morning!"
	"What is it?" Dar asked, as Haley shaded his eyes and looked up at it.
	"It's a Phoenix," Koran Tal answered.  "A very rare kind of bird that nests on ledges inside the crater of the volcano."
	"That's an active volcano, Koran Tal.  Wouldn't it get cooked up there?" Ulger asked, but Haley cut him short.
	"Not if that's the kind of Phoenix I think it is," he answered.  "They have birds called Swan-necked Phoenixes in Nyr, but they're not real Phoenixes."
	"Is it me, or is it circling us?" Dar asked.
	Tarrin watched it.  It was circling them, and what was more, it was descending rather rapidly.
	"Go on about that bird, Haley," Ulger prompted.
	"They're magical creatures, something like drakes," Haley told him.  "They like fire, and they don't die--well, sort of.  They do die, and when they do they burst into flame and immolate, but they get reborn from their own ashes.  Phoenixes are said to be a symbol of the continuity of life because of that."
	"How can something that lives in a bloody volcano burn to death?" Ulger asked.
	"Maybe you should ask the gods, Ulger," Koran Tal said with a chuckle.
	The bird circled lower and lower and lower, and Tarrin saw that it wasn't quite as big as he first thought.  It was about the size of a hawk, it was just that its long, colorful plume of tail feathers made it look a little bigger than it really was from the air.  They watched in curiosity as the bird circled them once more, then dipped down and landed on a bulge of rock about twenty spans up the slope from them.  It folded its wings and regarded them calmly, almost curiously, its glowing red eyes--quite eerie to look at!--were locked on them, like burning coals from a blacksmith's forge.  If anything, those eyes demonstrated that the bird before them was not an entirely natural animal.  This was a magical creature.  Its head was sharp, sleek, like a bird of prey, and its eyes were set forward in its head, another indication that this was a hunter, but its beak was more pointed and not hooked like a hawk's; the beak of a bird that didn't subsist primarily on meat.  That beak could carve up a rabbit quite easily, but it could also pick berries, fruits, and nuts off bushes and trees without much trouble.  A beak of an omnivorous bird.  It had tufts of fur to either side of its beak, giving its head a strangely triangular appearance.  Its body was sleek and streamlined, but it had a sturdy chest and large wings, the build of a soaring bird but also with traits of a hunter.  The wicked black talons on its red feet were another indication that this was a predator.
	The bird fanned its tail feathers, raising them up over its head and spreading them, showing them its many long-tailed feathers with those red eye marks on the ends.  Each one was angled towards each other, just like eyes, and there were an even number of them. The result of the display was an eerie sensation that many eyes were upon him, watching him, studying him like he was going to be the animal's next meal.
	"I've never seen a Phoenix behave like this before," Koran Tal said critically, observing the animal with a very careful eye.
	"I remember seeing a painting of a bird that does that," Dar said.
	"Keritanima has some of them in Wikuna.  They call them peacocks," Tarrin told him.
	"It's eerie," Ulger said.  "I feel like it's watching me with fifty eyes."
	"Maybe it's warning us," Koran Tal said.  "Maybe it doesn't want us to go any further."
	Tarrin wasn't sure about that.  It didn't seem hostile, or even defensive.  It was just standing there, like it just wanted to get a better look at them.  And there was something about the bird that gave Tarrin a very subtle, very strange sensation, something that he could neither identify nor describe, something of a tickling of knowlege or understanding that was just beyond his grasp.
	"I think we'd better catch up with Zak," Ulger said in a cautious tone.
	"I think that would be a good idea," Koran Tal agreed.  "I don't think we'd better cross this particlar animal.  It could barbecue us from where it's standing as fast as we can blink."
	"It breathes fire?" Dar asked.
	"To put it mildly," Koran Tal answered.  "Trust me, Dar, you don't want to see what they do with fire."
	"It sounds dangerous," Ulger said uncertainly.
	"Phoenixes are very dangerous, but they don't really cause us any problems, Ulger.  They keep around the volcano and they almost never fly over our settlements.  They're also not very aggressive.  It's like they know we don't mean them any harm, so they don't attack us."
	"No wonder you're surprised to see it land like that," Dar realized.
	"I've never seen one get so close to people before," Koran Tal told him.  "But let's get moving before it does decide to do something.  I'd rather not be who it does it to."
