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dark look, but Sindri ignored him.
    “That’s right! I forgot!” The kender chuckled. “I accidentally made a joke, didn’t I? I didn’t remember that Nearra couldn’t remember.”
    “Some joke,” Davyn said.
    Sindri looked suddenly worried. “I meant no offense, Nearra.”
    Nearra wanted to say, How would you feel if you didn’t know who you were and where you came from? But she knew the littlekender wouldn’t understand. Instead she smiled. “No offense taken, Sindri.”
    “Good. Then let me tell you something about kender. We are extremely curious about everything.”
    “And this curiosity results in kender having an almost total lack of fear,” Catriona added. The warrior sounded almost envious.
    “You mean a lack of common sense,” Davyn said.
    Sindri ignored him. “Our curiosity is strongest when we’re young. Around the age of twenty or so, we go through a stage of our lives known as wanderlust. It came upon me earlier than it does others.” Sindri smiled smugly. “But then I’ve always been advanced for my age. I suspect that accounts for my skill with magic as well.”
    Davyn rolled his eyes.
    “What do you mean by wanderlust?” Nearra asked.
    “Oh! You don’t remember much, do you?” Sindri said. “Wanderlust is a time when young kender are compelled to travel throughout the land seeing and doing as many interesting things as we can. These travels might go on for a number of years before we finally return home and settle down.”
    “It sounds to me as if kender have found a way to get the most out of life,” Nearra said. “Travel and adventure when young; home and family when older.”
    “If they survive long enough to get old,” Catriona muttered.
    Nearra ignored her. “Have you ever seen a dragon in all your travels, Sindri? Slean is the only one I have seen—as far I can remember.”
    “I’m sorry to say that I have never come across any of the magnificent beasts,” Sindri said. “I’d love to see one!”
    “Speak for yourself,” Catriona said with a shudder.
    “Why do you suppose dragons returned to Krynn after all this time?” Nearra said.
    “I have heard stories about the War of the Lance,” Catriona said. “Stories of how the Dark Queen Takhisis brought dragonkind back to the world in an attempt to conquer all of Krynn,and how a group of brave heroes armed with the legendary Dragonlance finally defeated her. As to how much of the story is true and how much is exaggeration, I cannot say.”
    “Well, all I can say is that I hope we can find someone at the Blind Goose who not only knows the route to the Temple of the Holy Orders of the Stars, but who also knows a thing or two about avoiding dragons,” Davyn said.
    “Do you think they are as fearsome as the tales say?” Sindri said.
    “They’re worse,” Davyn answered, “because they aren’t just stories anymore; they’re
real
. So you’d best hope we don’t see a dragon. That is, if you wish to survive your time of wanderlust.”
    Sindri sighed. “I see your point.”
    The kender didn’t sound all that convinced to Nearra. But she was more concerned with what Davyn had said: I hope we can find someone at the Blind Goose … You’d best hope we don’t see a dragon.
    She looked at Davyn. “Does that mean you’re coming with me to the temple?”
    Davyn shrugged. “If you’d like …”
    Nearra smiled. “I would. Very much.”
    Davyn looked at her for a moment before returning her smile.
    “Then I will.”
    Nearra had been so involved in the conversation that she hadn’t noticed the street had grown narrow here, the buildings smaller and crowded together, sometimes leaning against one another for support. The gutter overflowed with fruit rinds, spoiled vegetables, picked-clean animal bones, and other disgusting garbage. The companions had to step around animal manure covered with buzzing black flies. The heat from the afternoon sun warmed the manure and the air was thick with a sickening