Grumbling to herself, the female tabbi padded away from the tree. On a conscious level, she didn't intend to go back to the garden, at least not just yet. But that's where her feet took her, as she was too busy thinking to notice. It was very unusual for a tabbi not to pay attention to where it was headed. Hepbeth reasoned that Jozlyn must be angry because Hepbeth had broken something that the humans valued.
For the life of her, Hepbeth just couldn't understand why these humans valued things so highly. Since humans had made the glass she'd broken, they could just simply make more. So why all the fuss? The tabbi suddenly realized that glass seemed to be one of the most highly prized items here at Draygon's Keep. But why glass? You couldn't eat it, you couldn't take a bath in it or with it, you couldn't enjoy its odor--it had none. All you could do was look at it. But you could also look at all sorts of other, more interesting things around the Keep--the trees, grass and other plants, the sky and clouds, the water and the fish in it, and the frogs and other small animals. With all these things to look at, why did humans make glass just to look at? They did use colorless glass stuck in the various windows to keep out cold while letting in light. Well, she conceded, that was indeed useful in the winter. But why did humans color glass just to look at? Flowers were much prettier--smelled nicer, too.
All this thinking caused Hepbeth to sneeze, which was what tabbin did when they felt confused or disgusted or annoyed or--
"Hepbeth! There you are!" Theor's voice!
Startled, the tabbi's mind popped back into paying attention to her surroundings, which is what it should have been doing while she was walking. She was in the garden, facing not only Jozlyn--but a very upset Theor! She hadn't planned on having a confrontation with them right just yet.
Now that he had her attention, Theor continued, "Hepbeth, Uuffi says you broke these pieces of glass. This experiment is very important. I need those pieces of glass. The two you broke, I don't have any more like them. Now what'll I do?"
"Humans make more!" The tabbin sat down, ears alert. She didn't tell them what else she was thinking: humans not using their intelligence.
The two magin looked at each other. Then Theor said, "We can't just make more of that kind of glass! Here at Draygon's Keep we don't make any kind of glass. Behrdal's the closest place to us that makes glass. But those two pieces you broke aren't made there and were the last of those colors we had here."
"Theor use other glass." The solution seemed so simple. Why was Theor making it more difficult than it need to be?
"Wait a minute, Theor." Jozlyn approached the tabbi and sat down, cross-legged, near her. "Hepbeth, those plants in the pots. They're the purple ones I brought back from an Unknown World. We made the infusion from that kind of plant--the purple liquid we want to put in the wine for the invading Pyraln to drink. We're hoping it'll calm them down so they won't feel like fighting us any more. But, you see, that purple plant doesn't grow here on Luciheptal World. Theor set up this experiment to see if we can grow that plant here. But we don't know what kind of colored light this plant needs to grow best. The other world's sun doesn't produce some of the rays that our Luciheptal sun does. So Theor used different colors of glass over the plants, trying to see which colors of light make them grow best."
Hepbeth merely blinked and twitched an ear. She still didn't understand.
Jozlyn continued, "We think maybe these plants need more purple light than our sun produces. So that's why Theor found that sheet of pale purple glass to use over the plants. You broke that one and the pale indigo one. The reason we're upset is because the purple and indigo glass are very rare and very expensive. They come from Nebeddal, from the area that's furthest away from where we are."
"Why Behrdaln not make special glass?"
"Because to produce those colors, the glassmakers need to use minerals that produce those colors. Not every part of this continent has all the different kinds and colors of rocks that they get the minerals from."
Hepbeth digested this new-to-tabbin information for a few seconds. An idea! "Jozlyn go to Unknown World. Get purple rocks. Make glass." With the situation solved, at least in the tabbi's mind, she proceeded to lick a front paw.
The two magin jumped up and seemed very excited over her idea. Jozlyn leaned over and hugged Hepbeth. "Oh, Hepbeth, we forgive you for breaking the glass! If you hadn't broken it, you never would have had this wonderful idea!"
Theor beamed at the tabbi, "How do you know there are purple rocks on that world? You've never been there--only Jozlyn has."
Astonished, Hepbeth looked up at him. Had he forgotten already what the tabbin had told him only a few days ago? "Theor not use intelligence!"
The humans stared at her, then burst out laughing. "Oh, my," said Jozlyn, wiping her eyes. "Of course! She sees the pictures in my mind when I think of that world, right, Hepbeth?"
"Hepbeth see world in Jozlyn mind. All blue, purple, green. Tiny bit yellow." She resumed licking her paw. The magin were no longer mad at what she'd done. Now they had a good new idea. Hepbeth felt happy that she could help them like this. Especially since they were two of her most favorite humans. She got up, said goodbye and trotted off to hunt some musktoon for a meal. |
