The wherry had been a good-sized bird, doubtless feeding somewhere in the lower reaches of Nerat for its fatty layer was juicy. It couldn’t be a northern bird. Menolly skinned it, stopping twice to hone her knife sharp. She carved the meat from the bones, stuffing it into the hide to carry home. When she had finished, she had a hefty burden, and the bones were by no means stripped clean. Too bad she couldn’t tell the old queen where they were.
She was rigging a forehead sling of her belt and the leg skin when suddenly the air was alive with fire lizards. With creels of shrill delight, the old queen and her bronzes settled on the bones. Menolly lacked hastily away before the fire lizards decided to attack her for the meat she carried.
She had plenty of time on her long and tiring march back to the sea cave to wonder about their appearance. She could easily believe that the little queen could understand what she was thinking, and the others she had been taking care of. But had the young queen told the others? Or had Menolly some tenuous contact with the old queen, too?
Her special group showed no inclination to remain with the others, but kept her company, sometimes disappearing or making lazy figures in the sky. Sometimes the little queen sat on her shoulder for a few dragon lengths, chirruping sweetly.
It was fully dark long before Menolly reached her refuge. Only the moonlight and familiarity with the access route helped her down the cliff face. Her hearth fire was sullen embers, which she wearily coaxed into a cheery blaze. She was too tired to do more than wrap a piece of wherry meat in a few leaves of seaweed and stick it in the heated sands by the fire to cook for the
90
r morning. Then she wrapped herself up in her carry-
|sack and fell asleep.
.;, She rendered the fat over the next several days, wishing time and again for one decent cooking pot. She
,- heaped aromatic herbs into the hot fat and poured the mixture into clay pote for cooling. The wherry meat fcad a slightly fishy taste, which suggested that the Stupid bird had been of a seaside flock rather than an inland or mountain group. But the cooled grease
.smelled of the herbs. Not, Menolly supposed, that the
;,fire lizards minded how they smelled so long as their itching skin was soothed.
r’l They loved to be ofled, lying on their backs, their
wings spread for balance, curling around her hand as
: she spread oil on their softer belly hide. They hummed
1 with delight at the attention, and when she had fin-
f ished each one, the creature would stroke her cheek ft with its small triangular head, the glistening eyes spar-;y kling with brilliant colors.
, She was beginning to find individual traits among her nine charges. The little queen was exactly as she Ifshould be: into everything, bossing everyone else, as ,|< imperious and demanding as a Sea Holder. She’d listen, Jpiiowever, very quietly to Menolly. And she’d listen to Ipfte old queen, too. But she paid no heed to any of the J|0thers, although they were expected to obey anything said. She’d peck them fast enough if they disobeyed her. There were two bronzes, three browns, a blue and ftwo greens. Menolly felt a little sorry for the blue. He Beseemed to be left out or picked upon by the others. The two greens were always scolding him. She named him Uncle, and the greens became Auntie One and Auntie Two. Two was slightly smaller than One. Because one the bronzes preferred to hunt for rockmites while ic other was deft at diving into pools for fingertails, icy became Rocky and Diver. The browns were so inch alike that for a long time they remained name-91 less, but gradually she found that the largest of the trio usually fell asleep, given any opportunity to do so, so she called him Lazybones. The second was Mimic because he always did what he saw the other doing; and the third was Brownie for lack of any other distinguishing feature.