\n It took almost five hours to return to Polson including a couple of stops, for lunch and a late-afternoon snack.  Dave was eager to hear more about the plan, but Jim said, "Not yet.  I have this idea, like I said earlier, to keep dragons safe, but I don't know any details yet."

\n "I'm not sure I like the idea of putting a dragon, or more than one, into captivity.  Birds and bears are one thing, but something that big, and possibly intelligent...  I may not want to be involved."

\n "I might need your help, though," he said.  "Do you think you could stay, at least for a little while, so I can know if I'll need you or not?"

\n "I have to get back to work soon; I didn't give them the impression I'd be gone for more than a week, and they're sure to need me back soon.  I'm going to need a few specifics about this plan of yours."

\n Jim shook his head.  "Please, just stay until I can work this out; I shouldn't say anything about it until I have it all figured out."

\n "All right, then...  I'm hungry, so I'm going into town for dinner.  You want to come with me?"

\n "No, I'm going to work with this idea; I'm not hungry, anyway."

\n "See you later, then."  Dave left the building, and a little while later Jim heard the gravel crunching as Dave drove away.  He sat down at a table and pulled out his notepad, a pen and Sir Bourdan's journal.

\n He sucked on the top of his pen and stared at the blank piece of paper on the table in front of him.  Where to begin?  He had the general idea in his head, but it needed a lot of work, and there were a lot of details to consider.

\n He glanced at the journal, lying closed next to his notepad.  Searching there would be as good a place to start as any; he guessed he would probably need a good idea of how many dragons there might be before he continued.  He picked up the journal and flipped open to the middle.

\n He had to search for a good while before he found it, but eventually did: at the time of Sir Bourdan's arrival, thirty-three dragons had been living together in their caves.  Jim wrote the number down on the upper-right-hand corner of the page, then flipped to the last marked page of the journal, where it was written that at least four dragons had been killed in a battle between the dragons and Sir Bourdan's force.  The journal hadn't made any mention of a dragon's lifespan or reproductive cycle, so Jim couldn't determine from that how many dragons there could be now; he left the original number alone.

\n Moving to the top-center of the page, he wrote, "Step 1: Capture," then paused again.  What would he need?  He wrote the words, "method," and, "location," in a column on the left side of the paper.  For the method of capture, he decided that an ambush would be best--it had worked well enough for him and Dave before, so it should work again.  Next to location, he first wrote, "the pond," but then he crossed it out.  It could take hours, or even multiple nights, to wait for all of the dragons--if there really were thirty of them--to come to the pond, and they would be sure to notice the other dragons lying there, unconscious.  He thought for a little while, then decided that the best place to ambush the dragons would be in their own cave.  He added a dash after that, then wrote, "time: noon."

\n But Jim knew that if he was going to just walk into the dragons' cave and try to shoot them all, he couldn't do it alone.  He added, "hired help?" on the right side of the paper.  But before he answered that question, he made sure to add that stun rifles like Dave's would be the best weapons to use; he recalled Dave telling him that his pistol wasn't strong enough to knock out a dragon with just one shot.  That line helped him figure who to ask for help; it would have to be someone with access to more powerfully charged weapons, and that meant licensed big-game hunters... or biologists.

\n Jim hesitated and looked around the room, then remembered that Dave was out.  Next to, "hired help?" Jim wrote, "but not Dave."  Dave had already said he might not like the idea...  Jim crossed biologists off the list of potential help, too.  If Dave didn't think he'd want to help, then other biologists probably wouldn't agree to it either, not even just for a chance to see the dragons.

\n But how much help would he need?  Jim glanced back up at the number of dragons; at noon, they would probably all be asleep, so he wouldn't necessarily need a hunter for every dragon.  Jim decided that there should be fifteen hunters, and he wrote the number down, then crossed it out and wrote fourteen instead--he could count himself as a hunter, if someone would give him a gun to use.

\n That concluded the first step: once the ambush had taken place, the dragons would be captured.  Jim skipped a few lines just in case he thought of something later, then wrote a second heading: "Step 2: Transportation."

