I was spit out of His eye, or thrown up might better describe how it felt. None to soon. I fell back, trembling, numb, and unable to move. But I was not a block of stone, however narrowly I avoided it. Less could be said for the Cockatrice, who had become a statue. Chuk jumped triumphantly onto His head. "Yes! I got Him!" he called.
"Good work! Now come down from there before you fall and hurt yourself again. Al, what are you doing? This is no time for a nap! We won!"
I sat up, nearly blacked out, and lay down again. "Sorry, I'm afraid I'll have to rest here for just a moment"
"What about this other guy? There's a survivor over here, I think."
"You think?"
"Well, he's moaning, so I hope he's alive. But he's in pretty bad shape and you're a better healer than I. You ought to have a look, if it isn't to much of an inconvenience to interrupt your nap. Chuk and I are gonna go look for shiny things in the cavern."
When I could walk I found my way to this survivor. It was the fifth warrior, who had been slapped by the monsters tail. Nearly all his ribs were broken, either by the tail or the boulder, but he was alive. His armor did him some good: it kept the Cockatrice from touching him, so he did not turn to stone. However, he was in terrible pain and very fortunate to have lived at all. I dressed his wounds and kept him alive.
Until my servants arrived, we could only wait, and see what we had won. Most of the best statues were inside the cavern, where many remained untouched by time and the elements from centuries past. There were hundreds, ranging from tiny animals to the Cockatrice Himself. There was also much more than enough treasure in His hoard to satisfy Edwyn, and Chuk, and pay my servants and provide a generous share to the wounded warrior.
My servants arrived after about a week, and we began with the evacuation of the most impressive statues and the wounded warrior. I sent him to recover at my house, and though I fear the Cockatrice broke more than his ribs, he healed and at least did not leave empty-handed. Even with a small army of help, it took several trips to get everything out and send it to its proper destination. Some things were stolen or lost along the way, but I was able to eventually get most of those back, one way or another.
"I should be on my way," Chuk said, soon after my servants arrived. "The misses is going to have a fit with me for running off like this," his eyes sparkled as he gazed into his bag of goodies. "But I think she will agree it was worth it." We said farewell, and he left with a servant to help carry his loot. She did have a fit, I hear, and did also forget her anger when she saw the wealth of precious metals and jewels Chuck brought with him. They became the most fabulously wealthy and influential weasels in their community.
