Chap. 62 The Brave Lad

Chap. 62  The Brave Lad

"It doesn't matter to me what the mission is, or how long I've been a dragonrider, but I never, ever get tired of flying, " C'val said. His blue, Rastabenth, was easily keeping pace with K'ndar's Raventh.

He can beat me when it comes to agility, but I think I could outfly him  Raventh said to K'ndar.

Wanna try it, brown?

Raventh was silent for several wingbeats.

Can't. Got a mission, you know.

Same old excuse. Maybe next time.

Raventh laughed.

On the ground, the air was sultry and still,  but up here, it was just cool enough to make it a perfect day for flying. K'ndar rejoiced in the strong neck muscles between his thighs, and the wings-what perfect wings Raventh had, beating steadily over his head. It was always a treat to fly, and it was always fun to have a flock of avians join them, or wherries flying at the same altitude. Somehow, they never seemed to realize that the dragons had humans aboard. There were times when, had he chosen to, he could almost touch the avians.

Could there be anything better than riding a dragon?

"Here it is, K'ndar, see the settlement?" C'val called.

K'ndar looked. Yes, there it was. Cunningly hidden by tall fellis trees, the settlement, as it was, was a small collection of rude huts. Only because this area of the continent was thoroughly grubbed and, therefore, 'immune' to Thread, would such a settlement be possible.

"Before we land, let me warn you. Holdless folks can be hard to deal with. They're suspicious of anyone they don't know. I've never heard of them hurting anybody, but you never know."

They landed their dragons in a clearing several hundred meters from the settlement. Even so, the oxen and horses of the settlement threw up their heads, nervous.

They dismounted and pulled off their riding jackets. It was very warm down here, especially in the jungle.

Several men stood in front of the huts, brandishing shovels, axes, a pick.

"You got business here, dragonriders?"

"Good day, sirs. I'm C'val and this is K'ndar. We're on a Search for candidates for a hatching at Kahrain Steppe Weyr."

They put down their tools.

"Your name, sir?" C'val asked the apparent leader. They were rough looking men, worn down by hard work and poverty.

"Name isn't important, dragonrider. Fact is, if t'weren't for your dragons there, we'd be running you off."

"Why is that?" C'val asked.

"Raiders. Were here two days ago. Tried to take our little girls, they did, roughed up one of our boys who defended them."

"Hmmm. Have you informed Lord Dorn?"

"Nay, nay. We keeps to ourselves, we do. You can prolly guess we are Holdless. We like it that way," the speaker said.

"There is no crime in being Holdless, but there is crime when a raider attacks you. If you keep Lord Dorn informed, he can tell us, and we can keep an eye out for them. Do you have a description of them?"

The man said something to one of the men behind him. That man whistled. A young boy of about ten years old came running. He stopped, awed by the dragons in the distance and the riders in front of him.  Then, hesitantly, he came forward to meet C'val.

"I'm Cyrus, sir."

C'val looked at him, kindly. The boy had several bruises and a sharp, barely healed cut on the head.

C'val knelt down to be on eye level with the boy. At least this one had some courtesy.

"You look a little bit roughed up, lad," he said.

Cyrus looked shyly at him, then turned to look at the men behind him.

"Go on, boy, attest to the dragonrider. You saw them, we didn't."

"We was out picking berries and cutting withies. Me, and my sisters and my cousin. All of a sudden three men jumped out and grabbed my cousin. She started to scream and I went at the man with my sickle, it's sharp!  And then our dogs went after the other two."

C'val was openly impressed. "That was brave of you! Did you get him?"

"Haaaaahaaaaa!" the boy laughed in glee. "He grabbed it! It cut his hand wide open and he let go my cousin. Then another one came up behind me and hit me in the head with his cudgel and I went down and then the dogs went for him. 

"Then what?"

"The dogs, they bit the others on the legs. They's good dogs, sir, wouldn't hurt nothing but they knew these were bad men. Oh, you shoulda heard the one scream, like a stuck pig! He was jumping around like this," the boy demonstrated a man shaking a leg, "but she wouldn't let go. Hahaha……." he roared with laughter.

