Page 108

At least it was a clear night. The twin moons illuminated a wall of red-stone before us, now a pale blue-white in the moonlight. Serali cocked her head as she studied the dark holes in the stone — squig nests — watching for a mother squig to leave for her nightly hunt.

There was no rushing the little dragon, though, so Iturned to admire the ancient city of red-stone behind us. Much of it was just dark silhouettes in the moonlight, but the city walls and a handful of streets were lit with that strange white-yellow light from machines. Windows lit with lyphos or machine light peppered the buildings in that half of the city. Beyond that, the dragon rider tents sat, surrounded by rubble, guards, and fences.

Far beneath the earth, in the room of demon metal, I felt my human body ache at the sad sight.

Over a thousand years ago, a past version of me had helped build this place, working with dragon riders, their dragons, and even a few Giants. The memory was hazy, but I could still remember the group of helpers laughing as we cut and shaped the stone into something we'd hoped would last many generations.

I scanned the cluster of tents for that sad plot of soil and seeds. I could help tonight, but what about when I was gone? Hmmm. I would have to think on that …

Serali chirped once as a warning, and I barely had time to grab tighter before we blinked into the squig's cave.

It was dark, and I could just barely make out the nest of twigs and leaves holding a half-dozen balls of fluff. Large eyes above tiny beaks looked at us, fluff hiding little wings and six spindly legs.

Serali squirmed and chirped, and I nodded with her.

"Very cute indeed!"

Serali chirped again, gesturing to them with her pointed blue chin.

"No," I hissed. "We most definitely cannot take one to Kaiya. It would be cute for a moment but think of how scared the baby would be. Not to mention what will happen to us when the mother finds out what we did!" I shuddered at the thought of another enraged squig flock chasing after us.

No. We would NOT be borrowing a baby.

Serali let out a sad huff.

"We may not be able to take one to Kaiya, but youcouldfeed them while I look for fruit seeds …"

Serali perked up, green eyes swirling, and I grew my vines out, letting them grow and fall away in thin, nutritious lengths.

"Not meat," I said. "But a tasty plant substitute. They won't know the difference."

Serali chirped twice and picked up the vine that I made wiggle slowly to look like a worm.

The babies immediately began to screech and reach for the dangling food, and one brave squigling jumped up and snatched the plant from Serali, then gobbled it down.

The others quickly squeaked for food, too, and the little dragon fed them, one by one.

While Serali fed the baby squigs, I began picking through the nest. Sure enough, there were a variety of seeds hidden amongst the twigs.

I hummed to them, and their spirits hummed back.

There were many dari fruit seeds scattered throughout, but humans didn't seem to like those. And there werealso a few shrig berry bush seeds, but those fruits were bitter.

Finally, underneath them all, were some of the rare and delicious poppin berry seeds.

Kaiya was sure to love those.

I grabbed the seeds and wrapped them safely within me.

Turning back, I found Serali playing with the little fluff balls who chirped happily at her.

"Okay. Time to go, Serali."

She let out a disappointed huff, and the squigs began to chirp louder.

"Wow," I said. "Look how sad they are to see us go! Perhaps they have mistaken you as their mother!"

But Serali didn't respond, green eyes wide as she slowly turned and slunk further into the little cave.