Chap. 99 The coastline settlement

Chap. 99 The Coastline Settlement

This time, K'ndar brought plenty of collecting bags and jars to the southernmost coastline.

They landed right at the spot he'd built the cairns.

The wind hadn't dropped much, he noted. It would be a miserable place to live, if the wind blew all the time. However, he did note that the surf had calmed, a little. The tide was out, maybe that was it. Still, the roar and thunder of the surf made it almost impossible to carry on a conversation, unless one shouted.

They clambered in amongst the boulders and rocks. K'ndar collected as much of the insect and beach life as he had jars, then stashed them on the greensward to keep himself unencumbered.

Siskin and Zeta went exploring, too. They were digging in the sand and, apparently finding things to eat.

"I found the cringle over here, I think," B'rost said. He began to comb the area with more scrutiny.

In the meantime, Lindea looked at the tree line and saw an opening in the dense vegetation. 

She made her way towards it, instinctively knowing it was where the 'settlement' would be. 

K'ndar came up behind her. "See how the wind has sculpted the trees? The tops are low, here, at the windward edge, and slope upwards towards the back of the tree. They're as neatly shaped as if someone had cut them. That's the wind doing that," he said, thinking out loud. 

Once they got into the thickets, the wind dropped.

They found what could only have been a man made enclosure. 

It hadn't been occupied in many, many years. Trees had grown up in the middle of a rude rock wall. The rocks, in some spots, had fallen over, but it was apparent that at one time, someone had laboriously built the walls to protect them from the wind and weather. 

"So small," she said, wonderingly, "why would someone want to live here?"

K'ndar shook his head, wondering, too.

She found a depression in one corner of the rock wall. Digging into it, she discovered that, beneath a solid layer of moss, plants, roots and soil, a small, rock lined fire pit had been created. 

"Here's a fire pit, so they were here, for a while. Pern knows how old this thing is."

"I wonder if they didn't move further inland, to escape the wind and surf. I sure wouldn't have wanted to live this close for any length of time."

"Should we go looking?"

"I know that this forest goes for a fair distance, then opens up into savannah. Then, after that's it's open steppe. For a long, very long way."

B'rost is calling. Can't you hear him? Raventh said.

No

He's still on the beach. He's yelling that he's found something.

"Come on, B'rost has found something else," he said.

They made their way down to the shingle, rock strewn beach.

B'rost had his foot on a rock that had had an iron stake hammered into it. The stake was almost completely rusted away.

"Look at this. And, here, and here, and here! There's hunks of iron, little pieces in the sand. What was going on here?"

Lindea was thinking, thinking. She looked behind her and then at the rock. Something about the way it was situated….

Suddenly, she made the connection.

She put her back against the rock with the iron rod and walked in a straight line, noticing that there were no rocks in that line. It was not a natural absence-with a few exceptions, the rocks had obviously been moved to allow clearance for…for what? She walked towards the tree line in exaggerated steps. The path she took led up a small, naturally occurring gap between the boulders at the base of the greensward.  At that point, she dug down and discovered a pavement of sorts, rocks that had purposefully been placed into the soil.

K'ndar and B'rost followed behind.

"I know what happened here. I know," she said.

She made her way up the slope to the greensward. There, at the top, was a tall, large boulder, solidly set into the soil.  Going to her knees, she looked closely at the base of it. 

"Yes," she said, more to herself.

"What? What do you mean, yes?" B'rost asked.

She peeled the lichen growing at the base of the boulder off, revealing scarred rock. The lichen had protected the marks from the sand and the wind.

"See these marks? They were left by a chain."

She stood up, doing the geometry in her head.

"Sometime, a long time ago, a ship went aground here. It might have been caught sideways-we call that broaching to, or they may have just run up on the rocks, caught by the current. Who knows how many made it out alive. "

"The surf must have killed many of them," she said, looking distressed,"'but a few of them made it to shore. I think, back then, the edge of the water was up near where it's grass now.  Maybe they waited for the tide to go out, so that they could pull the ship off the rocks, back into the water. They tried to drag the ship off the rocks, by using that rock with the rod pounded into it, reeve a block and tackle, using this big boulder as an anchor point. They tried to get the ship out of the rocks. But…it didn't work. The sea battered the ship to pieces. They were stranded here. They tried to save everything they could, to survive. Maybe they tried to patch the boat, but…given how rough it is here, I bet…I bet it didn't work."

Being a sailor from birth, she knew, better the two men with her, how desperate the survivors had been. It was a most depressing scenario. 

