[Child of the 7th Age]

Angara certainly did not consider Child to be her master and tended to go her own way whenever she desired. However, although Child was totally unaware of it, Anagara did keep a tiny portion of her mind tuned in to Child so she could tell when something was drastically wrong.

Apparently, now, something was drastically wrong. Angara felt alarm bells going off in her own head, and she sensed a single name spoken again and again, "Birdland."

Angara halted in mid-air and swung back towards the vessel. She shrank herself to a comfortable size to land on the deck and quickly did so. She came over to where the body of Birdland lay huddled and shuddering.

Stacey bent over Birdie now, as did Child. Rose had pulled back from the scene to speak with some of the other Elves who seemed strangely wrapped in their own dreams and musings.

Legolas looked truly contrite. He had merely thought the flying Birdland had evil intentions on Samwise. His intention had not been to strike down an innocent creature.

Angara lowered her green head to Birdland and slowly rubbed against her feathers.

It was strange how things that flew through the air seemed to know so much about each other. Sometimes the winged things were friends, and sometimes not. Once, a tiny bird Thrush had revealed her knowledge to another and had brought about the death of an evil dragon.

But Angara was not an evil dragon. She would probably not be considered good by human or Elf standards, but, by the standards of the dragons, she was very good indeed.

Angara's heart actually felt a shred of pity as she gazed at the flying thing which lay injured on the deck. To Angara, all flying things looked beautiful, whatever their outward appearance.

Angara opened her mouth and let out a puff. For one horrified second, Child thought the dragon was going to let loose a cloud of fire and incinerate them all. But instead of fire or smoke, a strange thing issued from the dragon's mouth. It was pink and puffy and smelled just wonderful.

Child stared in amazement. How talented Angara was! It looked like a silken cloud. But no, not a cloud. It looked instead like a shred of pink light, something that had broken off from the Silmarils and now floated above Birdland's head.

At the same time the dragon gently probed with her giant teeth and pulled Legolas' arrow from Bird's body.

In a single instant, the pink light disappeared. The flow of blood ceased, and Birdland softly stirred. Still dizzy and hurting but alive, Bird pulled her head upward and softly whispered, "Where, oh where, am I?"