With one end of the pipe held between his teeth, he dipped the other into the basket of tiny darts hanging below his chest. He sucked in and felt a dart lodge in the pipe. Looking up again, he saw that the ark had changed direction. He shifted his wings and pursued it.

The bird glided below, unsure what to make of its pursuers. While Siyee would happily catch and eat ark, they rarely bothered so were not familiar predators to the birds. Tryss aimed as best he could, with the pipe fixed between his teeth, then blew as hard as he was able.

And missed.

Tryss growled—the closest he could get to a curse while holding the pipe between his teeth. He bent to take another dart into the pipe, then took aim again. This time he missed by an arm’s length. Sighing, he tried once more, but at the last moment the bird dived into the protection of the trees.

Frustration coiled around him like strangling vines. He gritted his teeth and felt the pipe split. This time he did curse, and the pipe fell out of his mouth into the vegetation below.

Suddenly all he wanted to do was get rid of the contraption strapped to him. He flew toward an outcrop on one side of the valley, landed heavily, then sat down and started pulling at the harness straps. Drilli dropped onto the ground in front of him.

“Stop. Let me do that,” she said, grabbing his hands.

He wanted to push her away. Why am I so angry? Standing up, he relaxed and let her undo the bindings. Frustration and anger bled away as the pressure of them lessened, and as he found himself standing closer to her than he had ever dared.

“So what happened?” she asked as the harness slid to the ground.

He grimaced. “I missed. Then the pipe split. I…I crushed it between my teeth.”

She nodded slowly. “I can make you another, but you’ll have to get better at using it.”

“How?”

“Practice. I told you it wasn’t as easy as it looked.”

“But I have been practicing.”

“On the ground. You need to practice using it from the air. On moving targets.” She looked away and frowned. “And I think you need to build something to help support it while you’re aiming—and so if you drop it you won’t lose it.”

He stared at her, then smiled.

“I don’t know why you bother with me, Drilli.”

She looked at him, then grinned. “You’re interesting, Tryss. And clever. But a bit slow at times.”

He winced. “Slow?”

“I’ve got a question for you, Tryss. How many times should a girl mention to a boy that she hasn’t got a partner for the trei-trei before she gives up and tries someone else?”