"They had to have lived for a little while," B'rost said, holding several pieces of rusted metal,  "they built a shelter."

K'ndar thought of the achingly long distance they were from any sort of civilization. The steppe went for several thousand kilometers from this point. 

"They…oh, boy, it couldn't have been pleasant. Once they realized just how far they were from help, you wonder. Unless someone else came by, they died here."

"Or chanced crossing the steppe. Even we didn't know how big it is, until now."

They were quiet, each reflecting on what it must have felt like, marooned. Just like the criminal K'ndar had transported. One didn't need shackles to be a prisoner.

Raventh shouted, waking K'ndar from his reverie.

Dolphins!! Dolphins! Raventh said, excited. 

K'ndar! Come get aboard, there are dolphins out there, way past the rocks. I want to see them.

K'ndar went running, thinking that the dolphins would probably be able to tell him what had happened here. He hopped aboard Raventh. The fire lizards took wing but were blown off course. They allowed the wind to blow them back to Rath, where they took a firm grasp of his harness.

Raventh launched into the air and flew out to sea until he was well past the shoreline. There was a pod of dolphins swimming with the current. He flew over them and roared to draw their attention.

The dolphins stopped and stood in the water, squeaking at Raventh.

"Dolphins!! Hello, dolphins!!" K'ndar cried, feeling rather silly-what if they didn't hear him? But the dolphins responded.

Raventh went into a tight, circular holding pattern, fascinated, as always, by the dolphins. 

"Who you?" one cried, in a pitch he'd never heard before. Did dolphins have accents?

"K'ndar!!"

"Not know Keendar!"

"Know Swash?  Know Leap?" he shouted.

"KNOW SWASH! YES!! You far from home cove, why you here? Need rescue?"

"Not rescue! Who are you?"

"Teke!! Prolar!" and a half dozen other squeaked names that he didn't catch.

"Who needed rescue? When?!"

"Long time past! Ship hit rocks, many humans die.  Can't save all. Some live, long time. Long ago!"

"Get eaten by sharks?"

"Shark?  Not know what is shark."

K'ndar stretched out his arms in front of his face, demonstrating the long head. "Long head.  Eyes on side of head. Sharp teeth! No breathe air. Flat tail, up and down, not like yours."

"Big?"

"BIG."

"Big like dolphin?

"Bigger. Like dragon."

Teke and Prolar consulted with the others.

"Mosar. MOSAR! "

"Yes!"

"DANGER. We kill them. They kill us. Danger, no go near."

"One bit my dragon on tail."

They laughed. 

"How mosar bite dragon on tail?"

"Long story"

"You tell Swash, yes!! Then we laugh!"

I didn't think it was funny.The wind is picking up, it's getting difficult to hold station in it. I feel a squall coming, too.

Okay. I'll cut this short. We can probably learn more from our dolphins back home.

"Does Leap know? Swash know?"

"Know what?"

"About shipwreck. Humans and ship on rocks."

"Yes! Tillek tell everyone!

 We go now, you call Swash, he tell more."

"Thank you!"

"Tell him how mosar bite dragon on tail!!"

K'ndar didn't answer that..he suspected it was going to be a joke all over Pern in a few weeks.

"You come back, yes? Long time we no see humans."

"We will!"

They squealed and leaped, and continued on their way.

Raventh gratefully returned to the greensward and landed.

"Did you hear what they said?" K'ndar asked Lindea.

"Not much, what with the surf and the wind."

"They told me just what you said. A ship hit the rocks, many of the people died but enough survived the wreck and lived here for a while. They said our dolphins will be able to tell us in better detail."

Being right didn't make her feel any better. 

"What's B'rost doing?" he asked, seeing the blue rider weaving his way  as quickly as possible through the rock strewn shore.

"He said he wanted to get more of the 'skeleton'. 

"Oh. We found a huge skull, but I think it was so degraded that Landing isn't going to be able to identify what it was."

B'rost soon joined them, carrying a large neck vertebrae. It was as big as his head.

"Did the dolphins leave?" he said, a bit out of breath from hurrying.

"Yes, it was hard for Raventh to hold position over them."

"I was going to ask them to identify this bone, because Landing is dragging their heels on telling us what the skull is from," he said.

"That's a good idea. I'm betting our dolphins can tell us, " K'ndar said.

"Did they tell you about what happened here, Lindea?" he asked.

"Yes, I was right. They were shipwrecked here. Some folks lived here for a long while before they…died."

She stopped, looking at the rough surf, feeling the salt spray stinging her face. She couldn't help but feel saddened.

"No matter who they were, they were my people," she said.