stomach churn, and then roasting it with dragonfire. He looked mystified, but not because he couldn’t understand. They had had cooking fires in the village, but apparently his personal servants had to make do with whatever scraps he threw them.
But not this klgaosh , by Jylla’s golden braid! I pointed imperiously at the haunch, lying on the hard-packed earth between us, and mimed fire again.
Looking disgruntled, he ripped the skin off with one careless claw and charred the meat with a lick of flame. I gathered some large leaves off a strange plant to use as plates, laid them out, then shifted the meat to it and scraped off the charred part as best I could. The flesh underneath was barely cooked, but it was good enough, considering my ravenous hunger and the lack of anything better.
When I was done I gathered up the whole mess and threw it into the refuse pit along with the remains of the dragon’s dinner. I tossed lime over it, and washed up in the stream. The entire time, the dragon watched me with half-lidded eyes, as though he had never seen a human behave this way before.
Judging by all the bowing at the village, and the disgusting state of his home, he probably never had. A human who yelled at him, who climbed trees, and who wanted things to be clean? No, I was a different type of klgaosh for certain.
I slept that night on the still-musty pallet, only a few paces from the dragon. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at all if I hadn’t been so exhausted. I had slept near dragons before, but those had been dragons I knew: Shardas, Feniul, Velika. Dragons that I had felt were watching over me, keeping me safe in the night.
This dragon was a different matter. How long would he keep me here? Until I died of old age or from eating bad food? I could try to sneak out, but where would I go? Toward the column of smoke, I supposed, but there was no telling what I would find there. Besides which, he was lying across the length of the house, blocking the only door. I was caught, and didn’t know what to do next.
Pine-Needle Tea
M y dragon had a visitor the next day.
Another dragon, like enough to Darrym to give me a brief start, appeared in the clearing early the next morning. I was just blearily rubbing my eyes and wishing my mouth didn’t taste so horrible when we heard the sound of wings and a roar of greeting.
“Bring glark ,” my dragon ordered, and went out to meet his guest.
I followed him. “What?”
Both dragons looked at me in surprise and irritation. I made a confused face and did the best I could to say glark , which had to be said with a huff of air and a sort of growl at the end.
My dragon’s sigh steamed the bark right off a nearby tree. He turned to his guest and said something too rapid for me to really follow, but the gist of it was that I was hopeless as a klgaosh . Then he led me into the house and showed me a large pot, a sieve, and a canister of what looked like pine needles.
“Make glark ,” he ordered again.
I hauled everything outside while the dragons watched. There was a fire pit in the clearing, and I found some lengths of chopped wood stacked against a tree nearby. I prepared the fire; then my dragon ignited it. I shook pine needles into the pot until the dragons nodded at me, before filling it with water. Since dragonfire is hotter than regular fire, the wood burned quickly and I had to scramble to keep adding wood. But the water boiled faster, too, and soon I was using the sieve to strain out the needles and running back inside for two large buckets for them to drink out of.
Once I offered them the drinks, they looked at me pointedly until I took the hint and left.
Around the back of the house I looked into the forest in the direction of that tempting column of smoke. The trees were very thick, but I found it reassuring. No dragon would be able to follow me on foot through that, nor would they be able to espy me from above.
I was close to fleeing. It was better than
But not this klgaosh , by Jylla’s golden braid! I pointed imperiously at the haunch, lying on the hard-packed earth between us, and mimed fire again.
Looking disgruntled, he ripped the skin off with one careless claw and charred the meat with a lick of flame. I gathered some large leaves off a strange plant to use as plates, laid them out, then shifted the meat to it and scraped off the charred part as best I could. The flesh underneath was barely cooked, but it was good enough, considering my ravenous hunger and the lack of anything better.
When I was done I gathered up the whole mess and threw it into the refuse pit along with the remains of the dragon’s dinner. I tossed lime over it, and washed up in the stream. The entire time, the dragon watched me with half-lidded eyes, as though he had never seen a human behave this way before.
Judging by all the bowing at the village, and the disgusting state of his home, he probably never had. A human who yelled at him, who climbed trees, and who wanted things to be clean? No, I was a different type of klgaosh for certain.
I slept that night on the still-musty pallet, only a few paces from the dragon. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at all if I hadn’t been so exhausted. I had slept near dragons before, but those had been dragons I knew: Shardas, Feniul, Velika. Dragons that I had felt were watching over me, keeping me safe in the night.
This dragon was a different matter. How long would he keep me here? Until I died of old age or from eating bad food? I could try to sneak out, but where would I go? Toward the column of smoke, I supposed, but there was no telling what I would find there. Besides which, he was lying across the length of the house, blocking the only door. I was caught, and didn’t know what to do next.
Pine-Needle Tea
M y dragon had a visitor the next day.
Another dragon, like enough to Darrym to give me a brief start, appeared in the clearing early the next morning. I was just blearily rubbing my eyes and wishing my mouth didn’t taste so horrible when we heard the sound of wings and a roar of greeting.
“Bring glark ,” my dragon ordered, and went out to meet his guest.
I followed him. “What?”
Both dragons looked at me in surprise and irritation. I made a confused face and did the best I could to say glark , which had to be said with a huff of air and a sort of growl at the end.
My dragon’s sigh steamed the bark right off a nearby tree. He turned to his guest and said something too rapid for me to really follow, but the gist of it was that I was hopeless as a klgaosh . Then he led me into the house and showed me a large pot, a sieve, and a canister of what looked like pine needles.
“Make glark ,” he ordered again.
I hauled everything outside while the dragons watched. There was a fire pit in the clearing, and I found some lengths of chopped wood stacked against a tree nearby. I prepared the fire; then my dragon ignited it. I shook pine needles into the pot until the dragons nodded at me, before filling it with water. Since dragonfire is hotter than regular fire, the wood burned quickly and I had to scramble to keep adding wood. But the water boiled faster, too, and soon I was using the sieve to strain out the needles and running back inside for two large buckets for them to drink out of.
Once I offered them the drinks, they looked at me pointedly until I took the hint and left.
Around the back of the house I looked into the forest in the direction of that tempting column of smoke. The trees were very thick, but I found it reassuring. No dragon would be able to follow me on foot through that, nor would they be able to espy me from above.
I was close to fleeing. It was better than
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