‘A feather!'  Tan said when he's opened a fine thin drawer.

‘And from a magic bird,'  his Grandmother said.

‘My brother Zieu told us that he'd ridden on the shoulders of this huge bird – oh way above the rice paddies and villages.  Way up into our old mountains to find a magic herb.  One that could tame a tiger!  If you held it close to its nose!'

Tan laughed, imagining getting that close to a wild tiger!

‘Did you wish you could ride the bird too?' Tan asked her.

‘Oh yes, I did then.  But now I know that flying away could mean leaving people I love.'