\n This one was going to be more difficult.  Jim remembered the result of the research he and Dave had done; how exactly could he move thirty seven-thousand-kilogram dragons?  But then, Jim had found some relatively heavy artifacts at hard-to-reach dig sites before, and he remembered the QuicKrane crews he had called to help when he needed them.  They could build a decent-sized crane, even on uneven terrain, capable of lifting a good deal of weight.  But a dragon?  It would be awkward to carry, and difficult just for the crane to pick up...  But he'd seen a crane used to lift a whale once, at the Baltimore Aquarium; they'd looped a sling of sorts around the whale, then hooked the sling to the crane and used that to lift it.  If it could work for something as large as a whale, then it could work for a dragon, too.  Jim wrote, "QuicKrane, sling," under his second heading, then drew a short arrow.  Yes, the dragons could be moved, but where to?  Jim decided he would have to come back to that, so he left the end of the arrow blank and moved on.

\n The next, and probably much more important question, was how to keep the dragons secure.  The method he and Dave had used on the dragon they'd caught seemed effective, so Jim decided on two each of the basic animal restraints and lengths of rope for each dragon.  The number he'd need was uncertain now, but he guessed that sixty of each item would be a good place to start.  He wrote the figure down.  Now, the restraints could hold the dragons for a short while, sure, but as Dave had told him, the dragon they had captured still had some limited mobility once it woke up.  So they would have to be kept sedated, but how?  Jim first wrote, "repeated shooting," but then he remembered a news report that getting struck repeatedly by a stunner could be bad for a person's health, so he crossed it out.  He was stuck with this for a little while, then he just decided: "tranquilizers--lots of them."  He wasn't sure where to get any, but he could probably ask Dave about it.  And speaking of Dave...

\n Jim moved back up to the blank space between the first two sections and added a large asterisk.  He would need Dave after all, it seemed: someone would have to tell Chris what was going on and why all these people were coming onto his property.  They still hadn't told him about the dragons on his property, so Dave could do that, too.  And best if Dave got there right when they moved in for the ambush, so Chris wouldn't come out after them and disrupt things...  Next to the asterisk, Jim wrote, "send Dave to explain situation to Chris," then underlined it once.

\n He glanced back down at the blank arrow he had drawn earlier.  Where, exactly, was he going to take the dragons, once they were caught?  First one or two would have to go to Chicago for the ARA press conference, but after that...  He couldn't just have people coming up to their cave; that would almost make it not worth it to do anything at all.  Then he looked back at the left side of the arrow, and realized he had no idea where he could get these slings that he planned to use; they were sure to be hard-to-find items, being used only by cranes, really...  Wait, the QuicKrane crews would definitely have at least one.  Not necessarily one meant to hold a whale, but one that could lift a large number of small objects, or something like that.  Jim added a note to ask the local QuicKrane depot about slings.

\n That settled, Jim skipped a few more lines, then wrote a third heading, "Step 3: Sale."  Jim couldn't hold back a grin; this step was the one he would enjoy the most.  Just to think of the prices these dragons could fetch!  This was the goal, this would be what he was looking forward to most of all.  No longer would he be the one poor member of the family, or the poor man in the circle of friends; soon, his friends and family would look up to him as the entrepreneurial one who had made his fortune in the most impressive way of all.  Selling dragons!  Jim could almost--  He cut short the train of thought, so he could calm down and focus on what he was doing; he was getting ahead of himself.

\n He wrote, "method," again, but he knew exactly what that would be: auction.  No better way to get high prices than through open auction, especially when there were less items than buyers.  And when the items were in such high demand...  Jim started grinning again.  Under the method he wrote, "invitation: open," then crossed out the second word after a moment's thought; that could turn it into a free-for-all, and then it would just be ugly.  Under that he started an invite list.  And who better to buy the dragons but zoos?  If people wanted to see dragons, then zoos would let them see dragons and keep both humans and dragons safe from each other, all at the same time.  It was perfect.  Jim wrote down the name of all the famous or especially large zoos he could think of, referring to the internet to come up with more, until he had fifty parties to invite.

\n That left just two more items: time and location, and time probably depended on location.  It would have to be a few days after the press conference, otherwise nobody would respond to the invitation... plus they'd probably need time to figure out how much money they had available if they wanted to buy a dragon.  First he'd have to figure out when the dragons would be revealed to the world, then schedule the auction two or three days after that.  That would give him time to take the dragons pretty much wherever he wanted to...

