Chap. 128 The Mystery Beast

Chap. 128  The Mystery Beast

Raventh backwinged and landed, gently, onto the caisson.

Nicely done

Well, I do have a passenger who's old

K'ndar dismounted and unbuckled Rahman. The old man gratefully took his hand, and Raventh made a knee as deep as possible. The astronomer gingerly stepped onto caisson.

He turned and patted Raventh's neck. 

"He's a nice dragon, K'ndar. That landing didn't so much as jar my bones."

"He likes you, sir, he's very careful of those he likes."

"Thank you, Raventh," Rahman said, reaching up to scratch the brown dragon underneath the chin."

Don't stop Raventh said, his eyes whirling blue.

K'ndar laughed. 

"He said, don't stop. He'll let you take his hide off." 

Rahman chuckled. Siskin chipped. He was perched just behind Raventh's head, holding onto the dragon's collar.

"Yes, I know, you too, Siskin," K'ndar said. 

"That's a nice collar Raventh's wearing, where did you get it?"

"My little sister made it. She lives at the Weyr. She made Siskin's harness, too, but he's not wearing it right now."

Siskin opened his wings and let the wind lift him Raventh's neck.

He projected happiness. This was much easier to fly in. 

The wind was not as powerful today as it had been in the past. Siskin began to sweep over the armored willows, hunting.

Rahman looked at the caisson with a critical eye. K'ndar could almost hear him thinking.

At their feet, the caisson was almost white with guano. But there was also scat, obviously not from an avian. He collected several of them, putting them into a collection sack.

"What a beautiful day," Rahman said, looking across the Strait to the other island. 

"It IS nice, today, the last time we were here, the wind was so strong you couldn't hear the other person talk. See the sea birds? They're all over the cliff face, both sides. I am surprised they can nest on a vertical face, in windy conditions, but …they are. They do." K'ndar said.

The sky was full of seabirds and wherries. The sun sparkled on the sea, far below. The white caps attested to the speed of the current. 

"I'm wondering, now," Rahman said, "if the people who installed this intended to put a wind turbine across the strait, or merely intended to put a single one on a post," he said.

"Don't know, sir. There's not one across from here."

Siskin began to whistle in alarm. K'ndar had only heard it once or twice. He looked behind him and saw-

EYES. Big ones.

His heart jumped in his chest. They were low to the ground, half obscured by the tangled limbs of the willows. 

Then they vanished. 

Siskin came swooping in, chittering.

He pushed an image of an animal into K'ndar's mind.

He saw that animal. He says it is moving towards where we are on this rock

"Sir, turn and look. There's something out there behind this caisson, in the willows. Low," he said. 

The old man turned.

K'ndar lifted his binoculars, hoping to see something. Those eyes, they are  too big, he thought, for us not to see the rest of it in  those low willows. Maybe they're not eyes. 

Siskin dived into the willows.

With a screech, the animal leaped out and ran right at them.

"It's that animal!' It's the same beast!" K'ndar shouted, excited. 

Siskin was hard on its tail.

"Siskin!" he shouted, not wanting the lizard to hurt it-or get hurt.

It leaped onto the caisson, racing between the two men and then launched into space.

"NO!" K'ndar yelled, running to the edge of the caisson, and stopping right at the edge, almost going over in his hurry.

His binos to his eyes, he managed to see the creature, fully expecting to see it plunging to its death in the sea.

But no!

The creature was gliding, a flap of its skin stretching between fore and hind legs. It billowed up above the back. The tail, flattened like a rudder, steered it confidently. He watched as it glided without losing altitude until it reached the island on the other side the strait. 

There it hit the vertical face and quickly scrambled upwards, disturbing hundreds of seabirds and wherries in its path. 

The last he saw of it was its tail as it gained the top of the cliff and vanished into the willows.

"Wow! Did you see that? It flew all the way across the strait!" he said.

I have to sketch it, right now, he thought, ripping his pack off his back to dig out his notebook.

"It was silver, like metal. Did you see, sir, SILVER. And those markings, I thought they were eyes, at first," he said, drawing hurriedly. No, this won't do. I have time, he thought.

"He looked black, to me. I saw the eyes, then they turned black," Rahman said, 'But then I saw it's true eyes. What we saw, they're markings on its skin."

"If only I'd had a camera!" K'ndar said, exasperated.

"Nay, K'ndar,"  Rahman said, "You wouldn't have had a chance. You're better off using your brain and memory. Sketching works, my lad. Make note that I think it changes color."

Siskin had landed on Raventh. K'ndar drew what he'd seen, before the memory faded or changed.

"Those markings, K'ndar. They were almost the same markings you see on the face of a tabby cat, just above the eyes. They're protective coloration, I think," the old man said, "Camouflage." 

"That was no cat, though."

"I agree. I wonder if, well, it's obviously not a Pern native. And I've never seen anything like it on the other continents, North OR South," Rahman said.

"Me neither. I wonder, maybe it's confined to this continent?"

"That would make sense. We'll have to see what Landing makes of it. That beast, he acted as if he knew exactly what he was doing."

"He DID! That was amazing, seeing him glide without wings," K'ndar said. He forced himself to slow down, turning to a fresh page to make a more careful drawing of the animal. As he did, he relived the entire sequence that lasted all of a few seconds. 

"I thought for a moment, oh no, he's going to die. But no!"

He saw something glittering in the sun where the animal had erupted from the willows.

It was a tuft of fur, clinging to one of the limbs. There was a little more behind the willow on the edge. It was fur. But fur unlike anything he'd ever seen. Or felt. It was soft, softer than anything, and it changed color as one moved it around. 

He scrambled back up onto the caisson to show Rahman. He held it tightly, as it was so soft that it threatened to blow away on the wind.

"It's fur, sir. I thought it was metal at first, it looked so metallic. But it's fur. Look, at this. It turns color, depending on how you look at it. This way, it's silver. This way, it's black."

Rahman looked at the tuft in K'ndar's fingers. 

"I need my glasses," he mourned.

 

K'ndar laughed. 

"No, sir. Here are my binoculars. They're a microscope, too. I'll hold the fur and you look at it with the microscope function. Here, move this wheel, here, to change the resolution." He kept a death grip on the fur.

Rahman gasped.

"Amazing," he said.

"What?"

"That the ancients could create such a versatile thing like this. We're so…so backwards now. How long will it take us to reach the same level they were at?"

Impatiently, K'ndar felt the need to steer Rahman back to the FUR, sir, the FUR. But he held onto his tongue. 

"Interesting. This fur. The hairs are hollow, they have no color in them. It's almost as if they were crystalline. No, no, they're not crystalline, they're of a structure I've never seen before. But then again, I'm an astronomer, I've never done much inspection of animal hair or fur."

He handed the binoculars back to K'ndar.

"Well, lad, I'm betting you'd like to get that sample…and your sketch! to Landing as soon as possible, eh?"

K'ndar wanted exactly that, but he'd been tasked to transport Rahman to the caisson, while the rest of the survey team was out working the baseline sampling.

"My job, today, sir, is to transport you. Wherever you choose to go. This…this was a bonus. I'm so happy I finally got a good look at that animal!"

 drawings by Khutulan. All rights reserved.