Chap. 91 The Chase

Chap.91  The Chase

They'd been working their way steadily south, surveying the steppe.

K'ndar had asked to visit the site they'd been chased from by the locusts before they continued on.

"I don't know, K'ndar, seems to me the steppe would rather not we be there," D'nis said.

"Just a brief stop, sir, to see what's left after the locusts. Please, sir, it's for my biological survey."

D'nis sighed. They couldn't possibly have another bad thing happen there, could they?

"Okay, you're right, but…"

"Just for a few samples, please?"

"Aye."

"Well, I’m just going to hang in the sky above you," B'rost said, "I don't trust that place anymore."

They all looked at B'rost the Brave askance. "You're the last one I'd expect to hang back,"K'ndar teased.

"You didn't get your boots eaten off your feet," B'rost retorted.

"I feel the same way," D'mitran said, "I'll only come down if you aren’t eaten alive."

He wasn't. 

As they approached, they could see the ground seething with thousands of birds and wherries. They rose up in a giant flock at the sight of the dragons, blackening the skies in an eerie resemblance to the locust cloud, and deafening them with their cries. They flew off to a safe spot farther south, and then landed.

As K'ndar had surmised, there wasn't a blade of grass left. What WAS left were dead locusts. The bare ground was covered with dead and dying locusts in their thousands. The birds and wherries, as well as every other creature that crept or burrowed on the steppe, were feasting on them. 

 Siskin jumped down and immediately began to wolf them down.

"It's safe," he called to his teammates hovering overhead. They landed, tentatively, then with growing…if embarrassed…courage. 

"They're all dead," B'rost said, in wonder, kicking at the mounds of dead locusts with a new pair of boots, "Was the grass poison to them?"

K'ndar was on his knees, digging, with Siskin's help. 

Looking up at the blue rider, he said, "No, I don't think so. If my hurried research is correct on the locusts from earth, they hatch enmasse, which is why I didn't find any larvae the other day. They all hatch at the same time. They come out of the ground, mate almost immediately, fly to a spot, like this one, with plenty of grass, devour it, lay their eggs in the now bared soil, and die. All in about a week."

"Look, there's a few that are still alive! Siskin, no!"

But Siskin was quicker, and had snatched up a gravid female in the last throes of egg laying.  Now that they had the sight picture, they could see, here and there, a female laying her eggs in amongst the hundreds of thousands of dead ones.  This time, K'ndar was able to pick them up individually as the locusts were moribund, feeble and had even shed their wings. He placed them in several jars, individually.

"I think these are the very last. The rest are dead. Look at the birds!!"

Their dragons had chased away the flocks of birds and wherries, but the steppe was endless and there were plenty of spots for the eaters.

He dug several soil samples and then stood up, brushing off his knees.

"By the egg, look. The dead go on forever, it seems." D'nis said. "Fascinating, but I don't think I want to go through that again." 

"Whew," D'mitran said, "They're beginning to stink."

D'nis took several pictures of everything, and then said, "Let's go on…we've got a lot of steppe to cover."

The next site, 100 kilometers away, was untouched by the insects. Herbivores of every description were peacefully grazing. They set down and began their surveying. 

The dragons, now used to the routine, settled down to watch. 

K'ndar. Several of the pronghorn are coming.

"Now what?" he said, out loud. 

"What's up?" B'rost asked. 

"Look. We have visitors." They all stopped their work and watched as several pronghorn walked towards them, with an obvious sense of purpose. At a safe distance, they stopped and watched. Then they came closer, and closer.

"Don't they SEE us?" B'rost asked, amazed at the antelope's courage.

"Oh, they see us, alright," K'ndar said, "but, my research mentions that they're both highly intelligent and ''extremely curious''. I have a feeling they've never seen a dragon or a human."

If they get close enough, maybe I could catch one? Raventh asked

You just had a herdbuck yesterday. You aren't hungry, are you?

No. But it's fun to hunt, even if you don't kill

I would ask that you don't disturb them. They're harmless to us. And beautiful

D'nis and D'mitran were filming the antelope as they approached. One large buck came up within a few meters of the team. They all stood quietly, trying not to scare it away. 

"My word, they're beautiful," K'ndar said. The buck was so close they could see its hide twitching to dislodge insects. The others held back, but were curious, too.  After several minutes, in the time of which they learned they could move about quietly, the pronghorn finally seemed satisfied and turned to walk away. 

Rath launched.

"Rath! Nooo!" B'rost yelled, but Rath was intent on catching the buck.

The pronghorn bolted. 

"Look at it go!" K'ndar said.

"They're OUTRUNNING him!"

Rath was flying flat out, as fast as a blue could go, and the pronghorn were leaving him in their dust. 

Pronghorn by Michael Despines Photography

"They're not even TRYING!" D'mitran crowed in admiration.

Rath slowed and landed with a thump, hissing in frustration. The pronghorn ran on for another kilometer, then slowed and stopped, then turned around, as if to taunt the dragons to try again.

He's not very happy Raventh said, laughing, he's never met anything that could go faster than him

"Bet they don't come that close again," D'nis said, laughing, too.

"Please tell me you got that on the datalink?"

D'mitran looked crestfallen.

"Nay", he said, looking at the tablet in his hands, "I was just as fascinated as the rest of you."