Читать книгу Dragons in Snow - Judy Hayman - Страница 10

Chapter 2

Foraging

Emily woke late the next morning and crawled out of her heather wondering why it was so quiet in the cave. She was relieved to see that her porridge was keeping warm on the fire, so she hadn’t been forgotten, even though there was no sign of the rest of the family. It was a still, cold morning; the sun had not yet risen, and the hillside below the cave was white with frost. The stream sounded unusually loud in the frosty air. She huddled closer to the fire as she ate her porridge.

“Good, you’re awake at last!” said a voice from behind, making her jump, and there was Gwen, with Lily riding on her back. “Lily got herself all over porridge this morning. She needed a good wash!”

Lily giggled. “’Tikky!” she said. “You certainly were!” her mother agreed, putting her down.

“Where’re Dad and Tom?”

“They went down to the loch. Some idea that Duncan had. They said they wouldn’t be long. I’ll put some water on for tea when they come back. Do you want the rest of this porridge?”

“Yes please!” said Emily. Her mother passed it over, thinking again that her children’s appetites were growing far too fast. They needed more food! For some reason there had been fewer rabbits on the hills this summer, and they had to be careful not to take too many fish from the otters’ loch. This early frost was bad luck; it would have driven all the snails into hiding. She went into the cave for some nettles, feeling rather worried. Their pile of wild oats was getting smaller too.

As Emily finished her breakfast, she spotted Tom and her father flying back, and shouted a greeting. Lily danced up and down, waving. Gwen came out to make the tea.

“Any luck?” she asked.

Duncan poured mugs of tea and sat down near the fire. “Show them, Tom.”

Tom opened his front claws and showed them a collection of small greyish-white roots.

“Yuk, what on earth are they?” Emily wrinkled her nose, but Gwen looked delighted.

“Des was right!” she said.

“What are you talking about?” said Emily, beginning to feel annoyed. She didn’t like the feeling that she was the only one who didn’t know about a secret, especially if Des was involved.

Duncan finished his tea in a noisy gulp, and decided to explain. “Remember that big round root that Des brought back from the castle? He said it was called a ‘tattie’ and was food that Humans cook.”

“We roasted it in the fire,” Emily remembered. “It was good! But these aren’t tatties!”

“No chance of finding tatties round here. At that castle they’re nearer Human places, and Des said he went foraging at night and dug some up on the edge of a field. Risky of course, but you know Des! Before he left he told me that he had heard about some wild roots like tatties from an old Traveller. Burdock’s one plant that has good roots, and that plant with silvery leaves and wee yellow flowers that grows all over. Well, we found a patch of that this morning, and dug some up. He was right!”

Gwen was looking thoughtful. “I don’t know what they’d taste like roasted, and we might lose them in a fire – they’re so small. But we could add them to stew, to make it more filling. Can we get some more?”

“Lots, if we all dig. It would be easier without this frost, but the sun’s coming up, so the ground might melt a bit. Let’s not waste the daylight.”

Tom proudly led the way down the valley a few minutes later. The patch of Silverweed was in one of the open glades that dotted the woodland not far from the loch. There were areas of scraped earth where Duncan and Tom had been busy earlier, but they set to work, digging into the frosty ground with their sharp talons and loosening the earth round the roots. It was quite hard work and the children were given the task of collecting the roots that were unearthed and piling them on the two square cloths that Ellen had given to Gwen as a goodbye present. The other family had collected quite a lot of useful Human items on their travels; if you held the cloth by its four corners it made a good bag for carrying the roots back to the cave. Even Lily trotted to and fro carrying one small root at a time.

As the sun rose higher the ground became easier to dig, but the dragons got a good deal more grubby in the process. When Lily tripped and fell with a loud wail in the muddiest patch, Gwen called a halt.

“We can’t put much more in the bags without losing them on the way home,” she said. “I’ll take them back to the cave with Lily, clean her up and make the broth. You two have a break. See if you can find any more of the plant on the way to the loch. And have a wash while you’re there!”

“I’ll carry on,” said Duncan. “Don’t want to waste a good digging day. See you later.”

Tom and Emily had quite enjoyed digging. It was fun clawing up the earth and finding the white hidden roots. And they had found a lot, in a very short time. “Good for Des! He really is brilliant!” Emily said as they set off towards the loch.

“Pity they’re no good raw,” said Tom, who had tasted one and spat it out in disgust. “I could do with a snack right now.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” said Emily, pointing ahead. “Beech nuts!”

There was a lot of open beech-mast on the ground around the beech tree, and they crunched happily. Then Tom flew up to the branches, and found a lot more nuts still attached to the branches. “We’d better remember where this is!” he called down. “These would be easier to collect than roots, and nicer too.”

“It will make Mum happier,” said Emily as they set off towards the loch. “I think she’s really worried that our food won’t last the winter. We ate such a lot while the others were here!”

Tom didn’t want to think about their absent friends, so he ran ahead to the loch shore, hoping to see the otters. There was no sign of them, but after a minute or two of gazing over the surface of the water they spotted two round heads, and suddenly Wattie and Lottie were shooting up to the shore and climbing onto their usual rock, shaking the water from their thick coats.