"That must have been so funny! And what good dogs!" C'val said.

"Aye, sir, and then the men runned off. We ain't seen them since but now we don't let the girls go out without me or the dogs or my brother," he said.

C'val wants to know if you have your notebook?"

"Tell Rastabenth I said of course."

"He wants you to take 'notes'."

"Aye, sir."

He pulled his notebook from his pocket. It was getting full, already. He held the pencil in readiness.

"What is that?" the boy asked.

K'ndar showed him the notebook.

"It's a notebook. This is a pencil. It's like a slate but made of paper."

"Would that be an Aivas thing?" the adult speaker asked, coming closer.

Uh oh, K'ndar thought, Abominators.

"Uh, yes, it is. Would you like to see it?"

"Aye, I would. I got no problem with Aivas. He sent us medicine for our runnerbeasts when they come down with strangles. Cleared it right up, it did."

K'ndar reluctantly let the man hold the notebook and pencil. He maneuvered the pencil on a page and was surprised to see the mark it left. The rest, including the boy, clustered around them, entranced.

"What are you going to do with this," the man asked.

"We're going to ask young Cyrus if he can describe the raiders. I'm going to write it down, then we will go back to Landing and they will make a picture of the raiders, and put it up all over Southern. So that, if someone ELSE is attacked by them, they will know it's the same ones who attacked you. We're going to track them down, and put them in a cell."

One of the other men said, "Give 'em to us. We'll break they necks and Lord Dorn won't need to bother feeding them in t'cell."

"Aye, that we will.  We don't bother nobody and don't take kindly to evil men doing us harm, 'specially our girls," he said.

"Do you mind if we tell Lord Dorn of this? These are his lands, remote as this place is."

"Long as he don't run us off. We don't do no harm."

"I'm pretty certain he doesn't have a problem with you. And just to make sure, I'll let him know you keep a clean, neat settlement and haven't done damage. And that you helped us."

The atmosphere had warmed up to the point of sunshine.

"Sir, do you mind if I talk to some of your teenaged kids? We're on Search, " C'val asked.

"It's fine with us. Come on, and we'll get the kids rounded up."

C'val looked at K'ndar, who didn't need to ask what was wanted. The green rider went off with the men, and K'ndar sat down with the boy in the shade of a giant fellis tree.

He asked the boy to describe the men.

"One, his arm was like this." The boy twisted his arm behind him. "He's the one what hit me in the head. Then another, he's missing an ear. He was the one what grabbed my cousin and cut his hand wide open!! Hahahaha!! The third one, he looked like he was bent over like this," he twisted his body sideways.

K'ndar immediately recognized the descriptions of two of them. Lizard had been attacked by raiders years before, and Sandriss, his brother had cut the ear off one and broke another's arm.

"Did they say anything? Did you hear a name, or a place?"

"Um……." the boy thought hard."I heard one yell something as they was running off but my head was ringing!"

"Do you remember any of it," K'ndar asked, suddenly feeling as if he were a hunting dog on a hot scent.

"I think so, the dogs was barking and chasing them, they wanted another bite!! haahahahaaaaaaa but then I heard one yell "Come on Bessel, run, you fool."

K'ndar felt a shock of recall.

"Bessel?"

"Aye. Or maybe Betil. Like I said, my ears was ringing."

He reached out and touched the boy on the head. "That does look pretty sore," he said.

"Aye, but me mum, she said all us kids got heads like rocks. I'll be fine," the boy said, proudly.

"Would you like to get a closer look at our dragons? I have a fire lizard, would you like to see him, too?"

The boy stopped for a moment, then straightened his shoulders and said. "Aye. I would."

"Think you might want to ride a dragon someday?"

The boy thought about it.

"Mebbe. But I like being a tracker and a hunter, like me dad. He's the best."

"You can be both, if you like," K'ndar said.

"I'll give it a thought," the boy said, in a tone of voice that belied his age, "But right now, my job is to protect my family."

"You do that very, very well. Any boy that takes on three men with just a sickle is a brave one."