Chap. 132 Homecoming

Chap. 132  Homecoming

By the time he'd left Landing and returned to the Weyr, it was late.

K'ndar hung up his harness in its usual spot in his weyr. Shrugging his backpack off his back, he let it drop with a thump. It sounded a bit rocky. Shards, he thought, my nocs are in there. He emptied it of notebooks, pencils that had been worn to nubs, worn out riding gloves and his goggles, and…the rough opals. The binocular was okay.

He had picked up the four rocks solely for their colors. Putting them on his shelf, he turned them until the colors showed. They would serve as nice bookends for his growing library. Then he stretched out on his bunk, just to look at them. 

Siskin flew into the weyr. He flew to his accustomed perch atop one of the shelves cut out of rock and promptly curled up and went to sleep.

It felt good, stretched out on his own bunk, in his own private quarters. The time change confused him, coming atop his inadvertent time travel. But he was inexplicably tired. Maybe it was the time travel? Oh, wait. He'd had to make TWO time jumps. He'd arrived about an hour after Greta and D'mitran.  

 Now he knew why they'd spent what seemed months of learning time zones in Weryling School, his instructors insisting on pounding the importance of knowing where the sun would be when at your destination into their brains. He'd hated it, but their training had become second nature. What, he wondered, would have happened had he intentionally tried to beat the sun from the opal caves? For that matter, why hadn't he thought about it before he went between? That was how people made errors, he thought, that is how people die. They become complacent. They grow so used to doing something…like visualizing a spot before going between, and..in this case he was alright, but he resolved to always, always Be Sure.

It explained why time jumping was severely curtailed and frowned upon. It was just too confusing.

He needed a bath and something to eat…but he fell asleep.

It was late morning when he was awakened by a familiar voice.

"Hello the weyr! K'ndar! K'ndar! It's me, Glyena!" his sister called.

He got up and she rushed in. "You've been gone so long, K'ndar, I've missed you!" she said, smiling as she gave him a big hug.

"It's been a while, sis, look at you. You're getting tall," he said, glad to see her. She stopped, suddenly processing his appearance.

"Did you sleep in your clothes?" she asked, sharply.

"Yes, apparently I did. I was exhausted last night." He found his way to his bathroom and began to wash up. Glyena followed him. 

Siskin warbled, hungry.

"Go ahead, I know you're hungry," he said to the blue.

I'll take him hunting. Earth and Careth are joining me Raventh said.

"Tell me everything, what did you see, did you see new animals? Birds?" Glyena said, as he was brushing his teeth. 

He mumbled around the brush, then took it out and said, "For Pern's sake, Glyena! I need some breakfast in me, first," he said, aware that his stomach was growling.

She waited, a bit impatiently, til he put the brush away.

"I brought you some pastries," she said, handing them over. "Breakfast is long over at the hall, but I snagged a few for you, just in case," she said. 

How could you be peeved with a girl who had such foresight?

"Oh, girl, you are so smart," he said. "Here. Take a look at this one, it's the last one I used."

With a pastry in one hand, he picked up his last notebook, with the other, and handed it to her.

She sat down on his bunk and began going through it. He'd marked the page with the sketch of the animal, and she found it almost immediately.

He sat down next to her as she looked at the sketch.

"Look at this handsome little beast. He can fly, not like a bird, but gliding," he said, opening the notebook to the page where he'd sketched.

"What IS it?"

"I don't know. I found some of its fur, and turned that in to Landing. Hopefully we'll find out what is soon, when the DNA report is turned in. But I want to look through my book, here, to see if it's in here," he said, taking down "Natural History of Pern". 

Sitting next to his sister, he felt a strange, nostalgic feeling. Despite being a long way from his home cothold, he had family here, like others. Like D'mitran, like Hariko, like Francie. It felt good, especially when he remembered being here, at first, a stranger, frightened, unsure as to whether he'd done the right thing, even homesick. He looked up at the wall, where he'd hung the drawing Glyena had given him the day he left the cothold, to be opened only when he got the Weyr.

There was nothing at all in the textbook about the creature. 

Glyena shook her head, tsking as if she were a teacher. 

"These notes, I can hardly read them! You write so messy, K'ndar," she admonished, "my teacher says one must take the time to write neatly, so that everyone can read what you wrote. Half of this makes no sense, it's just scribbles," she continued.

