Chapter Five.

Mother Mastiff was careful not to wake the boy as she slowly began backing out of his room. Her eyes, alert and fearful, remained fixed on the alien thing curled up against his head. There was no telling what it might do if startled into wakefulness.

How the invader had penetrated her tight little home, she had no idea. No time to worry about that now. Her thoughts went to the little gun, the delicate, ladylike needler she kept under her pillow. No, too chancy-the snake was much too close to the boy's head, and she was not as good a shot as she had been twenty years ago.

There was also the possibility the invader might not even be dangerous. She certainly did not recognize it. In the ninety plus years she had spent on Moth, she had seen nothing like it. For one thing, there was no hint of fur anywhere on its body. Only scales. That immediately identified it as a non-native. Well, maybe. Moth was home to a few creatures-deep-digging burrowers-that did not sport fur. This didn't look like a burrower to her, but she was no zoologist, nor had she ever traveled far outside the city limits.

Yet she felt certain it came from offworld. Something she couldn't put a mental finger on marked the beast as alien, but that didn't matter. What did was that it had somehow penetrated to the boy's room, and she had better do something about it before it woke up and decided the matter for her.

Get it away from him, she told herself. Away from his head, at least. Get it away, keep it occupied, then wake the boy and have him make a run for the gun under her pillow.

The broom she hefted had a light metal handle and wire bristles. Taking it out of storage, she re-entered Flinx's room and reached past his head with the broom's business end. The metal bristles prodded the invader.

The snake stirred at the touch, opened its eyes, and stared at her. She jabbed at it again, harder this time, trying to work the bristles between the snake's head and the boy's exposed neck. It opened its mouth, and she instinctively jerked back, but it was only a yawn. Still sleepy, then, she thought. Good, its reactions would be slowed. Leaning forward again, she reached down and shoved hard on the broom. Several of the snake's coils went rolling over to the side of the bed, and for the first time she had a glimpse of its brilliant coloring.

Again, she shoved with the broom, but the snake was no longer on the bed. It hovered in midair, its wings moving so rapidly they were no more than a blue-pink blur. They generated a rich, vibrant humming sound in the small room. Aghast and uncertain how to attack this new threat, Mother Mastiff backed away, holding the broom defensively in front of her. Awakened by the last shove of the broom, the boy blinked sleepily at her. "Mother? What is it?"

"Hush, be quiet!" she warned him. "I don't know how this thing got into your room, but-"

Flinx sat up quickly. He glanced up at the hovering snake, admiring it for the first time in daylight, and bestowed a rea.s.suring grin on Mother Mastiff.

"Oh, that. That's just Pip."

The broom dipped slightly, and she stared narrowly at her charge. "Ye mean, ye know what it be?"

"Sure," he said cheerfully. "I, uh, heard something last night, so I went outside to investigate." He gestured with a thumb at the snake. "It was back in the garbage, cold and hungry. Hey, I bet he's still hungry, and-"

"I'll bet it is, too," she snapped, "and I'll not have some scaly, gluttonous carrion eater crawling about my house. Get out!" she yelled at it. "Shoo!" She swung the broom at the snake once, twice, a third time, forcing Flinx to duck the flying bristles. Each time, the snake dodged nimbly in the air, displaying unexpected aerial agility. Once it darted straight to its left, then backward, then toward the ceiling.

"Don't!" Flinx shouted, suddenly alarmed. "It might think you're trying to hurt me."

"A guardian angel with beady eyes and scales? Mockmush, boy, it knows well what I'm swinging at!"

In fact, the snake was well aware the new human had no intention of harming its symbiote, for it could feel the honest affection and warmth flowing between them. It did not worry on that score. Conversely, no love flowed toward it from the new person, and the shiny thing that was being thrust at it was hard to avoid in the small, enclosed s.p.a.ce.

"Please, Mother," Flinx pleaded anxiously, scrambling out of bed and dragging the blanket with him, "stop it. I don't know how it'll react."

