Chap. 162 Reflections

Chap. 162 Reflections

He never minded being on watch. Especially on fine days such as this one.

Perched atop the highest point of the weyr, K'ndar could see for what seemed to the ends of the world. The telescope was right next to him, and now he was confident in his ability to use it. If he were on night watch, he would look at the stars, or the starship, the Yokohama. He would love to go aboard her, he thought, knowing that it was probably the only ship in the world that he wouldn't get seasick aboard.

Raventh was resting alongside him. How like a cat he could be, K'ndar reflected, with his forelegs tucked under his chest, long tail wrapped alongside and his wings…well, cats didn't have wings, now did they?

How DID you humans manage without wings? Raventh asked.

K'ndar shrugged. I think the Terrans used birds, because I do remember reading about them flying, but I don't really know. I know they had machines that could fly and of course, the starships.

It's better to have more than one way to move around. I can walk. I can fly. I can go between

That's true, although dolphins don't have wings OR feet and as far as I know, they don't go between, and they manage just fine.

I see some, right now, to the northwest. In front of that ship.

He was suddenly dismayed at his failure to see it. He'd been so engrossed in his book-which wasn't quite legal when one was on watch, but nobody had ever said he COULDN'T read while on duty-that he hadn't been paying attention. "Dereliction of Duty" rang in his mind and he very purposefully put the book away into his backpack. I won't let that happen again, he swore.

Now that Thread was gone, Watch duty had lessened in importance, but it was never wise to let one's guard down. There were still raiders, many heavily armed and ready to commit crimes and mayhem. Now he understood that Thread or no Thread, his job was to be Watching.

He could see a ship, obviously on course for the weyr. That was unusual. Being that the Weyr was southeast of Landing, and wasn't considered a true port, ships seldom docked at the weyr, unless they were traders.

He got up and looked through the telescope. He knew very little about ships, but this one looked oddly familiar. As he watched, he could see a group of dolphins jumping out of the water just ahead of its..bow? Yes, bow. Front part of the ship.

Raventh, pass the word to Arcturuth that a ship is approaching from the northwest. It is flying a…

he looked through the scope again to check the flag

flag bearing Tillek Sea Hold's colors.

What a convenience, he thought, not for the first time, to be able to communicate via dragon telepathy.

M'rvin says, message received and he is sending a welcoming party out to the dock Raventh responded within moments.

"Siskin. See that ship? Take a vision of it to Zeta. Lindea will know what ship it is," he asked his fire lizard.

The blue chirped, always happy to go and chat up a female, even if Lindea's gold would probably ignore him. He vanished.

Within a few moments, Zeta appeared, with a message pouch on her chest. She chirped, and allowed him to remove the expected message.

I'm hoping it's my brother, Braig. Can you give me a ride up to your post? I'm at the base of the weyr. L

He leaned over the precipitous edge of the granite ledge he was on and saw, far below, Lindea's familiar form. He waved. She waved back.

Raventh, would you please drop down and give Lindea a ride up here?

Of course. I like her, a lot. You should mate with her.

RAVENTH…although I would love to. It's..not to be, okay? Not right now, at least.

You humans are so strange in your mating patterns

Not ALL of us are as horny as dragons. I'm not.

I know Raventh snarked, and before K'ndar could retort, he'd risen to his feet, opened his wings, catching the warm updraft, and dropped below the lip of the cliff.

K'ndar thought how odd it looked to see his dragon being ridden by someone else. Oh, of course, he'd packed many people, but always as a passenger, not in HIS place of honor on the dragon's back.

You're getting fairly snarky, my dragon

Raventh snickered, then sobered.

It's just you and me who know we've never mated. Even Siskin has.

Within moments, Raventh flew back up to their perch high above the bowl. Siskin greeted Zeta with a chip, but she ignored him.

Lindea climbed off Raventh.

She turned and patted his leg.

"Thank you, Raventh," she said.

The brown rolled his eyes a bright blue. K'ndar didn't have to interpret his 'you're welcome'.

"K'ndar, it seems like forever since we've talked. I'm off duty, now. Let's see that ship you mentioned," she said.

Still a bit bemused by her presence as well as Raventh's rather sharp comment, he said, "I know, I've been so busy. Anyway, have a look through the telescope, I've got it fairly well on her."

But she merely shaded her eyes from the afternoon sun and looked out to sea.

"Oh. That's not Braig. That's definitely not my brother's ship," she said, shaking her head.

"You can tell, even without the scope?"

"I'm shipbred, K'ndar. You learn to recognize ships, just from how they're rigged and even how they're handled. That's…um, I don't know who that ship is, I've never seen that cut of jib before. Okay, NOW I'll look through your scope."

"Here, showoff," K'ndar said, envious at her sharp eye and expertise, and a bit annoyed at her presumptuous tone.

"If nothing else, I know she's flying Tillek Sea Hold's colors," he said, glumly. She caught its emotional meaning.

"I'm sorry, K'ndar, I didn't mean to make it sound like it did. It's just…I know. Just like I bet you can tell dragons apart from a long ways away," she said.

He was mollified. "You're right. I can. And horses, too. Anyway, close one of your eyes and look through this end, it's called the ocular, with the open one."

After a few attempts, she said, "It's all…it's fuzzy," she said, "Is it supposed to be fuzzy?"

