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The awe soon faded The e, lost their fear of the open sky and distant horizions But for AuRon the trouble had only begun Their sire had to do a good deal of wrangling to keep the, water, and spoor But their attention was difficult to hold with big snowfoot hares bounding away at their approach, all bouncing hindquarters and flapping ears

Gently grabbing one scra set of shoulder blades with his teeth-covered lips, then prodding the other back in line with his stiff, regrown tail, AuRon envied his ht to their mother’s belly and listened attentively When they acted, they cooperated His sons dragon-dashed after every bee and showed all the sense of a field mouse

On the third trip, AuRon decided it was time for them to learn a real lesson

This time he went up first to check Zan the tradesdwarf’s work before loosing the hatchlings on the world The Chartered Coht be mistaken for a hairy stu He had chuckled when AuRon described what he wanted to fashion, and he’d done a typically thorough dwarf’s job in exchange for a bag full of dragonscales sloughed off Natasatch over the winter

“Rafer be hunting beasts with mother and sisters,” Ausurath complained

“Watch your brother’s approach See, he’s keeping doind from the camp” AuRon had to stifle a prrum as he watched

Aumoahk tested the air around the “camp” His slit nostril seemed to wink at AuRon as he breathed

AuRon watched his son sniff and listen before exposing hi up to the caleaht by the tradesdith the same enthusiasm that he sed the few coins of AuRon’s bare hoard, but he was cannier than his more enthusiastic brother

Au in their circle around the stones of a nonexistent ca over “shoulders” of burnedfishnet Aumoahk becaed the nearest

A thunderous barking broke out from the rocks above the “camp”

AuRon spread his wings and glided down to the ca with the wolf The wolf, a grandson of his old friend Blackhard na, and his sleekat the new drake’s flanks, first one dealing with the erous front end, then the other

Au noise and the wolves yelped and dashed to avoid the co sputum

The drake vented his frustration and his fireless bladder on some innocent bracken The air turned sour and sulfurous

“Youclu step down in flesh froly, but Natasatch didn’t seem to mind

Wolf eyes and ears poked around a sharp piece of blue shale