Chap. 190 Return to Far Nowhere
Once again, he had the most disturbing feeling of being lost. Except that, no, he had been here before. The hut was still there, and the sedges. There was, however, a fundamental change that astonished him.
G’alin stood, hands on hips, his expression a mix of puzzlement and doubt.
This is the same place, right? K’ndar asked Raventh, doubting his own eyes.
Of course. I have the coordinates, this is the exact same place. There’s the hut. Over my left wing is where Siskin was netted.
Siskin chittered his dismay. He, too, recognized it.
This was The Point of Far Nowhere.
The water was gone.
The sedges were dried up and brown, rustling in the wind. White waterlines showed where the water had been. The birds were gone. Only the insects were still present,, and they were showing signs that they were hungry.
The water. It’s gone. It’s GONE? I look like a fool. I didn’t imagine it, no, this cannot be.
G’alin gave a questioning look at K’ndar.
“Didn’t you say water?” he said.
“G’alin, I swear, this place was knee deep in water, only this peninsula was dry. There were thousands of birds and wherries out there, clouds of them. My fire lizard flew out into the sedges there, tried to catch a smanda, and landed in a net the smanda makes. It swelled up, covered him...the smandas came swimming for him...”
He heard himself babbling, completely unnerved by the drastic change.
G’alin’s face went blank, the expression telling him he was listening to his dragon.
“Okay, Pascarth tells me your Raventh says the same thing. And he’s sending me images of what your fire lizard went through. That was nasty, and I haven’t seen the thing in the flesh yet,” G’alin said.
Thank you he said to Raventh.
He didn’t believe you. Now he sees it.
“Sorry to doubt you, K’ndar, but it IS strange, but I know what happened here,” G’alin said.
“Obviously, this is what is called a ‘floodplain’. They are usually ‘vernal’, meaning during the monsoon season, that’s what we called the rainy season where I’m from, this entire area floods. The water must be coming from mountains, somewhere, it can go for thousands of kilometers. Then, when summer hits, it dries up,” G’alin said.
K’ndar sighed in relief. “Thanks. I thought for a moment I’d lost my mind,” he said.
G’alin walked to the edge of the stone terrace. Dead sedges crowded the edge, their panicles reaching over his head.
“I’ll bet my boots there’s still some water, just under the surface of this muck,” he said. He knelt down, shoving sedges aside. Their panicles sprinkled seeds all over his head and back. Reaching down, he dug a finger into the soil. It came up brown and muddy. The tiny creatures he’d disturbed wriggled their way deeper into the mud.
“Yup. The surface water has evaporated. But it’s still wet underneath the surface, see? See how the vegetation has seed heads atop them? They’ll drop their seeds into the mud and in the spring, when the water returns, they’ll be ready to grow. Right now it looks solid but it’s not. Not even a webfooted wherry can make it through that mud, it’d be stuck in minutes,” G’alin said, brushing the seeds off his head.
“That means, no smandas,” K'ndar said. In a way he wasn’t too unhappy. This place was one of splendid solitude, a place he was loathe to see exploited by ambitious men like Shawn. That, and he had no real desire to handle a smanda.
“Not necessarily, K’ndar, most creatures that live in this sort of environment don’t move very far. They ‘estivate’, and they’re probably all snugged in tight, just underneath the mud, for the winter. Down here, winter doesn’t mean snow, it means drought,” he said.
“You sound...well, like me..a biologist?”
“Ecologist, K’ndar, and while I’m not an expert, it makes sense to me,” G’alin said.
“Thanks,” K’ndar said. Trying to salvage his self respect, he said, “Okay, first off, WHERE are we?”
“Oops, I forgot,” G’alin said. He pulled a datalink out of his backpack.
“Come on, link up, link up..” he said under his breath.“I’ve been told by Raylen that you found the original one of this thing?” he asked.
K’ndar shrugged and nodded. “I did,” not wanting to boast.
“Well, it’s a versatile tool and the bright sparks in R & D are cranking them out as fast as they can. Fairly soon, every weyr will have one...that and those binos you’re wearing. That was a decent thing to do, K’ndar, donate them to Pern. There are people on Pern who would have paid you a great deal of money for them,” he said.
“I know that, for certain, and I’ve a good idea who...but I couldn’t,” he said.
G’alin nodded.
“Yokohama is taking her time," he said, “barely a signal, no wonder, considering we are I have no idea where..wait,she’s searching…”
Ah, she’s found us. Huh! I’ll be switched, we’re on Southern!”
“Southern?” K’ndar said. “Southern? For some reason, I thought we were on Northern. After all, Pernese weren’t down here in N’orald’s time,” he said.
“Someone was. This N’orald, you say? Think he built that hut?”
“An Oldtimer at my weyr. He’s the one who not only told us the smandas name, but also the antidote for the venom,” he said, “and he never did say a thing about building the hut. He was here skyhooting with a couple weyrling class mates, without permission or even telling someone where they were going,"K’ndar said, laughing, “once his Weyrlingmaster found out they’d snuck out, wow, did they pay a price!”
G’alin laughed. “No doubt! I’ll have to sit down with you and find out more. For now, it looks like, yes, definitely Southern, this looks like this goes for, oh, several hundred kilometers to the coast. Behind us are….hmm, the Western Barrier Mountains. Huh, I thought there would be nothing but snowy wastes south of those mountains, but no!
Okay, it’s filling in, she’s getting more data. Ah. I can see why it’s unknown, the last time anyone looked at this site it was covered with water and Yokohama’s cameras, I think, couldn’t differentiate, maybe she couldn’t see the vegetation, or maybe it was still underwater. Or maybe no one til now has actually called up this particular spot. I think the date on the last image is, um, four years ago, in the spring time.”
“Does it show it now, being dry?”
G’alin turned it to K’ndar. “It does NOW, see, I’ll zoom in, see? There’s us, our dragons and that hut, there, from a few minutes ago. It shows dry land all the way to the coast. See these channels here, right here? Those are waterways, the streams that in spring time flood, but now, they’re retreated to their beds, because the water has dried up,” he said. “We could put a kak in the streams, here, we wouldn’t have to walk on the mud. I bet you wouldn’t get five meters in it without getting stuck.”
K’ndar always felt a weird sense of displacement when he saw himself in a camera or a datalink.
Siskin tells me there are smandas here. I can smell them, too.
G’alin stopped again.
“Pascarth says your fire lizard can smell the smandas,” he said.
“I doubt he’ll ever forget a smanda,” K’ndar said.
Any idea where they are? He asked Raventh.
Raventh was quiet for a few moments.
I smell mud.
Well, it IS muddy…
Inspired, he called to Siskin, “Siskin-smanda? FIND smanda?”
Perched atop Raventh’s head, Siskin hissed, his eyes roiling an angry red.
“Not to hunt, Siskin. Stay high. Don’t get close. Find smanda?”
Siskin’s eyes changed color to a more agreeable, if unsettled, green. He dropped down to K’ndar’s shoulder.
“Does he really understand you?” G’alin asked, “I have no experience with them at all.”
“Oh, yes, he’s quite intelligent, far more than a dog. He can’t communicate like we do with our dragons, but he does send me images and has a phenomenal memory. They can even remember things their parents learned or saw,” K’ndar said, proudly. “You can’t order them but you can train them, and for Siskin at least, it’s always a request, and he usually..usually obeys. But I don’t know, this time, he might not. He was hurt quite badly, and they will hold a grudge.”
Siskin chittered, and launched.
“Excuse me, G’alin, but I need to concentrate on what he’s showing me,” K’ndar said.
“No problem, I think I’ll look in this hut. By the egg, it looks solid,” G’alin said.
K’ndar ‘watched’ what Siskin showed him. It was always hard to do, as the ‘picture’ moved around, giving him vertigo. The fire lizard flew a searching pattern over the marsh for several minutes. Ah...
Siskin hovered. There was a clearing of sorts below Siskin, a spot about a meter across, where the sedges had been pulled down, even broken off in some cases, and, it appeared, had been knitted together into...“a NEST!” he said, out loud.
Siskin dropped down lower. He sent images of a circular dome, completely encased in sedges. It looked about the right size for a smanda, one curled up.
G’alin came out.