	Haley, Ulger, Dar, and Koran Tal slowly took a few steps backwards, then turned and started walking slowly and smoothly towards the forest, not making any sudden moves.  Tarrin stood there a moment longer and stared into the bird's eyes, not sure what he was feeling, but he was certain that the bird wasn't displaying its feathers as a hostile act.  It was a signal of some sort for certain, but not a hostile one.
	He considered using Druidic magic to talk to the animal, but it calmly furled and lowered its fan of tail feathers, blinked and regarded him for a moment, then turned and took off from the rock.  It circled wide of them, rising higher into the air with each powerful flap of its large wings, then began circling on a thermal to gain altitude to return to its volcano home.
	"Odd," Koran Tal said quietly as they watched the bird fly off.
	"Too bad Zak missed it," Dar sighed.
	They managed to catch up with Azakar not long after entering the jungle again, for the immense man couldn't move very quickly through the extremely dense growth.  The path they had cut served as a trail to lead them back to the town, which they reached about an hour after setting back out.  Dar looked around the  town curiously several times after they had reached its boundary, then looked quizzically to Koran Tal.  "Is it me, or is this place...I don't know, incomplete?" he asked.
	"I was wondering if anyone would notice that," he chuckled.  "You're right, Dar.  This town isn't quite like any other you've ever seen, because all this town does is support the High Queen.  That's it.  Oh, there are some craftswomen here who do their work because the docks makes it easy to sell to traders, and there are the farmers and farmland that flank each side of the town, but it's populated by really nothing more than the Queen's staff, craftsmen, and some of the farmers who have fields just outside the town.  But that's about it. No inns, no laborers or anything like that except what work on the farms, and not too many other people. That's why it's so small."
	"This isn't small, Koran," Ulger noted, looking around.
	"This is small," he said.  "Shining Rock is ten times this big.  That's the city on the island of Raltha," he explained to a few blank looks.  "That's where my family lives."
	"How many islands do your people own?" Dar asked in curiosity as they moved back towards the compound.
	"About sixty," he answered.  "The island chain is mostly a series of very small islands, large enough to comfortably support a small town of people, but most of them are very close together.  If you go to the far side of this island, you can see seven of them," he told them.  "You can see about twelve from the top of the volcano.   There are six large islands, the main ones.  This one is Amazar, the southernmost of all the islands, and it's the one where our history says our people started.  We spread out to the other islands."
	"What do Amazons do mostly?" Ulger asked.
	"Amazons are fishers mostly," he said, motioning out towards the many small boats out in the sea.  "Fishing is our primary food source, combined with what we farm.  Alot of Amazons are craftswomen and builders and engineers, though, especially the men.  We're rather well known for our wood carvings and small ships," he said proudly.
	"Rakers," Haley sounded.  "So good even the Wikuni borrowed the design, as well as about half the seafaring nations on this side of the continents."
	"Captured would be a better description," Koran Tal chuckled.
	"Amazons designed the rakers?" Dar asked in surprise.  "I always thought Yar Arak did."
	"No, we sold some to them, and they copied the design," Koran Tal said. "Wikuna simply captured a raker and tore it apart to learn how it was built.  But the rakers you see in the West were built here.  Yar Arak and Wikuna may know how to build them, but they still can't build them as well as we can."
	"So, women do the fighting and men do the building," Tarrin noted.
	"Actually, we do the designing, and women do the actual building," he corrected.  "Amazon men aren't uneducated slackjaws, Tarrin.  We design the things that the women build.  We're not allowed to do the actual building."
	"Why not?" Ulger asked.
	"Because it's dangerous work," he answered. "We're not allowed to do anything dangerous.  The engineer who drew up the plans is usually on the build site to supervise the construction, but he doesn't do any of the actual building."
	"Building isn't dangerous," Ulger scoffed.
	"Until a ten ton support beam falls on your head," Haley said lightly.
	"That is a possibility," Dar agreed.
	Azakar seemed to be working himself up to speaking.  They were all quiet as the young man seemed to bolster himself, then he finally did in his deep voice.  "I didn't know that men went to school here," he told Koran Tal in a grim kind of manner.
	"Of course we do.  We don't sit around the house all day, Azakar," he said calmly.  "We may have to do what the women tell us to do, but they're actually not that bossy.  We do our things, they do their things, and we're both rather happy with the arrangement."
	"Camara Tal is," Dar laughed.  "Bossy, I mean."
	"Well, my wife is a bit unusual," Koran Tal winked.  "She firmly believes that she knows better than we do."
	"The worst kind of woman," Ulger shuddered.  "I like the Draconian way.  Women are there to keep the house clean, cook, and make babies."
