Two could play this game, Glory thought and was just opening her mouth to say, 'No, not one bit..in fact, I think we should do it again,' when she glanced over at Merlin in the other claw. He looked nearly as green as Nigel.

Just into the flight. Nigel caught a thermal, so the crossing of the great channel went rather quickly...much to Merlin's relief.

Glory, trusting in Nigel, and tucked safely in his claw with her best friend, watched the white caps cresting on the waves far below. She enjoyed the ride immensely.. after all, she was born with wings.

The clouds roiling above them parted ways for the sun just as Nigel reached shore, and Glory, secure in her warm hide wrap, became mesmerized watching him chase his shadow across the green land.

Ahead, stabbing into the placid, hazy blue of the sky, was the long line of serrated-edged peaks of the Dragon Tooth Mountains. The air was frigid as they flew towards the snowfields along the base of the mountains. Glory could see ice crystals forming in her pink hair.

Merlin began to point and shouted something to Nigel that Glory could not hear. High on a glacier that streamed like a river of thick, white icing off the face of the tallest peak, was a grouping of moving dots in the snow.

Nigel circled once, losing altitude rapidly, then came flapping down vertically, his muscled back legs absorbing all the shock of the impact, back claws open wide as they sank gently into the deep snow. When the wildly-blowing, shimmering powder snow from Nigel's final wing beats cleared, Glory could see that the dots had been a group of little, icicle-bedecked men.

Nigel gently opened his claws and deposited Glory and Merlin in the snow. The furry little barbegazi, all the while hooting and whistling like large, noisy marmots, immediately unrolled and draped them with thick coats made from unknown wooly animal pelts. Long, clear icicles clinked together like glass wind chimes everywhere in the dense fur that covered the barbegazi from head to toe, and their huge feet were as flat and broad as the snowshoes they insisted Merlin and Glory wear.

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