"We're going to find out, boy," she told him grimly. The broom struck, missed, bounced off the far wall. She c.o.c.ked her arms for another swing.

The snake had been patient, very patient. It understood the bond between the two humans. But the broom had backed it into a corner, and the hard bristles promised danger if they connected solidly with the snake's wings. It opened its mouth. There was a barely perceptible squirting sound. A thin, tight stream of clear liquid shot forward. It sparkled in the light and impacted on the broom as it was swinging forward. As Mother Mastiff recovered and brought the broom back for yet another strike, she heard a faint but definite hissing that did not come from the snake. She hesitated, frowning, then realized the noise was coming from the broom. A glance showed that approximately half of the metal bristles had melted away. Something was foaming and sizzling as it methodically ate its way down the broom.

She dropped the weapon as if the metal handle had abruptly become red hot, her expression fearful. The liquid continued to sputter and hiss as it ate away the metal. Soon it had worked its way through the last stubble and was beginning to eat holes in the metal handle itself.

"Boy, get out of the room while ye have the chance," she called huskily, staring wide-eyed at the snake while continuing to back toward her own bedroom. "If it can do that to metal, there's no telling what-"

Flinx laughed, then hurriedly put a hand to his mouth and forced himself to be understanding. "I'm sorry, Mother," he said apologetically. "It's just that Pip would never hurt me. And he's just proved that he wouldn't hurt anyone close to me, either."

"How do ye know that?" she sputtered.

"You know know," he replied, sounding puzzled, "I don't know how I know it. But it's true. Here, see?" He extended his left arm.

Still keeping a wary eye on the woman, who continued to block the exit, the snake zipped down to land on the proffered perch. In an instant, it had multiple coils wrapped around the human's shoulder. Then the snake relaxed, the pleated wings folding up to lie flat against the gleaming body.

"See?" Flinx lowered his arm and gently rubbed the back of the snake's head. "He's just naturally friendly."

"Naturally ugly, ye mean," Mother Mastiff snorted. Bending, she picked up the remnant of the broom and inspected it. All the bristles were gone, along with several centimeters of handle. A weak crackling still came from the raw edges of the tube where the metal had dissolved, though the extraordinarily corrosive liquid seemed to have largely spent itself.

She showed the remains of the broom to Flinx, still nervous about getting too near the thing wrapped around his shoulder. "See that? Imagine what it would do to your skin."

"Oh, Mother, can't you see?" Flinx spoke with all the exasperation of the young for the aged. "He was protecting himself, but because he senses that you're important to me, he was careful not to spit any of it on you."

"Lucky thing for it," she said, some of her normal bravado returning. "Well, it can't stay here."

"Yes, it can," Flinx argued.

"No, it can't. I can't have some lethal varmint like that fluttering and crawling all over the place, frightening off the customers."

"He'll stay with me all the time," Flinx a.s.sured her soothingly. His hand continued to caress the snake's head. Its eyes closed contentedly. "See? He's just like any other house pet. He responds to warmth and affection." Flinx brought forth his most mournful, pleading expression. It had the intended affect.

"Well, it won't get any warmth or affection from me," Mother Mastiff grumbled, "but if you're determined to keep it..."

"I think," Flinx added, throwing fuel on the fire, "he would become very upset if someone tried to separate us."

Mother Mastiff threw up her hands, simultaneously signifying acquiescence and acceptance. "Oh, Deity, why couldn't ye stumble over a normal pet, like a cat or a saniff? What does the little monster eat, anyways?"

"I don't know," Flinx admitted, remembering the hunger he had sensed the night before and resolving to do something about it soon. He had been hungry himself and knew more of the meaning of that word than most people, "Aren't most snakes carnivorous?"

"This one certainly looks like it," she said.

Reaching down, Flinx gently ran a forefinger along the edge of the snake's mouth until he could pry it open. The snake opened one eye and looked at him curiously but did not raise any objection to the intrusion. Mother Mastiff held her breath.