	"Savage," Dar teased.
	"Just call me the original male chauvanist," he said shamelessly.
	"Then you're on the wrong island," Koran Tal chuckled.
	"I'd like to see you say that to Jesmind, Ulger," Tarrin said.
	"She's not a human woman, so she doesn't count," Ulger said flippantly.
	Immediately, Tarrin saw that his previous idea was the perfect means by which to avenge himself against Ulger.  And it would be very easy to set up.
	"I hope you never get married," Haley laughed.  "She'll kill you."
	"There ain't no human woman alive that can beat me in a fight," he said pugnaciously.
	"Ulger, Camara Tal could whip you right at this moment, despite her being about to drop a baby," Dar said immediately.
	"I'll tell you what, Ulger," Tarrin said with quiet seriousness.  "When we get back to Suld, you're going to have to put your money where your mouth is."
	"I'll take on any woman, anywhere, any time," he boasted.
	"Fine.  Then you're going to have a little spar with my mother," he said in a voice that cracked like the sound of doom.
	Ulger paled visibly, then winced.  "Triana ain't--"
	"I didn't say Triana.  I mean my human mother, Ulger.  Elke Kael.  If you can beat her in a fight, I'll pay you a thousand crowns and eat my own tail besides.  But if she beats you, you have to walk the Wall Street three times around in a dress."
	"Easy money," he bragged.
	Haley exploded into laughter, as did Dar.  Even Azakar managed to smile.  "I take it Ulger just talked himself into a dress?" Koran Tal asked.
	Dar managed to regain control.  "I know Mistress Elke," he snickered.  "She'll tie him in a knot!"
	"She's Ungardt, Koran Tal," Azakar said seriously.  "If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Tarrin's mother."
	"Traitor!" Ulger accused, glaring up at the larger Knight.
	"We may be all one under Karas, but even he doesn't mind it when one of his Knights gets the air taken out of him," Azakar responded mildly.
	"We'll see," he said gratingly.  "I'll beat your mother, Tarrin--or her reputation, that is.  I'll prove there ain't no human woman alive that can beat me in a fair fight."
	"Say that again louder, Ulger, and you'll have a line of women ready to see if you're all talk or all action," Koran Tal warned him with a sly smile.
	"He doesn't have to say it any louder," one woman announced, moving towards them from a small compound.  She was a typical Amazon woman; tripa skirt, wearing a vest instead of a haltar, and with a broadsword belted at her waist.  She had a narrow, hawk-like face, and a puckered scar on her right cheek.  She had her hair cut very short, barely reaching her shoulders, and her bangs were pinned back over her ears with two silver barettes.  She was a handsome woman, Tarrin decided, with Amazon bustiness and hips, but not looking very voluptuous with her highly muscular body.  She was the most burly Amazon Tarrin had ever seen.  The most burly female of any species Tarrin had ever seen.  One thing was for sure, and that this woman was strong.  "I heard that, baldie.  Care to put up or shut up?"
	"What do I get if I win?" he asked brashly.
	"What do you want?"
	"I want your skirt," he said with an evil smile.
	"Fine.  When I beat you, I get your pants.  And you're mine for a night."
	"You call that a punishment?" he said with a leer.
	"Unless you're the kind that loves cleaning out stables, yes," she warned flatly.
	"Well, then, if I win, you have to serve me like a man for a night."
	"Keep dreaming," she snorted.  "I agree, but it'll never happen.  I'll have you on the ground squealing like a pig in three minutes."
	"Bring it on then," Ulger challenged, crooking his finger at her.
	"This should be good," Haley said with a gleam in his eye as he backed away from Ulger, who made quite a show out of drawing his sword.
	Ulger never had a chance.  In his own defense, given that he was an outstanding Knight, well versed in all kinds of fighting and warfare, and he had experience with unorthodox opponents, he would have been a serious challenge for the Amazon warrior.  But Tarrin never gave him the chance to so much as set himself in the guard position.  Before he had his sword set, Tarrin stepped up and clubbed him soundly in the back of the head with an open paw, sending the Knight crumpling to the cobblestone street.  The other males with him gasped in shock as the Were-cat calmly withdrew his open paw, gaping at him that he would swat down one of his own companions.  The Amazon looked similarly shocked, giving the Were-cat a wary, uncertain look as his tail writhed behind his body for a short moment, his eyes narrow and unreadable as he looked down at the twitching man before him.
