Chap. 130 The Mistake

Chap. 130 The Mistake

It was hard to believe the survey was done, K'ndar thought. They'd been at it long enough for him to adapt to the cold, northern climate. Well, maybe not adapt, but at least get used to it. Still, he was ready to go back to Southern's warmer climate. And sleep in his own weyr, and talk to his friends, and read. Write. 

But there were things that needed doing before they left. They were grouped in the small room that had served as their quarters. 

K'ndar was going through his field notebooks to make sure he'd annotated all his samples correctly. 

They're such a mess, he thought, thinking of his clean notebooks, waiting for transcription. I haven't had the time to transcribe them all. 

"I want to make sure we have everything squared away before we leave for good," D'nis said, "although I have to admit, most of my work seems to be dealing with the staff here at Observatory #1 for the moment. I don't think I'll be leaving today, or if I do, it will be late. 

That's not even taking the time zones into account. But if you all are ready to go, feel free."

D'nis turned to D'mitran. "I'm ready to go, all my data is in my datalink," D'mitran said. He was eager to get home. 

"Greta?"

"I'm good, sir, all my rocks and soil sampled are packed and ready to go."

"I've enjoyed having you on my team, ma'am. You've shown me that a good geologist is invaluable to a survey team," he said to the girl.

"Thank you, sir," she said.

You're a better scientist than B'rost, he thought, but B'rost is still young, and brash. Maybe he'll settle down, but unless he's changed in the time we've been here, he's still pretty scatterbrained at time, like a young puppy. Never fearing to dash in, damn the possible consequences.

B'rost rides Rath, a blue-like dragon, like rider

D'nis laughed in his mind at his dragon's comment.

"Your plans after turning in samples to Landing?"

She grinned. "Well, sir, if you don't mind, and if there's room, I think I'd like to spend some time at your weyr," she said. "I've heard so much about the steppe…I'd like to see it. And the jungles."

"That would be great!" K'ndar said, liking her greatly.

"Get with Hariko when you get there, she's our headwoman. Shouldn't be any trouble, we've plenty of room. At least we did, last time I checked," D'nis said.

"K'ndar?"

He'd been sifting through his notes, one last time. 

"The skeleton is packed safely, and all my samples are ready…but I just noticed that I forgot to completely fill out the data on one of these bags," he said, "I wrote down 'blooming species unknown,'..and then nothing. What?"

He opened up the corresponding sack.

"Oh, no!" he said, dismayed.

"What?" 

"Something got into this sack, and ate all the plant samples! I KNOW I collected plants, but look!"  He shook the bag upside down. A handful of withered bits of leaf and a few denuded stems fall to the floor, along with a handful of tiny black…droppings?

A crawler fell out of the sack. Befuddled, instead of skittering away like the six legged creatures usually did, the creature just sat, stunned.

Crawler by Todd Cameron Hamilton. See citation below

Siskin crowed and pounced on it, killing it immediately.

"See, you little beastie, what happens when you crawl into sacks uninvited?" he said to it as it went down Siskin's throat.  

Siskin peeped, his eyes whirling an uncertain orange. "No, I'm not angry, little one," he said, scratching the fire lizard.  "Good lad."

"Was it an important sample?" Greta asked.

"It was," K'ndar moaned, his notebook open to the page, "it was a species entirely new to me, and to make matters worse, I didn't fully annotate the data. I must have been distracted. I'd never seen this flower before."

He shook his head in irritation. "Not much use, then…no notes and no plants."

"It's only 8 in the morning at Landing, you still have all afternoon here," D'mitran said, "Do you think you could find it again?"

"Oh, aye," he said, "I know exactly where I found it, it's fairly thick there."

"Think it's still in bloom?"

"I don't know. I doubt it. But then, I  don't know a thing about the plant." 

"But it still can be collected, right? So, you have time, go get it now. I'm sure you annotated the cairn, you built a cairn, right?" D'mitran asked.

"Of course, see, it's…oh. I must have forgotten to draw THAT, too," he said, embarrassed at his flub, and flipping through the pages. "Gads, I'm such a wherry…but I did sketch the rocks.  Yes, I have the coordinates," he said, not sure if he remembered building a cairn…well, wait, he remembered taking one apart. Why hadn't he drawn it? "If I go now, I can be back in, oh, half an hour, and this time, the plants will be fresh," he said. 

I know where it was, too, and so does Siskin Raventh said.

"So, go. We can wait for you if you like," D'mitran said.

"No, that's okay, you and Greta go on ahead. I shouldn't be too long behind you, by the time I get to Landing, you both should be all done with turning in your samples and data."

D'nis got up, wishing he could go, too. But as leader, he still had a meeting with the observatory folks before he left.

"Right, then," D'mitran stood up, ready to board his Careth and go home, "I'm off. Greta?"

"Right behind you, sir," she said. Roany whickered…he loved going places.

"I'll be late coming in. D'mitran, if you would, let M'rvin know why I'm held up." D'nis said.

"Aye, sir," D'mitran said. 

"Before you go, I'd like to thank you all for your hard work and dedication. You three are good scientists and make a great team. You made my job that much easier. Thank you," D'nis said.

The three chorused their your welcomes.

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Everything was securely packed onto Raventh's harness. Siskin was in his regular spot, right in front of K'ndar's saddle.

We're going back to that spot, yes?

Yes he thought, pushing the coordinates into his dragon's mind.

They came out of between amidst a great cloud of birds and wherries. Oh, yeah. It's the wetlands, he thought, there's the rocks. I HAD built the cairn, then-I must have, I did, I broke it up. 

