Tile seven is a fairly straight forward piece. The central figure is a nameless old man from Anpao that I’ve been referring to as Porcupine Man. This complies with a fairly common naming convention used in that text. In his story, he saves Anpao’s life but then demands that the boy repay him through life-long servitude. Eventually, the otherwise honest lad helps the Thunderers to find the old man, their enemy, so that they can blast him with lightning bolts. There is a chase and he almost makes it into his cave (safety). While he runs, he shoots quills out of his back. The quills, coupled with his horrible personal hygiene, tell me that he is a porcupine. Let me know if I’ve misread this important scene.

Porcupine Man is making a dash for the hollow tree to avoid being blasted by Zeus. This is fairly crazy, I realize, and it goes against the established story line of both characters. Let’s just assume that Porcupine Man gets away.

In the lower right, we find a bunny and a bird. These are the characters Run and Slowly. They feature in my children’s book, Run, Gerund, Run. Quickly can be found on tile eight. Note that Run looks particularly mean here. I like to think that he is in cahoots with Porcupine Man, committing all sorts of wicked acts and demonstrating excitingly poor personal hygiene.