Chap. 117 The Geologist

Chap. 117  The Geologist

"Hello, K'ndar! Are you busy?"

K'ndar looked up to see Greta, the team's newly assigned geologist.

"Just finishing up a message to send to my weyr," he said, "Won't take but a few more minutes."

She sat down across from him, quietly. Her blue fire lizard wheedled at Siskin, wanting to play. Siskin, however, desisted. Being in harness, complete with courier bell, he knew that he was 'on duty'.

Greta waited patiently as K'ndar finished the note he was sending to Lindea.

Hello, Lindea, here's a sketch of the dragonstones at the Western Observatory. Also, here's a sketch of the pattern for finding me, as we'll be out in the field. This is just in case you need to contact us while we're here. We'll be heading out in the next day or so to start our survey. Western is, from what I can see so far, very different from Kahrain despite being on the same latitude, only in the northern hemisphere. Fairly cold up here but not as bad as at Tillek, and the housing and food is much better. But they can't match your pies. How is the recovery coming? I bet you're about done. K'ndar

He folded the note and stretched out his arm. Siskin obediently hopped to his forearm and K'ndar tucked the note into the message pouch. Staring intently into Siskin's eyes, he visualized Lindea's face and her gold lizard, Zeta. 

"Siskin. Find Lindea. Deliver to Lindea," he said. Siskin whickered and launched, very purposefully giving the ceramic bell a shake, then vanished.

"What!" Greta asked, amazed.

"We use our fire lizards as couriers."

"I never thought of doing THAT. Where did you get the harness? And the bell?"

So he told her about his sister making the harness, and Terilyn making the bells.

"Siskin loves the job," he said, "usually he's ready to play, but when he's in harness, he's all business."

"I have to teach Roany that."

"Roany? Like the horse?"

"Aye. See how his color changes? His head is dark blue but the rest is a lighter blue. Like a blue roan."

"Where did you get Roany?" he asked.

"I bought him as an egg from a trader. This was last year, no, maybe earlier. A few months before Turnover. I'd seen other people with fire lizards and wanted one in the worst way. I'm pretty happy with him. There's not many of them from where I'm from."

"You're from High Reaches?"

"No, I'm from Ista Weyr. Since Thread ended, I've been wandering, pretty much. I've been a lot of different places."

"All by yourself?"

"Aye. I know most of the dragonstones, you know how it's crammed into your head during Weyrling Training. I just think, oh, I wonder what that place looks like, and I go."

That sounded…interesting. He'd been so busy in the last few years, his innate wanderlust had gone dormant. "So, you're a dragon nomad," he said. He liked the sound of it. 

"Aye. I like it. I'm a loner, most of the time, I really like to explore. When I met Rahman, he gave me several books, right off the press! and one of them was "The Geology of Pern" "

"By DR Plank?" K'ndar ended for her, hoping to impress her. 

"Um, no. I don't know that name, but I've got my books with me, I can tell you the author later on. Geology just…just clicked with me. So I go all over, looking at different landforms, seamounts, islands, volcanoes, sediment layers, rocks…rocks and rocks. I take a hammer and a collection bag with me wherever I go. My mum says I have rocks in my head. I always was interested in them, even as a kid. But it was the books that taught me so much and having a dragon makes exploring easy," she said. 

"I'm sort of the same way. Rahman gave me several books, but for me, it was biology that snared me. On our last survey, and one of my classmates, is B'rost. He's a geologist, too."

"I'd like to meet him, someday, we can talk rocks. I've not met more than one or two geologists, and I can talk rocks for days."

"Kind of like me and horses, especially," he said, but in the back of his mind, there was a bit of possessiveness, something he'd never felt in himself before. He wanted to know her a little better before letting B'rost into the picture.

But B'rost was safe, he reassured himself, B'rost's gay.  

His bell announced Siskin's return. His eyes were whirling green with excitement.

"Good lad! Did you find Lindea? Of course you did, there's a FINE lizard," K'ndar said, playing it up a bit. "Hungry?"

Siskin shook his head.

Lindea gave him a nice meal. He's fairly full Raventh said.

K'ndar removed the blue's harness. "There you go, my lad, go play with Roany."

Siskin chipped, but didn't leave his shoulder. 

The harness pouch held a message, but he was too polite to read it in front of Greta.

"You have to teach me to train Roany to do that," she said. 

"It's easy. You already know how smart they are. It just takes time and a little patience. Having a dragon to talk to them helps a LOT," he said. 

"You're right. Earth just adores Roany. She tells me what he's thinking when I can't figure it out," she said, and then, "Is there a message in the pouch?"

"Yes, but.."

"Oh, go ahead and read it. I'm going to go up to Rahman's observatory in a few minutes, to look through the telescope."

"That's what I'd planned on doing, too! It's dark now, so, you go on ahead, I'll catch up in a few minutes," he said, grateful for her courtesy.

She left. Siskin purred. "You must be sleepy, little one, why don't you go curl up on Raventh?" he said to the blue.

Siskin chipped in agreement and launched.

He pulled the message from the harness. Lindea had written it on the back of the note he'd sent. One didn't waste paper, it was precious stuff.

Hello, K'ndar. Thanks for the stones and pattern information. We've two more days work, total on the recovery, then it's done. Right now I'm at the Weyr, picking up some supplies for the field kitchen.  I'll be glad to be done, while it's been fun, it's been a lot of work, and I want to get back to the Weyr for good. Although I must admit it's been great seeing my brother and his shipmates.  Terilyn's green Putzu was here, with a note saying she's got another batch of courier bells made up and ready to deliver. I'll have one of B'rants weyrlings pick them up. She didn't know you were on survey again. Her note said, too, that Putzu surprised her by laying a clutch of eggs in her garden. She's been very careful to not let anyone near them, she doesn't want to impress a dozen more fire lizards! I KNOW the feeling. Zeta's clutch has fledged, so I don't have to worry..for a while..Lindea

He knew how she felt. He'd not had a chance to explain Putzu's surprise pregnancy to Terilyn. 

His mind was unsettled. He'd always, subconsciously, thought of Lindea as 'his' girl, although he'd never, ever made that known, to anyone.  Nor had she made any indication that he was anything but a friend. But this girl…Greta. 

Time will tell Raventh said.