Chapter 54

Shota spent the night with the egrets, roosting high and dry in a pine tree, waking before the sun to bid them farewell before they woke up enough for more than perfunctory SQUAWKS. That didn't start in earnest until they'd finished breakfast and the sun was well up. He thanked them for their help and extracted a further promise to tell everyone they met about the sparrow Shota's need to find the Crane-girl. He left them shaking last night's rain off their feathers as a prelude to fishing for breakfast when he flew off.