Flinx leaned close, inspecting. "The teeth are so small I can't tell for sure."

"Probably swallows its food whole," Mother Mastiff told him. "I hear that's the way of it with snakes, though this be no normal snake and I wouldn't care to make no predictions about it, much less about its diet."

"I'll find out," Flinx a.s.sured her. "If you don't need me to help in the shop today-"

"Help, hah! No, go where ye will. Just make sure that creature goes with ye."

"I'm going to take him around the marketplace," Flinx said excitedly, "and see if anyone recognizes him. There's sure to be someone who will."

"Don't bet your blood on it, boy," she warned him. "It's likely an offworld visitor."

"I thought so, too," he told her. "Wouldn't that be interesting? I wonder how it got here?"

"Someone with a grudge against me brought it, probably," she muttered softly. Then, louder, she said, "There be no telling. If 'tis an escaped pet and a rare one, ye can be sure its owner will be stumbling about here soonest in search of it."

"We'll see." Flinx knew the snake belonged right where it was, riding his shoulder. It felt right. He could all but feel the wave of contentment it was generating.

"And while I'm finding out what he is," he added briskly, "I'll find out what he eats, too."

"Ye do that," she told him. "Fact be, why not spend the night at it? I've some important buyers coming around suppertime. They were referred to me through the Shopkeeper's a.s.sociation and seem especial interested in some of the larger items we have, like the muriwood table. So ye take that awful whatever-it-be," and she threw a shaky finger in the direction of the snake, "and stay ye out 'til well after tenth hour. Then I'll think think about letting the both of ye back into my house." about letting the both of ye back into my house."

"Yes, Mother, thank you." He ran up to give her a kiss. She backed off.

"Don't come near me, boy. Not with that monster sleeping on your arm."

"He wouldn't hurt you, Mother. Really."

"I'd feel more confident if I had the snake's word on it as well as yours, boy. Now go on, get out, be off with the both of ye. If we're fortunate, perhaps it will have some homing instinct and fly off when you're not looking."

But Pip did not fly off. It gave no sign of wishing to be anywhere in the Commonwealth save on the shoulder of a certain redheaded young man.

As Flinx strolled through the marketplace, he was startled to discover that his ability to receive the emotions and feelings of others had intensified, though none of the isolated bursts of reception matched in fury that first overpowering deluge of the night before. His receptivity had increased in frequency and lucidity, though it still seemed as unpredictable as ever. Flinx suspected that his new pet might have something to do with his intensified abilities, but he had no idea how that worked, anymore than he knew how his Talent operated at the best of times.

If only he could find someone to identify the snake! He could always work through his terminal back home, but requests for information were automatically monitored at Central, and he was afraid that a query for information on so rare a creature might trigger alarm on the part of curious authorities. Flinx preferred not to go through official channels. He had acquired Mother Mastiff's opinion of governmental bueaucracy, which placed it somewhere between slime mold and the fleurms that infested the alleys.

By now, he knew a great many inhabitants of the marketplace. Wherever he stopped, he inquired about the ident.i.ty and origin of his pet. Some regarded the snake with curiosity, some with fear, a few with indifference. But none recognized it.

"Why don't you ask Makepeace?" one of the vendors eventually suggested. "He's traveled offworld. Maybe he'd know."

Flinx found the old soldier sitting on a street corner with several equally ancient cronies. All of them were pensioneers. Most were immigrants who had chosen Moth for their final resting place out of love for its moist climate and because it was a comparatively cheap world to live on, not to mention the laxity of its police force. On Moth, no one was likely to question the source of one's pension money. For several of Makepeace's comrades, this was the prime consideration.

The other aged men and women studied the snake with nothing more than casual interest, but Makepeace reacted far more enthusiastically. "Bless my remaining soul," he muttered as he leaned close-but not too close, Flinx noted-for a better look. Pip raised his head curiously, as if sensing something beyond the norm in this withered biped.

