"Maybe," Cadnan said with care, "it is bad."
Marvor made a hissing sound. "Maybe they are bad," he said. "Maybe the masters and the elders are bad."
Matters had gone so far that even this thought found a tentative lodgment in Cadnan's mind. But, almost at once, it was rejected as a serious concept. "They give us leaves to eat," he said. "They keep us here, warm and dry in this place. How is this bad?"
Marvor closed his eye and made the hissing sound again; it was equivalent to a laugh of rejection. He turned among the leaves and found enough room to lie down: in a few seconds he was either asleep or imitating sleep very well. Cadnan looked at him hopefully, and then turned away. A female was watching him from the other side, her eyes wide and unblinking.
"You ask many questions," the female said. "You speak much."
Cadnan blinked his eye at her. "I want to learn," he said.
"Is it good to learn?" the female asked. The question made Cadnan uncomfortable: who knew, for certain, what was good? He knew he would have to think it out for a long time. But the female wanted an answer.
"It is good," he said casually.
The female accepted that with quiet passivity. "My name is Dara," she said. "It is what I am called."
Cadnan said: "I am Cadnan." He found himself tired, and Dara apparently saw this and withdrew, leaving him to sleep.