“You were right, Rovee,” Eva said, joining her friend. She shook her mostly full drinking container. “I was able to get quite a bit of water. But with only one good hand my fingers got sore from all that squeezing.”

Rovender glanced up at Eva, then continued on with his task. “Your wounds will heal soon enough.” He spoke in a soft gravelly voice. “And do not worry about your hand. You will become stronger and it will become easier.” He unbuckled a second saddlebag and began rooting through it. “We shall have to hunt down some breakfast soon, though.”

“Food, huh? I don’t suppose you’d be interested in these at all?” Eva pulled out a voxfruit from her satchel.

Rovender stopped, a look of genuine surprise on his whiskered face. “Oeeah! Voxfruit! Out here? Well done, Eva Nine. Well done.” He held up a thick-fingered hand, and Eva tossed him a piece of fruit.

“Yup,” replied Eva. “I found them growing in some sort of underground transit station. I grabbed all I could carry.” She opened her satchel. It was stuffed full with the exotic fruit.

“That is a good discovery. Now come.” Rovender patted the ground next to where he sat. “See what I have found.”

Eva knelt down next to Rovender and poured water into his empty bottle. Then, after taking a swig from her own container, she shuddered as she glanced over Rovender’s booty. Like the glider, these items had once belonged to the Dorcean huntsman, Besteel. Now the huntsman’s belongings had been sorted into little piles that were spread out over Rovender’s sleeping mat.

“I told you I think it is weird going through all his stuff,” Eva said, returning her drinking container to her satchel. “I don’t want anything from that monster.” Besteel’s raptorial visage was still fresh in Eva’s memory. She still half-expected the huntsman to jump out of the shadows and capture her once again.

Rovender took a sip of water and nodded in agreement. He picked up a small wooden contraption with many knobs. “Yes, yes, Eva, but you never know what we may need. Like this.” He handed the gizmo to Eva.

“Uh, I give up,” she said, looking at the item without the slightest interest. “What is it?”

“It is a Variable Bird Caller. You turn the knobs to attract all sorts of birds.” Rovender turned one of the large knobs, and the familiar squawk of a turnfin was produced.

“Okay . . . but why would I call more turnfins? There are enough here already, don’t you think?” She gave the bird caller back to Rovender.

“Perhaps,” Rovender said in his sagely tone as he pocketed the item. “But then again, its use may come in handy.”

Eva wondered if there were turnfins everywhere in Orbona. “Fine. But what else of Besteel’s do we really need?”