Astra's Growing Hoard

She pauses and looks around the ampitheater again, then says: "I feel that I ought to have a lair, and this is spacious and light enough to seem a good choice. I suppose that Belboz must have had one somewhere. You have told me of his chamber, but from what you said it sounded too small for him in his dragon form."

"Yes," Fred agrees. "It would certainly have been a tight squeeze for a dragon, if he was anything like as big as you."

"I saw him as a dragon when he first captured me. I think I might be bigger than him, but only a little."

She turns to look at the statues again, a little wistfully it seems to Fred. Can I really interpret a dragon's expression, or am I deluding myself? he wonders.

"These pieces must be quite valuable," she says. "Did you intend to keep them?"

Fred had thought that he might keep them, but if he is interpreting Astra's expression correctly then it seems wiser to let her have them. "No," he says. "Would you like them?"

Astra gives what Fred suspects is meant to be a smile, even though it exposes a large number of very sharp teeth. "Thank you," she says. "You're very generous." She picks up the figures of the Glider and the Knight, both of which can be moved without difficulty,

She flies back down towards the stage.

1. And adds them to her hoard.
2. But on the way the Knight slips out of her grasp, and with a crash hits one of the marble benches.
3. But on the way the Glider slips out of her grasp, and with a crash hits one of the marble benches.

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