“A nest? Oh, wait,” he said, and again, his dragon was passing on the images that Siskin was broadcasting.
“That looks,yeah, I think it’s a nest, K’ndar.”
“YOU can see it?”
“Your fire lizard is sending it to Raventh and Pascarth, too. That looks right, K’ndar, and I think..hmm, I’ll have to think about how to get one Do you think it’s a smanda nest?”
“G’alin, I have no idea. Until a month ago, I’d never heard of one, never mind seen one. And they’re NOT in “Natural History of Pern,” he said. “But, if this a nest? Will this mud dry out completely? Because, if they can survive without being wet, it might be easier to wait until everything is dried out, then go and dig them up.”
G’alin nodded. “I think so, enough that someone could walk out there with mud shoes on, they spread one’s weight out, we used them as kids to go hunting in the marshes. Now that I have the sight picture, it shouldn’t be too hard, fly over it with a dragon, or a fire lizard! Mark the spots and later come back and dig ‘em up. I don’t dare boast, I don’t want to tempt fate, but this might just be easier than I thought.”
K’ndar, through Siskin, began to see dozens of the nests. “Whoa. There’s dozens of nests. They’re everywhere out there,” he said.
He whistled for Siskin, who immediately returned. He stroked the blue’s head. “Good lad, thank you. That was well done,” he said. Siskin chipped. Then he pushed an image of one of the domes right next to the side of the terrace.
“Lead me, Siskin,” he said. Siskin looked back, away from the hut, and K’ndar forced himself to watch where he was going THROUGH Siskin’s eyes. He looked down at the sedges that pushed up against the terrace. There!
“G’alin? There’s a nest, right here. It’s close, right here,” he called.
G’alin came to him and knelt. “By the egg, you’re right. Let me try something.” Laying down on his belly, he reached down and gave a tentative poke at the sedge covered dome. K’ndar half expected a smanda to erupt from it, but there was no reaction.
“This thing, it’s almost all sedge,” he said. He unsheathed his knife and began to probe the mud circling it.
“I might be able to separate it from the mud,” he said, concentrating on his actions. He didn’t want to pierce the sedge. He carefully edged all around the domed mass.
“It’s like a round egg, a flat one, really, I can feel it goes underneath..whew, this stuff stinks,” G’alin said.
“Careful, if it’s awake…,”
“I’ll be careful, you bet,but it’s a small one, shouldn’t, gads, my gloves will be a mess. My partner will be pissed..aha. Here, K’ndar, take it, I have to get off my belly,” G’alin said. He lifted the mass and held it out for K’ndar to take from him.
Appalled, still, K’ndar reluctantly knelt down and took the mass from G’alin’s hands, expecting it to be wet. What if the thing..if there WAS anything inside, was awake?
It was heavy. Through small gaps in the sedges, K’ndar could see mud. Atop the dome was a tiny, almost invisible hole. For breathing? He put the nest down on the stones and unlimbered his binocular and switched it to microscope. He examined the sedge dome. It took him a few moments to realize what he was seeing. “I’ll be switched, M’rvin was right,” he said.
“What’s that? I’ve never used the binocular,” G’alin said.
“With this, I can see, this hole here? It’s just barely visible, but whoa, this is fabulous. This outer layer of sedge? It’s lined with mud. That, in turn, is lined with smanda netting! I can’t see it, but it has to be a smanda in there. It HAS to be, and there must be water in there, because the netting turns to powder when it’s dried...and it’s not dried!”
G’alin picked up the nest. “You’re right. Look at the sedging. Whatever is inside wove the sedges together, see the edges? “Sedges have edges, and rushes are round,” he began the ancient rhyme, “and it looks as if the edges interlock. Only the sedges are dry, the insides look to be contact with the mud. Clever beast!” and without thinking, he gave it a gentle shake.
K’ndar gasped. “It sloshed! I heard it slosh!! That is amazing. No WONDER Landing wants these things. There’s water INSIDE, the netting? The netting stays wet and seals the outside of this nest. It’s like a thermos!! Amazing!”
G’alin looked at it, admiringly.
“Okay, now, what are you going to do with it? Because if it’s awake in there, we’re about to get a big surprise,” K’ndar said.
“Hold on, I have a sack for it,” G’alin said, and produced a large bag from his backpack. They carefully placed it in the sack.
“Tie it up TIGHT, G’alin, you do NOT want to find out if it’s awake,”K’ndar said.
G’alin was elated. He laughed. “I understand, K’ndar, Don’t worry. Oh, but the folks at Landing are going to be tickled,” he said.
“DON’T give it to Shawn,” K’ndar ordered.
G’alin nodded. “Not a chance, K’ndar, he’s a shyster and a con man.”
After packing the nest, G’alin said, “I almost forgot to ask, K’ndar, where are the coordinates for this place? Or is it a dragon stone?”
“Runes,” K’ndar said, “up on top. Come on, it’s easy to climb, and don’t worry, it’s solid. We were tree-d up here for a few moments, by the smandas.”
Once atop the hut, K’ndar brushed the dirt and bits of vegetation that had accumulated on the flat stone from the last time.
“See? They’re so weathered, and the rock itself is all bumpy, but you can the runes, here, here, and here, and that little angle there,” he said, running his fingers along the faint lines.
“You’ve got a huge imagination, K’ndar, and I’m amazed you found this place at all. Those are almost illegible. But let’s record them, anyway,” G’alin said, aiming the datalink at them.
After several moments, he gasped.
“What? Something wrong?” K’ndar said.
“Yokohama...she can’t be wrong. It can’t be wrong. This is coming from the Yokohama and the computers at Landing,” he said, his face registering shock.
“WHAT?”
“The coordinates, the runes Raventh pushed to Pascarth? K’ndar, you’re looking at the runes upside down. Come over here, the Yokohama has filled in the eroded spots,” he said.
K’ndar moved to look at the runes alongside G’alin. Then he looked at the datalink, which showed the complete markings, blue lines glowing on the screen where the actual lines were invisible.
“They’re..not runes.”
“No. It’s a date! Look, below it, you can’t see it on the rock itself but there’s enough left for Yokohama, it says “Fort”. And these marks? This is a DATE, K’ndar. Year nine eighty two! This hut is well over fifteen hundred years old!
27 June 2020
25 June 2020
Chap. 189 The Unprepared
Chap. 189 The Unprepared
“I admit that I just learned of this mission this morning,” K’ndar said to the two dragonriders in front of him, “but, it seems to me you both have been severely under informed as to what the goal is.”
He had met them at Landing’s dragon meadow.
D’arad, the blue rider, immediately struck him as a cocky young buck who obviously thought highly of himself.
“Doubt that, boyo. We’ve been fully briefed. All YOU have to do is show us WHERE we’re going. You let us handle the details. You remember the coordinates, I hope?”
Yup, K’ndar thought, cocksure. Like a young colt going after the herd stallion.
He looked the young man up and down. He resisted the urge to answer the scathing question.
“”A boyo”I am not, Darad,” he said, guessing at what the boy’s name was pre-Impression.
“Aware of what you’re blundering into, I am. Based on what my eyes tell me, someone here at Landing has severely underestimated what he’s sending you into,” he said.
G’alin, the brown rider, looked amused.
“K’ndar, don’t mind D’arad here, he’s still fresh, you know.” He winked at K’ndar.
K’ndar thought, okay, this one seems to be more mature. He looked the other man in the eye and it reassured him.
“I’m not THAT fresh,” D’arad spat, “I graduated last year, okay? When did you graduate, K’ndar?”
“Long before you ever straddled your blue, D’arad. Before Thread stopped falling. G’alin, what did Landing tell you?”
“Shawn, the Acquisition officer, told us we’re to go capture a live ‘smanda’. Seems it attacked you? And now they want to get as many as we can catch and bring them back, alive.” G’alin said.
“Did he tell you why?” K’ndar said, knowing.
G’alin snorted.
“I see,” K’ndar said. “I’ve had run ins with Shawn on occasion, and I’m not impressed. He’s not a dragon rider, seems he sticks to the inside of the building and let others get dirty, am I right?”
G’alin laughed. “You’ve got it.”
D’arad puffed up. “Shawn’s a friend of mine. He won’t like hearing you say that about him,” he said.
