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He wondered about this Lavadoons there It ons to be gathered there He didn’t know on society, but he knew that Father had to fly far and wide so he wouldn’t over-hunt an area--or so that snatched livestock were only a nuisance, and not a regular threat Would they look kindly on the arrival of a distant relative, hurt by weary dragonlengths of travel?

And they wouldn’t know his secrets

He let off a burp, and the centipede finally ceased its atte way off, and he couldn’t fly like a bat

But he could follow one…

The Copper lunged forithout really knohy A heavy force struck the ground behind and all he could think was, Curse that Gray Rat!--having instinctively avoided another of his brother’s pounces But he felt the weight of the thing in the air behind, in the treh the solid rock when it hit

He turned

A huge, pale gray mass writhed over and around itself behind A head that could probably suck him down as easily as he’d sed the centipede lifted itself fro its nose this way and that until it fixed on hi," it whispered at him

The Copper didn’t know of the old rivalry between snakes and dragons, the conte dragons hunted the sareat snakes did, so perhaps the old enmity was akin to that of lions and cheetahs in other parts of the world, co He certainly never heard the tale of the deaths of AuZath and Nubiel, dragons of Ydar They were murdered by a serpent who injected his poison into apples, which were eaten by grazing horses, which died and were naturally devoured in turn by the dragons

The Copper just kneas afraid

"You h the words sounded a little croaky So form But fear froze hi as they fear…

He’d never seen such black eyes The way they fixed on hined, it was as if the entire earth were a little off-kilter, as measured by the level of those eyes

"I a, and heat is mine You are mine"

The snake flowed toward him The Copper couldn’t break off; all he could do atch the eyes approach, twin balls rushing toward hi boxed hi hi up and out of the way of the snake

The snake lunged at hiy Its body see toward hi Gan, forced by the bat’s intervention to strike a switchback before he was ready, struck the Copper at the head instead of the base of the neck His fangs, out and forward, folded against the Copper’s young crest above his eyes

The Copper felt hot liquid run down either side of his head as the snake becaain, and coiled back

Fear flowed up froainst his breastbone He seized up, stuck out his own neck, and vo toward the snake

A spray of yellowish liquid, vaguely sulfurous, struck King Gan across the nose

The great snake went mad He whipped his head back and forth, writhed, coiled, uncoiled, knotted, until the Copper couldn’t tell head from tail but could only run lest he be crushed as the snake rolled and whipped

A dragonlength away he paused to glance over his shoulder King Gan flowed toward his swaed headfirst into the shalloater of thehi Gan that way"

"The pits?"

"Everything here in the dark has a way of a’hunting that don’t rely on light," Thernadad said "Bats be having our ears, that lousy legpincher feels vibrations, and the snakes feel the heat of us poor warons sniff for that what doesn’t smell as bad as they do, but y’be free to correct me, cousin"

"Cousin?"

"Your life Saved three ti us fa up a powerful thirst saving your life How about a nip out of the old tail, real quiet, before a whole skytrail of the hungry beggars show up?"

Later, feeling a bit drained, and not just because of the blood Thernadad lapped out of his tail, the Copper rested He perched high--hopefully out of King Gan’s reach--and watched thehiss and a splash, as King Gan soaked the heat pits on his nose

Sorateful to Auron for all the sudden pounces out of the darkness Without the torments of his brother, he’d never have avoided the snake’s first strike