With two great golden clouds suspended around it, Moth was the only planet that appeared to have wings. It was a beautiful planet . . . and a trap for the unwary.

Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers—a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provideda comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet mini-dragon, Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest . . . most of the time.

In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn’t really need it anymore. But Flinx forgot one crucial point. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place.

From bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, an exciting early Pip and Flinx novel that shows the origins of a certain boy with special powers—and the mini-dragon that becomes his devoted sidekick. . . .

Flinx was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers.

For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew—even let him keep the deadly flying dragon he called Pip. But when Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappears, Flinx tails her kidnappers on a dangerous journey. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons are Pip’s venom . . . and Flinx’s unusual talent. **