K’ndar looked at him again, wondering if he should antagonize this little jerk. Nah, it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Make sure you spell my name right when you tell him, okay?” he said, as seriously as he could.
G’alin laughed again.
“Okay, K’ndar, so, tell me what Shawn didn’t.”
“What did he tell you, exactly?”
“Exactly?”
That was strange. “Exactly.”
D’arad took the opportunity.
“He said, ‘meet with that dung booted arse from Kahrain, get him to show you where the creatures are and then send him home. This is Landing’s pie’,” D’arad said, triumphantly.
K’ndar laughed.
“Yup, that’s Shawn, all right. So...do you want to find out the hard way or shall I make life a LITTLE easier for you?”
D’arad was about to say something, but G’alin put his hand up to shut him up. “The latter, please.”
K’ndar liked G’alin more and more.
“If you are intending to capture a live smanda, unless I’m blind, you don’t have a lick of equipment,” he said.
“I’ve got a net, right here,” D’arad said, and pulled one out of his backpack. It was small, about the size one needed to capture a kitten.
K’ndar laughed, derisively.
“Did Shawn tell you that smandas are easily a meter long? That they’re slimy and resemble a tunnel snake? Did he tell you they need to be in water? That they have long sharp claws all round? That they’ll cover you in a netting of spit with venom in it, stuff so sticky you won’t be able to breathe if it gets around your chest?”
G’alin frowned, angrily. “No, he never said a word about THAT,” he said.
K’ndar lifted Siskin from his shoulders and gently pulled one of the fire lizard’s hind legs out. Siskin protested, but allowed it.
“See these scars? That’s from the netting. It almost killed my fire lizard.”
Siskin’s eyes roiled an annoyed orange. K’ndar released him and he returned to his perch on his shoulder.
“That looks like Thread score,” G’alin said.
“It’s worse,” K’ndar said, then, unable to resist, “what do you think, D’arad? Doesn’t it look like thread score to you?” He knew, without having to ask, that D’arad was too new a dragonrider to have ever flown thread.
G’alin smirked. “He’s post thread, K’ndar, he never fought it,” he said.
“But I would have if I could have! I went through the school!” D’arad said, on the defensive now.
K’ndar patted the boy on the shoulder in a most patronizing way. “I believe you,” he said, nodding solemnly.
G’alin grinned. Then he felt dismay at what Shawn was sending them into. I KNEW not to trust that bast, he thought, he’s always been sneaky. He’s obviously trying to skirt the Council and the main researchers. Figures. That’s how he works. He’s taking money from SOMEONE. Shaff it, but he’s slimy.
D’arad said, “But, I am positive Shawn knows all about smandas. He wouldn’t send me into a situation where I might get hurt. He trusts me, he knows I can do it. I can.”
K’ndar was growing tired of the upstart braggart. “I am seriously considering letting you try, D’arad.”
G’alin, though, was angry.
“Shaff it, I KNEW there was something screwy with him coming to us all quiet like. No, K’ndar, we are NOT prepared,” G’alin said.
He turned to D’arad. “D’arad, would you go and ask Shawn if he has the right equipment for us? Maybe he was just too busy to fully brief us.”
D’arad stood tall. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said.
He ran off.
K’ndar looked at G’alin.
“Seriously, G’alin? You think Shawn really didn’t...”
“Shut up, K’ndar, mount up and let’s go before D’arad figures it out. At least show me where this place is, I can recon it, and we’ll go back later, properly kitted out. I can’t stand that little twerp, he’s dangerous,” he snapped.
K’ndar laughed.
“I admit that I just learned of this mission this morning,” K’ndar said to the two dragonriders in front of him, “but, it seems to me you both have been severely under informed as to what the goal is.”
He had met them at Landing’s dragon meadow.
D’arad, the blue rider, immediately struck him as a cocky young buck who obviously thought highly of himself.
“Doubt that, boyo. We’ve been fully briefed. All YOU have to do is show us WHERE we’re going. You let us handle the details. You remember the coordinates, I hope?”
Yup, K’ndar thought, cocksure. Like a young colt going after the herd stallion.
He looked the young man up and down. He resisted the urge to answer the scathing question.
“”A boyo”I am not, Darad,” he said, guessing at what the boy’s name was pre-Impression.
“Aware of what you’re blundering into, I am. Based on what my eyes tell me, someone here at Landing has severely underestimated what he’s sending you into,” he said.
G’alin, the brown rider, looked amused.
“K’ndar, don’t mind D’arad here, he’s still fresh, you know.” He winked at K’ndar.
K’ndar thought, okay, this one seems to be more mature. He looked the other man in the eye and it reassured him.
“I’m not THAT fresh,” D’arad spat, “I graduated last year, okay? When did you graduate, K’ndar?”
“Long before you ever straddled your blue, D’arad. Before Thread stopped falling. G’alin, what did Landing tell you?”
“Shawn, the Acquisition officer, told us we’re to go capture a live ‘smanda’. Seems it attacked you? And now they want to get as many as we can catch and bring them back, alive.” G’alin said.
“Did he tell you why?” K’ndar said, knowing.
G’alin snorted.
“I see,” K’ndar said. “I’ve had run ins with Shawn on occasion, and I’m not impressed. He’s not a dragon rider, seems he sticks to the inside of the building and let others get dirty, am I right?”
G’alin laughed. “You’ve got it.”
D’arad puffed up. “Shawn’s a friend of mine. He won’t like hearing you say that about him,” he said.
K’ndar looked at him again, wondering if he should antagonize this little jerk. Nah, it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Make sure you spell my name right when you tell him, okay?” he said, as seriously as he could.
G’alin laughed again.
“Okay, K’ndar, so, tell me what Shawn didn’t.”
“What did he tell you, exactly?”
“Exactly?”
That was strange. “Exactly.”
D’arad took the opportunity.
“He said, ‘meet with that dung booted arse from Kahrain, get him to show you where the creatures are and then send him home. This is Landing’s pie’,” D’arad said, triumphantly.
K’ndar laughed.
“Yup, that’s Shawn, all right. So...do you want to find out the hard way or shall I make life a LITTLE easier for you?”
D’arad was about to say something, but G’alin put his hand up to shut him up. “The latter, please.”
K’ndar liked G’alin more and more.
“If you are intending to capture a live smanda, unless I’m blind, you don’t have a lick of equipment,” he said.
“I’ve got a net, right here,” D’arad said, and pulled one out of his backpack. It was small, about the size one needed to capture a kitten.
K’ndar laughed, derisively.
“Did Shawn tell you that smandas are easily a meter long? That they’re slimy and resemble a tunnel snake? Did he tell you they need to be in water? That they have long sharp claws all round? That they’ll cover you in a netting of spit with venom in it, stuff so sticky you won’t be able to breathe if it gets around your chest?”
G’alin frowned, angrily. “No, he never said a word about THAT,” he said.
K’ndar lifted Siskin from his shoulders and gently pulled one of the fire lizard’s hind legs out. Siskin protested, but allowed it.
“See these scars? That’s from the netting. It almost killed my fire lizard.”
Siskin’s eyes roiled an annoyed orange. K’ndar released him and he returned to his perch on his shoulder.
“That looks like Thread score,” G’alin said.
“It’s worse,” K’ndar said, then, unable to resist, “what do you think, D’arad? Doesn’t it look like thread score to you?” He knew, without having to ask, that D’arad was too new a dragonrider to have ever flown thread.
G’alin smirked. “He’s post thread, K’ndar, he never fought it,” he said.
“But I would have if I could have! I went through the school!” D’arad said, on the defensive now.
K’ndar patted the boy on the shoulder in a most patronizing way. “I believe you,” he said, nodding solemnly.
G’alin grinned. Then he felt dismay at what Shawn was sending them into. I KNEW not to trust that bast, he thought, he’s always been sneaky. He’s obviously trying to skirt the Council and the main researchers. Figures. That’s how he works. He’s taking money from SOMEONE. Shaff it, but he’s slimy.
D’arad said, “But, I am positive Shawn knows all about smandas. He wouldn’t send me into a situation where I might get hurt. He trusts me, he knows I can do it. I can.”
