Vaintè radiated approval. “So you have a leash that will certainly secure the beast. So I ask the next obvious questions. How do you fasten it to the ustuzou—and to what do you fasten the other end?”

Zhekak wriggled her soft flesh with pleasure. “Eistaa, you do understand these things so well. Here is the creature’s collar-to-be.”

An assistant produced a semi transparent, jellyfish object the length and thickness of her arm. It writhed sluggishly as Zhekak draped it about Kerrick’s neck. He disliked the cold touch of it but knew better than to protest in the slightest. Zhekak issued brisk orders as the assistant brushed the ends of the creature with some salve, then pressed them together to form a thick collar about Kerrick’s neck.

“Quickly!” Zhekak ordered, “the secretion process is beginning.”

With careful touch they looped the end of the leash about the creature, then pulled on it so that it sank into the thing’s transparent flesh, to the very center.

“Lean close, Eistaa,” Zhekak called out, “and you will see the process begin.”

The transparent flesh was beginning to discolor deep down, congealing about the alien object in its core.

“This animal is a simple metal secretor,” Zhekak said. “It is depositing molecules of iron about the flexible core. Soon it will stiffen and grow strong. We will feed the creature until a complete metal collar is formed about the ustuzou’s neck. A metal collar too strong to be broken or cut.”

“Admirable. But what will you affix to the other end?”

Zhekak’s pendant flesh wriggled with pleasure as she walked across the room to the watching fargi and pulled one forward. This creature was taller and wider than most; strong muscles rippled under her skin as she walked. Zhekak pinched one muscular arm between her thumbs and could not dent it.

“This fargi has served me many years and is the strongest I have ever found. She is barely able to talk, but she still does all the lifting and heavy work in the laboratory. She is yours now, Eistaa, for a more important service.” Zhekak’s little eyes, almost lost in the folds of flesh, looked around at her silent and expectant audience.

“This is what her service will be. A collar will be grown about her neck as well—with the other end of the lead firmly grown into it. The ustuzou and the fargi will be joined together for life like two fruits growing from the same bough!”

“Your mind is like the mind of no other,” Vaintè said, and all of the aides and assistants signaled agreement. “Joined together, forever inseparable. I am told our ustuzou runs very fast. Tell me, ustuzou, how far can you run pulling this little fargi?”