Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [80]
She lifted her chin and let a smug smile set on her lips. “I do know something nice to say. Since you chose me to go first, you know I’m smarter than either of you two. Else you wouldn’t have said for me to go first.”
“That’s squatty poop,” yelled Cinder.
“Hold it!” Ellie’s voice sounded loud and clear. “No one is to say another word until I give you permission.”
The three children clamped their mouths shut.
“Soo-tie, I appreciate your willingness to be first. However, you didn’t make it clear that you admire Cinder’s choice because he is clever enough to recognize that you are gifted in conversation and would be perfect to be the first to try a new way of speaking.”
“Huh?” said Cinder and Soo-tie.
Bealomondore winked at Ellie. “She means since Soo-tie talks more than the boys, then she probably could talk the way Miss Clarenbessipawl wants her to.”
“How does she want us to talk?” asked Porky.
“She wants you to talk in a way that makes the person talked to feel good.”
Puzzled glances passed between all three children.
“Why?” asked Cinder.
“Remember what I told you?” said Ellie. “You are going to learn to enjoy life. You will find it is good instead of bad, fun instead of boring, and safe instead of dangerous.”
Porky snorted. “Talking like you want us to is going to do all that?”
The other two snickered.
“Speaking politely will put you on the right road. Instead of being covered with the slime of destruction, you will be lifted above the mire.”
The three children turned to Bealomondore.
“She means that every time you speak in the way she doesn’t like, it’s like you fall in the mud. It gets in your clothes, in your hair, in your mouth. Sometimes it gets in your eyes and makes it hard for you to see. Sometimes it clogs up your ears so you can’t hear.”
“And if we talk like she wants us?” asked Soo-tie.
“The more you talk her way, the more dirt and grime and muddy slime drop off you.”
The children looked at themselves and the grubbiness that clung to each of them.
“This stuff washes off,” said Porky. “We don’t have to talk different. We just have to jump in the fountain.”
Bealomondore smiled. “Ah, but it’s not the dirt and mud you can see that is the problem.”
Cinder narrowed his eyes and looked suspiciously at the male tumanhofer. “What do you mean?”
“It’s invisible,” said Ellie.
“Invisible and”—Bealomondore let his voice drop to a deep, solemn whisper—“it goes inside you and sticks to your innards. Particularly your heart.”
“And in your blood,” added Ellie.
“You can’t wash it off,” said Bealomondore with a sad shake of his head.
“It has to wear off.” Ellie nodded with encouragement. “Sometimes it does fall off in chunks, but then you can’t see it, so you don’t know by what you see whether it’s here or there.”
Cinder blustered. “If I can’t see it, why should it worry me?”
“Because of what it does.”
Cinder held out his hands, covered with grime and dried blood from his nose. “It’s just dirt. It don’t do anything. Just because I can’t see it doesn’t make it more dangerous than plain dirt. If you’re trying to trick me into a bath, it’s not going to work.”
“A bath?” asked Bealomondore with a more vigorous shake of his head. “Hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
Porky looked at Ellie. “Are we going to be late for noonmeal?”
“I don’t think so.”
“We’re almost there,” said Bealomondore.
Ellie patted Porky’s arm. “I’m going to give each of you a sentence to say. We’ll practice saying nice things.”
“I don’t want to,” said Porky. “I have a wound.”
“The wound isn’t in your mouth,” said Bealomondore.
“I’m tired and hungry, and I don’t feel like talking like she wants me to. Why should I?”
Ellie heaved a giant sigh.
Bealomondore’s face became a mask of formidable adult determination. “Miss Clarenbessipawl, give him his sentence.”
“All right, Porky. This really won’t be hard.” She paused. “Your sentence is, ‘Thank you for staying to help me, Miss Clarenbessipawl.’ ”
Porky’s face darkened, and he didn’t say a word.
Bealomondore stepped in front of him, turned abruptly, and stopped. He spoke between clenched