K’ndar was growing tired of the upstart braggart. “I am seriously considering letting you try, D’arad.”
G’alin, though, was angry.
“Shaff it, I KNEW there was something screwy with him coming to us all quiet like. No, K’ndar, we are NOT prepared,” G’alin said.
He turned to D’arad. “D’arad, would you go and ask Shawn if he has the right equipment for us? Maybe he was just too busy to fully brief us.”
D’arad stood tall. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said.
He ran off.
K’ndar looked at G’alin.
“Seriously, G’alin? You think Shawn really didn’t...”
“Shut up, K’ndar, mount up and let’s go before D’arad figures it out. At least show me where this place is, I can recon it, and we’ll go back later, properly kitted out. I can’t stand that little twerp, he’s dangerous,” he snapped.
K’ndar laughed.
24 June 2020
Chap. 188 They Want a WHAT?
Chap.188 They want a WHAT?
“Are they joking? Have they had a bit too much fellis? Those things nearly killed my fire lizard,” K’ndar said, shocked.
M’rvin shook his head.
“No, they’re apparently in their right minds,” he said. “Folks at Landing don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.”
K’ndar, unbidden, sat down on the bench before his Weyrleader’s desk.
He shook his head, too.
“That’s...well, sir, I’ve heard a lot of strange things coming out of Landing, but this? “Capturing a live smanda”? And I wish they wouldn’t expect us to take on every nitnoid task that their dragonriders don’t want to take on,” he said, testy.
“I know it looks like that to you, and probably to every other Kahrain dragonrider...or Weyrleader,” M’rvin said with just a touch of tone that said, I can’t go any further, “but we do get a lot of ’perks’, let’s say, from Landing, that the other weyr's don’t. We don’t tell the other weyrs that, of course, and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourself.”
Something in his wording told K’ndar to back down. “Yes, sir.”
He sighed. “Sir, I’d rather tackle a wild wher than handle one of those smandas. At least a wher has the decency to let’s you know he’s coming.”
M’rvin grinned. “You’re a biologist, K’ndar. What IS a ‘smanda’?
K’ndar shook his head. “Sir, I haven’t the faintest idea. It resembles a tunnel snake in a general form, but there is NOTHING in “Natural History of Pern” that even comes close to the things I saw. I would like to do deeper research using the database at Landing, but...it’s not easy to get ‘time’ on the computer, so I’m told, and the friends I have there, they’re always busy. I’d need some help ‘accessing’ the database. And I’ve not had a chance to use the datalink in our library. I am confused by N’orald knowing what it was, how could his grandfather have known? That spot is so far out from who knows where, did he swim there? Who built that hut? It’s solid, sir, solid as this hunk of basalt you use as a desk. Poor N’orald, we’re lucky that he remembered the antidote to the venom,” he said, remembering how scared he was that he would lose the blue fire lizard. Siskin had grown into his heart...and Raventh’s.
“That’s the same information that Landing told me, meaning none. That’s why they’re so eager to get a live one. They analyzed the samples that were scraped off your jacket. They even managed to separate the venom from the saliva. The venom itself is fairly toxic to native Pern creatures, especially wherries and birds, although it’s harmless to fish...and mammals. For instance, that wound on your cheek, did Billek find venom in the wound?
“Um, sir, I’ve not had a chance to ask him. Considering that Siskins hind feet were almost encased in the netting, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t. But, while Siskin was saying that it hurt him, to me, it was only, oh, irritating. It stung, for a while, like iodine, then it went away. It didn’t ‘hurt’ until my sister and Salish pointed it out, so that, I attribute to mentally expecting it to hurt. Billek took a sample, said he was going to culture it, then treated the wound with a phage. The bacteria in the water is the same stuff all over Pern, so that was an easy matter, the phage took care of it. It didn’t get infected. The itching as it healed, that’s about the worst part of it,” he said, unconsciously reaching up to touch the healed wound. “Billek was surprised at how quickly it healed, but he said that I’d always have a scar.”
“And ruin your good looks?” M’rvin said, smirking.
K’ndar roared. “I don’t think I’ve ever been complimented on my looks!”
“Me neither. See this scar over my right eyebrow? I forget how it happened, I was, oh, five years old, I think, and apparently, while my Mum was treating it, I must have said I was worried about how it would affect my appearance. My mum said, “Don’t you worry, Marvin, girls think scars are sexy,” M’rvin said.
K’ndar laughed. “It does give you a rakish look, sir, kind of like the fierce eye our dragons have. My sister took Raventh’s picture, said she wanted him to look ‘fierce’, but Raventh’s blue eye ruined that!”
He felt, somehow, proud that his Weyrleader was treating him not as a weyrling, but as a dragonrider, speaking to him as an equal, rather than his boss.
“Mind you, K’ndar, I am no scientist. But from what I can get out of Landing, the venom has properties that lend itself to being a powerful pain killer. Better than numbweed, and, if a way can be found, easier to mass produce,” he said.
“THAT would be wonderful, sir! I remember my mum and the women who lived at our cothold, oh, and Hariko and her crew, here, brewing pots of numbweed. Stink? Gets in your hair, your nose, you didn’t dare stand downwind of the boiling pots. I admire the women, that’s a dreadful job, and the females always seemed to get stuck with it, well, except here! I’m so very glad that of all the tasks I had to do as a Weyrling, somehow I never had to make numbweed salve,” he said, wondering if he’d made an error in revealing that fact.
“And now that there’s no Thread, we don’t have to make so much of it,” M’rvin said.
They both stopped for a moment, both reflecting on how life had improved so much without the constant battle with Thread.
“That’s not all, though, K’ndar. The netting, from the smanda’s saliva. As you know far too well, it coagulates into sticky ropes, that expand and harden. But not when it’s dried, and they’ve found that it dries out not only ‘between’ but any time it’s out of water, in hot, dry conditions, like next to a fire, or even in the strong sunlight. It turns into a powder that is then easily handled. If it gets wet, the stickiness returns. THAT has Landing even more excited than the possibility of a better pain killer,” he said.
“Why?”
“The fishermen, boat builders, seafolk-they’re always fighting leaks in their ships. Oakum just doesn’t last long in water. If they can figure a way to mass produce the elements in saliva that make it sticky, they can apply the powder to the hull of a boat. When it gets wet, it expands to fill the cracks between the wood panels-and it’s sealed. Forever. It’s waterproof!
Can you imagine the uses that stuff can be turned to?”
K’ndar gawped.
“Whoa. That’s amazing. Give me a few minutes, I bet I can come up with a dozen different uses. Not just for ships! But sir, the venom is IN the saliva, as far as I know,” K’ndar said.
“That’s why they want a live smanda. To see how it makes the venom without it killing the smanda. Is it a gland, like in a tunnel snake? They want to keep a smanda, probably a bunch, to research and study,” M’rvin said.
“Let me guess...they want to RAISE these things?” K’ndar said, shivering at the thought.
“I don’t think they’ve thought that far ahead, K’ndar. I haven’t, but I know how folks raise mink, for their furs. Those little beasts are free range, to a degree, I’ve seen them, they play together like puppies and fight like whers. I think the only reason they’re still on Pern is due to their fur. But, if the only way to mass produce the saliva and the venom is to farm raise smandas, welllllll, why not?”
The ecologist in K’ndar bellowed an alarm. “Sir, I’ve never seen a mink farm, but I know that when one gets loose, it raises all sorts of trouble in our waterways. Lucky for us, actually, lucky for Pern that fire lizards are such good hunters. They’ll tackle a mink without hesitation, although the mink can put up one shaff of a fight. I can’t believe that a smanda would be any different. Just the idea of them getting loose in our waterways, that’s...scary. They’re nasty creatures, sir, and I...I’m not sure I want to go back to Far Nowhere and try to actually CATCH one. I’d sooner kill it,” he said.
M’rvin nodded. “I understand your reticence at going back there, but, K’ndar, you needn’t do anything more than lead the riders that Landing IS sending to that location. They can’t find it on the map, there is virtually NO mention of it in the database or anyone’s records...and strangest of all, the Yokohama can’t find it, either. It’s called the “Far Nowhere”, if N’orald’s account can be trusted, for a good reason,” he said. “Right now, you’re the only one who knows the coordinates. I seriously doubt N’orald would remember them. Once you get there, they’ll take a reading off the Yokohama and we’ll know for sure, WHERE you were.”
