Free Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey Page B

motion of the many-faceted eyes was clearly visible. The queen gave a sort of sweet chirp and then, in a very businesslike manner, began to scold Menolly as she rolled her egg to safety.
    Menolly managed three eggs in her hand the next time. But it was obvious that between the onrushing tide and the startling number of eggs in the clutch, there’d be quite a race.
    ‘If the hole were bigger,’ she told the little queen as she deposited three eggs, ‘some of the bronzes could help you roll.’
    The queen paid her no attention, busy pushing the three eggs, one at a time, to safety.
    Menolly peered into the opening, but the fire lizard’s body obscured any view. If the hole was bigger and the ledge consequently broader, Menolly could bring the rest of the eggs up in her carry-sack.
    Hoping that she wouldn’t pull down the cliffside and bury the queen, clutch and all, Menolly prodded cautiously at the mouth of the opening. Loose sand came showering down.
    The queen took to scolding frantically as Menolly brushed the rubble from the ledge. Then she felt around the opening. There seemed to be solid stone just beyond. Menolly yanked away at the looser rock, until she had a nice tunnel exposed with a slightly wider opening.
    Ignoring the little queen’s furious complaints, Menolly climbed down, unslinging her sack when she reached the ground. When the little queen saw Menolly putting the eggs in the sack, she began to have hysterics, beating at Menolly’s head and hands.
    ‘Now, look here,’ Menolly said sternly, ‘I am not stealing your eggs. I am trying to get them all to safety in jig time. I can do it with the sack but not by the handful.’
    Menolly waited a moment, glaring at the little queen who hovered at eye level.
    ‘Did you understand me?’ Menolly pointed to the waves, more vigorously dashing up the small beach. ‘The tide is coming in. Dragons couldn’t stop it now.’ Menolly put another egg carefully in the sack. As it was she’d have to make two, maybe three trips or risk breaking the eggs. ‘I take this,’ and she gestured up the ledge, ‘up there. Do you understand, you silly beast?’
    Evidently, the little creature did because, crooning anxiously, she took her position on the ledge, her wings half-extended and twitching as she watched Menolly’s progress up to her.
    Menolly could climb faster with two hands. And she could, carefully, roll the eggs from the mouth of the sack well down the tunnelway.
    ‘You’d better get the bronzes to help you now, or we’ll have the ledge stacked too high.’
    It took Menolly three trips in all, and as she made the last climb, the water was a foot’s width from the clutch. The little queen had organized her bronzes to help, and Menolly could hear her scolding tones echoing in what must be a fair-sized cave beyond the tunnel. Not surprising since these bluffs were supposed to be riddled with caverns and passages.
    Menolly gave a last look at the beach, water at least ankle deep on both ends of the little cove. She glanced upward, past the ledge. She was a good halfway up the cliff now, and she thought she could see enough hand and foot holds ahead.
    ‘Good-bye!’ She was answered by a trill of chirps, and she chuckled as she imagined the scene: the queen marshalling her bronzes to position her eggs just right.
    Menolly did not make the cliff top without a few anxious moments. She was exhausted when she finally flopped on the sea grasses at the summit, and her left hand ached from unaccustomed gripping and effort. She lay there for some time, until her heart stopped thudding in her ribs and her breath came more easily. An inshore breeze dried her face, cooling her; but that reminded her of the emptiness of her stomach. Her exertions had reduced the rolls in her pouch to crumby fragments, which she gobbled as fast as she could find them.
    All at once the enormity of her adventure struck her, and she was torn between laughter and awe. To prove to herself that