\n But where?  The location had to impress the potential buyers, and Jim couldn't think of any suitable location he'd visited for any considerable length of time--  No, there was one place, and that was Alex's house.  Yes, Alex's house, with its large back lawn with plenty of space for an outdoor stage, seats, and maybe even a tent for refreshments, and an outdoor bar.  Well, no, Alex had a bar on the back patio already, so putting another one under a tent would be redundant.  Jim wrote down the location, Alex's house, and the time: five days after the press conference, maybe later in the day...  Evening would be best, yes.  Seven-thirty P.M.

\n Now that he knew the location, Jim went back up to what he hadn't decided in step two: how he would get the unconscious dragons from Montana to Chicago, then Colorado.  First, what would even be large enough to hold a dragon?  According to Sir Bourdan's journal, they averaged fifteen meters long, so that didn't leave many options.  Though that length could probably be shortened, if the neck and tail were curled in towards the body...  But they would still need at least ten meters.  "Eighteen-wheelers," Jim whispered, then wrote it down.  It was hard not to constantly recall seeing "16m" on the back of almost every one of those on the road; they would be perfect.  Though he would need thirty of them, and that was a lot of trucks.

\n There were just two more things to decide, and they were the parts Jim didn't expect to like very much.  First, he started a to-call list: Dr. Wilkins, all the hunters he would have to employ, a QuicKrane rental location, a transport company, someone to run the auction--Jim was sure that he couldn't do that properly--and Alex.  Oh, and he had to contact all of the potential buyers...  Actually, it might be better to let whoever ran the auction do that.  It would be a lot of people for Jim to call, either way; it was a good thing he hadn't used his cell phone much this month.

\n Then there was the list that he really didn't want to see get large: the list of those he would have to pay.  He would need to pay the hunters, but he hoped he could convince them that they wouldn't deserve very much for taking just a few shots.  Then there was however much tranquilizer they would need, the QuicKrane crew and the transport company would have to be paid, and the auctioneer...  And Alex.

\n Jim sighed and put down his pen, then looked over the sheet of paper.  The idea looked solid, and if there might be some expenses at the beginning, the payoff...  Well, the payoff made Jim smile just thinking about it.  Hopefully Alex wouldn't ask for a percentage instead of a set figure.

\n First he called Dr. Wilkins, laying out what the man had to know of his plan so the ARA could figure out when they should hold this press conference.  Jim assumed he'd be able to implement his plan on Thursday, and the time of day he wanted to use took away pretty much any chance of making the announcement at a reasonable hour that same day.  Eventually they settled on Friday morning, and Jim wrote down the time and place on his paper.

\n He took his time before calling anyone else, planning out his conversation with Alex: how to break the news of dragons realistically, how to be sure of a fair price from him, and how to downplay the amount he hoped to receive so Alex didn't sense that he could get a significant amount himself.  Finally, Jim pulled out his cell phone and called him.

\n Alex answered after only a couple of rings.  "Hey, Jim, didn't expect to hear from you again so soon; did you find something special on your dig?"

\n Jim nodded out of reflex, even though Alex couldn't see him.  "Yes, we found something very special.  I know it sounds crazy, but we've found them: live dragons."

\n There was a short silence on the other end of the line, then, "are you serious?"

\n "Very serious.  I'm calling you because I plan to catch these dragons, to sell, and I was wondering if I could use your backyard to hold the auction."

\n "Whoa, whoa, slow down a bit.  Explain all this to me, in detail: what exactly do you plan to do, and how am I involved?  And how can you even be sure there are dragons out there?"

\n "Dave and I found one, captured it and examined it."

\n "...oh.  Well, go on, then."

\n Jim picked up the paper he had done his planning on and read on down the list, giving additional explanation when he felt something needed to be more clear.  When he finally finished, Alex said, "well, it's a decent plan, but when exactly do you want to have this auction?"

\n Jim thought for a moment.  He had a lot of things to coordinate, but if he devoted every minute of his time to it, he could probably get all of his phone calls made by the following night.  "Sunday or Monday of next week, depending on just how long it takes."

\n "All right; I wish I had a little more notice, because I'm going to have to get catering and furniture and all of that, not to mention I'm leaving for Zurich Saturday morning, so I won't have much time to set this up...  But the cost of all that stuff will be included in the cost of using my property."

\n "...that won't be much, will it, buddy?"

\n Jim heard Alex take a slow, deep breath.  "I'm thinking...  ten percent of the UNits from the auction."

\n "Ten... ten percent?  I have my own expenses to pay, you know, between transportation, the hunters, the QuicKrane and all of that other stuff...  I'm going to need that money."

