Chap. 68 The Lizard show

Chap. 68  The Lizard Show

Picture of Keeso, Coora and Sisi is provided by Francie herself! Francie takes commissions for portraits of all animals. You can find examples of her work on her blog, https://tailsfromprovence.com

K'ndar and Glyena, his sister, were enjoying Singing Waters Hold's Market. They'd flown in on Raventh earlier in the day. It was the first time he'd been able to talk with his sister since the hurricane.
She chattered away, telling him all the things she'd been doing and learning.
"I love school. I can do math, K'ndar!  And I LOVE my sisters. We have so much fun! We laugh and laugh. We do crafts and one of my friends wants to learn to ride."

"Not Lindea?"

"No, she's too busy. Did you know her fire lizard had eggs? A bunch of kids impressed them all. One of them is my friend. Do you think I should try to get one?"

"Little sis, I can tell you right now, you are too busy! I know I am with Siskin and I don't have school."
He was saying this out of self defense, he knew. He didn't want irate parents coming to his weyr, demanding he explain why he encouraged the kids to impress the fire lizards.

Glyena pouted for just a moment, then brightened. "Okay. But you have Raventh, so .."

"And you have Jordan. You ARE brushing him daily, feeding him, seeing to his hooves, right?"

"Of course, " she said, scornfully.

"So...you see what I mean?"

"I guess so. It's okay. Maybe later I'll get a fire lizard."

He could see that fostering was doing her good. Not that his mother had been a bad one, no, in fact Glyena wasn't as obnoxious as she could have been BECAUSE of their mum's shielding. But Glyena seemed to be happy,settled and involved, and seemingly had completely lost the hostile and confrontational attitude that their father's abuse had caused.

The shrieks of children's laughter drew their attention.

"Look," Glyena said, tugging on K'ndar's hand, "It's a puppet show!"

But it wasn't.

It took several moments for K'ndar to recognize Francie. She was in a costume behind a curtain that backed a large platform, with various items attached to it: a ladder, a rope strung between two. Her three fire lizards were perched on elevated, individual platforms with their names on the front. 

A crowd of children formed an audience in front of her platforms.

Francie had handed out small fabric rings to each child, telling them to hold onto them until she needed them.

She addressed her attentive fire lizards. 

"Coora, Sisi, Keeso, I need your help. All these children have rings. I need you to get the rings and put them in a pile on your platforms.  The one with the most rings gets a treat," she said.

Coora and Sisi began flying out into the audience, taking rings from the children.

Coora, the bronze was the most industrious, picking up twice as many rings as Sisi.  Sisi began to add her rings to Coora's pile.  Keeso, the other green, picked  one from a child, placed it on her platform, then sat.

"Now isn't that smart," Francie said, approvingly, "Coora and Sisi are working together. That means they should BOTH get a treat, right?"

One said, "But Coora should get more because he's working harder than Sisi!"

"Coora gets more?"

The children all shouted "Yes!" "Because he's getting more rings!"

"I think you're right," she said.

Francie turned her attention away from the lizards. When Coora and Sisi flew out into the audience, Keeso, the other green, flew to their platform and took two rings. She then put them on HER platform.

It took one or two trips for the children to realize what Keeso was doing. She was STEALING!!

"Look! Coora! Sisi! Keeso stole your rings!! The children shouted at the two lizards, but they were oblivious.

 "Ma'am, Keeso stole some rings!"

"She did, she took them from Coora and Sisi's pile!"

Francie, shocked, turned her attention back to the lizards. Keeso sat on her pile, looking innocent.

"Keeso! Did you steal those rings?" she accused the green.  Keeso looked at her, twisting her head to the side.

"What do you mean, "WHAT rings?"

The audience howled. 

"That's not right, you know that, Keeso. You need to get your OWN rings."

Keeso  chittered in what sounded like a snicker. Coora and Sisi resumed fetching rings.

Francie turned away again, absorbed in some task behind the curtain. She was wearing an absurdly small felt hat that tried to fall off. Francie took the hat off and put it atop a spike. 

She bent down behind the curtain. Keeso darted in, snatched the hat, then flew to a child in the audience and carefully placed it atop the child's head. Then she went back to her pile of rings.

The child, surprised at the attention, sat very still, being very careful to not lose the hat. She was beaming with pride.

Francie straightened up and looked around.

"Where….where is my hat?"

The children looked at the girl, then back at Francie and the lizards. Some of them pointed at the girl. That one, who, just a moment ago was wearing it proudly, suddenly looked horrified.

Francie looked out into the audience. She pointed at the victim.

"There's my hat!"

"Ma'am, ma'am!'' the children all shouted, "Keeso took it and dropped it on her head."

"She did, she did," the victim cried, almost in tears.

Francie, looking angry, put her hands on her hips and glared at Keeso.

"KEESO?"

Keeso disappeared.

"Keeso, you come back here this minute!" Francie shouted to the empty sky. The children roared.

Keeso re-appeared.  

"That was naughty of you, Keeso. You go get my hat and make amends." She handed Keeso a wrapped treat. The green flew to the girl with the hat, dropped the treat into her lap, plucked the hat off the girl's head and returned it to Francie.

The children cheered.

"Now, then, who should get a treat for the most rings?" Francie asked.

"Coora and Sisi! Yay!!"

Francie stepped out from behind the curtains and handed three children a treat.  "Now, when I count to three, I want you to throw them high as you can into the air. Ready? One...two..THREE!"

All three lizards leaped into the air and snagged a treat each. Then they landed in front of Francie and bowed to the audience. Francie bowed, too, and said,"Thank you, thank you all for your help."

The audience roared and clapped.

K'ndar had to admit, it was very clever and very, very funny. As the crowd dispersed, Glyena came out and took K'ndar's hand. 

"When are you going to teach Siskin tricks?"

"I didn't know you could! I will have to get with Francie."

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Francie is an accomplished artist as well as rider to green Motanith. She provided the above picture of her fire lizards, bronze Coora, and greens Sisi (the sleepy one) and Keeso. Francie takes commissions for portraits of all animals. You can find examples of her work at her blog, https://tailsfromprovence.com

All rights reserved to the above picture. 

Thank you, Francie, for your picture of your fire lizards.