"You know what he is?" Flinx asked hopefully.

"Aye, boy. Those are wings bulging its flanks, are they not?" Flinx nodded. "Then it's surely an Alaspinian miniature dragon."

Flinx grinned at the old man, then down at Pip. "So that's what you are." The snake looked up at him as if to say, I'm well aware of what I am, and do you always find the obvious so remarkable?

"I thought dragons were mythical creatures," he said to Makepeace.

"So they are. It's only a name given from resemblance, Flinx."

"I suppose you know," Flinx went on, "that he spits out a corrosive fluid."

"Corrosive!" The old man leaned back and roared with laughter, slapping his legs and glancing knowingly at his attentive cronies. "Corrosive, he says!" He looked back at Flinx.

"The minidrag's toxin is, my boy, a venomous acid known by a long string of chemical syllables which this old head can't remember. I was a soldier-engineer. Biochemistry was never one of my favorite subjects. I'm more comfortable with mathematical terms than biological ones. But I can tell you this much, though I never visited Alaspin myself." He pointed at the snake, which drew its head back uncertainly. "If that there thing was to spit in your eye, you'd be a kicking, quivering mess on the ground inside a minute-and dead in not much more than that.

"I also remember that there's no known antidote for several of the Alaspinian toxins, of which that minidrag of yours wields the most potent. A corrosive, neurological poison-aye, who wouldn't remember hearing about that? You say you know it's corrosive?"

Flinx had an image of the dissolved end of the broomstick, the metal melted away like cheese before a hot blade. He nodded.

"Just make sure you never get to know of it personally, lad. I've heard tell of such creatures being kept as pets, but it's a rare thing. See, the a.s.sociational decision's all made by the snake. The would-be owner has no choice in the matter. You can't tame 'em. They pick and choose for themselves." He gestured toward Flinx's shoulder. "Looks like that one's sure settled on you."

"He's more than welcome," Flinx said affectionately. "He feels natural there."

"Each to his own," an elderly woman observed with a slight shudder. Affirmative nods came from others in the group.

"And there's something else, too." The old soldier was frowning, struggling to remember long-dormant knowledge. "What you just said about it feeling 'natural' there reminded me. They say those flying snakes have funny mental quirks all their own. Now me, I wouldn't be able to say for certain if that's so-I'm only relating hearsay, didn't read it off no chip. But the stories persist"

"What kind of stories?" Flinx asked, trying not to appear overanxious.

"Oh, that the snakes are empathic. You know, telepathic on the emotional level." He scratched his head. "There's more to it than that, but I'm d.a.m.ned if I can remember the rest of it."

"That's certainly interesting," Flinx said evenly, "but pretty unlikely."

"Yeah, I always thought so myself," Makepeace agreed. "You wouldn't have noticed anything like that since being around this one, of course."

"Not a thing." Flinx was an expert at projecting an aura of innocence; in this case, it glowed from his face, not his mind. "Thanks a lot for your time, Mr. Makepeace, sir."

"You're more than welcome to it, boy. Old knowledge dies unless somebody makes use of it. You watch yourself around that thing. It's no saniff, and it might could turn on you."

"I'll be careful," Flinx a.s.sured him brightly. He turned and hurried away from the gaggle of attentive oldsters.

Makepeace was rubbing his chin and staring after the youngster as he vanished into the swirling crowd. "Funny. Wonder where the little flying devil came from? This is one bell of a long way from Alaspin. That reminds me of the time..."

Flinx glanced down at his shoulder. "So you're poisonous, huh? Well, anyone could have guessed that from the little demonstration you gave with Mother's broom this morning. If you spit in my eye, I'll spit in yours."

The snake did not take him up on the offer. It stared at him a moment, then turned its head away and studied the street ahead, evidently more interested in its surroundings than in its master's indecipherable words.

