He’s in guarding mode and doesn’t return my smile, just walks on and looks over his shoulder a little more frequently than before. He must be immensely in tune with everything here if he could sense me just freezing for a moment.
I trot after him. Saltpeter and sulfur. They can be used to make something very interesting. Something we might be able to put to good use.
The girls might not like it. But we won’t need to tell them until we know it works.
We actually may not need to tell them at all.
I grin to myself. The dragons won’t know what hit them.
They really won’t.
14
- Brank’ox -
I can barely feel the ground under my feet. Was the air always this sweet? Were the trees always this beautiful? I want to stop and just stare at the endless wonder of ordinary bushes I have seen in the jungle all my life.
What an incredible thing Mating is.
And how unbelievable that it happened to me! With Dolly, even.
I never dared dream that such an experience would be mine. Certainly not after I failed the tribe so badly.
It almost seems wrong. As if I have gotten something undeserved, something that should only be given to better warriors.
But I can live with that. It was certainly not something I tried to acquire. Even when Dolly kissed me and slept with her head in my lap, I was content and grateful beyond measure. I needed no more.
It is puzzling, though. As a sign from the Ancestors, there could be no stronger indication that I’m on the right track. But how? If the treasure is not a heap of gold, after all, my plan is impossible. It will now not be easy to lure the dragons to one spot in the jungle, entice them to fight each other over the gold, and then intervene to finish off or injure whichever one of them would survive. That would be certain death, but it would also be right to do it for the tribe.
Now what do I do? Can I find other valuables that the dragons crave? If that was not gold, then where can I find some?
I keep looking behind me now that we’re almost at the village. My mission has gone perfectly well so far, and I don’t want to fail now, at the very end. Dolly is there, walking with more jungle skill now, quiet and alert, not disturbing a single leaf.
My chest swells at the sight of her. What a woman! Collecting her own kind of treasures for the tribe, trusting a single warrior to keep her safe.
The Ancestors must have something else in mind. Something different from my first plan.
I must find out what it is.
15
- Dolly -
The sun is half set when we walk into the village.
Jennifer spots me first and waves happily, then comes walking. “Hi! There you are. Right on time.”
I hug her, because coming home from the jungle in one piece is never something to take for granted. “Of course. Did you ever know me to be late?”
“Yes,” Jennifer chuckles. “Just last night, Mia had to go fly and check on you.”
“Oh, that. Well, it’s a long way and we didn’t want to walk in the dark. Oh, Brank’ox, wait!”
The warrior has put the backpack down and started to walk away towards the army huts, but stops. “Dolly?”
I reach up and embrace him, hard. “You kept me safe. Thank you.”
“I’m glad we’re both back alive,” he says, a little stiffly now that we have an audience. “I hope you got everything you wanted.”
I crane my neck to look up at him. “I got everything I wanted. And more than that, too. It was wonderful. How about you? Satisfied?”
He gives me a little smirk, dark eyes twinkling. “Very much so.”
I don’t want him to leave. “Could you please help me put the pots in my lab?”
He grabs the backpack again. “Of course.”
“So you got everything?” Jennifer asks as we walk to our hut. “Rubber and things?”
“I think it’s rubber, but I’m not sure,” I confess. “I guess we’ll have to find out. If it’s not, then at least we can use it as glue.”
“And perhaps as a special spice for delicious foods,” Brank’ox deadpans.
“No,” I state with emphasis. “We will not use it for that.”
We reach my primitive lab, and Jennifer sits down on the flat rock.“Oh, does it taste good?”
“How dare you sit on my workbench,” I say with mock sternness. “Shoo. No, it really doesn’t. Don’t