"Nancy Springer - Isle 05 - The Golden Swan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

friend, his human friend, it seemedтАж Cold is what I remember first. The day was as bitterly cold as the
night had been. Cold air and cold snow and sandтАФmy fur was gone. I was practically hairless. How
humans were to be pitied, to be always so naked beneath their clothes, so cold! I pitied myself heartily.
My limbs shot out, long, and my heart pounded within great broad ribs. My muzzle disappeared. My
vision blurred for a moment, then righted itself, and hands waved foolishly in front of my face. I was
terrified, startled beyond telling. I sprang up to run off. But my limbs would no longer serve me wolf
fashion, and I fell over on my side, thrashing. One foot struck Frain, and he groaned.

I had hurt him. I wanted to howl again.

Instead I quieted myself, gathered my wits a moment. Then I struggled up enough to balance on one
front pawтАФ hand. I used the other to tug and shake at him. His only reaction was to swallow. I tugged
harder, then managed to sit on my haunches and get both hands free. I graspedhim under the shoulders,
pushed with my feet and sprawled over backwards, pulling him a little farther from the sea. I wanted to
get him out of reach of the tide," though it meant dragging him into the snow. But I was barely able to
wriggle out from under him. A few more such efforts and I was exhausted.

I was very weak.I had not eaten in too long a time for a human, it seemed. And I was cold, shivering, a
horrible, strange sensation to me. I felt terribly afraid. I would freeze, we would both freeze, unless I
found us helpтАФ tried to rise on my long hind legs, to walk man fashion. I fell. Again I tried, and again I
fell, and again and again. I gave in and tried to go on four legs, but all my speed and grace and strength
had left me; I could go no better than a snail. The nearest dwelling might be milesтАж Despair washed over
me like an incoming tide, and I bowed my head to the ground. This bond brother I had found, I was
failing him in every way. I could not carry him to shelter, and I had no longer even any fur to warm him. I
had thought that once we were together all things would come to rights, but we were naked, helpless, no
better than mewling babes. I whimpered like the babe in its basket back at Laueroc. Then I whined
dismally. Finally I raised my head and gave forth with a longdrawn, loud and woebegone howl.

And from the distance an answering shout came.

Trevyn. I should have known he would be anxious, that he would be searching for me, babe or no
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babeтАФI should have known. Dear Trevyn. I rose to my knees so that he could see me. He came
thundering toward me over the wealds at the head of a half dozen men, looking angry and frightened both
at once. When he saw me the look changed to one of astonishment. He brought his horse right up to me,
pulling it to a plunging halt.

"Dair?" he cried out. "Dair!"

Thrown off balance, I fell over again. Hot liquid had started down my face at the sight of him. Tears. I
would have known what it was if I had thought, but I was appalled by the feeling and by the spasms that
had hold of me, the sobs. Trevyn knelt beside me and put his arms around me, folded me into the shelter
of his cloak and of his embrace, trying to comfort me.

"Dair," he whispered, "Dair, my son," and he rocked me gently in his arms. "It will be better soon, truly it
will."