“Comin’ tae join us, like? If thiz three o’ ye, we can play otters v. dragons. This is how ye dae it, ken.” He demonstrated the side-swipe of the tail and the young otters galloped off to retrieve the stane. Duncan looked tempted.

      “Right. You’re on. Come on, you two!”

      Soon there was a furious game in progress, the stane flying to and fro, getting caught in the reeds and once disappearing into the water, until the twins’ dad dived in and retrieved it. They stopped for a breather, and had just changed sides, when the twins’ mother appeared from the loch edge and came to join them. “Yez niver said ye wuz playin’ on the ice!” she said indignantly, demonstrating a powerful and accurate tail-swipe.

      “Not fair, four against three!” Tom protested, realising that this new player was particularly skilled.

      “We need Mum,” said Emily. “Shall I fly up and get her?”

      “No need,” said Duncan, pointing upwards, and they all saw Gwen gliding down to the bank, carrying Lily.

      “Whatever are you doing? I could hear you right up the hill!”

      “Come on, Mum – we need you. This is what you do...” Emily demonstrated.

      “What about Lily?”

      “She can sit here and watch, can’t you, Lily?” said Duncan, skating fast over the ice with a shrieking Lily on his back, and placing her gently on a flat rock in a thicket of reeds.

      “No!” said Lily. “’gen!” She held up her wings for another slide. Her father sighed. “One more, then you stay here and watch the game,” he said, noticing that Gwen was having a Tail-Stane lesson on the opposite side of the ice.

      With eight long tails swiping wildly, the area of ice in the bay seemed smaller, and there were a lot more collisions. Lily began by dancing and huffing in excitement but then she got bored and sat hunched up, looking grumpy. When Emily saw her wrap her wings over her eyes, she sighed and pointed. “Lily’s in a huff,” she said. Lily saw her looking, and shuffled round until her back was to them. Gwen sighed.

      “Pity! I was just getting the hang of it,” she said. “I suppose I’d better take her back. You two must be hungry – and Duncan, you’re still covered in feathers!”

      “See yez later, aye?” Wattie said.

      “It’ll be better when the loch’s frozen richt o’er, though it meks the fishin’ tricky,” said the twins’ dad.

      “We’ll likely head off tae the big river fer a while,” added his wife. “Thiz always something ye c’n find tae eat in a river, even if it’s no’ as guid as oor fish. We’ll be back when thiz a thaw, mind. This’s a braw loch, ken. We dinnae want ither otters findin’ it.”

      Lottie saw Emily and Tom looking downcast. “Dinnae fash, we’ll no’ be goin’ yet,” she said. “See yez the morn, richt?”

      “Right!” said Emily, and she and Tom prepared to fly home. Duncan had dived into the loch, saying he would be back at the cave soon after them.

      “Even the otters are leaving,” said Emily sadly as they flew up the hill.

      “Ollie would have loved that Tail-Stane game. Des too.”

      “And Alice! She’d have been really good on our team. I wish they were still here.”

      “It’s not fair!” said Tom. “Why can’t we go somewhere new like all the others? There’ll be no one to have fun with until the spring.”

      Gwen was surprised by their downcast faces when they arrived at the cave a few minutes later. She had expected a pair of cheerful young dragons after the riotous time on the ice, but they both disappeared into the cave, saying nothing. “What’s the matter with them?” she asked Duncan when he landed, damp but feather-free, a few minutes later.

      “I expect it’s because the otters might be leaving. They go wandering further afield looking for food if the loch freezes. That’s probably reminded them how much they’re missing their friends.”

      “We all are. I wish I knew how they’re getting on. I’d love to get in touch on the Gloaming Huff, but they’ll be out of range.”

      “We could take the kids on a longer foraging expedition, I suppose, while this weather holds,” Duncan said thoughtfully.

      “I think they’re a bit sick of foraging,” said his wife. “I know I am! Let’s hope the otters stay for a while longer. A few more Tail-Stane games should cheer them up. But it’s going to be a long winter!”

       Chapter 4

       Winter Closes In

      For the next few days Tail-Stane matches were all the rage for the youngsters, and as the loch froze more and more, the play became wilder and faster. They left the reedy bay, and on the open ice the stane and the players slid faster. They had spent some time collecting a pile of suitable smooth flat stones, as they lost so many over the edge of the ice. Tom developed a new way of hitting the stane, by hovering just above the ice and clouting it with the end of his tail, to loud applause from all four otters. A stane hit that way went flying in unpredictable directions, which made the games more interesting, even though it disappeared into the water more regularly.

      The otters hadn’t yet left for the river, and spent a lot of time fishing as the ice crept nightly towards the centre of the loch. Their fishing was so successful that they sometimes shared their catches with the dragon family, to Gwen’s relief. She was a little tired of Emily complaining that rooks and crows weren’t nearly as nice as the pigeons they had eaten on the rescue expedition.

      “Aren’t you afraid you might be seen by Humans near the big river?” she asked the otters during one of their rests in the middle of a particularly strenuous game.

      “Naw!” said the twins’ dad. “We hide up when they’re aroond. Ef they dae spot us, they get all excited like, but they niver try and nab us. Wudnae stand a chance onyways. They cannae swim.”

      “An auld otter yince telt me they used to hunt us w’ dugs,” added his wife. “Tha’ cud’ve bin nasty, but it doesnae happen th’ noo.”

      “Sgin’tae be great,” added Wattie happily. “Lottie n’ me’ve niver been oota this glen afore.”

      “When’re we gaein’, Da?” Lottie asked.

      “Soon, afore th’ snow staerts. Easier travellin’ when the groonds a’ frozen.”

      “I wish you weren’t going,” Tom sighed. “It’s going to be so boring with just Em.” Emily was feeling too depressed to clout him with a wing, as she usually did.

      “Why no’ come tae?” asked Lottie. “Dragons c’n fly as faest’s we c’n run.”

      “I asked Dad if we could,” Emily said, “but he said no. It’s because we mustn’t be seen. If Humans spot an otter, that’s OK, because they know about otters. They think dragons don’t exist, remember? You know how all the grown-ups go on about it.”

      Tom

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