\n "Look, Jim, that's a pretty good offer as it is, but I have to have some incentive of my own to hold this here...  I could end up with a hundred people or more coming to my house for this auction, not to mention all of their cars, and you'll probably want all those trailers full of dragons there, too, so the buyers can see them...  Oh, that reminds me, we'll need security for this, too.  I'll deal with that, though, because it's my house, but that will be added to what you'll owe me.  I really can't see going below ten percent for this."

\n "I can just find someone else to help me with this, you know.  Couldn't you just see how much this will cost you, then come up with some UNit amount?  Because ten percent could end up being a good deal of money."

\n "Jim, I'm being nice to you by asking a percentage.  What if this is a flop?  You never know; zoos have always seemed like a shaky venture to me, especially considering how much people seem to care about animal rights nowadays.  If this goes badly for you, wouldn't you prefer for me to take a smaller amount of your small amount, or a small amount of your large amount, instead what could end up being as much money as you make through this?"

\n "Still, though, ten?  Couldn't it be less?"

\n "I really don't see--"

\n Jim grimaced and held the phone a little away from his ear.  "Listen, will you?  You already have your many billions of UNits through the work you've done with your banks.  What do I have for all my hard work?  Almost nothing!  If you wanted to be nice, like you say you're trying to be, then you'd be a good friend and let the less fortunate of us finally get what he's wanted to have for so long!  How about you leave what you want out of this and let me get what I want, huh?"

\n A stunned silence followed, lasting a full half a minute.  Jim's eyes widened as he realized how he must have sounded and he put the phone back to his ear, hoping he hadn't pushed Alex too far.  "...Alex?  I'm sorry, I didn't really mean it, it's just..."

\n "Calm down, buddy," Alex said.  "I understand what you're trying to say."

\n "You do?"

\n "Yes, I do.  I know what you said may seem right, to you, but it's not from a business standpoint; you're never supposed to look at financial background when you consider how to distribute a profit, you look at who did how much work to make the money in question.  And for this, I'm paying for security, and catering, furniture, valet service, the fact that we're using my house...  But on the other hand, you're organizing the dragons' capture and transportation, you're actually going to be doing some of the capturing, it was your idea, and so on...  Eight percent, Jim.  But that's as low as I can go and still have an incentive."

\n Jim swallowed and blinked a few times, relieved.  "I didn't mean to go off on you like that, it's just...  I've had my share of financial problems, you know?  I want to be sure that I can get myself up to a level of actual wealth, like you, and Dave, my parents, and Zach and Kate and Corey...  Seems like everyone I know is rich, except me."

\n Alex sighed.  "Well, this is your chance, I guess.  Will you take my offer?"

\n "Eight percent?  That's good, man; thanks."

\n "Well, if it's settled, then I've got a fair amount of work to do.  Hope everything goes well on your end."

\n Jim smiled again.  "There shouldn't be any major problems.  Anyway, I have a lot of other calls to make, so I guess I'll talk to you later."

\n "All right," Alex laughed.  "Goodbye."

\n "Bye," Jim said, and hung up.

\n He stared at the phone for a little while, then wrote Alex's price down on his paper.  Jim shook his head; he really hadn't meant to explode on his best friend like that, but this was his idea, after all, and it was for his own benefit...  And the idea of anyone else getting the money that should be his made him defensive: the more he got, the better.

\n Then Jim heard Dave's car pull back into the gravel lot outside, and he got up to let him in.  "So, did you figure out this plan of yours?"

\n Jim nodded and tapped the paper on the desktop.  "It's all set, I think; I do need you for it, but not very much."

\n "What's the idea, then?"

\n "I'm going to catch all the dragons up in that cave of theirs, and get them taken somewhere safe."

\n "...just you?"

\n "No, I'm going to get help, of course, but I need you to explain the situation to Chris.  He still has no idea he's living with dragons on his property, remember."

\n "Hmm...  I don't know about this.  Where do you want to take them?"

\n "Zoos would be perfect.  Humans can see them, they can see humans, the two are separated from each other, so both would be safe..."

\n "You want to put an entire race into captivity?"

\n "Well, the journal suggested that other dragons lived elsewhere; it likely won't be all of them."

\n "Let me see that paper," Dave said, and Jim handed it over.

\n He was silent for close to five minutes.  Then, "it's a clean, logical idea, but it just doesn't sit right.  I mean, you remember what was said at our meeting with the ARA; what if these dragons are intelligent?  It would be like making them slaves, if we put them all in cages for no reason other than our own desires."

