Sometime later, a loud raukous squawk sounded practically right in her ear, interrupting Hepbeth's sleep abruptly. She felt a flurry of wind and dust as a bright red, orange and blue a-a back-winged for a landing near her. The tabbi sneezed and sat up, flicking the tip of her tail from side to side in annoyance.
"What Uuffi want?" the grumpy tabbi snarled. "Hepbeth napping."
Since Uuffi had been living with Jozlyn longer than any of the tabbin, Hepbeth and Tragar tolerated him. They didn't understand his mercurial moods and his loud squawks hurt their sensitive ears.
"Jozlyn--Theor--want Hepbeth--want Hepbeth!" Uuffi bobbed up and down. "Hepbeth go see Jozlyn--see Theor--now--now--squawk!" With a flurry of wingbeats that raised even more dust, Uuffi rose once more into the air. As he sailed away, he called, "Uuffi find Tragar--find Roshel--find--find--squawk!"
Hepbeth sneezed again. So the two magin had a project they wanted the tabbin to help them with. She tuned into the magin's frequency. They were in Theor's tower den, waiting for the tabbin. She got up and ambled slowly, leisurely toward the Keep.
Uuffi discovered Tragar licking his chops, having just finished a meal of several musktoon, the small rodents that formed a major part of the tabbin diet. Tragar had heard Uuffi coming from a long way, as the a-a had been squawking Tragar's name as he flew in search of him. The a-a landed on a branch above the tabbi.
"Uuffi make much noise. What Uuffi want?" Tragar was inclined to feel more charatible toward the a-a, as Uuffi hadn't startled him into the waking state like had happened with Hepbeth.
"Jozlyn--Theor want Tragar--want Tragar!" He bobbed up and down on the branch, then hanging onto the branch with his powerful claws, executed a complete flip down and around the branch. "Jozlyn--Theor want Roshel--where Roshel?"
Tragar stood up and telepathed to the a-a, "Tragar tell Roshel. Uuffi tell Jozlyn, Theor. Tabbin come."
"Squawk!" Uuffi flew back toward the Keep.
Tragar telepathed the news to Roshel, the tabbi who worked with Theor. Roshel had been lazily sniffing along the trail of a musktoo, but he really wasn't hungry, having eaten his fill earlier. So, the magin wished to speak with the tabbin. Would he or wouldn't he? Oh well, since he really wasn't doing anything of particularly compelling interest at the moment, the tabbi decided he'd comply with the humans' wishes. He telepathed to Tragar that he'd see him in the Keep.
And so it was that the three tabbin padded up the many stone steps to the top of Theor's tower and entered the room softly. Tragar chose to plop himself down daintly by Theor's hearth and proceeded to lick a paw. Hepbeth sat with her back to the two humans and also licked a paw while the end of her long tail twitched. Roshel padded quietly over to Theor, sniffed the hem of his robe, then curled up a short distance away from Theor, facing the two humans. |