	She flinched slightly when the Were-cat's eyes met hers, but then she seemed to sense that he was no longer hostile.
	"Tarrin, have you lost your mind?" Dar suddenly exploded in a loud voice.
	But the Were-cat ignored the Arkisian.  "Make him work," he told her.
	"I'll put him to cleaning the stables with nothing but his bare hands," she said with a sudden sly smile.  "Naked."
	The others gaped at Tarrin, but then Haley burst into laughter.  "Ye gods, Tarrin!" he chortled.  "I knew you were vindictive, but this is really swindling the merchant!"
	"What?" Azakar asked.
	"Ulger offended Tarrin back on the ship.  Tarrin knocked him out as payback," Haley explained with a laugh.  "He's going to make Ulger work like a dog in revenge!"
	Koran Tal suddenly understood, and he too began to laugh.  "That's something Faalken would have done," Azakar said, and then he cracked a slight smile.
	"At least he didn't kill him," Dar muttered, looking down at the prone Knight, who was just beginning to groan and stir.
	Ulger groaned, rolling over onto his back.  "What hit me?" he asked in a slurred voice.
	"I did," Tarrin said in a flat voice, looking down at him..  "I guess I was just too giddy to control myself."
	"What?  You hit me?" he managed to slur. "What for?"
	"Because I guess I was high enough," he said in slightly dangerous tones.
	Ulger looked up at him, his eyes a bit crossed, then he laughed ruefully.  "I never expected to get pranked by you, Tarrin!" he admitted.
	"I'm just full of surprises, Ulger," he said mildly, turning aside and starting towards the compound of Camara Tal's mother.  "Remember, make him work," he called to the Amazon.
	"Oh, he'll be thanking every god he can remember when the sun comes up," the woman told him with a chilling smile.
	"I'm going to get you, Tarrin!" Ulger said, then he laughed.  "Just as soon as I can figure out how to do it without getting myself killed!"
	"You do that, Ulger," Tarrin told him, stalking away with a sudden spring in his step.

	He was rather sure that the others had explained why Ulger hadn't come back with them when they returned some time after him, probably to go wherever the Amazon woman was taking him and tease him while he toiled naked in her stables.  But Tarrin had the sense that he needed to get back to the compound, and it turned out to be a correct assumption, for Camara Tal just started going into labor about ten minutes after Tarrin came through the stone building that served as the compound's front door.
	Tarrin had never been present for the births of any of his own children, and his memory of Jenna's birth was relatively dim.  He only recalled that he hadn't been allowed in the room with his mother while she was giving birth.  But he did have a rather good understanding of what was going on and what would happen, and he was probably the least squeamish person on the face of Sennadar.
	So, not knowing precisely what was going to happen, but rather certain that nothing would possibly shock him, Tarrin attended Camara Tal as the labor began.  He knew that labor could take minutes, hours, or even days, depending on a set of circumstances that most people would never understand.  Triana would certainly understand them, but Triana was not permitted to be present at the birth; only Koran Tal, Sulina Tal, and Tarrin were permitted to be there during the birth, and Tarrin had to be the first to touch the infant after it was delivered.
	One thing was for certain, however, and that was that the Amazons had a custom of childbirth that was nothing like just about any other human civilization.  Camara Tal, unclothed, did not lay down as most other human women would.  Sulina Tal kept her daughter on her feet, moving around, and whenever the labor pains struck her a little too sharply, she was allowed to lean against one of the walls of the single room stone dwelling that would be the delivery room, a room that was totally stripped of all decoration and adornment, even of all furniture.  It was a bare stone room with a bare stone floor and a tiled roof, that had nothing in it except the people present, a pile of towels, rags, blankets, and a large pot of water, and those were neatly arranged beside a very thick and somewhat soft-looking reed mat set in the middle of the floor.  Tarrin stood quietly near one of the walls and watched Camara Tal with steady eyes, observing her for signs that the birth was at hand and secretly worrying that the labor was taking too long.  He wasn't squeamish, but Camara Tal was obviously in pain, and he didn't like seeing any of his friends suffer.  While standing there, he thought up any number of ways that he could speed things along, but in the end he decided against it.  Camara Tal would be furious with him, and she wasn't the kind of woman that even he would want to cross.  It was Camara Tal's baby, and he had the feeling she wouldn't want anyone making any decisions for her, even if he had her best interests in mind.
