Tentatively, Kaz reached out and touched the fuergar’s side, noting the faint thud of its heart still racing inside its chest. Ribs rose and fell beneath his hand in a single shallow breath, so it wasn’t dead, merely unconscious.
He frowned as Raff and Kyla rejoined them. Kyla immediately crouched down beside Kaz, reaching out to touch the fuergar as well, and Kaz had to fight not to push her hand away. The puppy had caught the rodent, therefore it was hers, but Kaz didn’t want to watch her kill it.
To his surprise, however, Kyla gently scooped the fuergar into her arms, whimpering softly as she saw the injuries on its head and back. The wounds were long, and when Kyla brushed the stiff fur aside, the skin was torn, not cut. It must have hurt terribly, and Kaz was honestly surprised the fuergar hadn’t died from simple blood loss.
Raff and Lianhua crouched down beside the kobolds, and Raff clicked his tongue as he looked at the little creature. “It’s started healin’. Must’ve happened a few days ago. No more than a week.” He gently prodded a section of one wound, where the skin was pink and puffy. “Infected, though. Poor critter probably won’t make it. Best to put it out of its misery. It won’t appreciate us touchin’ it when it wakes up anyway.”
Kyla curled up around the unconscious rodent, baring her teeth protectively. She looked from Raff to Kaz. “I want to keep it. If I feed it and help it recover, won’t it like me?” Her eyes slid to Li, who was watching the goings-on with great interest. “Besides, it looks just like Li did when she was pretending to be a fuergar.”
Li tilted her head curiously, but she and Kaz had never really seen her illusory shape, thanks to her powerful self image and Kaz’s strange vision. Lianhua and Raff were both nodding their heads, though.
“It does. Not quite as gold, I think, but that could be an effect of the moonlight,” Lianhua said. “I haven’t seen many fuergar, really, since they always run away when a large group approaches, but I’ve never seen another with fur that color.”
Raff nodded sagely. “I’ve killed a good number of ‘em. They live all through this mountain range, and they can chew through almost anything. Lots of farmers hired us to clear out nests of ‘em back when I was just starting. They’re usually just like big rats, but you gotta watch out for the ones that look like they have metal in their fur.”
Kaz leaned forward, bringing Li with him as he moved to examine the fuergar. Kyla had relaxed a bit now that it was clear no one was going to kill the rodent right away, so Kaz was able to trace his fingers gently over the inflamed wound. The skin was far too hot, but no pus emerged when he pressed on it, which was a good sign. The fuergar didn’t seem to be struggling to breathe, either. It was simply exhausted and ill, not dying. At least not yet.
“Here,” Lianhua said, offering him a small jar. “This should help draw out the infection.” She looked at Kyla as Kaz began smearing a sticky green unguent on the wounds. “Kyla, we have no way of keeping it with us. It’s a wild thing. Once it wakes, it’s going to want to go free again.”
Kyla shook her head vigorously, then her shoulders slumped as all three adults gave her matching looks. “Fine,” she mumbled. “But maybe it really will want to stay with me. I helped it.”
“Her,” Kaz corrected absently as he checked the fuergar for other injuries. It seemed to be in good shape, except for an odd furless ring around its right front foreleg. His ears folded down and he frowned, pulling the limb closer.
Li, do you remember what the core of that fuergar we put the ring on looked like?
His dragon friend helpfully showed him the memory, but even with her assistance, it was hard to remember. He had been shaken up by his battle with the large fuergar, and he had really only wanted to be certain that the pup was large and strong enough that it wouldn’t die and leave Li without her protective illusion.
He was sure that it had been a copper fuergar, however, and though this one’s fur had shaded toward pink, probably after eating a good amount of gold, it had clearly started life with a lot of copper in its mother’s milk. Was it possible that this fuergar was the same one he had put the ring on weeks ago? It looked to be about the right age and color, and there was the circle around its leg, as if the fur had been rubbed away by something over a long period of time.
He snorted and shook his head. There was simply no realistic way that this fuergar could be the same one. That didn’t quiet the feeling that he owed it the best care he could provide, however, so he pushed a little blue ki into the most infected-looking spot on the creature’s head. He didn’t really have any Wood ki to spare, since he was currently using all of it to heal himself, but that sense of debt required that he do at least that much.
The fuergar began to stir, coppery eyes opening and blinking sleepily. Then they snapped wide, and the little body tensed, metallic teeth gleaming as it huddled back away from them. This caused it to press up against Kyla, whose arms tightened, making it turn to stare up at her, whiskers quivering.
“Hold still,” Kaz cautioned quietly. “If you move, it may attack.” Kyla was strong, but her shield wasn’t up, and those teeth were far too close to the puppy’s throat for Kaz’s liking.
At the sound of Kaz’s voice, the fuergar turned back to him, and he could have sworn he saw the thoughts racing behind that shrewd gaze. The rodent’s mouth closed over its sharp teeth, and it gave a little wriggle, clearly ready to be put down.
Reluctantly, the puppy did so, though the look of disappointment on her face was heart-rending. Kyla’s tail practically dragged on the ground as the rodent scampered off, already moving more easily than before. It vanished into the little trees where Kyla and Raff had chased it down.
Kaz gently patted Kyla between her lowered ears. “It’s all right. Lianhua says that many humans have pets. Perhaps we can find you one when-”
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The trees rustled again, and the fuergar reemerged. Hesitantly, it walked back toward them, stopping just out of reach. Opening its mouth, it dropped something round and metallic on the ground, then backed up several more feet, though it didn’t quite leave the open space.
