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"Thank you"
"The chain is special, Auron A piece of ht, and it will cut even an iron collar if scraped back and forth across it, should anyone succeed in putting you in chains again Keep it as athe links tight, and tiny serrated crystal blades like teeth appeared fros
"You honorbeard, Auron, this’ll be a tale no one will believe in a century A dwarf and a dragon, brought together by chance and bonded by friendship"
Auron reared up, took the dwarf’s hand in his sii and shook it, dwarf-fashion He flicked out his tongue, s Djer and his pipe tobacco into his ift that cannot be lost Only throay"
Chapter 15
Hungry, thirsty, and cold, Auron asked hihteenth time, in as many days, what drove him froht of finding NooMoahk, it had been a vague wish, an effort to find a new foundation for his life, and to discover the truth behind Hazeleye’s story about discovering a weakness in dragons
But he hadn’t counted on the power of the wasteland It was vaster than the dwarf maps indicated
The dwarves prepared him for the desert as best as they could Dry es, and bladders of water filled the two saddlebags adapted for drakeback Auron found when he eave his stohts For this was no desert out of legend, a hot expanse of rock and sand--at least at this ti pebbles and windblown rolling weeds bouncing off larger rocks
Auron saw his tail and midsection thin perceptibly over the journey, as even one set of leather saddlebags disappeared into his hungry gullet, and he feared his fire bladder was reabsorbing the liquid fat contained within He did his best to trot along as the wolves did, hardening his heart and ait He went steadily south, every night the object of the Bowing Dragon’s hoe sunk a bit further toward the horizon Soht or dawn he could catch hopping little rodents who sought bugs beneath the stones Their hairy little bodies ht several, and in stands of brush found ter the d to open their fortresslike towers, so he could shift thee on the horizon that appeared on the twentieth day without water gave him hope It must be the Bissonian Scarps of the old dwarf ue of the people of Tindariuss, and so along, but he could walk He stalked thealternate feet front-and-rear with dried-outfloated above, on ings with feathers that spread like fingers Auron walked on, ignoring it, and it came lower in a half-hour’s worth of lazy circles Its shadow passed over him, and a cold tail-tip of dread ran up his spine
"You should have been picked over a week ago, if you ca one," it called down to him, in bird speech "Why did you choose h inaccurate old , I’ve breathed s," Auron croaked
"You should rest more You’ll pant your life out in cramp and pain otherwise I’ve seen a dozen kinds of desert death, and can foretell yours easily You still didn’t answer my question"
"Thank you for the advice" Auron rather hoped the vulture would co distance He waited for it to wheel around again before continuing the conversation "I seek a relative, a black dragon narateful"
"I’ll find you stretched out beneath the sun, with your last breath long since blown east I’d like to knohat favor you can do ain for another circle; he didn’t feel up to shouting "NooMoahk doesn’t eat sand Thereto be had in those hills I’ll keep the four-leggeds off ons are notorious bone-eaters, so I wonder Letat the belly What can I, the genteelest of hunters, do to aid you?"
"Genteelest?"
"I don’t doit, but politely wait for it to die What flesh-eater can say more?"
Some flesh-eaters are too ill-bred to wait and dine on the lips and tailvents, Auron thought "Take s in the h you h su in the desert?"
"There is a waste-elf oasis, but they’ll have you turning on a spit"
"What are waste-elves?"
"Outcasts, mostly There are more than usual at their oasis They’ve just struck souards in a far-off land--we vultures are great observers of all that goes on beneath our eyes--and they’re despoiling the wine and wo, if they would ever finish the job and le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>