“Can’t fly between.” Jaxom didn’t bother hiding his frustration from Piemur.
“Too bloody right you can’t. Not with firehead!”
Jaxom blinked at Piemur’s unequivocal agreement.
“Don’t worry! You’ll get there soon enough.” Piemur squinted at the symmetrical peak, shading his eyes with one hand. “May look near, but it’s several, four-five maybe, days’ travel. Rough country, I’d guess. You’ve …” he paused to give Jaxom an unexpected blow in the midriff which robbed him of breath, “got to get fit first! I heard you puffing, hacking down that grass. Huh!”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to bring Stupid here and let him graze? There aren’t any dragons about, except Ruth. And he’s agreed not to eat Stupid!”
“Once he sees wild ones, he won’t come back. He’s too stupid to know he’s much safer with me with a dragon to bring him food, instead of eating him as food.”
Stupid was delighted with the contribution to his diet and whistled with pleasure as he munched away at the piled grass.
“Just how intelligent is Stupid?” Sharra asked, stroking the creature’s rough dun-colored neck.
“Not as smart as Farli, but not really stupid. Limited is a fairer assessment of his scope. Within those limitations, he’s pretty bright.”
“For instance?” asked Jaxom. He’d never thought much of runner beasts.
“Well, for instance, I can send Farli ahead, telling her to fly so many hours in the direction I’ve pointed, land and pick up anything lying on the ground. Generally she brings back grasses or bush twigs, and sometimes stone and sand. I can send her to look for water. That’s what fooled me about the Big Bay. She’d found water, all right, so Stupid and I humped after her. I didn’t specify drinking water.” Piemur shrugged and laughed. “But Stupid and I have to go on foot, and he’s right smart about ground. Kept me from sinking in mud and those shifting sands time and again. He’s clever about finding the easiest route over rough going. He’s also good at finding water … drinking-type water. So I should have listened to him when he didn’t want to cross the sands to the Big Bay. He knew there wasn’t any real water over there, although Farli insisted there was. I trusted Farli that time. Generally speaking, the two make one good reliable guide between them. We’re a team-Stupid, Farli and I.
“Which reminds me, I found a firelizard clutch, a queen’s, five …” Farli chittered at him, “all right, maybe six or seven coves back. I kind of lost track there, but she’ll remember where. … In case someone wants some. You know if green firelizards weren’t as stupid as they are, we’d be up to our ears in little green ones. And they’re downright useless.”
Sharra grinned. “I remember the day I found my first clutch in the sands. I didn’t know the difference between green and gold nests. Oh, how I watched that clutch … for days. Never told a soul. I was going to Impress all of them …”
“Four or five?” Piemur asked with a laugh.
“Six, in fact. Only I didn’t realize that a sand snake had got the lot from beneath long before I found the nest.”
“How is it, then, that sand snakes don’t get a queen’s eggs?” Jaxom asked.
“She’s never far from her clutch,” Sharra said. “She’d spot a snake tunnel right away and kill it.” She gave a shudder. “I hate snakes worse than I hate Thread.”
“Much the same thing, isn’t it?” Piemur asked, “except for the direction of attack.” He gestured with both hands, one coming down, the other coming up on an imaginary victim.
During the hot part of the day, Jaxom, Sharra and Piemur began to turn his Records, measurements and rough sketches into proper detailed maps. Piemur wanted to get the report back to Sebell, or Robinton or F’lar if so directed, as soon as possible.
In the cool of the next morning, with Stupid as pack animal and Ruth overhead, the three friends backtracked to Piemur’s queen clutch. Twenty-one eggs were in the nest, all nicely hardened to within a day or two of Hatching. Their approach had sent the wild firelizard queen to cover so they were able to excavate the eggs, packing them carefully in the carrier they had strapped to Stupid’s back. Jaxom asked Ruth to alert Canth that they had firelizard eggs.