Chap. 140 Talking Rocks

Chap. 140 Talking Rocks

He'd been so busy, the last several months, that he'd forgotten what a rest day was.

After breakfast, he wondered what to do with himself. His notebooks were all caught up, tomorrow he'd go to Landing to turn them in. But for now? He exited the dining hall to see Greta and B'rost.

They were deep in animated conversation, looking up at the cliff walls. They'd discovered that they both shared a passion for geology. Their argot was, to say the least, confusing.

"This is the only example of columnar basalt that I've ever seen," Greta was saying, 'but I've not been all over Pern. I think it's amazing how the ancients incorporated the columns to support dragon ledges. No one else did it this way," she said.

"It's just this one section," B'rost said, "the rest of the Weyr is your typical caldera. It's called the dragon weyr, because only dragonriders are housed in it.  Folks who don't have a dragon are weyred in the other ones, the ones without ledges."

"I noticed that. Y'know, it looks, to me, as if there were at least TWO volcanic episodes, maybe three. You have this columnar basalt cliff, then the smaller caldera over THERE, and the one behind it. The basalt here is far older, in my opinion, than the others. Have you tried to date them?"

"I don't have that technology. I don't know, but ..but I think you're right. The whole thing is just riddled with tunnels and caves. And the top of this portion, especially, is a flat plateau. You've been up there, haven't you? See the rocks lining the cliff edge? That was so that animals and kids don't run off the edge. When the Weyrlings are doing glide training, the kids sit behind them and laugh their arses off at us."

"They did some good work, the ancients did," she said, admiring the concept. "It must be nice, to have a ledge just outside your weyr, for your dragon." 

"The one thing they got wrong when they were creating this weyr is they forgot about hurricanes," B'rost said.

"I've never seen one. We don't get them up north," Greta said.

"I've only been through the one but it was enough. This part of the weyr? It gets hammered. Hard. It faces due east and that's the direction the hurricane came from. The water was clear up to past the second level, see the water line?"he asked, pointing.

"Wow, that's high up. It must have been scary," she said.

"It was, and we didn't stay around to suffer it. We evacuated. Tore down just about everything that could be and stored it behind THAT part of the Weyr, where that tunnel pierces the wall? The tunnel is interesting, it was cut by the sea part way and the ancients, they continued it.  The water was rushing through there so fast it tore off part of the side walls. Took weeks for the water to finally sink in. We were picking up debris for weeks afterwards. There was some damage and we lost some new trees, but otherwise, we didn't lose much. When we go up on the plateau I''ll show you where the water had thrown these huge trees, they were tossed up there like they were lightwood.  We'll go up there but first I want to show you where the water flooded all three levels of weyr."

"Did it contaminate the water supply?"

"Only part of it. Most of our water comes from above, running off that plateau. Originally it was a stream and probably a waterfall but they plumbed it to run INSIDE, giving us running water throughout the weyrs. There IS an aquifer, too, and we sealed the wells for the barns and outbuildings, but still, there's a salty taste to the aquifer. I think it will get better as time goes on," he said. 

"And I'll show you where a steer got shoved deep into one of the tunnels. Whew, stink?" he laughed at the memory.

K'ndar smiled. He'd never seen B'rost so happy, but was it because it was someone paying attention to him, or that he'd found someone who spoke his language, that of rocks?

Siskin chirped.

Two fire lizards are here, looking for you Raventh said. 

A bronze and a gold appeared.

The bronze was wearing a harness with a message pouch. He whicked, and Siskin moved over to allow the two to land on K'ndar's shoulders. Which wasn't as roomy as one would have thought. 

"Come on, then, step off," he muttered. They did. 

Greta laughed, as Roany, her blue, attempted to do the same thing. "You look like Menolly," she laughed.

"Whose are those?" B'rost asked.

K'ndar recognized the bronze before he saw the markings on the harness.

Lizard.

"They're a friend of mines, a trader, it's been a while since I've seen him."

He pulled the pouch open and removed the expected note.

Hello, K! It's been a while since I've seen you. I'm about ten kilometers upwind of your Weyr. I need some help, one of my wagon wheels has a broken hub and I don't have the tools to fix it. Can you help? If not, let me know, I'll ride one of the horses in to your weyr. L

"That's a handy thing to teach one's fire lizard," Greta said, her body language saying she'd love to know what the note said. 

"Our Weyrlingmaster teaches the kids fire lizards, to be couriers," K'ndar said, not wishing to share the message with them. "I'm certain he could fit you in," he said. 

B'rost tugged on her arm. "Come on, I'll show you how the water absolutely filled up the INSIDE of the weyr," he said, leading the way. "Oh, and I have to tell you about this wicked woman, Jenmay, who…." they walked off.

Relieved at not having to explain, K'ndar headed for his weyr. Looking up over his head, at the far end of the cliff, he could see Raventh basking in the morning sun on his ledge.

Raventh, I'll be up there in a few minutes, we're going to go see Lizard. 

As he was harnessing Raventh, he made a decision. 

The opal rocks. 

Just before mounting, he pulled them out from the cubby he'd hidden them in.

They were beautiful, he thought, the sunshine making them glow…but they'd been a bother.

Too valuable to expose, too beautiful not to. And fraught with explanations that he'd rather not try to fabricate for the person who might see them. Maybe Lizard could help him, take them and trade them.