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Keraitelixch stretched her golden hide in the moonlight, hoping every one else would be asleep. She knew that one of the party had split off in the beginning, and she wondered if either of the now two groups were being followed. Sherel may be an unbalanced human, but she would have made a fine enough dragon, and Kerai had the feeling that Sherel was already on their tail. She hoped that even Sherel slept in this dark hour.

Slithering up slowly on her four legs, Kerai had half a mind to sneak away, at least until the morning. She thought she smelled human off to the east, and since they had reached the other side of the mountains, perhaps it was a Feretris woman. Kerai's spine tingled in wonderment, having no idea what she would do if she should confront such a creature.

Gale spent the flight answering Calen'loki's questions as best as he could, which was not very well. His lack of conversational experience showed more and more as the interview contiunued, and a question would sometimes have to be asked, reasked, and rephrased several times to get a satisfactory answer. Gale also seemed to be come increasingly frustrated with his inability to answer properly. However, he managed to divulge a substantial amount of information.

He told the dragon about the gods of the Anjt. Each corresponded to a star in the sky, and each had its own mythos. He talked about the mythical struggle between the Morning Star, the force of calm goodness, and the Evening Star, the force of violent evil, a fragment of which had been sealed inside the stone. He was then froced to explain about prayer stones, and how they were sometimes used to capture bits of the gods when they fell out of the stars. These fragments, he explained, were called star-fallen. He summed up how his father had found a book about experiments on dragon bonded people, and used that research to make his son into a weapon by binding the star fallen to Gale using a prayer stone. His voice held no bitterness to his father, though, just a sort of sad indifference. He said that he knew relatiely little about the stone in the back of his neck, but he knew that it acted as a floodgate, holding the Evening star at bay in his mind and away from his body. He also knew that when the Evening star was released, either by a faltering of Gale's will or the command of Gale's father, he was the one held back while the star fallen took control of his body. He added, almost as an afterthought, that the star fallen was extremely strong, xenocidally merciless, and posessed of the ability to absorb and redirect magic.

He also imparted the knowlege that normal animals were subcoinciously terrified of Gale, as were most small children. He didn't talk to people much, due to his reputation, and didn't enjoy fighting, though he was very good at it. He quite liked apples, especially crunchy ones, and thought deer was by far the best kind of meat, though he'd only had it a few times. He said that he used to be darker, with black hair which he missed since his pale appearance singled him out even more. He liked rain but hated thunderstorms. He also added how strangely comfortable he was flying, like he'd spend half his life airborne. It was only at this admission that he sounded at all troubled.

Kera! He is quite squishy so it does not bother me overly much, I wouldn't want to do this for a longer distance though. It is worth it because he doesn't seem to busy to listen to my stories. . . Unlike some dragons that I happen to know.

Gale, I do not know if your human eyes can see the dragon atop the tree ahead of us but her name is Kera.

Kera stretched herself up from the tip of the tree, causing the evergreen to sway precariously. She was ungraceful for a dragon, besides, and would probably not be able to keep the position for long. Her wings beat in a futile effort to keep her balance.

Get some new stories, she suggested casually. My, my, but he does look squishy. Don't humans ever wear scales? by which she meant, armor, or is this one too young to battle? What did you pick him up for, any way?

Gale nodded his comprehension, and then made eye contact briefly with the other dragon to signal to whom he would be speaking before diverting his gaze to a spot on Calen'loki's back.

"Hello...my name is Gale..." He gave a respectful half-bow as well as he could from his sitting position. "I am unused to...meeting dragons...it's still a little...shocking..." He smiled slightly, flicking his unnaturally pale eyes back to Kera for a fraction of a second.

I am sure that you will stumble onto something interesting eventually. And I agree. It would be best to look for the others, perhaps we will see some ducks. I am quite fond of ducks you know.

Instead of trying to compete with Kera, Calen stayed on the ground and began approaching the goats from the west.

Lets get some revenge on these creatures for you, goat warrior. Kera go at them from the east, I want to see if we can scare a goat to death.

Calen crouched low and used his magic to keep both Gale and himself hidden from the goats.

Kera stayed visible as she dive-bombed the goats. Not only did she dive bomb the goats, but more specifically, she aimed to harass the poor shepard himself. Unfortunately, the shepard was armed with a bow and arrow. Although it was designed to ward off wolves and foxes, he was able to get one off at Kera even as he trembled in his boots. Shepards can't afford to lose it every time they see a strange beast, not in these mountains.

Calen saw the arrow go off, but not precisely where it went as Kera dived passed it. She came up again into the air, at least, but she was letting out an actual, non-mental howl. You insolent...! Ah! The human ran under a nearby copse, towards the hidden Calen. Kera was not looking at him any more, but off to her side.

Calen had a clear view of the armed humans rushing through the forest opposite the valley of goats.

More bows! Kera squeaked, trying to climb higher into the air. It was true that some had bows, but their main weapons seemed to be designed for closer combat. Although improbable, it looked for all the world as if they were rushing after Kera, because of the timing. Then, suddenly, they diverted course in order to skirt the valley and head more directly east and down the mountain foot. Calen might recall that he had seen a human settlement there.