Dragons of the Valley - Donita K. Paul [123]
Singing and dancing came right below meeting people on the Happy Things to Do list. The kimens in the valley liked singing and dancing just as much as the ones in the Starling Forest. Every night they taught Hollee new songs and new steps, and she shared those she knew from home. And, oh my, they all laughed when they came across songs and hops they all knew because the music came from so very long ago in kimen tradition.
Today had been just as fun as yesterday. Tonight, the weight of good food aplenty would make the tables groan at the one-towered castle. Ah, food belonged on the list as well.
Hollee skipped and jumped, turned flips and cartwheels. She sang and stopped to giggle when she came to the strange words the kimens of the valley sang. The proper words of this song were:
I’ve plenty of tin to make my ship
Plenty of rootygin to take many a sip.
And my friends all hold hands as we dance a bit
In the night, by the stars, and for the fun of it.
The kimens here had forgotten the words and sang:
I’ve plenty of magpie trumpet hats
Plenty of room-a-ring to do acrobats,
And my kin sing loud like all your kin
In the night, by the stars, and let’s start again.
If the tune hadn’t been so similar, and if the singing dragons hadn’t said it was so, they might never have believed it was the same song. Hollee couldn’t wait to go home and sing the funny words to her friends in the Starling Forest.
Playing with dragons held a slot near the top of her Happy Things to Do list. Playing with dragons hadn’t even been on the list until she and Wizard Fenworth came to the valley.
Paladin showed up with two dozen emerlindian and marione volunteers. He set about training both the men and the dragons to survive in battle. Most of it looked like fun to Hollee, and she got to help. The men sometimes needed kimen assistance in communicating through mindspeak to the dragons they rode. Most of the warriors quickly developed a bond with their mounts and could now mindspeak on their own.
Hollee took pride in the emerlindian and dragon she had played with, even though the librarian said she tutored them. All the time, Librettowit insisted they worked with dragons. They did not play.
Hollee said, “If it’s fun, why do we have to call it work?”
He said, “If it’s work, why are you having fun?”
Hollee knew there had to be a retort to that cynical question, but she hadn’t thought of one yet. Probably because she hadn’t thought much about Librettowit’s question, his philosophy, or the definition of work. Having fun doing the things on her Happy Things to Do list had kept her too busy to fret.
She stopped at the end of a complicated skip-jump-twirl pattern she often used for forward movement and stood stock-still. Closing her eyes, she took care to identify every sensation and thoroughly appreciate it. She tasted the breeze, as well as luxuriated in the brush of its warm breathlike wisps on her skin. She smelled flowers, wood smoke, and the rich loam of the earth at her feet. She heard the soft swish of the giant anamar butterfly and opened her eyes to watch the brilliant orange, red, and black wings fold and unfold in a slow, graceful homage to a wonderful day.
Movement above the distant mountains caught her attention. She scrambled up an incline of broken rocks, wondering how the huge boulders had managed to accumulate in the middle of a grassy field, how long it was until dinner, how many kimens lived in the valley if you counted the ones she hadn’t met yet, and what was flying into the valley over the northern ridge. With patience, she figured she would find out about dinner and the flying thing. She could ask Librettowit about the hill of rocks and probably get a good story out of him. And she