Chapter 1: the giant man discovers a croco-diamond in his hammock

(if you didn't already, read the prologue to the book)

One morning, as the sun was just rising, the giant man woke up to the sound of crunching. It was not normal crunching.

It was very loud crunching.

He sat up in bed and peered out the window of his attic bedroom down to the courtyard below. There he saw, in the growing light, a croco-diamond lying on his back in the purple hammock.

He had a round, light green belly covered in cringle crisp crumbs, shiny long nails at the end of his webbed feet, and thick teeth covered in patterned white gold. Down his spine was a sparkling array of aspen diamonds, cardentine emeralds, star garnets, marlonian opals and a d.Dorian ruby once owned by a real King.

In each foot were five cringle crisps which the croco-diamond daintily placed in his mouth before snapping his snout shut with a loud munch and chomp.

Beside the croco-diamond was the basket of cringle crisps the giant man had made just the previous day. The basket was almost empty.

The giant man was puzzled for two reasons. The first: No one had seen a croco-diamond in years. They had moved deep into the swamp because fortune hunters would remove the jewels that made up the spines of the croco-diamonds while the croco-diamonds were sleeping (they sleep very deeply).

The second: Though croco-diamonds are known to eat mash pies, squiggle salads, kormy buns, broccolini casseroles, eggy tarts, okra-poker soup, and jellied-can cakes they had never been seen eating cringle crisps. Cringle crisps are made from cringle root, which is in the cringle tuber family, also known by its Latin name Crosimius Cringlecrumbium.

“Delightful morning!” called the croco-diamond, spying the giant man at his window. He spoke with an elegant Britlish accent. “I shall rest here for a bit and then I must to do something with these nails. A warm bath would be wonderful. Have you any bubbles?”

“Hm,” said the giant man. He put on his robe and walked down the narrow staircase from the attic, careful to duck his head to avoid the ceiling.

Arriving in the courtyard he found the croco-diamond brushing the crumbs from his belly with an elegant but worn cotton square. The croco-diamond then put the last cringle crisp in his mouth and looked at the front of his feet.

“I had such a nice pair of gloves for my trip but I seem to have misplaced them and walking on roads is so hard on the nails…”  

The croco-diamond stopped speaking because he noticed the giant man was staring at the path behind him that led from the courtyard out to the barn. The path was strewn with baskets. Empty baskets.

“Five, six, seven … Hm. Eight. Um, nine,” said the giant man to himself, counting the baskets.

The croco-diamond covered the front of his snout and burped into the cotton square.

“My cringle crisps. All … all of my cringle crisps?”

“I was hungry. Sometimes I do eat too much.”

The croco-diamond wiggled his tail in an attempt to sit up. The attempt failed.

“And now it’s hopeless. I’m afraid I’m stuck in this hammock.”

His snout sagged open and a small trail of drool dropped to his tummy.

“Perhaps I’ll have a bath later instead of now.”

His eyes started to close and he yawned a big croco-diamond yawn.

“But … it seems you’ve eaten all of my cringle crisps. All of them? ALL?”

At this the croco-diamond’s sleepy eyes suddenly opened, and with a great effort he managed to roll over onto his right side so he could more easily see the giant man.

“I don’t understand. Is there … a problem?”

“There is a problem. I sell cringle crisps every Thursday at the market. Today is Thursday. But there’s nothing to sell … Nothing.”

The croco-diamond blinked and then stared at the tall figure in front of him whose bath robe flapped in the gentle breeze, as if shyly pointing to all the empty baskets.

Due to his large size, strong teeth, well-polished nails and general aura of royalty, no one had ever reprimanded the croco-diamond before. But he was pretty sure he was being reprimanded, and was unsure what to do.

A feeling of sadness replaced the happy feeling of just moments before from having eaten nine baskets of cringle crisps. He put his front foot to his face and pressed it against the side of his snout.

“I just … I just don’t know what to say,” he sniffed.

His large tail thumped down dully onto the hammock and his rear feet curled into tight balls of webbing.

The giant man realized the croco-diamond was going to cry. And the worst thing is when a croco-diamond cries. First it goes sniff sniff and the eyes get a sad gleam. Then the croco-diamond makes a noise like kak, kak, clearing the lungs. One, then two egg shaped tears will roll down his cheeks, followed by a lowly murmured “neuuuuuuuu!” Sobs follow.

Croco-diamonds have a large supply of tears and can cry for a month without stopping. They still eat and polish their nails, which is very difficult to do through a curtain of tears but somehow they manage. The giant man had once heard the story of a croco-diamond that cried so much, for so long, that the croco-diamond’s snout had to buy an umbrella and galoshes.

“Oh no. Don’t. Um, it’s okay. Er, don’t cry. Please,” said the giant man as the croco-diamond’s chest puffed forward and his front feet covered his face. “It’s - it’s okay. We - we’ll make some more cringle crisps. With two of us - it’s - it won’t take long. Please don’t cry.”

The giant man moved his hand as if to pat the croco-diamond, but his hand was far away and so he just patted the air.

“Oh please, please, please! Please don’t cry!”

The croco-diamond thought for a moment, noticed his chipped nails again, and decided it would be best to delay his tears, at least for the moment. He stared at his front feet, and then his back feet, uncurling them and then wiggling each webbed digit nervously. Was he supposed to apologize now? Croco-diamonds don’t like to apologize.

“They had such a nice zing and a delicious crunch and I hadn’t eaten except for a tiny pot of cactar jam, it dries out the throat you know.”

The croco-diamond coughed a tiny cough and put his snout almost to his belly.

No, he wasn’t going to apologize.

The giant man sighed. He knew there was no point in getting angry. So he said, “I’m going to get dressed and make some breakfast. You should join me at least for some fruit because jam and cringle crisps are not a balanced diet. After breakfast we will discuss what to do next. We need a plan of action!”