wondered what passed for beauty among her people. Long straw? A regular but woefully flat muzzle? And those horrid flaps she called ears, those could not possibly attract a mate. Her eyes, however, might conceivably enthral a male of her kind. They were pleasingly fiery, often seeming to spark when she became animated, or mellowing when she sang. Straw-head had no wings to flutter prettily, but perhaps Humans liked the filaments which adorned her eyelids? They were a pleasing adornment when she shuttered her gaze, or glanced at him with that impishly veiled glimmer when she was tugging his wings or making a joke.
Lia prepared the meat with deft strokes of her dagger, splaying the lemur so that she could pin it with her sticks and set it to cook. When she had done that, she returned to her drawing. “Father. Mother. Brother, sister. Three brothers.”
Oh. She meant the eggs of her clutch, and the parents who had laid them. Flicker taught her the right words in Dragonish. Then, he hesitantly set his paws to the sand. This earned him the bright expression she called a smile. He really needed to make her understand that showing one’s fangs was seen as aggressive amongst Dragons and dragonets. Ooh, perhaps he could draw expressions …
They spent a hilarious evening swapping notes on Human and Dragon facial expressions. Flicker learned that her eye-fluid was called tears, and when her eyes leaked, she was either sad or happy. Utterly baffling! She did not have transparent, secondary nictitating membranes to protect her orbs, unlike him, so she could not express subtleties of emotion with her inner membranes. Humans could snarl. They could know fear, surprise, hatred, anger and consternation. Indeed, she was a much more complex creature than he had assumed.
Still, she could not fly.
After snoozing the night away curled up against her stomach, Flicker rose with the dawn. Lia woke too, and taught him a sweet lullaby as they collected their few possessions.
“Ready,” she said.
Ready, Human girl? Great. I’m a fantastic scout. I know the paths of this Island like the palm of my paw. I will lead you. Flicker pointed. How is your wound?
My wound is good, she repeated, pronouncing the lilting chirps carefully. “It still pulls, Flicker. I’ll need to climb slowly.”
He insisted, Have to climb! Arm?
Lia checked the rude splint she had carved for her upper arm, five lengths of stick bound around her arm as tightly as she and Flicker could manage with vines. She tried to lift it; shook her head.
“Not good?”
“No, Flicker. Not good at all.”
He managed, “Flicker find good fly.”
Path? That would help, Lia replied.
Flicker rewarded her linguistic efforts with a spiralling double backflip.
* * * *
Poor dragonet. Flicker had little patience with her inability to fly, Hualiama realised, although he was happy to spend hours coaching her in the nuances of Dragonish, which was so ridiculously complex, Lia despaired of ever talking properly. As promised, he scouted for the best paths. However, the cliff was vertical or very near vertical, a miles-high wall of rock and vegetation which disappeared into the misty skies overhead. Many places had overhangs, or were so tangled as to be impassable to anyone without wings.
Three hours later, having made less than five hundred vertical feet of progress, Lia sat on a fallen tree trunk, put her head in her hands, and growled her frustration to all and sundry.
Flicker nipped down to alight on the trunk beside her. Lia do good, he said.
“Lia feels as useful as a spade without a handle.”
The dragonet looked quizzically at her.
“Look, you’ve got two wings. Why don’t you just lend them to me?” She made a fluttering motion with her hands. “I’ve always wanted to fly. I never dreamed about much else, nothing that’s worth telling, but I dream about Dragons all the time. Aye, it’s stupid. I had a flying lesson last week and look where it landed me. Now I’m too weak to climb this stupid cliff.”
To her surprise, the dragonet put his paw on her knee. “Lia brave.”
She knew that Flicker set great store in bravery, but that was the very quality which seemed to have deserted her just now. Despondently, Lia said, “Let’s say we climb this cliff all the way up to the Human world, Flicker. By some miracle, I make it back to Fra’anior Island. What then? Captain Ra’aba will be King, and I’ll be the girl he threw off a Dragonship. I can’t fight him, Flicker. He’s stronger and