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you think you can do it, Samm? It would take too long and therefore expose you
to too many attacks from multiple sources for you to cut down a tree big
enough to serve as a dugout. So we'll have to use smaller trees and try to
fashion some kind of a raft."
He shrugged broad, powerful shoulders. "I'm willing to try. But if the forest
has gone and defended its dead so dynamically, I'm sure it will exert even
greater efforts to protect those trees still living. Still"--he rose to his
feet, brushing sand from his lower legs--"I've cut down plenty of thorn trees
and nut-throwers already. It shouldn't be impossible to manage a few more."
His soft smile was as unintentionally mesmerizing as his unblinking stare. "I
can deal with a few cuts and bruises."
"Maybe you won't have to," announced a familiar voice. From contemplating the
ominous depths of the waiting woods, they all turned to see Cocoa standing in
the water. Quite a ways out in the water, in fact. One arm held high, she
waved cheerily back at her friends.
"Come on in," she called to them. "Not only is the water fine--it's not even
up to my knees!"
FIFTEEN
Feeling a little light-headed, Oskar rushed to join her. The others followed
at a more decorous pace: Cezer and Mamakitty because to them entry into even
shallow water was a disagreeable business to be embarked upon only after sober
consideration, Taj because the experience was wholly new to him, and Samm
simply because when given the choice, he tended to do things more deliberately
than his companions.
Not Oskar. Knees lifting high with each stride, legs pumping energetically, he
made a joyous, splashing dash to catch up with Cocoa. If not precisely in his
element, he was for once in their long journey more comfortable in new
surroundings than any of his friends. She shut her eyes and turned away from
him as his flailing legs threw water in all directions.
"Hey-ssst! I'd like to keep as much of me as dry as possible for as long as
possible, if you don't mind." Raising her left arm, she began licking away the
droplets that clung there.
"Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away." Slightly abashed, he bent at the
waist and with cupped hands began to throw water in the opposite direction for
the sheer joy of it. The blue-toned liquid felt a little heavier, a little
denser, than the ocean water Master Evyndd kept stored in a large Jeroboam. "I
keep forgetting that certain attitudes carry over, and that your kind finds
swimming and soaking unpleasant."
"It's not so much that it's unpleasant." She kept a wary eye on his active,
splashing hands. "It's just that it's cosmetically unflattering. Don't you
remember spending hours and hours trying to dry and groom yourself after a
compulsory bath?" When she drew only a blank look she sighed and turned toward
the eastern horizon. "No, come to think of it, I guess you don't."
"What's to dry and groom?" He promptly sat down. Composed almost entirely of
particles of what appeared to be very fine quartz, the bottom was eerily
translucent. He let the warm water swirl around his legs and partially
submerged lower body. At that point his previously uncooperative bladder
relaxed. Even though the shore was lined with trees aplenty, there was no way
he was going back into the Kingdom of Green. "You lie out in the sun until
you're dry. As for grooming, the wind takes care of that."
"You ought to know that that's not how cats do it. We're a little more proper
where our appearance is concerned." Shading her eyes with one hand, she
pointed across the water as Mamakitty trudged to a prudent halt nearby. "I
don't see any landmarks. No distant shore, no bump of an island, no trees:
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nothing."
"Perhaps the whole Kingdom of Blue is like this," the older woman speculated.
"Maybe we won't need a boat after all."
Taj tiptoed up behind them. "Surely it can't be all ocean. And if it is, there
must be places that are much deeper than here." He looked down at his booted
feet, clearly visible through the warm, pellucid salt water. "It defies
everything I've ever heard about such bodies of water. Anything this shallow
should quickly evaporate away."
Mamakitty eyed him thoughtfully. "How comes a canary to know so much about
oceans?"
He looked away. "I didn't spend all that time in the Master's study singing.
With my cage hanging over his desk, I couldn't help but look down at some of
the books he read."
"You're thinking of the oceans of our world; the ones Master Evyndd spoke of
often." As Samm joined them, the others moved to stand discreetly in his
cooling shadow. "Couldn't it be that the water here, where everything is so
saturated with blue, blue, blue, acts differently? Obviously it doesn't [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]