Before he was able to move and think with anything approaching normality, he was far above the earth. He looked at the tiny castle far below, noticing that from his altitude, it looked like some child's toy, set on a sand hill, with bits of moss strewed about to make a realistic picture. He shivered. His head still ached dully, and he could still hear echoes of the horrified screaming.
"I don't know what it was," he told himself, "but I hope I never run into anything like that again."
He located the hill which concealed the flier, and dropped rapidly toward it.
As he entered, the pilot noticed him.
"Well, that was a quick mission," he commented. "How'd you——" He looked at Konar's pain-lined face. "Hey, what's the matter, youngster? You look like the last end of a bad week."
Konar tried to smile, but it didn't work very well.
"I ran into something, Barskor," he said. "Didn't complete my mission. I don't know what happened, but I hope it never happens again."
Barskor looked at him curiously, then turned. "Chief," he called, "something's gone wrong. Konar's been hurt."
Meinora listened to Konar's story, then shook his head unhappily.