occasionally?”
“What about it?” Grelgen snapped impatiently.
“What do you eat normally? Besides what you told me
earlier.”
“Milk and honey, nectar and ambrosia, pollen and sugar
sap. What else would fairy folk eat?”
“So that’s it. I had a hunch.” A surge of hope rushed
through him.
“What’s it?” she asked, frowning at him.
He sat down and crossed his legs, set the duar aside. “I
don’t suppose there are any professional dieticians in the
village?”
“Any what?”
“No, of course not. See, all your problems are diet-
related. It not only explains your unnatural craving for
protein, it also explains your, uh, unusually rotound fig-
ures. Milk’s okay, but the rest of that stuff is nothing but
pure sugar. I mean, I can’t even imagine how many
calories there are in a daily dose of ambrosia. You proba-
bly use a lot of glucose when you’re flying, but when you
stop flying, well, the problem only compounds itself.”
One of the Elder fairies waiting impatiently behind
Grelgen now stepped forward. “What is this human raving
about?”
Grelgen pushed him back. “It doesn’t matter.” She
turned back to Jon-Tom. “What you say makes no sense,
and it wouldn’t matter if it did, because we still have our
craving.” She started to aim her wand at the trembling
Folly. “No use in trying to hide, girl. Step out here where
I can see you.”
196
Alan Dean Foster
THE DAY OF TOR DISSONANCE
197
Jon-Tom leaned sideways to block her aim. “Wait!
You’ve got to listen to me. Don’t you see? If you’d only
change your eating habits you’d lose this craving for