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"M’excuse, sir Sir?" Thernadad said, cli down the cave wall next to him
"Yes?"
"The mate an ht one more or less wouldn’t
"Why are you telling me?"
"It’s me old mum, sir E’can’t ers out there besides Pitiful shape she’s in If e’could just have a lick or two, e’doesn’t have any appetite at all no more, hardly"
The Copper saw a half-white bat, small and frail, above
"Oh, very well I suppose her sister’s soreat, well-traveled bat e’is; been down every hole in these mountains Thousand and one stories Now e’takes care of old Muain, to the cave roof on the trip so she could drop for another glide E’perishing with exhaustion, e’is"
"So he needs soriff flutter
"Sir, don’t be a’taking ," he said as the tiny old bat crawled down his back "What you’ve done for us poor hangersan’ skill and charity Wonderful thing, charity Never kno it a’gets paid back in this life or the next Here, y’be excusing me, her old teeth, you know"
Thernadad licked hio numb With a quick bite Thernadad opened a cut and the old bat began to lap
Thernadad wiped the corner of his eyes again and again as he licked a smear of blood from his limbs "Oh, sir Me poor old et this kindness till the day I drop No, sir"
"Rich good blood, this dragon," Thernadad’s reat heavy bat said He’d shifted to directly above the Copper with surprising stealth "Haven’t tasted that since I flew the whole way ’round the Lavadoons Not as kind as this one, no, nearly gotinto the Nor’flow by accident and get carried all this way, ons? "Tell me more," the Copper said
"Glad to,up from the exertions"
"I suppose I can spare a littlebat dropped down to his flank
"Ooooo, is there a party?" Ma across the cave roof with her sister and brood behind A couplenicely," Thernadad’s on"
Thernadad’s wide-bodied brother shoved his mother out of the way and pushed his nose in and drank When he caed himself up the Copper’s neck, where he threw a coons a’loving treasure stories Ever heard of CuTar? How about the great glowing stone of NooMoahk? In old Uldam, it is, like a bit of the sun itself dropped into the earth--"
"I’d rather hear about this Lavadoet so lost and confused To get back y’be having to make it to the Antiope for the southward flow, and there’s no good road, in the sun or in the dark, not hereabouts M’taking another pull and think on it Hey! Y’be getting out of it, you greedy beggars!"
Ma heap at the cut in his tail One of the bigger ones,than the rest, had opened another wound in his tail
"This is a bit reedy ood host," Thernadad yelled from above
"Faaaa!" Mamedi answered back
"Off me mum, you!" Thernadad dropped down on one of his orously than her own son, it see that the insult wasn’t as important as who offered it A full-out bat brawl started
He curled his slit tail around himself--it bent in a funny and uneven manner, with bends more like a dwarf tunnel, thanks to the rod injuries to it, and alternately licked and blew on the cuts until the bleeding stopped, as the bats lashed one another with leather wings and tried to bite off oversize hairy ears
He woke feeling tired and hungry He checked his cuts and discovered a neound in the soft spot just behind his shoulder Though bat bites did heal clean and fast, and he could hardly feel the injuries His head hurt, and he walked down to the river for a drink
He sucked cold water, and his head began to feel better al to get away fro! TheHe saw a light up the tunnel fro water
"Hurry!" Thernadad urged
BING-BING!