K’ndar raised his face to the ceiling, thinking. Did he want to go back there?
Of course you do. That’s what we do best..explore, Raventh said, Don’t worry about Siskin. He won’t make the same mistake twice. He never does.
M’rvin saw K’ndar vacillating. Come on, K’ndar, don’t make me order you. I don’t want to do that, a person always does a job best when he or she chooses to do so, he thought.
“Matter of fact,” he said, knowing, now, just how to get K’ndar to agree, “I’d love to go out and see it. But I’m fairly well chained to my desk,” he said, ruefully.
“Oh, come on, sir, you’d love it, getting out in the field. I’m sure our Weyrwoman can manage dragonriders for a day,” K’ndar said, smiling.
“I’m SURE of it, K’ndar, but if she figures out how easy it is, I’ll be out of a job!”
“Are they joking? Have they had a bit too much fellis? Those things nearly killed my fire lizard,” K’ndar said, shocked.
M’rvin shook his head.
“No, they’re apparently in their right minds,” he said. “Folks at Landing don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.”
K’ndar, unbidden, sat down on the bench before his Weyrleader’s desk.
He shook his head, too.
“That’s...well, sir, I’ve heard a lot of strange things coming out of Landing, but this? “Capturing a live smanda”? And I wish they wouldn’t expect us to take on every nitnoid task that their dragonriders don’t want to take on,” he said, testy.
“I know it looks like that to you, and probably to every other Kahrain dragonrider...or Weyrleader,” M’rvin said with just a touch of tone that said, I can’t go any further, “but we do get a lot of ’perks’, let’s say, from Landing, that the other weyr's don’t. We don’t tell the other weyrs that, of course, and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourself.”
Something in his wording told K’ndar to back down. “Yes, sir.”
He sighed. “Sir, I’d rather tackle a wild wher than handle one of those smandas. At least a wher has the decency to let’s you know he’s coming.”
M’rvin grinned. “You’re a biologist, K’ndar. What IS a ‘smanda’?
K’ndar shook his head. “Sir, I haven’t the faintest idea. It resembles a tunnel snake in a general form, but there is NOTHING in “Natural History of Pern” that even comes close to the things I saw. I would like to do deeper research using the database at Landing, but...it’s not easy to get ‘time’ on the computer, so I’m told, and the friends I have there, they’re always busy. I’d need some help ‘accessing’ the database. And I’ve not had a chance to use the datalink in our library. I am confused by N’orald knowing what it was, how could his grandfather have known? That spot is so far out from who knows where, did he swim there? Who built that hut? It’s solid, sir, solid as this hunk of basalt you use as a desk. Poor N’orald, we’re lucky that he remembered the antidote to the venom,” he said, remembering how scared he was that he would lose the blue fire lizard. Siskin had grown into his heart...and Raventh’s.
“That’s the same information that Landing told me, meaning none. That’s why they’re so eager to get a live one. They analyzed the samples that were scraped off your jacket. They even managed to separate the venom from the saliva. The venom itself is fairly toxic to native Pern creatures, especially wherries and birds, although it’s harmless to fish...and mammals. For instance, that wound on your cheek, did Billek find venom in the wound?
“Um, sir, I’ve not had a chance to ask him. Considering that Siskins hind feet were almost encased in the netting, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t. But, while Siskin was saying that it hurt him, to me, it was only, oh, irritating. It stung, for a while, like iodine, then it went away. It didn’t ‘hurt’ until my sister and Salish pointed it out, so that, I attribute to mentally expecting it to hurt. Billek took a sample, said he was going to culture it, then treated the wound with a phage. The bacteria in the water is the same stuff all over Pern, so that was an easy matter, the phage took care of it. It didn’t get infected. The itching as it healed, that’s about the worst part of it,” he said, unconsciously reaching up to touch the healed wound. “Billek was surprised at how quickly it healed, but he said that I’d always have a scar.”
“And ruin your good looks?” M’rvin said, smirking.
K’ndar roared. “I don’t think I’ve ever been complimented on my looks!”
“Me neither. See this scar over my right eyebrow? I forget how it happened, I was, oh, five years old, I think, and apparently, while my Mum was treating it, I must have said I was worried about how it would affect my appearance. My mum said, “Don’t you worry, Marvin, girls think scars are sexy,” M’rvin said.
K’ndar laughed. “It does give you a rakish look, sir, kind of like the fierce eye our dragons have. My sister took Raventh’s picture, said she wanted him to look ‘fierce’, but Raventh’s blue eye ruined that!”
He felt, somehow, proud that his Weyrleader was treating him not as a weyrling, but as a dragonrider, speaking to him as an equal, rather than his boss.
“Mind you, K’ndar, I am no scientist. But from what I can get out of Landing, the venom has properties that lend itself to being a powerful pain killer. Better than numbweed, and, if a way can be found, easier to mass produce,” he said.
“THAT would be wonderful, sir! I remember my mum and the women who lived at our cothold, oh, and Hariko and her crew, here, brewing pots of numbweed. Stink? Gets in your hair, your nose, you didn’t dare stand downwind of the boiling pots. I admire the women, that’s a dreadful job, and the females always seemed to get stuck with it, well, except here! I’m so very glad that of all the tasks I had to do as a Weyrling, somehow I never had to make numbweed salve,” he said, wondering if he’d made an error in revealing that fact.
“And now that there’s no Thread, we don’t have to make so much of it,” M’rvin said.
They both stopped for a moment, both reflecting on how life had improved so much without the constant battle with Thread.
“That’s not all, though, K’ndar. The netting, from the smanda’s saliva. As you know far too well, it coagulates into sticky ropes, that expand and harden. But not when it’s dried, and they’ve found that it dries out not only ‘between’ but any time it’s out of water, in hot, dry conditions, like next to a fire, or even in the strong sunlight. It turns into a powder that is then easily handled. If it gets wet, the stickiness returns. THAT has Landing even more excited than the possibility of a better pain killer,” he said.
“Why?”
“The fishermen, boat builders, seafolk-they’re always fighting leaks in their ships. Oakum just doesn’t last long in water. If they can figure a way to mass produce the elements in saliva that make it sticky, they can apply the powder to the hull of a boat. When it gets wet, it expands to fill the cracks between the wood panels-and it’s sealed. Forever. It’s waterproof!
Can you imagine the uses that stuff can be turned to?”
K’ndar gawped.
“Whoa. That’s amazing. Give me a few minutes, I bet I can come up with a dozen different uses. Not just for ships! But sir, the venom is IN the saliva, as far as I know,” K’ndar said.
“That’s why they want a live smanda. To see how it makes the venom without it killing the smanda. Is it a gland, like in a tunnel snake? They want to keep a smanda, probably a bunch, to research and study,” M’rvin said.
“Let me guess...they want to RAISE these things?” K’ndar said, shivering at the thought.
“I don’t think they’ve thought that far ahead, K’ndar. I haven’t, but I know how folks raise mink, for their furs. Those little beasts are free range, to a degree, I’ve seen them, they play together like puppies and fight like whers. I think the only reason they’re still on Pern is due to their fur. But, if the only way to mass produce the saliva and the venom is to farm raise smandas, welllllll, why not?”
The ecologist in K’ndar bellowed an alarm. “Sir, I’ve never seen a mink farm, but I know that when one gets loose, it raises all sorts of trouble in our waterways. Lucky for us, actually, lucky for Pern that fire lizards are such good hunters. They’ll tackle a mink without hesitation, although the mink can put up one shaff of a fight. I can’t believe that a smanda would be any different. Just the idea of them getting loose in our waterways, that’s...scary. They’re nasty creatures, sir, and I...I’m not sure I want to go back to Far Nowhere and try to actually CATCH one. I’d sooner kill it,” he said.
M’rvin nodded. “I understand your reticence at going back there, but, K’ndar, you needn’t do anything more than lead the riders that Landing IS sending to that location. They can’t find it on the map, there is virtually NO mention of it in the database or anyone’s records...and strangest of all, the Yokohama can’t find it, either. It’s called the “Far Nowhere”, if N’orald’s account can be trusted, for a good reason,” he said. “Right now, you’re the only one who knows the coordinates. I seriously doubt N’orald would remember them. Once you get there, they’ll take a reading off the Yokohama and we’ll know for sure, WHERE you were.”
