Chap. 18 Do me a favor, mate?

Chap. 18  Do me a favor, mate?

K'ndar rested on the beach, after his first 'swimming' lesson from the dolphins. He was amazed at how much it had taken out of him, but then, anxiety and fear were draining.

"K'ndar!" he heard behind him. It was Lindea, his friend, who'd been Searched but declined to Impress a dragon.

"K'ndar, I've been wanting to talk to you," she said, sitting down on the sand beside him. Raventh had gone back out into the sea to play with the dolphins and other dragons. The sun glittered on the backs of the dolphins.

"How have you been? I've been so busy, and I bet so have you," she said. He remembered how pretty a girl she was. He noticed she had a bandana tied about her waist, but didn't remark on it.

"Oh, I sure have," he said. "It's amazing to me how fast time is going."

"Hariko has moved me to day shift, so now I can sleep like normal people and talk to them," she said, watching the dragons. "He's so beautiful, K'ndar, your dragon, Raventh?"

"Raventh," he agreed, his heart warming just at the sound of the dragon's name. His dragon.

"Guess what I have," she said, conspiratorially. 

"Well, I would love to know, but I won't pry,'' he said.

She gently unwrapped the bandana. 

"It's a fire lizard egg," she beamed.

"LINDEA! How did you…," he gasped. He wanted a fire lizard very badly, but wasn't allowed to have pets…just yet.

"I went to the Hold Market day with Hariko and some others. We had to get supplies. I met this man, his name is Fire Lizard Man. He had them for sale. I've been saving my money, and when I saw his little gold and bronze fire lizards with their eggs, I just couldn't resist."

"I'm jealous, Lindea, no, envious, and I don't think I've ever felt like this," he said, "I want one. Isn't it crazy, I have the best dragon already but I want a fire lizard."

Me, too Raventh said.

He laughed. "Raventh said he wants one, too."

The girl tucked the egg closer to her belly where it would stay warm. 

"It makes me feel like I'm pregnant, but without all the mess and bother of having a big belly and throwing up, " she giggled.

"Hey! Hey! Need help!!" they heard a high pitched cry. Then a human voice cried from the group of dolphins, riders and dragons playing in the water.

"You, on shore! Get a knife! Hurry!"

Wondering, K'ndar went to his pile of clothing on the sand and pulled his sheath knife.

Two people, a girl and a boy, were shepherding a dolphin in to the shore. It was pleading, "cut it off, cut it".

K'ndar waded out in to the gently lapping sea  to meet them. The girl was Siena, the gold rider. 

"What's wrong, what's going on?" he asked as they met.

"Give me your knife. We need to help Swash, here, Swash? That's your name?"

The dolphin nodded. "Swash. Have bloodfish on me. Cut it off," he said in his odd, high pitched voice.

He rolled over onto his side. They could see an elongated fish, almost eel like, attached to the dolphin's belly near its anus. The thing was almost a third of the length of the dolphin.

K'ndar looked closely at the bloodfish. It regarded him with a dull eye, one that showed a distinct lack of intelligence. Its round, sucker mouth was firmly attached to the dolphin. 

"Hurts. Hurts.  It there two, three days," Swash said.  The other dolphins came over, abandoning the dragons and other swimmers. But they came, too.

What IS that?

They say it's a 'bloodfish'. 

Oh. Wait. Mirth says it's a parasite, it sucks the blood out of the dolphin. It has to be cut out

"Shards," he said, "that thing is nasty."

Siena said, "if we had a hot coal, we could get it to back out and release, but we don't and I want to get this off Swash right now." She twisted the knife in her hand, examining the point. 

"Swash, this might hurt, but, I'm sure you know what I'm going to do. Be very still."

"I do. Is okay. No hurt more than it already is. Just remove and I go to dolphin healer after," the dolphin said.

"Gently," Leap said, "No cut Swash if you can help it."

"I'll be very careful," Siena said.

Bounce said, "Maybe cut fish off then we get head removed?"

"No," Leap said, "Need fish whole for test."

Siena, the knife glittering in her hand, said, "I have done this once, but I've seen it done more.  I will be careful. Deep breath, Swash, and roll over."

That's when K'ndar realized that the nostrils of the dolphin were atop its head, NOT at the end of the blunt nose. This meant the dolphin wouldn't be able to breathe while she worked.

"How..how long can he hold his breath?" he asked.

Leap laughed.

"You worry too much, Keendar! Swash, hold breath long time. Days."

"Not days!" Swash protested, then inhaled deeply and rolled over onto his back.

Siena, hoping she projected an air of calm and long practice, said, "I'm going to need some help. What I'm going to do is pierce the brain stem just behind the monster's head. I learned this from a dolphin healer," she explained, "her theory is that if you cut the brain stem of the fish before it can react, it might relax its jaws enough that we can pull it out in one piece while there's still blood running into its brain. If not, then he has to go to have the jaws removed, but at least it's not sucking him dry."

