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Twigleg rose cautiously to his feet behind the tuft of grass The backpacks! That was the solution Sorrel certainly wouldn’t want hiht But if he simply hid in Ben’s backpack … Silent as a shadow, the homunculus stole over to it

"What was that?" asked Sorrel, leaning down frorass! Are there desert rats here?"

Diving headfirst in a for you, too, Sorrel," said Barnabas Greenblooave me these to cook with, but I think you’llinto Sorrel’s paws

She sniffed it curiously

"Dried wood blewits!" she cried "Girolles, chanterelles, morels!" She stared at Barnabas Greenbloo me all these?"

"Of course!" The professor smiled "No one appreciates ht?"

"You certainly are" Sorrel sniffed the bag happily once more and then leaped down off Firedrake’s back to stuff it in her backpack, which was lying on the sand beside Ben’s Twigleg hardly dared to breathe as they strapped the two backpacks together, ready for the journey But Sorrel was too intoxicated by the fragrance of herBen’s clothes

Ben looked all around hi really does seeoodness for that!" said Sorrel,of h not before she’d taken one out to nibble "He reeked of bad luck, you take my word for it Any broould have spotted that at once, but you hu would have loved to nip her furry fingers, but he controlled himself and didn’t soplace

"Perhaps it was just the fact that he’s a homunculus you didn’t like, Sorrel," said Professor Greenbloos born naturally In fact, they see often feels very lonely and rejected and clings to whoer than their er"

Sorrel shook her head and closed her backpack "One way or another," she said, "he smelled of bad luck and that’s all there is to it"

"She’s stubborn as a mule," Ben whispered to the professor

"I’d noticed," Barnabas Greenbloom whispered back

Then he went over to Firedrake and looked into his golden eyes onceout his open hand to the dragon

A scale lay on his palon bent over it, curious The professor placed another scale beside it

"I found these two scales o in the northern Alps," the professor explained "Cows and sheep had been disappearing there, and the local people told horror stories of a terrible ht At the ti but these scales, which look remarkably like your own but feel entirely different There were some tracks around, too, but they’d been blurred by the rain and the angry farleg pricked up his ears Those scales could only have come from his master! Nettlebrand had lost three scales in the course of his life, and in spite of sending out all his ravens in search of the to be at all pleased to hear that a human had found two of the precious scales

The et a look at them, but the professor’s hand was too far above his head for hi