so."
"Very nice I am sure," one peevish older Parnassian said, "if you are a yearling, to be fussing with rocks and twigs."
There were several snorts of agreement; and Temeraire bristled. "If you do not care to, and you are happy with your cave as it is, then you needn't; but neither ought you go and take someone else's cave, when they have done all the work. Certainly I am not going to be robbed, as if I were a lump; I will smash the cave up myself and make it not at all nice for anyone, before I hand it over meekly."
"Now, now, then," Ballista said. "There is no call to go yelling about smashing things or making threats; that is enough of that. Now we'll hear Requiescat."
"Hum, quarrelsome, ain't he," Requiescat said. "Well, you all know me, chums, and I don't mean to make a brag of myself, but I expect no one would say I couldn't take any cave I liked, if I wanted to. I am not a squabbler, and don't like to hurt anybody; a young fellow like this is excitable enough to bite off a bigger fight than he can swallow - "
"Oh!" Temeraire said indignantly. "You mayn't claim any such thing, unless you like to prove it; I have beat dragons nearly as big as you."
Requiescat swung his big head around. "Ain't it true you're bred not to fight? Persy was going about saying some such."
Perscitia gave an angry yelp of "I never," stifled quickly by the other small dragons sitting around her at Ballista's censorious glare.
"Celestials," Temeraire said, very coolly, "are bred to be the very best sort of dragon. In China, we are not supposed to fight unless the nation is in danger, because China has a good deal many more dragons than here, and we are too valuable to lose; so we only fight in emergencies, when ordinary fighting-dragons are not up to the task."
"Oh, China," Requiescat said dismissively. "Anyway, fellows, there you have it plain as day. I say I am tops, and ought to have the best cave; he says it ain't so, and he won't hand it over. Ordinary, there'd be no ways to work that out but a tussle, and then someone gets hurt and everyone is upset. This is just the sort of thing the council was made up for, and I expect it ought to be pretty clear to all of you which of us is right, without it coming to claws."
"I do not say I am 'tops,'" Temeraire said, "although I think it is just as likely that I am; I say that the cave is mine, and it is unjust for you take it. That is what the council ought to be for: justice, not squashing everyone down, just to keep things comfortable for the biggest dragons."
The council, being composed of the biggest dragons, did not look very enthusiastic. Ballista said, "All right; we have heard everyone out. Now look, Temeraire - " She pronounced it quite wrongly, Teymuhreer. " - we don't want a lot of fuss and bother - "
"I do not see why not," Temeraire said. "What else have we to do?"
Several of the smaller dragons tittered, rustling their wings together; she cleared her throat warningly at them and continued, "We don't want a lot of fighting, anyhow. Why don't you just go on and show us a bit of flying, so we know what you can do; then we can settle this clear."
"But that is not at all the point!" Temeraire said. "If I were as small as Moncey - " He looked, but Moncey was not among the little dragons observing, so he amended, "If I were as small as Minnow there, it oughtn't make any difference. No one was using it, no one wanted it; not before I had it."
Requiescat gave a flip of his wings. "It was not the nicest, before," he said, in reasonable tones.
Temeraire snorted angrily; but Ballista said impatiently, "Yes, yes; go on, then; unless you don't like us to see," and that was too much to bear; he threw himself aloft, spiraling high and fast as he could, tightening into a spring, and then dived directly into formation-maneuvers: that was what would please them, he thought bitterly. He finished the training pass and backwinged directly into the reverse, flying the pattern backwards, and then hovered mid-air before descending straight downwards: showing away, of course, but they had demanded he do so; and