Chap. 98 The Mystery Item

Chap. 98  The mystery item

B'rost was eating breakfast when K'ndar spied him, alone, in the dining hall. He got a plateful of breakfast and sat down next to him.

"What's on your agenda for today? It's a rest day."

B'rost had the rusted 'thing' on the table. He'd been obsessing about it since finding it the week before.

"I'm going back to the spot I found this. K'ndar, it's been driving me crazy. No one seems to know what it is, it's obviously technological in nature. Plus I want to do some more exploring of the settlement we found." 

He looked at K'ndar. "Want to come with?"

K'ndar wrestled with the idea for a few moments. "Sure. I'd like to see that place, too. Maybe you can find other things."

"Here comes Lindea," B'rost said. 

Her fire lizard, Zeta, was perched on her shoulder. She launched and flew up into the rafters, where she settled down, as if for a nap.

"Hey, there, mind if I join you? I've got the whole day free! It seems like everyone is still in bed. What are you two up so early for?"

"We were just talking about what we wanted to do today. I want to go back to the southern coast, we found a settlement there." B'rost said.

"Really!"

"And I want to look around for more things. I found this one and not even the Aivas data base knows what it is."

He put it on the table.

Lindea didn't hesitate. 

"That's a cringle. A flying cringle, to be exact. Sometimes it's called a 'horned' cringle," she said.

The two dragonmen stared at her in amazement.

"What? A flying what?"

"A 'flying cringle'. It's what sailors use, we put these things in the corners of sails to keep them from wearing, and to attach ropes or lines to the sails. The flying cringles make reefing or shaking a sail out a lot faster, especially in a stiff wind. Most cringles are just round, we call those grommets. Every sailor worth her boots knows what these are," Lindea said.

B'rost threw his hands up in frustration. "Do you know, I've been going crazy, searching the databases, asking every tech I could find, and a girl knows?"

Ooooops.

He stopped, flushed. 

Lindea glared at him. Zeta hissed from her perch above them.

"Ummm, I'm sorry, that didn't come out the way I meant," B'rost said, fumbling. 

The silence was leaden.

B'rost went beet red. "Look, Lindea, I'm sorry. I'm …I don't know much about girls, you know, I'm..I'm gay, and I just never..."

"Never thought a girl could know more than a boy? I find that to be-insulting." Lindea said, but there was amusement in her eye. B'rost didn't see it.

"Y…Yes. I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

"I think, were you to ask a WOMAN, that maybe we could have saved you an awful lot of wasted time and having you go crazy. Siena, our weyrWOMAN, is a sailor. I was born and raised on a ship, and have sewn more cringles into sails than you will ever know."

B'rost was silent, and miserable. He wanted to crawl under the table.

Lindea relented.

"Okay. If you stand up right now and say in a loud voice, "I, B'rost, acknowledge that girls are smarter than boys," I'll forgive you. That, and you let me come with you if you go exploring the settlement."

B'rost gulped. "I, B'rost, acknowledge that girls are smarter than boys."

"I said, STAND UP and say it in a LOUD voice."

B'rost hesitated, then stood up and said in a breaking-but loud voice, "I, B'rost, acknowledge that girls are smarter than boys!"

There were only a few people in the hall, who looked at him, curiously, but said nothing. But Hariko in the back, heard it…and laughed.

"Thank you. AND?" she said, smirking.

K'ndar stepped in, smiling, biting his tongue to keep from laughing out loud. "You can ride with me. Put on boots and a jacket, it gets cold there, these days."

A stainless steel flying or horned cringle