Lexicon:Modern/Skae

Skae
Stage	Modern CLT
Pronunciation	/ˈskaɪ/
Part of speech	Noun
Etymology	from Middle skāē, from Proto ska
Related words	Poena, Naev, Kaeva

Skae — the fishing bird of the northern coasts and the Iron Coves. Dives, takes fish, and surfaces with them.

Notes

Dark, long-necked and low in the water, and it dives to depths that seem improbable for the size of it. A trained Skae works from a boat on a light line, goes down at a signal, and comes up to be relieved of what it caught. Stormharbor keeps them in numbers and works them from small craft in the shallows and along the headlands, where a net is more trouble than it is worth. The Iron Coves keep them for the same reason and because a Skae asks nothing but fish and does not require a net that can be stolen. A good bird is worth what a small boat costs and is treated accordingly. It works perhaps fifteen years, is fed from the catch, and is generally named, which is not true of much else in either place.