“I thought I told you to stay outside with the hooves,” he grumbled. “Not bring the stench inside.”
“Make me old and decrepit,” Khollo muttered. “Anything to get away from that pot out on the ledge. There’s no reason for me to watch it.”
“Except that if you don’t the glue will be boiled off or solidified and your suffering will be for naught,” Ezraan replied, stacking another arrow shaft on top of eight others.
Khollo groaned and turned to go. “You’re doing this next time!” he called as he left.
“There won’t be a next time,” Ezraan replied.
When Khollo returned to the main room, Kanin was awake, both forefeet clamped over his nose. What have you been doing? He demanded indignantly.
“Glue making,” Khollo replied. “Want to help?”
Kanin snorted and got to his feet. No. I will hunt, he announced. Perhaps the plains will have been spared of this glue-making stench.
If you bring back more deer hooves I can make more glue, Khollo suggested.
I’ll bring back a steer. The dragon made his way out onto the ledge and took off immediately, climbing high into the sky before wheeling northward, towards the plains. Khollo, resigned to his fate, sat back down on the ledge to wait for the process to be over.
Eventually, Khollo achieved a viscous, sticky, foul-smelling liquid. He put out the fire underneath the pot and fetched Ezraan from his improvised workshop. The older man put a hand over his nose and leaned over the pot, then nodded, satisfied with Khollo’s work.
“That’ll do. Do we have any feathers around here?”
Khollo frowned. That was one thing he had not considered. No feathers, no arrows. He’d seen dozens of bright tropical birds in the jungle, a few vultures out on the plains. But he’d never thought to bring any of them down.
Kanin?
Yes?
Do you think you could bring back a buzzard as well?
The dragon was silent for a long moment. Finally, he responded. Why?
Feathers for the fletching.
I will try, but buzzards are not good eating.
Good thing we’re not going to eat it then.
“He’ll bring a bird back,” Khollo told Ezraan.
“Kanin?”
“Yes.”
“Handy beast to have around, that dragon,” Ezraan observed. He sighed wistfully. “If only I were younger and there were dragon eggs in abundance. Oh, to be a Keeper, bonded with one of those beautiful creatures.”
Khollo shifted uncomfortably, not sure how he should respond. After all, he had a dragon. But Ezraan shook aside his lament and gave Khollo a small smile.
“Still, I have gotten to see a dragon, fly with it. Talk with it. We are the only two alive who can say that. I have much to be thankful for.”
They waited inside until Kanin returned, preferring to stay as far from the pot of glue as possible. Kanin deposited the requested buzzard, spitting out black feathers, and announced that he was going to fly among the mountains for a time. Khollo laughed as the dragon took off again.
“Wish I could get away so easily,” he remarked. “But, we have arrows to make.”
They quickly plucked suitable feathers from the bird carcass, pressing and drying them to make the fletchings stiff. The rest of the bird they pitched into the jungle. Then, the two men set about carefully gluing feathers to the shafts that Ezraan had prepared, which proved to be a sticky, messy, tedious job. When they had created another dozen arrows, Khollo stood and stepped back from their work.
“Phew! I’ll be more careful about spending arrows in the future. Who knew it could be such a process to make more?” He looked up at the sky, judging the time by the position of the sun. The afternoon was gone now, and the day was wearing on towards evening.
“I did,” Ezraan reminded him, standing as well, his joints creaking in protest. “We’ll bundle ferns together to use as targets from now on. That way we’re less likely to lose arrows amongst the trees.”
“Good thinking,” Khollo agreed. He looked down at his hands, coated with a sticky layer of glue. “I’d like to get rid of this stuff,” he muttered.
“There are springs among the mountains,” Ezraan suggested. “I have visited them on occasion.”
“Really?”
“Yes, they’re beautiful locations, warm, fresh water, stunning views. Some even have fruit trees growing around them.”
“That does sound quite nice,” Khollo agreed. Kanin, have you seen any of these mountain springs?
I am at one right now, Kanin replied.
Khollo rolled his eyes. “Kanin has already found a spring.”
“He would have!” Ezraan observed, exasperated. “Do you think your overgrown lizard would care to fetch us as well?”
Khollo relayed the question, though he altered the wording of the request substantially.
I come, Kanin replied. Though the water is warm and clear and good.
We’ll be back there soon enough, Khollo promised. He ducked into the hold and scooped up his weapons belt and bow, gearing up for battle. “Just in case,” he said to Ezraan.
Ezraan nodded, then sighed with frustration. “If only we had managed to kill the tiger this morning, or any other time for that matter!”
“We’ll get it sooner or later,” Khollo told him confidently. “Someday soon, it will challenge Kanin one too many times.”
As he was speaking, Kanin dropped out of the sky and landed on the ledge. Are we going? He asked pointedly, extending a foreleg.
Khollo laughed and climbed aboard, pulling Ezraan up behind him. “We’re going, Kanin, we’re going.”
No more glue?
“No more glue,” Khollo promised. Then, he frowned at the ledge. “Maybe we should take that pot with us and clean it out.”
Before he could make a move to dismount, Kanin was airborne. The dragon hovered over the ledge for a moment, then lashed out with his tail.
The end of Kanin’s spiked tail caught the pot a tremendous blow,
