Page 183 of Tiger's Voyage

“Be careful with her!” Ren hissed.

“Right, sorry. Did I hurt you?”

“No. Ren cleaned my leg. Look. It’s much better.”

He inspected my leg closely. “Looks like you’re out of the woods.” He nuzzled my neck despite the soft growl coming from the other side of our shell boat. “Good morning,bilauta. What did I miss?”

“Just a poem.”

“Glad I slept through it,” he snickered.

I elbowed him lightly. “Be civil.”

“Yes, my sweet.”

“That’s better. How about breakfast?”

We ate heartily after Ren and Kishan agreed that we all were almost back to normal health. When we had finished, I repositioned myself stiffly in the naturally curved clamshell seat.

“Okay. Now what do we do?” I asked.

“Maybe we call a dragon for help,” Kishan suggested.

Ren replied, “I have a feeling they won’t help us anymore. Besides we don’t want L sèlóng to come along and offer us another challenge,dowe?”

“No!” I shuddered, remembering how both of them were almost blackened dragon kibble. “One thing’s for sure. I need to stay out of the sun today.” I fingered the side of the shell where a small hole had been hollowed out, and an idea started to form.

“Ren? Can you use the trident to make three more holes like this one? I want them spaced evenly like a box.”

He knelt next to me and thrust his finger through the hole. “Do you want them the same size?”

“Yes. We need them big enough for a thick rope to pass through.”

He grunted and got started.

Kishan shifted over next to me. “What’s your plan?”

“I think we should try to use the wind to carry us back to the ship.”

“Good idea. It’s better than just floating here in shark town.”

“Shark town? I hope you’re exaggerating.”

“Exaggerating?” Kishan’s brows knit together when he saw the fear on my face. “Right, exaggerating.”

“No, you weren’t. They’re all around us, aren’t they?”

He winced. “Yes. There’s still a lot of shark meat in the water. I heard them splashing all night.”

I made an involuntary sound and closed my eyes, praying my little experiment wouldn’t flip us over into shark-filled waters. I asked the Scarf to create a kite-like parachute and attach it with ropes to all the holes Ren made. Then I asked the Scarf to gather the winds softly into the parachute and blow us back to theDeschen.

A breeze picked up, and Ren and Kishan fed the parachute like a kite into the wind. The strong cloth ballooned out and tugged us forward. We bounced on the water, and the wind whipped us around, but Ren shifted quickly to keep our shell boat balanced. All things considered, it was a pretty comfortable ride. Ren even made a sunshade using a canvas courtesy of the Scarf and oversized peppermint sticks embedded in hollowed-out wheels of cheese, which the Golden Fruit provided.

We snacked on wedges of salty Romano cheese on crackers and talked as we kept our eyes peeled for the yacht. I relaxed knowing we were now miles from the shark buffet and even trailed my fingers in the spray of water. I dozed off and on.

The morning passed into afternoon, and still there was no sign of theDeschen. Clouds rolled in, and soon we were surrounded by a fog thick enough to block out the sun.

“Maybe we’re near the blue dragon’s island,” I said.