	As the day wound into dusk, and then to night, the labor continued.  Camara Tal became coated with sweat as she struggled to get through her labor, as Koran and Sulina Tal walked with her, held her arms, let her support herself on them, and rubbed her shoulders and back to try to keep her from knotting up.  Tarrin said nothing, remaining near the wall, staying out of the way.  Sulina Tal and Koran Tal seemed to have everything well in hand, and they didn't ask him for help.
	Sulina Tal did finally address him about a half an hour after sunset, after it had become dark outside.  "Alright, it's time," she announced to him as she led Camara Tal over to the reed mat.
	"Do I have to do anything?" he asked her quietly as Camara Tal was helped into a squat by her husband, whose face was a mask of reassurance with all the fatherly nerves trying to be buried beneath it.
	"No," she answered.  "I think birthing is something that no man can really help with, you know," she told him with a sudden wink.  "Just be here with us, and when she delivers, all you need to do is pick up the baby and hand it to me.  I'll clean it up, then we hand it to Camara so she can name it."
	"Sounds simple enough," Tarrin said with a nod.
	And it was.  Not required to actually do anything, Tarrin instead knelt before Camara Tal and watched the rather grisly and strangely uplifting process of giving birth.  It looked painful, but the simple fact that his Amazon friend was bringing a new life into the world was much more amazing than anything else.  It was such a rare and special thing, something that a male could participate in, help with, and was required to initiate, but never experienced for himself quite the way that a woman could.  That was something that Tarrin seemed to innately understand, even if he couldn't quite rationalize it with words.  So he simply knelt there and watched the entire process with a kind of clinical interest of someone that was not sickened by the sight of it, and had never seen it before.  He was attentive to how things happened, just in case he was in a future position where he was helping with the birth of another child.
	Maybe even one of his own.
	It was amazingly short, given the hours that Camara Tal had been pacing around in labor.  In a matter of minutes, Tarrin watched Camara Tal dilate, saw the baby's head crown, and then the grayish, wet mass of newborn infant was delivered onto the soft reed mad with an audible plop.  Just like that.  Hours of contractions and pain building up to a crescendo of sorts that lasted but a mere fraction of the time leading up to it.  It was nearly anti-climactic.  Knowing that it was now his turn to do something, he reached down and scooped up the newborn with his paws.  The baby was so small that its entire body fit in the palm of his paw, almost fitting comfortably on the pad on his palm.  The skin under that grayish mess covering her was coppery, just like its parents, and it was born with a thick mass of straight black hair, plastered to its head. The baby kicked suddenly and then let out a very loud, lusty cry, and Tarrin carefully shifted the baby so it was on its back, so he could see its gender.
	"Congratulations, Camara," he told her with a gentle smile, holding the baby out to her.  "It's a girl."
	"Neme smiles on us," Sulina Tal said with a laugh, but Koran Tal looked just a tiny bit disappointed.
	Camara Tal took the wet copper-skinned infant--though the color of her skin wasn't easily discernable under the colored fluids covering her body--and cuddled her to her breast, panting and trying to laugh at the same time.  "Well, seeing as how it took so long for you to get here, and it took quite a bit of determination, I think I'll name you Faith," she told the infant in her arms.
	But that wasn't the word that Tarrin considered to be her name.  It was the Amazon word for faith, which was Shaul.  Tarrin suppressed a smile when he realized that the girl would be known as Shaul Tal.  A pair of short rhyming words.
	"Alright, daughter, deliver out the afterbirth while I cut the cord and clean up your daughter," Sulina Tal told her.
	Koran Tal looked over his wife's shoulder, then reached down and reverently touched her daughter's forehead.  "She's beautiful," he whispered.
	But Tarrin was looking at the infant with different eyes.  Invisible to the others, he could see a faint, indistinct aura of sorts that surrounded this infant, an aura that he had never seen before, but almost instinctively understood what it was and what it meant.  The moment of cognizance was the key, he seemed to understand.  When the infant opened its eyes and took in the world, realized its place within it, grasped the fundamental truth that was life, something it could not comprehend within the womb.  It was in that moment, when the girl opened her eyes and looked at her parents between loud howls, that the aura appeared, flickered, and then winked out almost as quickly as it appeared.
	This one was a Sorcerer.  Just like her father.
	"Hmph," Tarrin sounded in amusement.  "I hope you don't have too many plans for her, Camara."
	"What do you mean?"
	"She may be a girl, but she's her father's daughter."
	Koran Tal seemed to grasp his cryptic comment instantly.  "She's a Sorcerer?" he asked in surprise.