Everything is still wet. I don't want to land on the ground  Raventh said.

DON'T. It's not worth it, especially as we're alone. Just land on the boulders, like last time

The soil was covered with a multitude of tracks. He could even see where they'd walked, the prints almost filled with water seepage. Nope, if it's still this wet, after all this time, then no way do I want my dragon putting his weight on the soil. I won't go any closer to the water, it's too wet for me. The plants…they're behind me, I remember.

Siskin chittered and flew off.

"Not too far, Siskin," he called. He saw the plants he wanted, further back from the marsh.

Amazing, he thought, they're still in bloom. 

A cloud of insects flew up when he walked through the vegetation to get a good sample. He brushed them away, but they were too numerous. A flock of tiny birds, with wings like scythes appeared, drawn to the cloud of insects his steps were flushing from the vegetation. One flew just ahead of his nose, close enough for him to hear its wings. They're not afraid of me. It really must be they've never seen a human before.

K'ndar filled the collection bag full, and this time included several small plants that he'd not seen before. They're right here, right underneath the bigger ones, why didn't I collect them? What was I thinking? I'm usually not so scatterbrained. 

Then it all came back to him. I broke up the cairn because this is where we found the opals.

He turned around. Yes. That cave, right there. He walked over and looked in.  The sunlight filled up the mouth, this time, it seemed to go further back in, illuminating the walls.

They were glorious, a riot of color. Oh, my.

This is where you found the skeleton, and the pretty rocks

Yes

At his feet were the raw opals they'd dropped.  The cave was loaded with them.

He paused.

Should I take some? 

Why not?

Well…I don't know why not. It doesn't seem…fair to the others.

Can the others come and get some?

We never said we'd not come back, we just…put them back. I think…I think because we didn't want to look greedy to the others.

What is 'greedy'? 

It's complex, but it is partly when you take something that you don't need and someone else needs it, and you take it just to keep that person from getting it.

Like food?

Um…yes. Like food. Greedy is when I eat something and someone else doesn't have any food, and I eat it all without sharing, just because I can. 

You are not that way.

No, I'm not. 

Can you eat the rocks?

No, not directly. I can sell them and buy things with them, though.

Like the horse? You felt badly because you couldn't buy the horse. I don't understand why humans have to 'buy' things, but I know how you felt. Sad. I don't like you being sad.

I was sad. But it's okay, now, Francie said I could ride him any time I want. I just haven't had the time. 

But it's okay if the others come get the rocks, yes?

Yes, there's many here, more than I can ever use. But I just…I can't explain it.

I know when I am hungry, I get something to eat. If Siskin wants some, I let him eat from my kill. I let other dragons eat, too, because there's always more if I want more. Is it like that?

It is. And we agreed to keep this place secret, but didn't say anything about not picking up more. I am trying to talk myself into it.

If you don't take them all, what harm is done? 

None.

You want to take more rocks. So take some. Maybe you can buy something for someone else. But I think what I feel from you is that you want them because they're pretty.

Yes.

He was sure that someday, the others would be here to collect some opals. 

Someone has. I can smell dragon.

!

One of us?

Yes.

Who? 

All of us dragons. Siskin and Roany.  I can smell you, and the others. I can smell them as if they just left.

Huh. We humans have very poor sense of smell. How long does scent last?

It depends. In the hot sun, it goes away fast. If it's windy, it gets scattered, but we can still smell, a long way, if we're downwind. It doesn't last in water, at least not to us. I don't know about dolphins, I don't know if they can smell in the water. Scent will hang just above water, like fog.  In damp, the scent sticks to plants. I can't fit into the cave but Siskin says it's damp in there, so the scent lasts a little longer, because there's no air moving around. 

Yes, I remember it being a little damp. But it's been a month! And it should be a lot drier now.

It should have gone away by now. I can even smell the skeleton. It is much too fresh to be a month old. 

He looked at the floor of the cave. He could see their footprints, just as clear and clean-edged  as if…

By the stars.

He rushed out to dart a glance at where the sun was in the sky. It was early afternoon. The avians were still here, the water was the same level as it had been before. The flowers were still in bloom.

Oh, shards. 

Raventh. I think we timed it. I think we are back here on the same day we were here a month ago.

For once, his dragon was speechless. Then, fumbling, he said, I have never timed. Only Ruth can tell "when" as well as "where" he is.

Fear rose in his throat, but then subsided when he realized, they were okay. He'd never jumped back in time. While time traveling wasn't forbidden, per se, it was only because it was unenforceable. But it was extremely risky, even dangerous. He was very aware of riders who'd timed it…and never returned. Like that boy from the future. 

No one will know.

Don't tell anyone. Not even another dragon

I won't. But it didn't hurt, and we're okay. 

That's just it. We're okay, but..it was my mistake. I need to be much more careful with my coordinates from now on. You make me double check from now on, okay?

Okay.

He  collected a few more raw opal rocks, tucking them into his shirt. Then he picked up the cairn rocks and created the original one. I don't want to make this mistake again, he thought.

Sketch it. Make the notes. 

Thank you, Raventh, for steadying my mind and my hand. 

He sketched everything, wondering at the same time how many scientists had the opportunity to go back in time to gather more data? 

I Will Be More Careful from now on, he promised himself. 

He closed the notebook with a snap.

Call Siskin. Then, we go to Landing, and I know what time it is there. Then we go home.

Check your coordinates! Raventh said, chuckling.

K'ndar laughed.

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Illustration of crawler by Todd Cameron Hamilton,  The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern,

2nd edition, 1997, Del Ray/Ballantine Books,  pg. 12.