Chap. 69 Planning an expedition

Chap. 69  Planning an expedition

K'ndar responded to D'nis request to meet with him.

When he got to the former Weyrleader's weyr, he found D'mitran, his wingleader there as well.

"Come in, sit down. Hello….what is your fire lizard's name?"

"Siskin, sir."

"Appears he's suddenly got a lot of company. There's at least a dozen kids walking around with hatchlings. Feels almost like the aftermath of an Impression," he said.

K'ndar said nothing. He didn't know if the leaders of the weyr knew Lindea's queen was  responsible for the sudden explosion of fire lizards, and he wasn't going to tell on her. Some of the parents weren't too happy about having the addition. 

"I've called to ask you to …well, let's put it this way. Amazingly, considering the number of people we have here at the weyr, you're the only one who's steppe bred. I'm planning on an expedition onto the steppe, see how far we can go. I want to survey it. I want to see what's out there. Have you ever explored the steppe, and if so would you like to join D'mitran and me?"

K'ndar didn't have to think twice.

"I would LOVE to,sir. Yes, I've done exploration, but on horseback. I think I gone out a total of, oh, 120 kilometers. I'd usually go 45 kilometers a day. Then I would build a rock wall and stay out for the night. I've done that, oh, half a dozen times? as a kid. It was fun."

"Do you have any advice?"

K'ndar was astonished. Being asked for advice from a Weyrleader?

"Ummm,"

"Pretend you're planning a trip out there by yourself."

He thought.

"I've never done it on dragonback, sir. But what you want to do is follow the watercourses. They always flow away from the mountains, it's downhill. You have to be careful, though, because sometimes it's not from the mountains, it's from a spring, then the water goes to the lowest ground, NOT necessarily from the mountains."

"Follow the water. Right."

"You can't get lost if you stick to the rivers. Plus it's a water source, there's very little water on the steppe otherwise."

As he spoke, memories of the times he spent riding out, alone, popped up in his mind. It was almost as if he were planning another trip on horseback.

"Make sure you have enough food for yourself. This time of year, there's plenty of grass for the horses. Ummm, well, I never had a 'compass' so you have to really pay attention to where you're going. If you leave the watercourse, you can get lost in a big hurry, especially when the grass is over your horse's head."

"It grows that tall?" D'nis asked, amazed.

"Aye, sir, especially after a good year of rain, like we had this year. It gets so high that you can't see the horses. You have to be careful, too, because the wild bulls sometimes attack, and you don't know they're there until they're on top of you. A good horse will let you know he's out there but not what he's thinking. And the whers…they usually don't bother you, unless you're too close to their nests, but if they're hungry, they'll go for your horses."

"Tell me what a day was like for you," he asked.

"Well, sir, I'd make sure my horse was rested. I'd usually leave at dawn, to avoid most of the heat of the day. It gets hot out there, sir. I usually took two horses, one to carry me and one as a pack horse. You want to take some equipment, like an axe to cut firewood. A good rope, a leather strap or two for your tack because for some reason, something always breaks when you're out there, no matter how new the tack is. A cook pot, two, one for your meal and one for klah, a knife and a bow and arrow, in case you need to hunt. And a shovel! I'd ride until, oh, noon, then stop in the shade of a big tree, untack the horses...I didn't have to hobble mine, they stayed with me because they love me, eat, take a nap, just rest until, oh, 3 or so. You don't want to be out there in the middle of the day. Then I'd switch horses, put my saddle on the pack horse and ride him until it started getting dark. Then I'd stop, again, near the water, find a spot with rocks, if possible, and camp for the night. I'd set my supper to cooking on a small fire and build a rock wall while it was cooking. Just big enough to hold me and the horses. It wouldn't need a roof, just a wall, basically."

"Why is that? and why a shovel?"

"The rock wall is to keep us from being run over in case of a stampede."

"Stampede?"

"Sometimes, at night, the whers will attack a herd of cattle or horses, sending them running and if you're in their way, you're going to get run over. A rock wall will at least deflect them, although I've seen a cow jump a chest high wall without breaking a sweat. Lightning will spook them, too. Sometimes they just start running for no reason I can think of.

