“May look a sight, but roasted in its skin, a whersport is very good eating. So, we’ll stuff it with a bit of white tuber and some grass shoots, and we’ll have a meal fit for a Lord Holder.”
When she saw Piemur’s dubious expression as she completed her arrangements, she laughed.
“There’re a lot of strange beasties in this part of the south. As if all the animals you have up north got mixed up somehow. A whersport isn’t a fire lizard, and it isn’t a wher. For one thing it’s a daytime beast, and whers are nocturnal; sun blinds them. Then there’s far more varieties of snake here than in the north. Or so I’m told. Sometimes I’d like to go north, just to see all the differences,
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but then again,” and Sharra shrugged, her eyes wandering over the lush, deserted and strangely beautiful marshlands, “this is where I hold. I haven’t seen half enough of it yet to begin to appreciate all its complexity.” She pointed due south with her bloody knife blade. “There’re mountains down there that never lose their snow. Not that I’ve seen snow, on them or on the ground, though my brother has told me about it. I wouldn’t like to be as cold as he says it gets in the north when there is snow on the ground.”
“Oh, it’s not bad,” replied Piemur reassuringly and a trifle pleased to be able to talk on a subject he did know, “rather invigorating, in fact, cold is. Snows are fun, too. Then you don’t have to” He caught himself. He’d been about to say “you didn’t have to report to all work sections at the Harper Hall.” “do as much work.”
Sharra didn’t seem to notice his brief hesitation or that he had substituted another phrase. She gave him a grin.
“We don’t always work this hard in Southern, either, Piemur; but now it’s time to harvest numbweed and get the .tuft seeds and bush hearts. If we didn’t have them… .” and she shrugged to indicate a very unpleasant alternative. Then she made a trench in the red ashes of their fire, lined it with thick water plant leaves, which began to hiss and exude a steamy fragrance, deftly inserted the stuffed whersport, folded over the leaves, then carefully knifed the hot ashes in place, and sat back. “There. Dinner won’t be long, and there’s enough for all.”
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