"David Eddings - The Dreamers 01 - The Elder gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

and ultimately arrived at ‘Eleria.’ It had a nice musical sound to it, and it
rhymed with several very pleasant words.
The little girl didn’t seem to care for the name, but after a while she -
would answer to it when Zelana called her, so the name more or less did
what it was supposed to.


The seasons continued to turn, but Zelana had long since realized that
they could do that on their own, so she didn’t have to prompt them.
Then in the autumn of Eleria’s fifth year, Dahlaine came by again.
‘How are things progressing with your child, dear sister?’ he asked
Zelana.
‘It’s a bit hard to say,’ Zelana replied. ‘I haven’t had any contact with
the man-creatures for more than ten eons, and I’m sure they’ve changed
in that many years. I can’t really be sure what’s normal for them at
Eleria’s age. She spends most of her time in the water, though, so she
doesn’t stink the way most of her kind did when I turned my back on
them.’
‘Where is she?’ Dahlaine asked, looking around the grotto.
‘Probably out playing with her friends,’ Zelana said, ‘most likely
somewhere along the coast of the Isle.’
‘She has friends?’ Dahlaine seemed a bit surprised. ‘I didn’t know
there were any people here on the Isle.’
‘There aren’t, and even if there were, I wouldn’t permit her to associate
with them.’
‘You’re going to have to get over that, sister. Eventually she will be
required to have dealings with her own kind.’
‘What for?’
‘She’ll have to tell them what they’re supposed to do, Zelana. If her
playmates aren’t people, what exactly are they?’
‘Dolphins, of course. She and the young dolphins get along very well.’
‘I didn’t know that dolphins can move around on dry land.’
‘They can’t. Eleria swims with them.’
‘Are you mad?’ Dahlaine almost screamed. ‘She’s only five years old!
You can’t just turn her loose in Mother Sea like that!’
‘Stop worrying so much, Dahlaine. She swims almost as well as her
playmates do, and she finds most of her food out there in deep water. It
saves me all sorts of time. She feeds herself, so I don’t have to bother.
She does seem to like berries - when they’re in season - but most of the
time she eats fish.’
‘How does she cook them if she’s out there in the water?’
‘What is “cook”?’ Zelana asked curiously.
‘Just a custom, really,’ Dahlaine replied evasively. ‘You ought to try to
keep her out of deep water, though.’
‘Why? She swims mostly along the surface, so what difference does it
make how much water’s down below her?’
Dahlaine gave up. There was just no talking with Zelana.
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