Oh, and if there is lightning, you're going to get wet. You don't want to be underneath a tall tree, so you end up standing in the rain. But it's better than getting hit."

"Hmmm," D'nis said, thinking, I am so glad I asked this young man.

"And the shovel?"

"Fire, sir. A grass fire goes faster than a horse can run, sometimes, especially with a good wind behind it. You use a shovel to dig up the grass around your rock wall to keep it from burning. You're not going to outrun a grass fire, but it goes fast and afterwards, it's much easier to ride. The avians and the wherries come from all over Pern, I think, to scavenge the animals that are burned up. Tunnel snakes everywhere. But it does make it easier to find something to eat for yourself, just go out and pick up the ground living avians that didn't make it. They're already half cooked!"

He laughed. "What amazes me, sir, is how smart the animals are. Sometimes, when the grass is burning, the animals will stand in the deepest part of the river. I once saw a cow go into the river when the trees along the river had caught, there were embers flying all through the air. She went out into the middle and lowered her head until only her nose was showing. She was a survivor, that one."

"How did you see that?"

"I was out there, too! Me and my horses, both in the water up to our necks. The air was full of smoke and fire, but we made it through."

Amazing, thought D'nis. Cattle, to him, were just herdbeasts that moo'ed in a rock walled pasture. They didn't jump and didn't take cover from a fire.

"Did you do anything special?"

"Special?"

"How do you know where you are, well, I guess what I’m asking is, did you make a mark or some  sort of sign, that you'd been there before…other than the rock walls?"

"Um, no sir, well, hmmm, no sir, but I do remember the rock walls. What's odd, sir, is sometimes I'd find one that had been built by someone else. It made me think that someone had been exploring out on the steppe a long time ago."

"Do you think you could find them again?"

K'ndar thought. "Yes sir, I do. I'd go from rock wall, ride for part of the day, build another, ride for the part of the day, etc. I'd use the same campsite over and over again, adding to the walls each time. If you stuck to the rivers, you'd find enough  rocks. Out on the steppe, not so much. So I could say that my rock walls were like dragonstones."

"Did you ever strike out across the steppe, away from the watercourse?"

"Once, sir. Only once. I'll never do that again. It's completely unmarked out there. You can get lost so easily. There are trails cut by the animals, but they wander all over."

"What happened to make not want to leave the watercourse ever again?"

"I got turned around, sir. I had no idea but I was riding in big circles. The grass was up to my chest, I was riding what I thought was a straight line, until I found a path that had been pushed down into the grass and what were obviously horse tracks. For a moment I thought I was on the trail of a herd of wild horses until I recognized the hoofprints. They were from my own horses. I'd ridden in a big circle. That's when I got scared. Even though I thought I knew what I was doing, I didn't, and if I didn't get back to the river before nightfall, I might never get home. I thought I'd backtrack, take the path I'd been on, and started, but my horse just flat out refused. So I gave him his head. He turned around and went in a direction I would NEVER have taken, because I was convinced it was the wrong one. I was that confused. But my horse was a good one, with a lot of brains, smarter than me!  We made it back to the river  just in time for me to make a camp, I was kilometers away from my last camp. I never tried it again."

"Huh. I would never have thought a big empty space like the steppe could be so..risky," D'nis said.

"It is, sir, it's best left to the wild things. But it's beautiful out there, sir. So wild and empty, a quiet that is so…so silent you can hear avians from kilometers away. But it's never dead silent, the wind in the grass is almost always moving it, the insects in the grass, the singing of the avians, you can hear the whinnies of horses and the calling of whers and see them many many kilometers away."

"Whers…call?"

"The wild ones do, sir, they're not as horrible as everyone seems to think. Watchwhers are so unhappy. I feel so sorry for them. They don't deserve being chained up.

Oh, and the stars. The stars! Sometimes they're so bright you can almost read by them at night."

D'nis felt the tug, the desire to see it.

