourteen languages and screah h speed, and during the long, lovely, boring hours when he'd worked in the Library he'd whiled away the ti up on all the exotic and faraway places he'd never visited He rehed with relief that he'd never have to visit thele surrounded hile, such as leopard-skin-clad heroes le that towered up like solid slabs of greenness, thorned and barbed, jungle in which every representative of the vegetable kingdoot down to the strenuous business of outgrowing all competitors The soil was hardly soil at all, but dead plants on the way to composthood; water dripped from leaf to leaf, insects whined in the humid, spore-laden air, and there was the terrible breathless silenceflat out Any yodeling hero who tried to swing through that lot ht just as well take his chances with a bean-slicer

"How do you do that?" said Eric

"It's probably a knack," said Rincewind

Eric subjected the wonders of Nature to a cursory and disdainful glance

"This doesn't look like a kingdododom?"

"This is probably the rain forests of Klatch," said Rincewind "They're stuffed full of lost kingdoms"

"You mean mysterious ancient races of Ae and exhausting progenitative rites?" said Eric, his glasses beginning to fog

"Haha," said Rincewind stonily "What an iination the child has"