They hunted closer to the mountains this time, near the forests that blanketed the foothills. It was not long before they sighted a herd of deer, bounding over rock and root. As they emerged from the trees, Kanin dove and knocked one off of its feet with his huge front legs. He tripped another with his tail, then pinned it to the ground.
Khollo slid down from Kanin’s back and put the beasts out of their misery. “Let me skin them first,” he said to Kanin, drawing his belt knife. “We may find a use for the hides.”
Kanin snorted in annoyance, but waited anyways. Khollo skinned the larger of the deer, then gestured for Kanin to eat his fill. While the dragon dined with messy gusto, Khollo skinned and butchered the other deer, wrapping the meat in one of the hides. Then, he settled down to wait until Kanin had finished his meal.
When they returned to the hold, Khollo built a small fire on the ledge outside their dwelling and began smoking the meat, while Kanin continued ripping vegetation from the stone walls around them. With every swipe of the dragon’s claws or breath of fire the holds inched closer to their former glory.
After Khollo had eaten, he packed the rest of the meat away in the cleaned-out storeroom. It only filled a small amount of space, but Khollo felt better even with that little bit of food saved up. Tomorrow, he would roam the jungle in search of edible plants, maybe get Kanin to bring back one of the steers that they had hunted their first day on the island.
By nightfall, all the holds on their level had been freed of the clinging embrace of the jungle. Pale gray stone surfaces gleamed in the dying light. Khollo realized that the exposed dwellings would be like a beacon to Ezraan, but Kanin had said that the upper levels could only be reached by dragons so Khollo was not too worried about the old man bothering them.
He cannot reach us, Kanin assured Khollo as they lay sprawled on the ledge outside their hold. This hold is ours, and ours alone.
“Good,” Khollo murmured. He looked over at the deer hides he had collected from the victims of their hunt, thinking that he would have to find some way to cure them. “Give us a few weeks and we might be able to make a respectable home here in the jungle.”
We will reclaim the glory of our ancestors, Kanin said. The holds are only the beginning. Think of the great hall, free of the jungle and standing at the heart of the stronghold! And the library that the old one mentioned. The roads and landing places. The watchtowers.
“What is it that you want from this place, Kanin?” Khollo asked.
Kanin thought, his scales rustling as he shifted positions. I want to rebuild the Keepers and be the first, like my namesake, he said finally. I want to return the Keepers to their former glory.
“How can we do that?” Khollo asked. “There are no more dragons besides you, are there?”
Kanin shifted. Perhaps the vertaga hold some of my brothers and sisters, he mused. But Khollo could tell that he was less than optimistic.
“If they do, we’ll free them too,” Khollo promised.
If we can.
“There’s always a chance,” Khollo said softly. “If there are any dragons out there, we will find them.”
Kanin snorted and nudged Khollo with his massive head. Khollo rubbed his snout fondly, feeling the rough scales under his hands. He stood, yawning. “Best get some sleep,” he decided. “We have another long day of clearing up this place tomorrow.”
The dragon rose ponderously and shuffled into the hold, making for the deep bowl in the center of the main room. He paused at the edge, briefly flamed the stone below with his breath, then curled up and settled down for the night. Khollo smiled at the slumbering dragon and settled down beside him, resting against Kanin’s tail.
The days fell into a pattern for the next week. Khollo would rise early, stiff and sore from sleeping at strange angles on hard rock, then eat a breakfast of dried meat. After that, Kanin was usually awake and would go hunting, bringing back a beast for Khollo to add to their rapidly growing stores of food.
The first day, Khollo ventured into the jungle, looking for edible fruits and plants. He did not recognize much of what hung from the trees though, and few of the plants on the ground were familiar to him. At the West Bank, he would have been able to identify every plant and whether it was edible or poisonous. Here, he had not the slightest clue. When he returned to the hold emptyhanded at midday, he resolved to search the mountains with Kanin the next day.
Khollo spent the afternoon curing hides and scouring the jungle for suitable mattress material. He found some soft ferns and a large amount of dry moss, and these provided some comfort against the hard stone floor of the hold. As the days wore on, he continued working on the mattress, among other things. Eating utensils, plates, cups, cooking instruments, a roasting pit. Soon, the little hold was becoming functional as a base.
A few days later, Khollo made a change in the daily routine and accompanied Kanin on his hunt. He had not flown with the dragon in four days and that was entirely too long a span in both of their minds. On the way to a water meadow west of the river that split the plains in two, Khollo caught sight of great fields of grain, waving gently. Excitedly, he asked Kanin to land so he could examine the plants. Sure enough, there was