"I want to go out and survey it, on dragonback, of course. This will extend our range, I was thinking of flying for an hour, then set down, make a dragonstone and a surveyor's mark, then go again. Do you know if the rivers go all the way to the southern coast?"

"I have no idea, sir, none whatsoever. Oh, also, in a dry summer, the rivers dry up.  Then you're really at the end of your trip because no water means…well, no water."

D'nis nodded. D'mitran, who'd been quiet all this time, said, "Are there many people living out there, on the steppe?"

K'ndar shook his head. "No one LIVES on the steppe. We live on the edge, in the foothills of the mountains, where there's trees and water. There's our cothold, then the next one about fifteen kilometers east of ours, then another family a good thirty kilometers from THEM. Not many folks out there, at least on the steppe side of the hills. I can't say if there are folks living further west, I never got that far. I was always heading south, following the rivers. I only know of those two cotholds other than mine.  It's pretty desolate. No, not desolate…remote. Singing Waters Hold was the nearest hold to us, and that was a long, LONG day's ride, one way."

"I remember finding your cothold, the first time we were out there. The map showed a mark showing your cothold but we didn't believe it could actually be an occupied cothold!"

"Sir, I'm glad you did find us…otherwise, I'd still be out there, a dungbooted kid without a hope of being anything but a herder."

D'nis was thinking of the logistics. "If we were to ..well, do you think your family would have any objection  to our using your cothold as a base?"

"Not at all, sir, no sir. Especially now that my father's dead, I'd be surprised if my brothers would be anything other than welcoming. I think it's a good idea, really..I get to visit my family, and I'm also familiar with the first 100 kilometers or so."

"I mean, in terms of providing us provender. Unless things change, I'm planning on flying out from your cothold on a daily basis, landing and surveying and creating dragonstones…the books I've read call them 'benchmarks'..to the next by flying, and then return to base by going between. This will prevent us having to camp out, or carrying a lot of rations. I'm planning on being out there for, oh, a week."

K'ndar was stumped. "Sir, I don't know. I've not lived at the cothold for almost two years now, and haven't been home to visit since graduation. And then it was only to drop my mum off. But…if we take some foodstuffs with us, it should be welcome. I can send my fire lizard to tell them, and ask if they want us to bring something. If nothing else, I plan on bringing a lot of fresh fruit to my mum…they don't get much out there on the steppe."

"How about some of M'rvin's ale?" D'mitran asked, smiling. M'rvin had fixed the recipe after doing research at Landing, and most of the weyr was enjoying it thoroughly.

"Sir, I don't know how to say this, but…my family doesn't drink. Much. My mum, she'll have a glass of wine, now and then, but my brothers and I, we get sick if we drink. Me, especially."

"That's interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing," D'nis said.

"It makes life as a dragonrider a bit more difficult," K'ndar said, "there have been times we'd be  sitting around the tables in the dining hall, eating and drinking, talking about the day's flight against thread, and I'd be pushed, almost harassed, why aren't you drinking? I've never admitted that I can't. Sometimes people would get angry with me, I don't know why.  Until one day I told Oscoral, the night baker, I told him I couldn't drink, and he told me, 'anytime they push you, lad, you tell them I forbid you to drink. Just tell 'em, "if you have a problem with my not drinking, you go talk to Oscoral." I had to say that once, to F'mart. The wings were all in the hall, drinking after a hard fight, and F'mart kept on me, like flies on a horse with an open sore, making it sound as if, if couldn't handle my drink, I wasn't a man. So I repeated what Oscoral had said, he looked at Oscoral and shut up. He's never bothered me again. "

"Oh, aye to THAT. Oscoral? He's big as a mountain," D'mitran said, "I don't think I'd want to go up against him even if I had a cudgel in one hand and an axe in the other."

"And, if I recall correctly, F'mart was the fool, not you. Wasn't he the one who boasted after his first threadfall to the seasoned riders? Tried to match them drink for drink? Got so sick he couldn't move?" D'nis said, laughing.

"Aye, sir, and don't think us weyrlings didn't give him a ration of razz about that, after he finally sobered up. You put him on a month's latrine duty. We had fun with THAT, we did," K'ndar laughed.