"Okay, now, Swash is ready?"

The dolphin, still upside down, nodded its head.

"Now, here, you, K'ndar, and you, I don't know your name, take hold of this monster. Be careful, it's got a rough skin but it can be slippery and you don't want its fins to impale your hands. Swash, don't let us pull you up."

Swash, upside down, relaxed.

They grasped the fish. It was slippery, but had a gritty substance in its skin that allowed a hold. K'ndar felt he had a good grip. He could feel how strong it was. It reacted to his grip by twisting but did not release its bite.

"You got it?" he asked the other boy. The other nodded without meeting his eyes, concentrating on getting a good grip.

They didn't notice, but the rest of the humans, dolphins and dragons had come up behind them, their play forgotten in the ongoing drama, silent, watching, learning. 

"I'm going to pierce the stem and you two pull at the same time, steady, no jerking, just a good solid pull. Ready?"

They nodded.

"OK. On my mark..three. Two. One. Pull!"

With a quick move, she stabbed the fish just behind its flat head as the two boys pulled. K'ndar felt the body violently flex in reaction, and was astonished at how firmly the fish's fangs were in the dolphin's body. But he felt the anchored teeth begin to release as the fish thrashed, as did the other boy. This felt just like pulling a leg back calf out of the cow, he thought. Except that it was taking all of the strength of two strong boys.

They could feel the resistance began to lessen. "Pull!" the other boy gasped, almost losing his grip on the fish. Siena pushed down on Swash to help them.

Without warning, the fish released and the two boys fell backwards into the water. The fish flew backwards back into the water. The dolphins reflexively went to kill it but a squealed order from Leap stopped them. Brain dead, it tried to swim but merely jerked in nervous contractions. Blood flowed from Swash's wound. It was at least as big as the palm of one's hand around and looked painful.

Swash rolled back up to the surface and exhaled. "Hurt just little. Now better!!"

The other dolphins broke into excited squeals of joy. The dragons bugled.

"Thenkyou, thenkyou, will get better now. Fast," Swash said, seemingly unfazed by the diffusing blood cloud surrounding the wound. 

"I'm surprised it worked. I'm so glad it worked!" Siena said, glowing with success.

That thing is nasty. Does it bite dragons?

Shards, I hope not! Or humans, either!

Suddenly the sea held more dangers that he'd never considered.

"Do these things bite humans? Or dragons?" he asked.

"No", Leap said, "just dolphins and big fish."

"That's a relief," he said. 

The other dolphins clustered around Swash.

"We go now to healer. He bleeds but is okay."

Siena said, "Tell the healer what we did." Someone had recovered the bloodfish and was examining it. K'ndar got a close look at the mouth. It was like a goblet, but lined with dozens of  sharp, hooked teeth. The fish was still alive, he noticed. It looked at him with what appeared to be resentment. He resisted the urge to destroy it. Such a vicious way of making a living.

The wound on the dolphin was ragged from their forcibly removing the fangs, but would heal quickly. The fish holder asked, "What do we do with this monster?"

"I take bloodfish. We take to healer. Need to see if infected," Leap said.

"In fected?" someone repeated, unknowing.

"Infected. With bad things in teeth that make Swash sick," the dolphin said. He meant that the healer would need to take a culture from the bloodfish's jaws to see if there was something bacterial on the teeth. But…the humans were at a loss to understand it. In so many ways, Pern was the poorer for their isolation from the rest of the galaxy, Aivas's efforts notwithstanding. That the dolphins knew about more about biology than they did increased K'ndar's respect for their famed intelligence.

K'ndar moved back to the beach. Lindea had stayed there, to keep her precious fire lizard egg warm and dry. 

"That…was…amazing. I wish I'd been closer to see it. Or to help." she said.

"It's okay. More people would have been too many, anyway." K'ndar said, rubbing his hands in the sand to clean them of the slime that the fish had exuded. Siena strode ashore and handed him the knife.

"Thank you. Good that you had this knife."

"Where did you learn that?"

"I grew up on a ship, and just started hanging around the dolphins. I think I would have been a dolphineer if I hadn't impressed my Mirth," she said, watching her gold come ashore and begin to groom. Raventh watched as the dolphins left, then came ashore, too, to wallow in the sand. 

"You too?" Lindea asked, excitedly. "I'm a fishergirl, too! What ship?"

 "Bright Star." Out of Dorn Island."

I've heard of that ship! Mine was the The Nocket. Don't ask, it's a long, long story, but, …"

And suddenly, K'ndar was out of the conversation as the two girls began comparing life stories. It was okay, he thought, stretching out on the sand, allowing the sun to dry him, it was okay.

He loved this life. Every day was a new adventure, every day he learned something new.

It is a good life.