Birdie had had a hard day. Hardest was explaining to Levanto, who then had to explain to his kin, just exactly what was to be done to the food stocks that the Mer-Folk had so generously given them.
Dead silence had followed the announcement. Some of the Mer-Folk could not hide the expressions of disbelief and disgust as the process of food preservation was explained to them. One poor Mer-Girl had actually retched at the thought of drying dead fish in the sun, and then eating it.
But in the end, the Mer-Folk shugged and cooperated as well as they could. Brightly colored seaweed bladders were attached to many of the fish cages, which were secured to the bottom, so they might be found again when the ship returned to the Fourth Age. Pounds and pounds of fish were brought aboard and split to dry on hastly-built racks, or set to smoke in a primitive smoke tent. Kali's seaweed was gathered and used, hopefully to good effect. And the vat which was to be the temporary home for the sea-cows had been scrubbed and checked for leaks.
It had been an exhausting day, but Birdie had done her best, with the help of Kali and Levanto, and had finally thrown herself into the bed to grab what few hours of sleep she could, before starting the whole process over again in the morning.
And now someone was nudging her foot! It couldn't be morning already! The skin-changer kicked irritably, and rolled over, covering her head with the pillow.
The nudge came again, harder this time, and someone said "So, here lies the fierce dragon I have heard so much about! Looks more like some old flotsam to these eyes!"
Bird rolled over, ready to curse whoever disturbed her rest. Opening bleary eyes, she saw the face of Pio floating but a foot in front of her.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A blood-curdling scream echoed through the entire ship as the skin-changer jumped a foot from the bed and scrambled desperately back into the bulkhead.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
[ September 07, 2002: Message edited by: Birdland ]
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