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.He'd never felt this way before, this unreasoning anger, this blood-lust; it took him with a wild intoxication that had his heart pumping, his wings mantling, and his spinal crest bristling long after the one-horn was a pile of gnawed bones.He couldn't even think in coherent thoughts; he was all feeling, and that feeling was all anger.A louper howled in the far distance.He raised his head from what was left of the beast, mantling his wings at the rising moon.It took him a moment to realize that the moon was no enemy, and not out to steal his kill.Only then did he finally come to his senses and remember what had brought him out here in the first place.For one moment longer, Shana no longer seemed important.What was important was the wild wind under the moon, the taste of fresh blood in his mouth, the freedom to go and do whatever he pleased Then he shook his head, his mood changing as quickly as the desert sky at sunset, appalled at himself.What's wrong with me? What am I thinking of? Have I gone mad?He coughed, and shook his head again.He felt very strange, light-headed, dizzy, as if he'd been someone or something else for a moment.He'd never suspected he could feel emotions like that Like some throwback.Like Rovy?No, he didn't think so.He simply had gone rather feral, and only for a moment.Hunger had driven him, not a bad streak.Not like Rovy; Rovy was vicious, cruel.He took a very deep breath to steady himself.I'm all right.I was justhungry.Now he knew better than to leave feeding too long.I'll never do that again.Never, never, never.I swear it.He collected himself, his thoughts, stepped away from the pile of gnawed bones and refused to look back at them.He had to get back to the trail.Shana was alone out there, somewhere, maybe hurt, and he had to find her.He moved off a little, composed and centered himself, and reached for the power to shift.He made the transformation back to one-horn, finding it much easier the second time, and returned to his search.Night was easier to take; his night-vision was good, and he was no longer tormented by heat, thirst, and hunger.Several times he thought he found the trail, only to lose the scent again, but the fact that he caught a scent at all gave him hope.At just about dawn he scented waterand Shana.Page 121And nearly a hundred other creatures, two-leggers and animals combined, somewhere over the crest of the hill he was climbing.Fire and Rain! WhatHe thought quickly.He knew he must be near caravan trails, which meant two-leggers.He couldn't be seen.But had they found Shana? Or were they just nearby?He topped the rise, moving silently and cautiously, and found he was looking down on a ruin surrounding a stone-rimmed pool of perfectly clear, blue water.Approaching from the opposite direction was a caravan of two-leggers; merchants, from the look of the laden beasts.And from the dust-covered condition of men and beasts both, they had been caught in the same sandstorm that had delayed him.Somehow, by luck or knowledge, they had found the oasisbut only the worst of luck could have brought them here at this moment in time.He took to cover, turning his coat a mottled sandy-brownjust as he saw a distant figure that could only be Shana crawl out of one of the ruins and await the approach of the strangers.Something woke Shana out of a sound, exhausted sleep.She blinked, hearing unfamiliar noises, a babble of voices and the calls of strange beasts.She felt ill, weak with hunger, and put her hand to her head as she sat up, to stop its spinning.It had been so long since she had last eatenwas she dreaming this, or was it real?The noise continued; neared.She closed her eyes until her head steadied, then crawled forward a little and looked cautiously out of her little shelter.But when she peered out from beneath the overhanging shelf of wind-worn rock, the first thing she saw was a great copper-colored dragon on the wing, shining in the rising sun.She panicked immediately.There was only one thing she could think of.Had they decided to follow her?Had Lori decided to risk the censure of the Kin for disobeying the Elders, and kill her?Fear threaded her spine, and she stared at the dragon with the same fascination as a mouse staring at a hawk.His great wings rippled and snapped in the rising wind.In fact, his whole body rippled as he hovered above the sandShe came out of her fearful trance.Thatdoesn't look or sound right She blinked again, and rubbed her eyesand only then did the "dragon" resolve itself into nothing more than an image wrought in some coppery substance on a piece of sky-blue cloth fastened to a stick and flapping in the wind.Her fear dissolved, leaving her weak-kneed and disoriented.She started to sink back into her hiding place, no longer caring what the noise was all about.But the painted dragon seemed to call to her in a peculiar fashion that she didn't understand.She crawled out from beneath the shelter of her rocks to stare at it in dazed fascination.The stick was attached somehow to a contraption that was in turn strapped onto the back of an animal Shana had never Page 122seen before; it had long, gangly legs, flat feet like huge water-worn stones, a lumpy body, and a long neck surmounted by the ugliest head Shana had ever seen.The whole of it was covered in warty gray skin, exactly like a flat-toad.Where did these things come from? And why would anyone put a picture of a dragon on a piece of cloth? Unlessit was another Lair of the Kin.Foster Mother had told her that some of the other Lairs had different customs.There were more of the beasts behind the first, and half of them were being ridden by ByShe shook her head, trying to make her mind work.They can't be two-leggers.She was the only two-legger around, anywhere.They must be dragons in two-legger form.But why?Shana blinked and rubbed her temples; she tried to see the dragon-shadows, but she was so dazed that she wasn't sure what she was seeing.She tried again; and this time she thought she saw a flicker of shadow, a strange, fuzzy halo around each of them that could have been dragon-shaped.So they were dragons.But why here, and why like this?Why are they doing this? Is this a game? she wondered confusedly, as she braced herself against the rock with one hand
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