Maybe miniature dragons don't have much of a sense of humor, Flinx mused. Probably he would have ample opportunity to find out. But at least he knew what his pet was. Glancing up beyond the fringe of the slickertic hood, he wondered where the snake's home world lay. Alaspin, old Makepeace had called it, and said it was far away.

The morning mist moistened his upturned face. The cloud cover seemed lighter than usual. If he was lucky, the gloom would part sometime that night and he would have a view of Moth's fragmented ice rings, of the moon Flame, and beyond that, of the stars.

Someday, he thought, someday I'll travel to far places as Makepeace and the others have. Someday I'll get off this minor wet world and go vagabonding. I'll be a free adult, with nothing to tie me down and no responsibilities. I'll lead a relaxed, uncomplicated life of simple pleasures. He glanced down at his new-found companion. Maybe someday they would even travel to the snake's home world of Alaspin, wherever it might be.

Sure you will, he thought bitterly. Better be realistic, like Mother Mastiff says. You're stuck here forever. Moth's your home, and Moth's where you'll spend the rest of your days. Count yourself fortunate. You've a concerned mother, a warm home, food....

Food. Surely the flying snake was hungrier than ever. "We'd better get you something to eat," he told Pip, who gazed up at him with fresh interest.

He checked his credcard. Not much money there. Not that there ever was. Well, he could manage. Trouble was, he had no idea what Alaspinian minidrags liked to eat. "I wonder what you'd settle for," he murmured. The snake did not respond. "If it's live food only, then I don't think there's much I can do to help you. Not on a regular basis, anyway. Let's try here, first."

They entered a stall well known to Flinx. Most of the booths and tables were unoccupied, since it was between mealtimes. As it developed, finding suitable food for the minidrag turned out to be less of a problem than he had feared. Much to Flinx's surprise, the flying snake was omnivorous. It would eat almost anything he set in front of it, but raw meat seemed to be a special favorite. Flinx cut the meat into small chunks, which the snake gulped down whole. Flinx helped himself to an occasional bite. When times were bad, he and Mother Mastiff had existed on far less savory items.

Pip was fond of any kind of fruit or berry, though it shied away from vegetables. Something else they had in common. Flinx thought. Oddly enough, the snake would even lap up milk. Flinx was sure he could supply enough variety to keep his pet both happy and alive. Maybe it would even eat table sc.r.a.ps. Perhaps that that would weaken Mother Mastiff's antagonism. As he experimented further, he discovered that the snake was particularly fond of anything with a high iron content, such as raisins or flakes of guarfish. Had he been a biochemist equipped with a field laboratory, he might have learned that the minidrag's blood contained an extraordinary amount of hemoglobin, vital to transport the oxygen necessary to sustain the snake's hummingbirdlike flight. would weaken Mother Mastiff's antagonism. As he experimented further, he discovered that the snake was particularly fond of anything with a high iron content, such as raisins or flakes of guarfish. Had he been a biochemist equipped with a field laboratory, he might have learned that the minidrag's blood contained an extraordinary amount of hemoglobin, vital to transport the oxygen necessary to sustain the snake's hummingbirdlike flight.

When Pip had swollen to twice his normal diameter, Flinx stopped trying new foods on his pet. He relaxed in the booth, sipping mulled wine and watching the lights of the city wink to life. It wouldn't be too bad to live out his life on Moth, he admitted to himself. Drallar was never dull, and now he had a special companion with whom to share its excitement.

Yes, the flying snake had filled a definite void in his life as well as in some mysterious, deeper part of himself. But he still longed for the stars and the magical, unvisited worlds that circled them.

Be realistic, he ordered himself.

He waved to some acquaintances as they strolled past the restaurant. Older men and women. Sometimes Mother Mastiff worried that he preferred the company of adults to youngsters his own age. He couldn't help it. It wasn't that he was antisocial, merely that he chose his friends carefully. It was the immaturity of those his own age that drove him into the company of adults.