K’ndar raised his face to the ceiling, thinking. Did he want to go back there?
Of course you do. That’s what we do best..explore, Raventh said, Don’t worry about Siskin. He won’t make the same mistake twice. He never does.
M’rvin saw K’ndar vacillating. Come on, K’ndar, don’t make me order you. I don’t want to do that, a person always does a job best when he or she chooses to do so, he thought.
“Matter of fact,” he said, knowing, now, just how to get K’ndar to agree, “I’d love to go out and see it. But I’m fairly well chained to my desk,” he said, ruefully.
“Oh, come on, sir, you’d love it, getting out in the field. I’m sure our Weyrwoman can manage dragonriders for a day,” K’ndar said, smiling.
“I’m SURE of it, K’ndar, but if she figures out how easy it is, I’ll be out of a job!”
18 June 2020
Chap. 187 The Dragonhealer
Chap. 187 The Dragon healer
“He might die, K’ndar. I’m sorry,” Salish, the weyr’s dragon healer said.
Siskin’s limp form was on her clinic’s stone table. The blue appeared to be unconscious, his breathing labored.
Going between had frozen the netting on Siskin’s skin, turning it into a powder.
The sticky netting on his riding jacket and gloves had mostly turned to powder, too, although there were spots where it had somehow survived the cold of between and was still viscous.
His hurried warning to not touch it had resulted in Salish and her assistant cutting his jacket off his back. The gloves had come away from Siskin’s body reluctantly, tearing the skin in some spots. It made all three of them cringe.
“This is some nasty, nasty shit,” Salish said, shaking her head. She turned to her assistant. “Please, and carefully! won’t you take samples of that stuff, both powder and whatever sticky you can find, and we’ll send it off to the Healer Hall,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” the man said, “and I think we should send some to Landing, too. Their lab folks will want to see this.” He turned to gather what he needed to sample.
“Excellent idea,” she said, and then turned her attention to Siskin.
Watching Salish examine his fire lizard, answering her questions, feeling guilty that he’d not unharnessed Raventh, stupefied by the unexpected emergency, feeling utterly helpless to do anything more than fear for Siskin’s life, swearing he’d NEVER do ‘exploring’ again, wait a minute, didn’t I promise that with the islands?...K’ndar’s mind was a maelstrom of emotions.
Raventh had landed in the large bowl behind the weyr, knowing where the dragon healer's clinic was. His hand still glued to Siskin’s body, K’ndar had clumsily slid off of Raventh and paused, wondering how to unharness him when his hands were glued to Siskin?
Don’t worry about me, someone will unharness me. Siskin needs the healer right away Raventh had said.
How comforting, to have Raventh in his heart and mind. How amazing was it, that this little blue creature had found room in them, too. What would I do without you, little blue?
“I’ll be honest with you, K’ndar. He’s only the second fire lizard I’ve ever treated, believe it or not. They’re tough critters. The first was an egg bound green and that was an easy fix. I honestly have no idea what Siskin is dealing with,” she said.
Tears rolled down his cheek, his worry and grief overwhelming him.
D’mitran is unharnessing me. Careth told him why. I told the dragons what happened. Many riders are coming.
She gently picked up Siskin’s uppermost foreleg. The normally warm, smooth skin felt smooshy and yet corrugated, as if someone had taken a wire brush to it. Edema, she thought, the veins running just below his skin pulsing at high speed. His system was trying to clear SOMETHING.
He whimpered, so softly that they barely heard it.
“He’s conscious?”
Surprised, Salish said, “I think so,”
“He stopped bleeding, at least. I can treat these wounds, but, these wounds, all over him...from a ‘net’, you said? For the life of me, K’ndar, these marks look like Thread score, but we haven’t had thread in what seems a lifetime. And there’s something metabolic going on. This is just a guess, but I think that netting had some sort of poison or venom in it, judging by Siskin’s condition,” she said.
“Oh, no,” he moaned, unable to think of anything better.
She looked up at him.
“By the way, you have a big gash on your face, was it from the netting?”
“I don’t think so. I caught him when he fell on top of me, one of his claws gouged my face. I didn’t think of it at the time,” he said, touching his face gingerly. Now that she mentioned it, it began to hurt.
“Given that he was in the water, then, I think YOU need to see Billek as soon as possible. I can’t imagine what nasties were in that water. WHERE exactly were you?”
“I don’t know, ma’am, I reversed the coordinates in my head and boom we were there. I’ve never even HEARD of that area, never mind the creatures that attacked him...and us,” he said.
A crowd was forming outside the clinic. They were, for the most part, silent. But a voice cried, “Let me through, that’s my brother!” and Glyena pushed her way through.
K’ndar was at a loss for words, but Salish stopped and said, “Quiet, lassie, please? I remember you, you’ve helped with thread scored dragons a time or two. Glyena, isn’t?”
“Yes’m but…,” then she shut up, stunned at the sight of Siskin’s body on the table.
“Is he..is he dead?” she said, her face screwing up.
“No, he’s not, but...”
Glyena fought her tears.
“No, he can’t die, he’s...he’s Siskin!”
K’ndar found himself almost relieved to comfort the girl, it took the pain from him for a moment.
“What happened? K’ndar, why is Siskin...”
He wanted to hug her. “”Glyena, for now, let’s just let Salish examine him, and then I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”
She nodded, gulping. “But you need to see Billek, too, your face is all gouged up,”
she said.
“I know. It’s just..”
“K’ndar. Right now, there’s not much you can do for him or me. The longer you wait to have that cut on your face checked, the more time you give bacteria to establish. You don’t want an infection, okay?”
“I know, but..”
“Leave Siskin here with me. He’s not going anywhere, not right now. In fact, if I need to, I’ll keep him sedated, just so he doesn’t wake up and think he’s still fighting. You’re a horseman, you know how that works. I’m going to take skin and blood tests, test them here as well as send them with the netting samples on to Healer and Landing,” she said.
Glyena took his arm. “Come on, K’ndar,” she said, having regained her composure, “I’ve seen these healers work, they’re very competent at their job. Let’s take you to Billek,” she said, in her best alpha mare voice.
Salish and her assistant both bit their lips to keep from laughing. Even K’ndar found his sister’s domination amusing.
She bent down to pick up his jacket.
“NO! Don’t touch it!” he yelled.
She snatched her hand back. She didn’t question why, not when K’ndar used THAT tone.
The assistant, wearing gloves, knelt to take the samples he needed. He brushed the powder into a glass container, then gingerly lifted up one of the arms.
“Yesssssssssssss”, he breathed in satisfaction, it’s still...viable? It’s still fresh. Shaff it but this stuff is sticky, and that’s AFTER between? Nasty stuff,” he said. “It even stinks. By the egg, look what it’s done to the leather,” he said.
“Can I help? I’ve helped you before, remember?” Glyena said.
The man smiled, despite his trepidation of her coming near the netting.
“Yes, please. Do NOT allow any contact, but here, you hold the tongs, okay, and I’ll scrape some of this infernal stuff into the jar. Got it?”
Glyena did as she was told, focusing intently on her work.
“Leave the jacket and gloves here, would you please, K’ndar? I want to see if the stuff continues to eat the leather. At least that is what it appears it’s doing, here, on the arms,” the assistant said.
“It saved MY skin, I’m certain,” K’ndar said, “it’s a good jacket, but it’s not worth getting hurt. It’s unwearable, for now.”
“I can fix it, K’ndar, don’t you worry. I know how to work leather,” Glyena said.
K’ndar became aware of a dozen faces peering in, watching the proceedings.
A voice came from the crowd, one he’d not heard in a very long time.
“That’d be from the smanda,” the voice said.
The onlookers gently opened a path to allow a very old, wizened man to reach the doorway.
K’ndar, recognized the Oldtimer. “Hello, N’orald, sir, I’ve not seen you in a very long time.” He didn’t say, indeed, I thought you were dead.