"I know, I know. Those are for me, alone. But I re-write everything, I DO make it nice and neat and turn the neat one in to Landing. There's a lot to capture when you're in the field and it's all  happening all around you," he defended, " and you, you're beginning to sound like Mum."

Glyena snickered.  

He replaced "Natural History" on the shelf. Next to it, on the wall, was the drawing.

"Do you remember, Gly, drawing that for me?" he pointed to the drawing.

"Um…not really, that's strange, right? But I did a lot of drawing, back then."

 She looked at it with a two years older eye. "I can draw much better, now," she said, "you should throw that away."

"Not on your life, sis, don't you dare harm it. It meant so much to me, you have no idea how it helped me. It reminded me of home, and that there were people there who loved me."

She smiled, giving him another hug. "We were so proud of you, well, all of us 'cept for Dad. He was mad all the time."

They both reflected on what life had been like with their tyrannical father. 

"You're happy here?" he asked, "You seem to be."

She nodded. "I am, K'ndar, there's so much to learn, so many things to do. I miss Mum, I do, and Uncle Fland, but even so, Shirae, my foster mum is so nice, and my foster sisters, too. 

But I don't want to go back home. Not yet, anyway. Maybe not ever. I am in school and I love math and science and I've been riding Jordan and I am learning how to make saddles, did you know that, and oh, what…what are those rocks?" She jumped up to take one down.

Hmmm. "Oh, just some pretty rocks I picked up."

"They..oh, look, they're full of color."

Please, sis, don't ask me where they're from, I don't want to lie.

"They are, aren't they? But not as pretty as some of the ones I've found on the beach. Like the amber with the trundlebug in it? Remember that?" he asked, trying desperately to steer her away.

"Oh, yeah. Lindea gave it to me. But I lost it when we got back home." She replaced the rock, and absently dusted the shelf.

"This shelf, K'ndar, it needs dusting," she said. 

"Right now? I'm not going to do housekeeping right now," he said, grumpily. I need a bath. I imagine Raventh will want one, too, and then an oiling, although I've noticed he doesn't need oiling as often as when….when he was eating firestone and fighting Thread. Yet another manifestation of the deleterious effects of firestone? Who do I ask about that? The dragon healer?

Glyena got off the bed. "These furs, they need airing, too," she said. 

He grimaced. 

"Glyena, I've been gone for what, five months? Six? I've lost track. Not that anyone has slept in my bed save me, but give me a break, girl."

Chastened, Glyena backed down. "Okay. Not right now," she said. To smooth his ruffled feathers, she said, "Some of the kids told me you found a skeleton, a big one, and the dolphins told you what it was," she said.

"I did. It's called a 'paladen'. It lives at the bottom of the sea. It lives hundreds of years, like the one we found, the scientists say it was 200 years old when it died,"

"Two hundred?"

"Yes!"

"Can I see it?"

"Uh…I don't see why not. I have to go back to Landing soon, soon as I transcribe my notes. I was going to do that today, but …you are here. So let's do this…day after tomorrow? Let's go to Landing, just you and me, I'll turn in my notebooks and I'll take you to see the paladen," he said, wondering how he was going to juggle oiling the dragon and eating something other than a pastry and transcribing several notebooks.

"Not now?"

"Please, Glyena, I've not even out of my weyr yet. Raventh needs oiling once he gets back from hunting, and I've got to sit down and get the notebooks squared away," he said.

"I can help oil, I can, you know that," she insisted.

"I know, and I appreciate it."

"C'mon, let's go," she said, pulling on his arm.

Just then he heard another familiar voice…that of Greta.

"Hello, hello, K'ndar!"

Glyena stepped out of the room into the interior tunnel hallway that connected individual weyrs to the rest of the weyr.

"And YOU would be?" she said, protectively.

Greta stopped dead. Roany, her fire lizard, mantled.

"That's not the most polite of greetings, little miss," she said.

"I'm Glyena and K'ndar is my big brother and he's got things to do."

K'ndar came behind her and took her shoulders.

"Glyena, knock it off. I don't need protection. This is Greta, my teammate, she was with us at Western." 

Greta's eyes danced in amusement at the fiery Glyena. 

"Is there a problem, little miss, in my calling on your brother?" she said.

Glyena started…and K'ndar pinched her shoulder.

"Um…no, I guess not. But he doesn't need a girlfriend right now. He's Busy."

