OF ALL THE EMPEROR’S sons, the twelve-year-old Rhejed was the most mischievous and rambunctious.
He spent his days inventing odd and rather outlandish games whose seeming intent was to put his life in danger.
The Behuliphruen, the usual scene of his hijinks, provided ample opportunity to give his impetuosity free rein. Sometimes the agile black child scaled a tall tree to pluck nests from the highest branches; sometimes he threw stones to chase away birds or quadrupeds, which he also knew how to catch with ingenious traps.
One day, emerging into a narrow clearing, Rhejed noticed a red-furred rodent that seemed to be sniffing the ground to find its way.
The child was holding a heavy stick he’d recently torn from a bush. With a sharp throw of the primitive weapon he slaughtered the rodent, which fell to its side on the bare ground.
Moving closer, Rhejed noticed an abundant puddle of drool leaking from the corpse’s mouth that gave off a remarkably strong and peculiar odor; disgusted by the sight, he crossed the clearing and continued on his way.
Suddenly he heard a violent beating of wings; turning around, he saw a formidable bird of prey with long waderlike claws, which, after describing several concentric circles, alit next to the rodent.
Rhejed retraced his steps, thinking he might also kill the bird, which was already attacking the carcass with its beak.
Wanting to get a bead on the especially vulnerable head, he softly approached from the front while the bird’s neck was lowered.
The boy was then surprised to see two olfactory openings above the beak that, no doubt picking up the smell of the strange drool from a distance, had alerted and then guided the bird in its rush to taste the promised feast.
Still armed with his stick, Rhejed ran up and struck the bird full in the occiput; it dropped without a sound.
But when he went to examine his new victim more closely, he felt himself held fast to the ground by a powerful magnetic force.
His right foot was resting on a heavy flat stone covered in the rodent’s drool.
Already half dry, this substance formed an irresistibly powerful glue, and Rhejed was able to dislodge his bare foot only at the price of violent efforts that left deep, painful abrasions on his sole.
When he was finally free, the little scamp, fearing he’d be trapped a second time, thought only of getting away from that dangerous place as fast as possible.
But a moment later, a distant shuddering of wings made him turn his head, and he saw in the sky a second raptor of the same race, which, attracted by the ever more pungent odor, was speeding toward the enticing bait.
Rhejed then conceived a bold plan, based on the adhesive properties of the astonishing drool and on the effect its smell clearly had on certain kinds of birds with mighty wingspans.
Some freshly trampled herbs showed him the path the rodent had recently taken.
At one point along these tracks, which another animal of the same species would likely soon follow, Rhejed dug a small hole that he concealed with delicate branches.
The next day, delighted by the success of his trap, the boy pulled from the tight excavation a red-furred rodent identical to the first, which he brought back alive to his hut.
Inspired by Fogar’s project and wishing to do something similar, the adventurous Rhejed planned to enliven the gala by having one of the nostril-birds that nested throughout the Behuliphruen lift him into the air.
The rodent, killed at the last moment, would furnish abundant drool that would both attract the required raptor and help quickly fashion an aerial harness.
This latter condition required a flat object that could hold the animal adhesive, which if simply spread on the ground would have been useless.
Exploring the wreckage of the Lynceus, Rhejed discovered a lightweight cabinet door perfectly suited to his purposes.
The boy revealed only a portion of his plan; fearing the inevitable paternal veto, he kept to himself anything related to his voyage into the wild blue yonder.