as they returned towards their own encampment , towards the russian rear , temeraire stopped briefly to speak with grig , who with his fellows was perched on a hill watching not the preparations for the battle , but the chinese supply operations , behind their lines : the thirty cooking-pits , spaced at intervals so three niru might gather to eat around each one ; two pigs and a great deal of wheat had gone into each one , and the bubbling stews were now being attended by five of the shen lung , who were stirring at occasional intervals , while another five were busy digging additional watering-holes with the assistance of their crews ; the rest were napping while their crews worked on spare harness or cleaned them , or tended to the fighting-dragons who had come back with wounds to be tended .