The ponderope

The ponderope is a creature which dwells in the land beyond.

When the Lord of Beasts is debating ways to execute Bob the skeleton, he considers grinding Bob to dust beneath the heels of a ponderope. Later, when the Apprentice and Bob flee the palace of the Lord of Beasts, the boar-god pursues them to the lagoon of Belasaphat with the ponderope, which he claims allows a rider to see the whole of the land beyond.

The Apprentice and Bob encounter the ponderope again in the Unheeded Plain, when it pauses and allows the Apprentice to begin scaling its leg before resuming its stride and leaving Bob behind.

The ponderope is the tallest being in the land beyond. The Apprentice finds that it is so tall that from atop its crown, one is close enough to the world above to feel the warmth of the sun.

When questioned about its family, the ponderope states that it had a son, a "strapping, vigorous son, long of limb and sturdy as the mountain of Ahn", although it later admits that it has no memory of its time in the world above and this may all be a pleasant fantasy.