Everyone started to move at once, which startled the fuergar so it took another step back, and they all froze again. Then Kyla crawled forward on all fours, her ears once again perked up and turned toward the rodent. When she reached the thing the fuergar had dropped, the puppy picked it up, turning it over in her hand.
“It’s pretty!” she exclaimed, completely forgetting that she might frighten the fuergar. To Kaz’s surprise, the creature just tilted its head, wary but interested.
Kaz held out his hand, then remembered that not only could he not see well at the moment, but Li seemed particularly enamored of gold, and the thing glinting in Kyla’s palm definitely held the distinctive color of that metal.
“Lianhua?” he asked, turning toward her, and she nodded, moving slowly toward Kyla.
The pup dropped the object into Lianhua’s palm, and Lianhua gasped softly. “This is my ring! But how-?” She lifted shocked eyes from the golden circle to the watching rodent.
Kaz shook his head. “I don’t know. But here it is, and here is a fuergar who looks very much like the one Li was pretending to be.” He doubted if he would ever know what strange coincidence had led to them being reunited, but so it seemed to be. The question was, what now?
Kyla turned back to the crouching fuergar and pulled open the pack on her back. It had far more in it than a male would have taken on his spirit hunt, since he was expected to survive on his skills and strength alone, but Kyla was female, and she had been planning something like this for a while.
Shuffling through the contents of the pack, she pulled out something wrapped in oiled cloth and carefully opened it. Leaning forward, she offered the long, greenish thing inside to the fuergar. “I was saving this yumi sprout to eat later, but you can have it. Ija says fuergar love them.”
Kaz was sure this last had been meant as a warning, not a method of enticement, but the fuergar edged closer, eyes locked on the thing Kyla held out. Its nose twitched, whiskers dancing, and then it dashed forward, snatching the yumi from Kyla and leaping backwards, though it squeaked painfully when it landed. The action must have pulled at some part of its wound, because it simply stood, trembling, as humans, kobolds, and dragon watched with bated breath.
Then it began to eat. It held the piece of yumi in little pink paws that looked almost as much like human hands as Kaz’s, and for a moment he entertained the thought that perhaps fuergar were another product of Qiangde and his minions’ terrible experiments. He quickly shook the thought away, however, aware that it would lead to questioning the origin of every creature inside the mountain. Still, this fuergar was far too aware, and he had the feeling that it recognized him.
Kaz snorted. Well, that was true enough.
The tableau held as the fuergar greedily devoured the yumi sprout, reminding Kaz of nothing so much as the ever-hungry dragon on his shoulder. If this really was the same creature Li had been pretending to be for weeks, was it possible that some link had formed between them? After all, the rings had been made for humans, and neither Li nor the fuergar were that. Who knew what peculiarities such an extended connection might create between two creatures so filled with ki?
He narrowed his eyes, even though he could only barely make out the moon hanging in the sky like part of an enormous luminescent mushroom, and looked for any sign of a bond between Li and the fuergar. There was nothing. Nothing hung in the air between them, but as he watched their cycles spin, he thought they looked like they pulsed in time with each other, a subtle synchrony in the flow of ki that coursed through the two small bodies.
Li nipped his ear, emitting a loud, displeased whistle that made everyone flinch.
Kaz reached up and tapped her on the nose, pulling his finger back as she playfully bit at it. “Don’t eat the fuergar.”
Li sniffed, turning away and closing her eyes to deny Kaz the sight of Kyla, creeping forward through the grass. Kaz could still see the pup’s core advance toward the fuergar’s, however, and the moment when the little animal’s core shifted uncertainly.
Holding his breath, Kaz sent out a feeling of reassurance toward the fuergar, hoping that if there really had been some connection between Li and the beast, or if it did recognize him in some way, perhaps it would understand.
You are safe. If you wish it, I believe you will be loved. Stay.
Li looked back in time to watch as Kyla gently stroked the top of the little copper-gold-pink head, and the puppy’s tail began to wag so enthusiastically that Kaz thought it might frighten the fuergar away. But no, the little creature only moved closer, pressing its quivering nose into Kyla’s palm as if checking to see if she had any more food. Kyla promptly looked back at her abandoned pack, and clearly couldn’t decide whether to risk going back for something else to feed the fuergar.
Raff chuckled softly, reaching into the pouch at his waist and pulling out a round object with a red skin. A thin brown stalk poked out of one side, and it rolled over and over through the green plants coating the ground as the tall male tossed it to Kyla.
“Give ‘er an apple. Saw a swarm of fuergar just about eat a whole apple orchard to the ground once, so I know they like ‘em,” he said softly.
Kyla nodded and picked up the apple, offering it to the fuergar, who didn’t even hesitate before accepting it and taking a large bite. Kyla edged closer, stroking her hand down the animal’s back, carefully avoiding the injuries around its head and shoulders.
When the apple was gone, the fuergar turned its gaze back on the group of watchers, focusing on Li. It shifted closer to Kyla, and then, before anyone could react, jumped up to the pup’s shoulder, settling there just as Li perched on Kaz. It was almost as large as Kyla’s head, but the puppy obviously didn’t care.
Kyla turned to them, one hand on the fuergar’s solid little body, and her face nearly transcendent with joy. “I’m going to call her Mei,” she said, and Kaz heard Lianhua breathe a small, defeated sigh.