I was having a problem that I had not discussed with Miraldis, and knowing that he was anxious to get to wherever it was we were going, I had been hesitating to say anything. The thing was though, that I was having a harder time changing back into human form and that was a little unnerving. Most of the time I stayed in bird form since it was much easier to find food and shelter, but the draw back to this is that some of the effects were showing up when I did assume human form. I was loosing weight, which was certainly a good thing, but I was also becoming more and more used to bird form and several times had had to consentrate very hard to picture the words needed to make the change, and this was NOT a good thing. I did not want to be a bird permanently by any means, and I finally determined that I must speak to Miraldis and possibly push for a day or so of rest and a renewal of some of the lessons.

The discussion with Miraldis was far easier than I thought it would be, and for some reason he was quite willing to stay put for a couple of days. We were quite near the mountains now and the weather was holding, so we were staying in a small hotel near the foothills while I brushed up on some of the basics of magic. To avoid any unwanted curiosity about our sudden appearance in town, we waited until the night train stopped in town and then made our way to the hotel. Or at least I did in my own form. How lucky that Miraldis had taught me to transfer my meager belongings in a pack, that was tiny enough to wear around my neck as a bird, but was big enough for a human to carry all the things necessary for a trip. I had to marvel at the scope of the magic tricks he knew and was willing to share and teach me.

I was feeling much better now about the shape shifting and felt as though I was ready to go on. Miraldis had been making himself scarce during the day ... flying who knows where ... and only returning late in the evening. I wondered what he was doing but he seemed a litle preoccupied. Perhaps it is just that we were getting closer to the hiding place and he was excited. Though excited may not be the correct description. Several times I thought he might be more nervous, but perhaps that was because of the unknown surrounding the eggs and their protection. We'd talked about that a few times, and he seemed very unsure about the actual form of protection. I felt sometimes as though there was something he was not telling me, and wondered if I should demand some answers.

Tomorrow we would fly on and continue the search for the dragon's eggs. We still had a few weeks of good weather left before it turned cold. Assuming that the eggs are hidden in the mountains someplace, it follows that they must be in a cave of some sort and the mountains are the logical place for caves big enough for a dragon. I cannot help be a little nervous about bears and large animals that might also be using the assumed cave, but try not to dwell on the possibilities. Miraldis has assured me, that as far as the animals go, he has enough magic to render them not a threat and reminds me that I am not axactly helpless in that field myself. To be sure, I practice changing things whenever we stop to rest, and Miraldis throws in one or two new spells whenever he thinks I can manage it. All in all, my repertoire of accomplishments is growing, and I am beginning to feel quite at home with the magical side of things. The more I learn, the easier the new things seem to be,which is, I suppose, normal on the learning curve.

Miraldis is miserable and I am angry. If he could scuff his big fat feet and hang his head and look as though he has been caught with his paw in the cookie jar, I am sure he would. As it is he is crunched into the smallest ball he can get into.

"Exactly what kind of mess have you got us into?" I ask him, trying very hard not to yell." You've dragged me most of the way across this country, and every time I ask you about the eggs, you tell me that, yes, you know where they are. Well??? What is holding you up??? We've been flying in circles for the whole day and now you say you don't know!!! What exactly is it that you don't know?"

"There Iss A Puzzle To Be Ssolved Firsst.I Didsst Believe That I Could Unravel It, But It Sseemss That I Cannot."

"Well !! Isn't that just grand!! What's the puzzle? If it's some kind of riddle, then we're sunk 'cause I've never been much good at them. Let's have it then, and see how bad things really are. Miraldis, you have got to level with me on this stuff. How can you expect me to help if I have no idea what's going on?"

"I Am Mosst Ssorry. I Truly Didsst Not Think It To Be Ssuch A Problem. I Believed The Messsage Would Be Clear When We Didsst Arrive. We Are Very Closse. Pleassse Believe That. The Pull Iss Mosst Strong, But Dosst Come From Many Directionss Now."

He uncurled and sat up and took on a faraway look. In a singsong voice that people generally use when they are reciting something from memory, he began to chant.........

He stopped and looked up at me through narrowed eyes. "Cansst Thou Undersstand The Puzzle?" he asked hopefully.

"Let me think about it for awhile. It means nothing at this point, though there is something familiar about bits of it. How much time do we have to solve the thing, do you have any idea about that?"

"I Do Not Believe There Iss A Long Time Left." he said. I Do Have The Mosst Urgent Feeling. Maybe Not More Than A Day Or Two."

" Geez....Miraldis!!! You must think I am a wizard or something!!! You haven't given me much time and I already told you I am no good at riddles. Leave me alone for a little and I'll see what I can do with it."