"No, I'll focus it. Tell me when it gets sharp, not fuzzy."

He turned the focus ring one way.

"No, that's worse!"

"It will be easier if you turn it. I can't see through it, of course," he said. "Give me your hand."

Without taking her eye from the eyepiece, she raised a hand.

"Twist it away or towards you until it gets sharp," he said, placing her fingers on the focus ring."

How lovely her hand was, despite the fact that she baked with them every day. It was a strong hand, that of a working woman, and yet still very feminine. And warm…

"Oh, oh, that's it. It's sharp and clear," she said, then gasped, "Wow, this is incredible. I can see..oh, I can see him! It's Rahman, the astronomer! I can see him at the taffrail!"

"Oh, good," K'ndar said, anxious to see the man through the scope.

But before he could, she said, "And dolphins…they're riding on the bow wave," she said. "Remember, our very first time we did a task, in the barn? Afterwards, when we walked on the beach and you told me to not feel stupid?"

He nodded, remembering it, as if it were a century ago, rather than just a couple years. How time had flown!

"I do, I remember that day, we were walking on the beach after mucking out stalls," he said.

"Yes, and you didn't know what a bow wave was," she said, backing off from the scope. "I couldn't explain a bow wave, we weren't on a ship! But look, look at the bow of the ship, you'll see the dolphins, riding on a wave of water just at the keel of the ship. That's the edge, down the middle at the very front of the ship. That water is called the bow wave!"

K'ndar put his eye to the scope, refocused it, and saw several dolphins, all leaping or disappearing on a foaming white curl of water in front of the ship. The wave looked solid but the foaming white top told how fast the ship was going. The dolphins were frolicking in it, capable of much faster speed than any ship.

"Ohhhhhhhh, NOW I understand," he said, "I remember thinking a bow wave was something you could CLEAN!"

She laughed, and he couldn’t help but join her.

"But now I know, and this is the best way to learn," he said, "because, maybe you didn’t know this, but I learned the hard way that I'm no seaman. I get seasick."

"Oh, no, K'ndar. Really? I'm not boasting, but I was born at sea, and I've never been seasick. Not once. But I know it can be very nasty. I'm so sorry. How long before you got better? From what I've seen, it usually only takes a few days to get over it," she said.

"Not me, Lindea. It was when we were up at Tillek Sea Hold. I got aboard a ship, the Sea Dragon.

It was at the dock. We weren't even moving, and I got so sick, I had to run back to the dock and lost my breakfast. I couldn't even look at food for the rest of the day," he said, mournfully.

Biting her lip, she covered her mouth to hide her amusement.

He hung his head, embarrassed, and a bit resentful. Yet another seaman, laughing at his inability to tolerate the sea. Should have kept that to yourself, K'ndar.

Ashamed of herself, Lindea, put her hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry, K'ndar, I don't mean to laugh at you. It's not funny, not from how I've seen some people suffer," she apologized.

He looked in her eyes. He believed her.

"I felt…well, so stupid. So…dumb. It didn't help that everyone on the docks was laughing at me. I got the nickname Seasick at the Dock," he said, sadly.

She shook her head. "I'm not going to apologize for arses like that. It's not right. Some seamen, some sailors, they can only boast about being a seaman, because they can't do anything else or function anywhere else but on a ship, where someone else is making all the decisions for them. Put them on land and they're helpless as a fish out of water. If it makes you feel better, I've never seen a landsman who didn't get seasick. Most of the time they adapt, if they're out at sea long enough," she said, softly.

"I didn't even make it out to sea! The ship started going up and down while tied to the dock and suddenly I was sick. I wanted to die. I swear, you'll never get me aboard a ship again. I'll swim if I have to, and I'm a lousy swimmer," he said.

Why bother. We can fly wherever we want Raventh said.

He laughed, feeling better with the support from his dragon.

"Raventh?" she asked, recognizing the momentary inward look on K'ndar's face.

He nodded, smiling.

"He reminded me that a dragon can FLY anywhere we want," he said.

"See? You're right, he's right. It takes days to get anywhere on a ship. It takes you, what, three breaths? And you talk to each other. All the time. Ships don't talk in your mind, they're…just ships."
She felt better, seeing K'ndar's normal self-confidence return. How I would have loved to have a dragon's soul in my heart, her voice in my head. Never alone, never again, once you impressed a dragon. But now she knew herself so much better. I don't regret making that decision, she thought.

"If you remember, K'ndar, in the barn, you had to show me how to hold a muck fork. I hadn't ever been in a barn or that close to a horse in my life. I still don't know much about them other than you and so many others are absolutely crazy about them. And your sister, she's so young and yet she rides like she was born in the saddle. So we were both feeling stupid that day, and me especially, because you were the first person I ever admitted to that I didn't want to impress a dragon," she said. "You didn’t laugh at me, for being afraid, you …you helped me."

She dropped her eyes for a moment. "I wanted to have that person, that dragon in my head and my heart," she said, "but I was afraid to admit to even myself that I didn't want the rest of it. You showed me that it was okay to be honest with myself. You gave me hope and the courage to admit something before I made a big, terrible mistake." She sighed.

He nodded, unable to speak through the knot in his throat.

"You helped me so much that day, K'ndar," she said, gently, "and you have always been my friend."

He gulped, feeling a wave of emotion that had no name-but felt wonderful.