\n "The zoos would also keep them safe, so that would be to their advantage."

\n "It would also separate all of them from potential mates or, if they're intelligent, their friends and families, completely disrupt what society they may have, and who knows how they would react to it.  Could you imagine if a dragon reacted as violently as the one that we caught did?  Now we're talking about lives that could be in danger, both human and dragon."  Dave shook his head.  "If that's the case, it just won't be right to lock them up without giving them any say about it."

\n He shrugged.  "Either way, we do know that they're violent towards us, so catching them regardless would be for our own safety.  If it turns out dragons are sentient then maybe the government will decide to give them rights, but until that happens they'd be imprisoned and unable to attack anyone like they attacked you and me.  It works out either way."

\n "It...  It wouldn't sit right with me.  I can't support this."

\n Jim snatched the paper back from him and clutched it to his chest almost protectively.  "You're just--  Oh, never mind.  I don't need your help with this, anyway."

\n Dave turned away from his older brother.  "I'll go talk to Chris when you ask me to.  But I'm not doing anything else, and I'm not going to help you find all that tranquilizer, like your paper said you wanted--though I do need to point out that you have to find some way to feed these dragons.  I'm going to spend a few days back at work so I can at least have some time left for a real vacation later in the year; call me when you need me."

\n Jim shrugged.  "All right, I'll call you the night before I need you back here, and call again when I want you to talk to him.  But don't expect a share in this."

\n "I don't want one," Dave said without turning around, then he walked over to the door and left.  Jim watched him for a moment, then sat down at the table and picked up the phone; he had people to call.

\n The next two days passed in almost a blur; Jim was almost constantly on the phone or driving to hire someone or buy something, always with a copy of his plan in front of him, slowly but surely crossing things off his list.  Alex called back a few times to confirm that everything on his end was prepared, and then, before Jim even knew it, it was Wednesday night; most of the hunters were already in town, the rest would be there in the morning, along with Dave, and the eighteen-wheelers and QuicKrane would be ready by the ambush time.  He had driven to the edge of Chris' property, where the "No Trespassing" signs began--there actually were some on this side of the property.

\n Jim frowned and walked up to the nearest tree that had one of the signs, and after a moment's hesitation, tore it down.  No piece of paper was going to stop him from doing this, was going to stop him from striking rich.  He was already dreaming of what he would finally be able to afford with all this money: a new truck, an actual house instead of a dingy little apartment, and the prestige of belonging to the higher social class...  He took down the two signs on either side of the first one, which was directly to the left of the dirt road he would be taking onto Chris' property the next morning.  He watched the path for a moment, then squinted down it and saw a tree lying partially in the way, having fallen over near the edge of the path.  He walked over to it, to see if there was enough room to get vehicles past.

\n There was room, but something else on the ground caught his attention: a thin white wire that was strung most of the way across the path.  It started on the ground next to the fallen tree, then went across the path, and a couple meters into the forest on one side, it rose back up to about head height, then traveled out of sight.  On the other side of the path, another broken end was visible, this one hanging just past the crook of a tree branch back behind the stump of the fallen tree.  The two wires may have been connected at some point, but the fallen tree must have broken it, Jim decided.

\n He recognized the wire; Alex had shown him the same sort of thing at his mansion not too long ago.  It was the main component of a security system, used typically to sense motion within the wire's range.  But if the wire was broken, then it wouldn't sense or transmit any motion...  So Chris wouldn't know that there were people on his property at all.  After a moment's thought, Jim decided to remind Dave not to go to see Chris until Jim called him--which would hopefully not be until the dragons were already being packed into trucks for transport.  That way he could be sure his plans wouldn't be interrupted.

\n After one last glance down the path, Jim shrugged and returned to his truck.  It was still early, but he wanted all the sleep he could get.  The next day could well be the most important day of his life.
\n  

\n
\n Carnoc peeked over the end of the ledge to watch as Vallen flew back to the cave, skimming up the face of the mountain, then closing his wings and dropping into the cave as quickly as he could.  The rest of the clan was gathered in the outer chamber, waiting to hear Vallen's news, and quieted to listen as he walked inside.

\n "Chris says that his contact will be back from vacation in two days.  We'll finally be able to leave two nights from now--"

\n "Why are we even waiting?" one of the other dragons growled.  "We didn't have to wait for some little human's permission to leave last time, so why are we waiting now?"

