Emberly soupwell's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

By noon the hall was full and the doorway was empty of the wrong kind. Emberly served bowls down her safe center lane without a spill. But two grown drakes had ducked their heads at her door, seen the crush of wings inside, and turned away hungry. A third, too broad in the shoulder to fit, sat outside on the flagstones and waited for someone to bring him something. No one did. He left before she noticed. Emberly set down her spoon. Her kitchen was shaped like a great silver cauldron with a stone base, and its door was sized for people, not for dragons who had grown past the size of a cart. She could not knock out the wall today. She could not stretch the roof. But she had a yard. She stepped outside. The patch behind the kitchen ran flat to the edge of a grove of tall trees hung with vines and small flowers. Sun fell on the grass. There was room for six dragons wingtip to wingtip, and more if they lay down. "Help me carry," she said to the drake who had caught her salt crock the day before. They dragged a long dark-wood table out through the back. Then the matching chairs, carved with little faces along the backs. Emberly set the table under the shade of the grove. She hauled out a smaller round table too, the one with the bright cloth, and set two chairs beside it for smaller guests. A young ember-scaled dragon curled up at once on the warm flagstone beside it and fell asleep. She went back inside. "Anyone too big for the benches," she called, "come around the back. There is a table under the trees." Three dragons stood. Wings unfolded that had been pressed flat for an hour. They filed out the front and around. Emberly followed with the stew pot balanced against her hip, ladle in her free claw. Her tail swept the grass behind her and caught nothing. She served them at the outdoor table. The broad-shouldered drake who had sat on her step that morning came back, drawn by the smell, and she waved him to the end seat. He fit. He ate two bowls. The jar was inside on the counter, but he came in after to drop a coin in it, ducking low through the doorway. By evening she had fed everyone who came. The hall stayed full. The yard stayed full. Nothing spilled. Then the wind shifted. A cold gust rolled down off the grove and lifted the cloth on the round table. The sleeping ember dragon stirred and tucked his nose under his tail. Emberly looked up at the sky. Grey was moving in fast over the trees. She had seated her biggest guests under open sky. She had no roof for them. And the first fat drop of rain hit the back of her hand.