	Tarrin nodded.  "I can't tell how strong she is, though," he told her.  "I won't be able to find that out for several years.  I can just tell that she has the gift."
	Koran Tal looked at him, then he laughed in delight.  "She's a Sorcerer!" he said in glee, clapping his hands.
	"Well, it doesn't change too much," Camara Tal said wearily as Sulina Tal cut the umbilical cord with a sharp knife, tied it off with a bit of twine, and then started cleaning off the infant with the towels and rags sitting by the mat.  "As long as she's healthy and has all her fingers and toes, I can live with her being a Sorcerer.  I already put up with one, after all," she chuckled weakly.
	Sulina Tal finished cleaning up the infant, which looked more and more like an Amazon with every pass of the wet rag.  When she was totally clean, gleaming in her new copper skin, she was handed back to Camara Tal, who had finished the arduous process of evacuating the afterbirth from her body.  Koran Tal attended that rather gruesome mess left on the reed mat with Sorcery, then turned to attend his wife and marvel at their new infant daughter with eyes that were filled with love and wonder.
	Tarrin looked on, far over their heads, staring down at the parents and their new child with a strange pride and protectiveness.  That little bundle in Camara Tal's arms was his godchild, and he realized that he took that duty quite seriously.  She would never lack for anything; he would see to that.  She would be well cared for, loved, nurtured, and she would never want for anything.  He could make sure of that.  Just as much as any of his own children, little Shaul Tal would be guaranteed if not a blissful childhood, at least a happy one.
	Though not by blood, nor by deed, nor by action, Shaul Tal was just like any of his own children to him, be them bond-child or blood child.
	And he was fiercely protective of his children.
 
Chapter 10

	The celebrations continued well into the night.
	The birth of a child was always worth celebrating, but the birth of a child for which the parents had waited for nearly ten years was truly a special event.  That it was the High Priestess of Neme's child, the highest ranking member of the order, was an even greater reason to celebrate.  The fact that it was the child of Camara Tal, who was something of a living legend on Amazar now even beyond the fact that she was the High Priestess, one of the storied Questers of the Staff and the friend and sworn defender of the legendary Tarrin Kael, was even more reason to raise tankards and toast the happy occasion.  The fact that said legend Tarrin Kael was the appointed godparent and protector of the child was even more reason to celebrate.  By the time the fact that it happened to be the granddaughter of the sitting High Queen was taken into account, people had forgotten what an incredibly joyous occasion it truly was, for they were all far too drunk to care.
	It was probably one of the strangest celebrations that Amazar had ever seen, due to the unique makeup of the guests of honor.  Sulina Tal opened the doors of her compound after the birth of the child, and the bells in the little chapel on the top of the hill tolled all night long to announce the celebration, and the citizenry of the unique town of Amazar flooded into the house of their High Queen and celebrated with the blessed family.  Sulina Tal hadn't formally planned such a celebration, but she had made sure to have plenty of wine, ale, stronger spirits, and plenty of food on hand to feed virtually the entire town.  Nobles, merchants, and the successful craftsmen happily rubbed elbows with the fishers and farmers and laborers of Amazar, all of them clamoring to meet the large group of outsiders who everyone knew were the group that had recovered the Firestaff and their families.
	For Tarrin, it was a chance to observe the Amazons interacting with one another, and he was fairly surprised.  He didn't like crowds and he didn't like strangers, so when the happy group of friends suddenly became a huge throng filling Sulina Tal's garden, he shapeshifted into cat form and laid down quietly at Camara Tal's feet.  She was sitting on a divan that had been brought out into the gardens so she could rest after the delivery, holding her little copper-skinned infant and accepting all the congratulations with a great deal of dignity.  He watched the Amazons talk to one another, and watched them talk to his friends, and found that Camara Tal's personality was something of a general template for the average Amazon.  Even the lowliest of them, the poorest farmer and the poorest fisher, carried herself with pride and grace, proud of who she was and proud of the island nation of which she was a part.  Though most couldn't manage the regal aire of Camara Tal or her mother Sulina Tal, it was as if each one thought herself a little queen.  Despite that, however, they did not act overtly arrogant or overbearing to the mainlander guests among them, though there was some sense of superiority that Tarrin had noticed that every human culture--and non-human, for that matter--seemed to possess.  The consideration that outsiders were alright, but they could never be as good as them.  Even the Were-cats were like that, but at least the Were-cats knew that it was truth.
	At lea