\n "Haven't you ever talked to Chris about human affairs?  Canada refused to join when the UN condensed into one big nation, so now they've put up laser barriers around their borders to keep them secure.  We can't get through until Chris' contact can lower those barriers for us, which will be two nights from now.  Try to be more patient, please; if you waited fifty years without complaint, then you can survive for a couple more days."

\n The other dragon growled again, but lowered his head after a moment.

\n Vallen tilted his head and looked around at the rest of the clan again.  "Anyway, as we're going to leave soon, I think it's time we go over the travel procedures again.  I know most of you know them already, but the younger ones don't, and since they're coming with us they have to know.  Is everyone paying attention?  ...?everyone' includes you, Aithsa."

\n A young dragon looked over at Vallen, trying to hide the fact that he had been talking to one of the other dragons his age a moment before.  "I know, father."

\n He sighed.  "Just wanted to be sure you were listening.  Now, like we do here, we will fly only at night.  While in the air, stay in formation as much as possible.  If you have waste to get rid of, either hold it until morning or do it in midair, because we won't be stopping.  As soon as the sun starts to rise, we'll look for a good place to stop for the day, and once we're on the ground we won't be moving until the sun sets again.  We will keep watch during the day in three-dragon shifts of four hours each, which will be decided each morning when we land.

\n "If at any point we should be sighted, whether in the air or on the ground, scatter to the air, keep low, and find your way as quickly as you can to a safe hiding spot.  Stay put until the next night, defend yourself if you have to, then once it's dark get back into the air so we can all find each other.  Wait a few hours for as many dragons as possible to regroup, then count up and keep flying.  If there are a couple of dragons missing after this period, or you can't find the rest of the clan--which might happen, especially because Carnoc got caught a couple weeks back," Carnoc growled, but didn't say anything, "then you must keep flying.  It may sound harsh, but it is critical that as many dragons make it to Nepal as possible.

\n "Hopefully, though, it won't have to come to that, and if we make good time then we should be arriving there in about two and a half weeks of flying.  If you should get separated from the rest of the clan somehow, remember the route: northwest through Canada and Alaska to the Bering Strait, across, then southwest through Russia and China until you reach the mountains of the dragoness' clan in Nepal.  Is that all clear?"

\n Molthan spoke.  "I have a question: if we have to wait for Chris' contact to get into Canada, then why don't we have to wait to get out?"

\n "I already asked Chris about that, and he said that while the barrier prevents things from going in, it doesn't stop them from leaving.  We should be fine.  Anyone else?"  After a brief silence, Vallen continued, "good.  Everyone eat well tomorrow night, because we could be going as long as two or three days before getting a chance to hunt, and that's nights of hard flying, not nights of lying around in a cave.  We won't be stopping to eat until we find a farm to raid, as much as you would like to, Lemnir."

\n Lemnir chuckled and patted at his ample belly with a forepaw.  "What?  Two nights into the journey you'll all be jealous of me when you don't have any fat to get energy from," he said, and most of the clan laughed.

\n "As long as you don't mind having to carry all that weight before getting a chance to use it," he chuckled.  "Anyway, that's all for now.  We'll go over all of this again tomorrow, and the night after, right before we leave.  Until then...  Rest up, save your energy, and be ready for a long flight.  Just remember, it's worth it," he added, flexing his hindquarters and getting another laugh from the older group of dragons--those who had mated before.

\n "You excited, son?" Nesleh asked Carnoc as the meeting came to an end.  "As rarely as it happens, the mating cycle certainly is a special time in a dragon's life.  And for you!  To experience my first cycle again," he sighed, a faraway look in his eyes.  "I thought a hundred years ago I would never be going back, but here I am now about to fly my old bones across the world again...  Too old to take part, of course, but I'd like to take a long look at the heritage wall they have over there."

\n "It seems like a lot of trouble to have to fly so far just to see them, though.  Why doesn't the other clan just live with us all the time, or we live with them?  It would make things a lot easier."

\n "Well, there isn't a lot of room for us to live and still be able to hide, but mainly I don't think you could put us and them in such close quarters and expect us not to have eggs as often as we could, regardless of whether or not we want to keep ourselves from overpopulating our territories.  The sight of a dragoness does that to us, and the other way around, too."

\n Carnoc sniffed at the air.  "I guess I'll find out for myself when we get there."