When they reached the Elevenoss delegation, Daenys stepped forward and bowed.“You are alive.Excellent news.”
Talon spoke in a series of clicks and screeches, and Daenys grinned.
“He tells me you are heroes.”
Talon uttered something else and laughed.“Haw, haw, haw.”
Daenys spluttered, her grin widening while the rest of her group chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”Scarlett asked.
“You cannot communicate with Talon?”
“No,” Ransom said.“Our translators do not compute his language.”
“Ah, I will fix that for you.”Daenys murmured a chant, then clicked her fingers.“He says your insults to the prince were funny.You told him he had a small purple dick.”
“I might have done that,” Scarlett said.“He had a wee-man complex.”
Daenys chortled.“Thanks to you and the dragon, plus Talon and the Quito race, we are rid of him and his greed.We can once again live in peace in our original homelands.”
Ransom thought about asking them how they traveled through time before deciding he didn’t wish to know.“What about the volcano?”
“Talon says it is not near our lands.Now that the prince is dead, I believe the resonance in the mountains will fade if it hasn’t already.Both of our races should be safer now.”Daenys turned to one of her men, and he presented her with two bags.“I understand you are both gifted jewelers.We wished to give you a small token of our thanks.”
Ransom accepted one bag and Scarlett the other.
“If you wish to visit or to trade or exchange services, you are welcome to visit,” Ransom said.
“Likewise,” Daenys said.“We will contact you once our people settle in our homelands again.”
Talon interrupted with clicks, and this time Ransom understood his meaning.
“Talon wishes to go with us,” Daenys said.“But he would visit with your people at a later time.He says you amuse him.”
“Haw, haw, haw,” Scarlett said with bared teeth.
Talon beamed and scampered over to her.He indicated he wished her to crouch and signaled the same to Ransom.They kneeled beside each other and leaned down a fraction.Talon rubbed his giant nose against Ransom’s, then stood back and did the same to Scarlett.
“Haw-haw-haw.”Talon chortled and lifted one clawed hand in farewell.“I like them.They have great courage,” he told one of Daenys’s party.
“We will see you again.”Daenys bowed before following her people to their ship.
“I will miss Talon,” Scarlett said.“Although his sly humor irked me.I wonder what is in these bags?Oh!Ransom, look.”She held up a raw stone that glinted blue.“These are beautiful.There is a mixture of stones.I haven’t seen anything of the like during my fossicking.”
The pale blue stones reminded him of the lakes they’d passed deep in the mountains.
“Customers will pay high prices for pieces made of these,” Scarlett murmured.
She was right.Ransom yawned.“I don’t know about you, but I intend to hit the sanitizer room and get some sleep.”
“Oh, yes,” Scarlett agreed.“You go first.I’d do a quick shift.Hopefully, it will help my aches and pains.”
A short time later, Ransom stretched out on his gel-bed, his mind light and ache-free.The weighty worry about the prince—the wondering if he might or might not appear, had gone, leaving his mind to wander.
“Shift over,” Scarlett said.
Ransom squeezed closer to the wall to make room for Scarlett.