“Aye, R’nkar, aye, but I’m still here. Menkarth told me what your brown reported. So I made me way here. That stuff, that’d be from a smanda. I’ve not seen that sort o’ thing in seventy turns, but I knows it when I sees it. It’s slime from a smanda.”
“A ‘smanda’?”
“Least, that’s what me grandfather called it. How he knew, I don’t know. Grampa wasn’t a dragon rider.”
He shuffled into the clinic, and looked at Siskin’s silent form.
“He’s not dead?”
“No, sir,” Salish said.
He saw the jacket. Bending down, he looked closer.
“It looks like smanda spit, aye, I’ll be switched if it t’aint. I’ve only seen it once before, back when I were a Weyrling. We were out in the Far Nowhere, me and some of my classmates. We’d been there a day? Seen these smandas swimming. They spit this goo out, you see, they spit it on plants, and it turns into a net. The birds and wherries swim or fly into and they’re done for. One of the lads, I can’t remember his name anymore, his bronze went to go fishing in the water and got his feet hung up in the nets, they was everywhere. Once a beast is in their net, the stuff just gets stickier, it swells and tightens up til the poor beast is immobilized. Seems to me, yes, I remember, there’s poison in it, I think. I saw live birds, trapped, they weren’t struggling anymore, they acted as if they’d drunk too much fellis. Then the smandas, they come to eat whatever it is what got caught in the net. It takes ‘em days to eat the poor beast and it’s alive all the while. Nasty beasts, the smandas.”
He shook his head.
“Your mate, his bronze got caught? What happened to him?” Salish asked. Everyone else was silent, caught by his story.
N’orald laughed derisively.
“Aye, he were the biggest bird they’d ever caught! Must have been a celebration ‘mongst them smandas! Dinner for a lifetime! But no!!
“Their nets, strong enough for a wherry, but not a bronze dragon, hehehe! He had the netting all over his legs, but whooosh! He gave a mighty down stroke and bust out of that water, a smanda already on his leg. That one, he bit the bronze and then fell at our feet. Slimy beasts, ugly beasts. The bronze, he landed but then started feeling woozy, he said. So we all went home. That’s when we learned the spit turns to powder. That bronze, he were sick for days afterwards. The bite, it went septic just like that, the healer ended up having to cauterize it. It acted a lot like thread, except it works in water. For Pern’s sake, don’t get that powder wet, it gets sticky all over again. Nasty beasts, smandas!” he said.
He laughed, lost in his memories from almost five hundred years past.
“Ah, we were so stupid, we were, we weren’t supposed to be out nomading, so we didn’t tell no one! But Weyrlingmaster, he learned about it. We were dumbskulls! Our dragons told on us! And we were confined to quarters for rest of the training ! Extra duty? For turns, it seemed we was cleaning the latrines. The ones what didn’t go, they had life easy, easy! No tasks for them, no sir! So it took a while for the dragon healer to get to the bronze, and only because the dragon was sickly like, laying about, telling the other dragons he was ill. I think iffen my mate had taken the bronze to the healer right off, it wouldn’t have got so bad,” N’orald said.
“Do you know how the healer treated the bronze?” Salish asked, hoping.
“Uh...I do remember, the healer had no idea how to help the bronze other than treating the wound. It weren’t til later he realized there was something else, something that put the bronze off his appetite, you know. The bronze, he kept saying it was ‘busy’ inside. He was sick for a sevenday, sick as a canine. It were the bite that hurt him more than the netting. The wounds from the net, they...wait..”
He was listening to his bronze dragon.
“Menkarth says, the stuff in the net is a lot like thread but ‘inside out’. I don’t know what he means. He says it makes oh…….he hasn’t the words for it. The bronze did get better, he did. He slept and slept, he said, but he did get better,” N’orald said. “He were forever scarred for the rest of his life, and it was in a net pattern, not like typical Thread score. Made him look dangerous,” he said, laughing.
Salish wished she had more information, but the Oldtimer was...an old timer.
K’ndar felt relieved. Siskin hadn’t been bitten, he was sure of that.
The assistant, who’d been working all this time, said, “Thank you, Glyena, please put those tongs in the sink, over there, and I’ll clean them. K’ndar, I think your gloves, at least, should be burned, I wouldn’t wear them again. You’re right, this stuff is sticky as can be, I’m grateful we could get a sample,” he said.
K’ndar nodded. He had no intentions of using the gloves again.
“So, he’ll get better?” he asked Salish.
She heaved a big sigh. “K’ndar...Siskin is a tiny fire lizard, not a bronze. So. Um.” she said, wondering how to keep K’ndar from too much optimism.
But he was a dragonrider.
He saw her thoughts in her eyes.
“So,” he said, the words breaking his heart, “He still might die?”
She nodded, grief overcoming her, too. It was so hard to say these words, she thought. Sometimes I wonder why I DO this job.
A low moan broke from the audience filling the doorway. But one did not.
“He’ll make it, K’ndar, don’t you worry,” one of the crowd said, “Salish is the best, she fixed up my boy when he was scored years ago,” the man said, “even saved his eye. That were a bad one, you remember, Salish?”
Gratefully, Salish nodded, not really remembering...she’d seen so many scored dragons, but was too polite to say so. Still, she didn’t want K’ndar to expect too much from her working with a malady she knew nothing about.
“K’ndar, this is all new to me. I am grateful, sir,” she said, looking at N’orald, “for your so very helpful information. That helps me a LOT,” she said.
“My pleasure, lassie,” the Oldtimer said, and turned. The crowd respectfully opened a path for the old man to pass through.
“Now what?” K’ndar asked the healer.
“I’m going to keep Siskin here, do you mind? He won’t be alone, I’m certain Sebastian will be here alongside him, as long as he’s needed,” she said.
“Who is Sebastian?” Glyena asked.
At that moment, a large tuxedo cat leaped onto the examining table and sniffed at Siskin.
After several long moments, Sebastian sat, his tail wrapped neatly around his paws.
“THIS is Sebastian. He is the best comforter I’ve ever known. I didn’t train him. He trained US. He knows when a sick animal needs a companion. He will sit with Siskin for as long as the lizard needs him. When he leaves, I know that the beast is better. Fortunately, I’ve not had a dragon die on my watch,” she said, giving the old cat a head rub. The cat looked impassive. He was an old hand at this, his attitude said.
“Um…”, K’ndar said, knowing it was the best for Siskin. He wasn’t a healer. But he wanted the blue next to him. She knew it. She knew dragonriders better than they knew themselves.
“After all, a fire lizard IS a dragon. Just a small one,” she said, forcing a grin.
K’ndar nodded.
“Have your dragon keep in touch with him,” she said.
“He already is. He’s just sick with worry,” K’ndar said.
Not sick. Just worried. But I am in his mind. He is not thinking right now.
Raventh said, gently.
Will...do you think he might...die?
Raventh made a sound in his mind that felt like a pat on the shoulder.
I won’t let him
“Lassie, lassie!” N’orald’s voice indicated he was returning.
He shuffled back in, excitedly.
“I forgot. My memory is done! There’s poison in the smanda spit. It gets on the skin and then works its way into his innards. The longer it’s on him, the bigger the dose. But there’s a fix for it! It's vinegar!! Douse him with vinegar, it will neutralize the poison!”
The crowd scattered, everyone running for vinegar.
Siskin opened his eyes. They were whirling all colors of the rainbow, but they were MOVING, and K’ndar almost wept in relief.
The blue rolled onto his chest and tried to open his wings, but he was too weak. Groggy, his head bobbed, his nose touching the tabletop for a moment. Then he looked up, his eyes meeting K’ndar’s, and in the weakest voice he’d ever heard, gave his typical questioning ‘wheep’?
The crowd roared. K’ndar felt his already broken heart break again. He stroked the blue gently.
“It’s okay, lad, you stay here, alright?”
Salish was laughing at the success. Her table top was crowded with empty containers. More vinegar was arriving. It was all over the floor.
Glyena was beside herself with joy.
“Vinegar!! Vinegar!!” she shouted.
“Vinegar indeed! What is going on here, are you pickling the planet? What in the world are you doing with all that vinegar?” Hariko, the weyr’s beloved headwoman, came in, incensed.
Everyone laughed.
Salish sobered. She pointed a finger at K’ndar.
