“That!” he cried, once the last of the peeps was over.

“You woke me up for that?” snarled Meagan incredulously. “It’s just the giant, snoring. Forget it and go back to sleep.”

The snoring started again. When it was over, Edgar wanted to ask Meagan how long it had taken her to learn to sleep through the horrible racket. But she was already snoring herself, and he dared not wake her again.

He was still wide awake, though completely exhausted, when Meagan lit the torch again. Only a few moments later the giant groaned and lurched to his feet, causing everything that had fallen to the wall the night before to return to the floor.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Meagan, as she kicked the loose fabrics against the wall, “and I’ve decided that you’re going to have to build a home of your own. This place really is too small for the two of us. Odds are good I’d end up killing you.”

Though she sounded genuinely regretful, she was also firm on the point.

Edgar, who was still determined to think of this as a temporary situation, felt that digging out his own home would be a waste of time and energy. On the other hand, he was not the sort to impose—certainly not the type to force himself into the abode of a woman who did not want him there.

“Where do you suggest I make this home?” he asked, trying to keep both the snarl and the whine out of his voice.

“Well, he has nearly thirty more teeth to choose from!” snapped Meagan. “However, I’d suggest you stick with the molars. They’re roomier.” Then, as if the idea of being pleasant was still new to her, she patted back her hair and said, “It might be nice if you built nearby. More neighborly, if you know what I mean. Best thing to do is start with a tooth that already has the beginnings of a hole. I’ll help you look, if you want.”

“Thank you,” said Edgar. “I’d appreciate that.”

And so, after a breakfast so gray that Edgar decided he didn’t really want to know what it consisted of, they left Meagan’s home to search for a tooth where he could live. Meagan carried the torch, and they both had picks and knives and coils of rope strapped about them. Before they left, Meagan anchored another rope to one of the chairs inside her tooth and tied it around them both.

Edgar understood why when they stepped down onto the giant’s gums. A narrow trench between gum line and teeth provided a good foothold. Even so, the flesh was moist and slippery, and without the anchor rope it would have been all too easy to slide into the damp cavern of the giant’s throat. The giant’s tongue, pulsating beside them like a pink and fleshy whale, was a constant danger. Even worse, when they first started out they had to dodge into the gap between Meagan’s tooth and the next one while the giant poked at their hiding spot with the tip of his tongue, as if he was trying to dislodge an irritating bit of food that had become stuck there.