Hepbeth lolled as only a tabbi can, thoroughly enjoying the sun's rays warming her lean body. She looked around the garden and noticed something new where the magin, Theor and Jozlyn, kept the plants they called herbs. After glancing that way several times, curiosity finally overcame lethargy. She padded over to sniff out these new things.
Some human had gone to a lot of trouble to make what looked like small tables. The tabbi sniffed wooden legs and top frames with faintly colored glass resting in the frames. Some strange plants in pots were under the tables. Hepbeth had never seen such plants before. Deep purple, they grew in tight circles, with their leaves sticking out from their centers like swords the humans used. She detected a faint odor coming from the plants, so stuck her head under one of the tables to get a closer whiff. Not enough room--table tottered--tilted--then shattering crash!
Squawling in fright at the suddenness of the loud noise, Hepbeth jumped away, banging against a second table--producing another loud shattering noise! Tail tucked between her hind legs, Hepbeth bounded out of the garden to the other side of Draygon's Keep until she judged herself safely away from that awful noise. She stopped, sneezed, sat and licked herself all over. She spent some time doing a thorough washing.
Uuffi, the colorful a-a who shared Jozlyn's tower room with Hepbeth and Tragar, had been sunning himself in a tall tree overlooking the whole garden area. He'd spun his head around at the first strange shattering sound and saw Hepbeth leaping up and knocking over an object that also made a similar shattering sound when it toppled over. He watched the tabbi tuck tail and run. Uuffi could see bright glints and sparkles glittering off very small objects around where Hepbeth had been. Curious, the a-a spread his wings and sailed gracefully down and around for a closer look. He noted that as his angle to the sun changed, so did the placement of these small particles. He stuck out his feet, back-winged and landed a short distance away. Crest up, somewhat warily because he remembered the loud noise that spray thing had made when he'd knocked it off the wall, the bright a-a waddled closer.
He was so intent on investigating this new phenomenon he didn't notice a human come round the corner of the garden wall, stop to take in the scene, then wail, "Uuffi! Oh, what in krells have you done!"
Startled, the a-a turned his head and saw Jozlyn running toward him. "Oh, Uuffi! You've ruined Theor's experiment! I just hope the plants aren't too badly cut by those glass shards." She stepped gingerly through the litter of shards to get a closer look at the potted plants. Picking up one of the pots, she fussed, "At least this one isn't ruined--only some glass shards in it. Thank the Great Kris it didn't get sliced up."
Uuffi stood perfectly still, one foot tentatively raised toward Jozlyn as he watched her shake more of those sparkly things from the rest of the pots which she then set aside.
"How did you break this, anyway? Did you fly into the glass, is that how you knocked it over? Uuffi, Theor's not going to like this one bit. He had a hard time locating that pale purple glass and now it's broken and scattered all over here."
Suddenly Uuffi understood that Jozlyn was mad at him because she thought he'd made the big mess. He closed his crest and slowly approached his angry mistress. "Uuffi sorry--sorry--Uuffi not break--not break--Hepbeth jump--Hepbeth jump--Uuffi in tree--in tree--peep?"
"Uuffi, Hepbeth's not anywhere around here. Why are you telling me she broke the glass?" She started picking up the shards and putting them in an empty pot. "Besides, you're not up in a tree, you're on the ground right here by this mess. When I came in the gate, I saw Uuffi here, not Hepbeth."
"Hepbeth run--run away--scared--Hepbeth scared," Uuffi insisted, his crest raised again as he bobbed a little. He had to make his upset mistress understand that he didn't do this.
"Hepbeth scared? Uuffi, tabbin aren't afraid. Besides, what is here that would scare her? Just a bunch of plants," Jozlyn frowned at him.
This wasn't going very well. How could he explain why Hepbeth was scared? The noise! Yes, that's what had scared her. "Hepbeth scared--noise--glass break--noise--Hepbeth jump--jump--more glass break--noise--noise--Hepbeth run--run--squawk!"
"Okay, so where did Hepbeth go? If she did this, I want her back here to tell me herself!" Jozlyn grumbled.
With a squawk that Jozlyn found ear-splitting, Uuffi leaped into the air and launched himself onto the breeze. He sailed high up over the Keep. Hepbeth should be somewhere close, probably licking her tail. His sharp eyes suddenly spotted her, down there doing just that. He swooped down and landed near her, stirring up a flurry of dried leaves, one of which scudded into Hepbeth's nose. Startled, she sneezed.
"Uuffi not use intelligence. Uuffi land bad. What Uuffi want?" she telepathed, her ears twitching as she stared at the a-a.
His crest up, the a-a squawked at her, forcing her to turn her ears away. "Jozlyn in garden--in garden--want Hepbeth--want see Hepbeth--now!" With another ear-splitting squawk, he flapped up into a tree. Ignoring whatever the tabbi on the ground might now be doing, he started to preen himself.
Jozlyn wants me--now? Hepbeth suddenly remembered the mess she'd made investigating those strange plants in the garden. She tuned into the human frequency and discovered Jozlyn was indeed upset. The tabbi ran to the trunk of the tree Uuffi had landed in and stretched up as far as her front paws could reach. Raking her claws down the bark as she growled, she telepathed, "Uuffi! Why Jozlyn want Hepbeth?"
Uuffi stopped preening and stared down at her with one of his shiny black eyes. He had an idea, but since he didn't want Hepbeth mad at him, too, he squawked, "Hepbeth go--go to garden--find out--find out!" He resumed preening. He would stay clear of Jozlyn until Hepbeth told her that it really was the tabbi who had broken the glass. He paused again. Uuffi better stay away from Theor, too! he decided. |