“Wha’ve ye bin daein’?” said Lottie, looking at the muddy snouts and talons of the two dragons.

“Digging roots.”

“Wha’ fer?”

“We cook and eat them,” Emily explained, washing the mud off in the loch and shivering in the cold water. Wattie pulled a face. “Sounds mingin’!” he said. “Comin’ fer a swim?” Tom agreed, took a deep breath and dived in, but Emily shook her head.

“Aye, water’s a bit nippy,” Lottie agreed, climbing off the rock and joining Emily on the shore. “Gettin’ icy further roond. Dad says we’re in fer a bad winter. Loch micht freeze ri’ o’er.”

She trotted away round the shore, and showed Emily a thin skin of ice stretching across a shallow bay. Reeds stuck stiffly through the ice, each rimmed with frost. The sun hadn’t reached this part of the loch and it was cold in the shade.

“How will you manage to fish if it does freeze over?”

“Nae idea. Dad’ll ken wha’ tae dae. We’ll no’ starve. He sez the loch froze richt o’er when he was oor age, an’ they a’ had a great time slidin’ o’er the ice. Mum sez we c’n coorie doon ‘n’ sleep a lot o’ the time, so we dinnae get as hungry in the winter.”

Emily put one foot on the ice, but it cracked and shifted under her.

“Not strong enough yet,” she said. “It will be fun when it is, though. We’d better get back to Dad. TOM!” she shouted as she saw him surface further out in the loch. He waved and started back to the shore. Emily went to meet him, followed by Lottie. He scrambled out, carrying a medium-sized fish in one talon.

“Did you catch that?” she asked, impressed.

“No, Wattie did,” Tom admitted. “He gave it to me. Said they’ve caught lots today.” They shouted thanks to the young otters, waved, and set off back through the wood. On the way back, Emily spotted another patch of Silverweed, and noted it for later. It wasn’t far from the beech tree.

“Mum Huffed that lunch is ready,” said Duncan as they came close to his diggings. He had made quite a pile of new roots for them to collect later, and was covered in mud. “You fly on, and I’ll have a quick wash and catch you up. Nice fish, Tom! Did you catch it?” He set off without waiting for Tom’s reply.

“Come on, let’s fly fast. You’re shivering,” said Emily, setting off up the hill. Tom shook water off his wings and followed, looking forward to a hot meal by the fire.

Gwen had chopped some of their roots and added a good clawful to the beetle broth simmering on the fire. There wasn’t much flavour to them, but they certainly added bulk and filled them up. She was looking a good deal happier. She was delighted with Tom’s fish, which she said they could have for supper, and even more pleased to hear about the tree full of beech nuts.

“I think we should go down this afternoon as well,” she said as Duncan, clean again, flew down to join them. “You never know what the weather will be like tomorrow.”

“Lottie’s Dad says it’s going to be a hard winter. There’s ice on the loch already,” Emily reported.

“Then we’d better not waste a good foraging day,” Duncan agreed.

They collected their bags and flew back down as soon as the meal was finished. Gwen made a nest in the grass under the beech tree, and persuaded Lily to climb inside. “Coorie doon, Lily!” Emily said. “That’s what Lottie says. I think it means snuggle down,” she added for her mother’s benefit as they tiptoed away.

With Lily asleep, the others found foraging much easier. Duncan bagged up his pile of roots and sent Tom back to the cave with them, while he started on the digging. Tom happily joined him when he returned with the empty bag. Gwen and Emily flew up to the spreading branches of the beech tree, tied their cloth between twigs, and started to fill it with nuts. The sun filtering through the branches felt surprisingly warm on their scales.

“Are you sure this is the start of winter?” Emily asked. “I’m lovely and warm.”

“That’s because there’s no wind,” said Gwen, dropping a clawful of nuts into the cloth. “It’ll be cold again when the sun goes down. The frost hasn’t melted in that patch of shade down there.”

“Are we really going to be short of food?”

“I don’t think so,” Gwen didn’t sound too sure, “but it’s as well to be as prepared as we can. The Otter is probably right about the winter being a hard one. He’ll know the signs if he’s lived here all his life. Frosty days like this are all right, but too much snow can be a problem. Food will certainly be hard to find, so we need our stores. I’d hate you and Tom to go hungry.”

“Tom would get really grumpy!” Emily agreed.

“He wouldn’t be the only one! Can you keep an eye on Lily while I take these back to the cave?”

Emily agreed and as there was no point in collecting more nuts until the bag was brought back, she flew to the topmost branch of the tree and perched, swaying gently. From there, she could see Tom and Dad still digging in the wood. Looking south over the loch she saw all four otters rolling and playing in the deep water and watched a pair of small deer tread warily to the edge of the loch for a drink before disappearing back into the trees. Two eagles, high in the pale sky, circled lazily. How would they all manage in a hard winter? There were months of cold weather still to come...

A wail from the ground below the tree interrupted her thoughts. Lily was awake. That probably put an end to foraging for the day, Emily thought, gliding down to reassure her wee sister that she had not been abandoned.

As the sun sank lower the frost returned, and the night was even colder; but the dragons, snug in their heather beds, ‘cooried doon’ and slept in comfort.