In the midst of all this I have to confess that I did feel a little sorry for the poor creature. I am sure he was doing his best and no doubt was unused to dealing with the memory, or lack thereof, of mere humans. I knew myself better than to try to solve the thing at once, and the best course of action was to say it over in my mind a few times until it would stay in there and I could let my subconscious work on it. Attacking a problem head-on had never worked very well for me and I had gotten used to letting things lie and letting the pieces fall into place on their own. Of course, I had not generally been up against a time limit and that did pose a bit of a problem, but I thought that one day more or less was not going to matter if the things had been hidden for several hundred years.

The next morning dawned clear and warm, and I let Miraldis know that I wanted to just fly around and feel things. I half expected an argument and was pleasantly surprised when he agreed. We had been staying in a lovely little tourist center that I had stayed at before many years ago on a trip with my family. The place was familiar enough so that I did not feel quite a stranger, but not so much that I could look around and be hampered by remembrances. Some of the lines of the riddle reminded me of a childhood poem about "The Grand Old Duke Of York", and I ran that around in my mind for a bit. "Neither up nor down..." translated into "half way up" and I assumed that meant half way up the mountain. OK so far..... "sapphires in an emerald cup" posed more of a problem. I supposed that there were precious stones in these mountains, though I had never heard of sapphires or emeralds, or even diamonds being mined here. That didn't mean there had not been, but a few inquiries at the tourist information kiosk made it clear that no gems had been discovered in sufficient quantities to warrant any attention.

In the afternoon, we went flying and though Miraldis said he could feel the pull of the eggs, it was very confusing and seemed to come from all directions. Another safeguard I supposed. We decided to call it a day and as we flew back to the town, the landscape spread out below us and around us with all the grandeur that mountains possess and it was a lovely sight. We had a wonderful view of the lake that was so famous in those parts and because the town had been planned well and the land had been designated a Provincial Park, there were no buildings anywhere near the water. The mountains crowded almost to the edges and this time of year were green and lovely. Without much wind, the lake surface was unruffled and smooth and reflected the sky. No wonder so many people travelled here to camp and take pictures. It was a truly serene sight and so very peaceful. And the thing hit me right between the eyes !!!!! "Sapphires in an Emerald Cup"........could only mean the Lake itself cradled in the cup made by the mountains!!! And the "diamonds" were the fall of the glacier, glittering in the evening light, behind the lake, reaching almost to the shore. And that thought led to the "Icy Slide", which could only mean the other, bigger glacier not far away. It was there also, that the small river that came from the glacier flowed white with sediments pulled from the ice, and as it came to the flat of the pass, separated and ran east and west. The place was known as The Great Divide. So between these two landmarks, lay the treasure, I was sure. There was no time to do any more searching this day, so Miraldis and I spent the rest of the evening in the hotel going over some topograhic maps that I picked up from the Ministry Of National Resourses office.

Topographical maps are not the easiest things to read and I was thankful that my father had been an outdoorsman and I had often spent time with him pouring over maps of the places he wanted to take us camping. We located the Great Divide and also the Lake and somewhere between the two was the treasure. I thought of the riddle again and wondered if "the veil" could possibly be a waterfall. The river that was the Great Divide did not go all the way to the Lake and so I started the search from the river end, and discovered two or three places where the lines were almost on top of each other, indicating that the land was very steep there. That was the case on most of the map to be sure......after all the mountains did tend to go pretty straight up, but I was just concentrating on a small section. We made plans for taking some time to purchase some climbing gear for me in the morning and marked the three places on the map that looked most promising.

Miraldis was looking greatly relieved by the time we finished making plans. He didn't notice that there were still things about the riddle that I had not solved yet. The bit about the "Ravening Hordes" and the "Faerie Blood" was very unsettling. In dragon form, Miraldis was probably immune to any kind of ravenning horde , but I was not. I could perhaps outfly them in bird form, but that sounded too much like running away for my taste. As far as the "Faerie Blood" was concerned I had absolutely no clue what that meant. Even if I did find a Faerie, I was not about to spill any of the blood and bring the wrath of that kind down on my head. People think of Faerie folk as cute little creatures that live in flowers and to some extent that is true, but I knew that there were other factions of Faerie life that were not as fragile and were in fact quite fierce. I certainly had no intentions of running foul of them. If Dragons could still exist, then it followed that so could the Faerie clans, but never had I run into any evidence of that. Mind you, I had not run into a dragon before Miraldis either. At any rate, there was more to think about, but I needed to sleep in preparation for the next day's hunt, and so settled in for the night with Miraldis again at the foot of the bed.