Greta smirked. "I'm not a girlfriend, I'm a geologist," she said, biting her tongue to keep from laughing.

"Glyena, I said, knock it off. Greta is my friend, and an excellent geologist."

The girl subsided. "Okay, but.."

"No buts."

"Greta, this is Glyena, my sister," he said.

"Ahh, " Greta said, crossing her arms and looking the young girl up and down. 

"Are you the one who made Raventh's collar, and Siskin's harness?" she said.

Glyena straightened up. "I AM."

"Well, I could use a new harness, for my green dragon. Do you think you could make one for me? You seem to be very talented," she said, struggling to keep from laughing.

"I think so, but, I'm just learning how to make the big harnesses, I  help at the tanner's shop and they're teaching me," she said, "so it might not be as…pro…pro.." she struggled. 

"Professional?"

"Yes, professional as the ones the older harness makers make."

"I think I could live with that," Greta said, "'as long as it doesn't gall my dragon."

"It won't, they're lined with sheepskin at the pinch points," Glyena said.

"See, you sound as if you're already quite good at it," Greta said. 

"The problem is I will have to find the leather straps from the trimming bins, and sometimes you have to buy them if there aren't ones good enough for a harness."

"Well, I'd certainly want good leather, the harness is important. But I don't have much money. Are you willing to barter?"

"Um.." She'd never bartered for anything, for that matter, she'd never handled money. 

"Let me guess, you want to know what I've got for a commission. Let's see, what do I have to barter?" Greta asked, dramatically scratching her chin. Her eyes landed on the rough opals on the shelf. They flickered with recognition.

K'ndar contacted Raventh.

Tell Earth to tell Greta to say nothing about the opals he said to Raventh

Greta's eyes flicked to his in an instant. Oh, how convenient it is, to have a silent, private channel of communications.

"I..I don't have much, Glyena, but what I DO have is a dragon, who can take you anywhere," she said.

"Hmmph. So does my brother," Glyena said, her hands on her hips. 

"Yes, but-does he have a sister-in-law who is a journeyman herder, who might be interested in seeing you ride one of their race horses at Ruatha's next Gather?"

Glyena's jaw dropped. So did K'ndar's.

"Ruatha? You mean RUATHA, like where Lord Jaxom lives?"

"Aye, one and the same, my girl, and I've already heard about your riding racers," she said, making K'ndar wonder.

She says she's talked to Nyala when she was at the barn. She knows about Jordan and your sister riding racers

Tell her she certainly knows the right bait to catch a fish

She has a fish? She's a fish?

No, no, it's just a figure of speech. I'll explain it later. 

Okay, but I'd like an oiling, please.

Greta met his eyes again. They were dancing with suppressed laughter.

Glyena made her decision.

"Done," she said, as if she'd been bargaining all her life.

Greta laughed.

"I'll need to measure your dragon," the girl said.

"She's at the lake right now, with Raventh and Careth. Do you have the time?

"Aye and we have to oil Raventh," she said, "Let me get my measuring tools and I'll meet you there," Glyena said, and ran off.

K'ndar laughed. 

"She's a bit of a handful, isn't she?" Greta said.

"That…she is. But she had to be…my father was a sod, and I really am not interested in going into it too deeply. She's done a lot of recovering, though, and is really blossoming here. You have family at RUATHA?"

Greta laughed, too. "Yes, and she saw your sister ride a few winners at a Gather here on Southern, they were here to look at buying bloodstock. That and I met Nyala, your herdmaster, and she told me about Glyena before I knew she was your sister. I don't know much about horses, unlike my sister-in-law, but Nyala-who knows everyone, it seems who has anything to do with horses, said she was very impressed," she said. 

"Don't say a thing about the..rocks," he said, "I don't want anyone knowing about them, at least for  a while. I don't want folks making the connection to where we found them."

"No worries, but I have to confess something. I went back to get some more," she said, wondering if he would be angry.

"I didn't want to think you men would think I was greedy, but..I didn't think it would hurt to take just a few. Just..just in case," she added, "and I wanted to tell one of Us, so that it would assuage the guilt I feel."

Relief exploded in his mind. "I did, too. It's ..well, I don't need money right now, but.." 

"That's what I was thinking, too. I don't need money right now. But, I've been in a position where I HAVE needed it, or worse, someone I cared for needed it, and had some hard times getting by without it. I agree, though, in not going to that well too often," she said.