"Indeed." There's a vote of confidence, Teren thinks, and pauses a moment to give Blanche a stroke from beak to ears.

"Aren't you a nasty little thing," she says fondly, and she might be speaking to Blanche (who is not little) or Vega, who, against all sensibility, is rapidly growing on her.

"What is it you do, then? Protect the griffons?"