“You. Off to the healer. NOW.”
“Yes’m,” he said.
“He might die, K’ndar. I’m sorry,” Salish, the weyr’s dragon healer said.
Siskin’s limp form was on her clinic’s stone table. The blue appeared to be unconscious, his breathing labored.
Going between had frozen the netting on Siskin’s skin, turning it into a powder.
The sticky netting on his riding jacket and gloves had mostly turned to powder, too, although there were spots where it had somehow survived the cold of between and was still viscous.
His hurried warning to not touch it had resulted in Salish and her assistant cutting his jacket off his back. The gloves had come away from Siskin’s body reluctantly, tearing the skin in some spots. It made all three of them cringe.
“This is some nasty, nasty shit,” Salish said, shaking her head. She turned to her assistant. “Please, and carefully! won’t you take samples of that stuff, both powder and whatever sticky you can find, and we’ll send it off to the Healer Hall,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” the man said, “and I think we should send some to Landing, too. Their lab folks will want to see this.” He turned to gather what he needed to sample.
“Excellent idea,” she said, and then turned her attention to Siskin.
Watching Salish examine his fire lizard, answering her questions, feeling guilty that he’d not unharnessed Raventh, stupefied by the unexpected emergency, feeling utterly helpless to do anything more than fear for Siskin’s life, swearing he’d NEVER do ‘exploring’ again, wait a minute, didn’t I promise that with the islands?...K’ndar’s mind was a maelstrom of emotions.
Raventh had landed in the large bowl behind the weyr, knowing where the dragon healer's clinic was. His hand still glued to Siskin’s body, K’ndar had clumsily slid off of Raventh and paused, wondering how to unharness him when his hands were glued to Siskin?
Don’t worry about me, someone will unharness me. Siskin needs the healer right away Raventh had said.
How comforting, to have Raventh in his heart and mind. How amazing was it, that this little blue creature had found room in them, too. What would I do without you, little blue?
“I’ll be honest with you, K’ndar. He’s only the second fire lizard I’ve ever treated, believe it or not. They’re tough critters. The first was an egg bound green and that was an easy fix. I honestly have no idea what Siskin is dealing with,” she said.
Tears rolled down his cheek, his worry and grief overwhelming him.
D’mitran is unharnessing me. Careth told him why. I told the dragons what happened. Many riders are coming.
She gently picked up Siskin’s uppermost foreleg. The normally warm, smooth skin felt smooshy and yet corrugated, as if someone had taken a wire brush to it. Edema, she thought, the veins running just below his skin pulsing at high speed. His system was trying to clear SOMETHING.
He whimpered, so softly that they barely heard it.
“He’s conscious?”
Surprised, Salish said, “I think so,”
“He stopped bleeding, at least. I can treat these wounds, but, these wounds, all over him...from a ‘net’, you said? For the life of me, K’ndar, these marks look like Thread score, but we haven’t had thread in what seems a lifetime. And there’s something metabolic going on. This is just a guess, but I think that netting had some sort of poison or venom in it, judging by Siskin’s condition,” she said.
“Oh, no,” he moaned, unable to think of anything better.
She looked up at him.
“By the way, you have a big gash on your face, was it from the netting?”
“I don’t think so. I caught him when he fell on top of me, one of his claws gouged my face. I didn’t think of it at the time,” he said, touching his face gingerly. Now that she mentioned it, it began to hurt.
“Given that he was in the water, then, I think YOU need to see Billek as soon as possible. I can’t imagine what nasties were in that water. WHERE exactly were you?”
“I don’t know, ma’am, I reversed the coordinates in my head and boom we were there. I’ve never even HEARD of that area, never mind the creatures that attacked him...and us,” he said.
A crowd was forming outside the clinic. They were, for the most part, silent. But a voice cried, “Let me through, that’s my brother!” and Glyena pushed her way through.
K’ndar was at a loss for words, but Salish stopped and said, “Quiet, lassie, please? I remember you, you’ve helped with thread scored dragons a time or two. Glyena, isn’t?”
“Yes’m but…,” then she shut up, stunned at the sight of Siskin’s body on the table.
“Is he..is he dead?” she said, her face screwing up.
“No, he’s not, but...”
Glyena fought her tears.
“No, he can’t die, he’s...he’s Siskin!”
K’ndar found himself almost relieved to comfort the girl, it took the pain from him for a moment.
“What happened? K’ndar, why is Siskin...”
He wanted to hug her. “”Glyena, for now, let’s just let Salish examine him, and then I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”
She nodded, gulping. “But you need to see Billek, too, your face is all gouged up,”
she said.
“I know. It’s just..”
“K’ndar. Right now, there’s not much you can do for him or me. The longer you wait to have that cut on your face checked, the more time you give bacteria to establish. You don’t want an infection, okay?”
“I know, but..”
“Leave Siskin here with me. He’s not going anywhere, not right now. In fact, if I need to, I’ll keep him sedated, just so he doesn’t wake up and think he’s still fighting. You’re a horseman, you know how that works. I’m going to take skin and blood tests, test them here as well as send them with the netting samples on to Healer and Landing,” she said.
Glyena took his arm. “Come on, K’ndar,” she said, having regained her composure, “I’ve seen these healers work, they’re very competent at their job. Let’s take you to Billek,” she said, in her best alpha mare voice.
Salish and her assistant both bit their lips to keep from laughing. Even K’ndar found his sister’s domination amusing.
She bent down to pick up his jacket.
“NO! Don’t touch it!” he yelled.
She snatched her hand back. She didn’t question why, not when K’ndar used THAT tone.
The assistant, wearing gloves, knelt to take the samples he needed. He brushed the powder into a glass container, then gingerly lifted up one of the arms.
“Yesssssssssssss”, he breathed in satisfaction, it’s still...viable? It’s still fresh. Shaff it but this stuff is sticky, and that’s AFTER between? Nasty stuff,” he said. “It even stinks. By the egg, look what it’s done to the leather,” he said.
“Can I help? I’ve helped you before, remember?” Glyena said.
The man smiled, despite his trepidation of her coming near the netting.
“Yes, please. Do NOT allow any contact, but here, you hold the tongs, okay, and I’ll scrape some of this infernal stuff into the jar. Got it?”
Glyena did as she was told, focusing intently on her work.
“Leave the jacket and gloves here, would you please, K’ndar? I want to see if the stuff continues to eat the leather. At least that is what it appears it’s doing, here, on the arms,” the assistant said.
“It saved MY skin, I’m certain,” K’ndar said, “it’s a good jacket, but it’s not worth getting hurt. It’s unwearable, for now.”
“I can fix it, K’ndar, don’t you worry. I know how to work leather,” Glyena said.
K’ndar became aware of a dozen faces peering in, watching the proceedings.
A voice came from the crowd, one he’d not heard in a very long time.
“That’d be from the smanda,” the voice said.
The onlookers gently opened a path to allow a very old, wizened man to reach the doorway.
K’ndar, recognized the Oldtimer. “Hello, N’orald, sir, I’ve not seen you in a very long time.” He didn’t say, indeed, I thought you were dead.
“Aye, R’nkar, aye, but I’m still here. Menkarth told me what your brown reported. So I made me way here. That stuff, that’d be from a smanda. I’ve not seen that sort o’ thing in seventy turns, but I knows it when I sees it. It’s slime from a smanda.”
“A ‘smanda’?”
“Least, that’s what me grandfather called it. How he knew, I don’t know. Grampa wasn’t a dragon rider.”
He shuffled into the clinic, and looked at Siskin’s silent form.
“He’s not dead?”
“No, sir,” Salish said.
He saw the jacket. Bending down, he looked closer.
“It looks like smanda spit, aye, I’ll be switched if it t’aint. I’ve only seen it once before, back when I were a Weyrling. We were out in the Far Nowhere, me and some of my classmates. We’d been there a day? Seen these smandas swimming. They spit this goo out, you see, they spit it on plants, and it turns into a net. The birds and wherries swim or fly into and they’re done for. One of the lads, I can’t remember his name anymore, his bronze went to go fishing in the water and got his feet hung up in the nets, they was everywhere. Once a beast is in their net, the stuff just gets stickier, it swells and tightens up til the poor beast is immobilized. Seems to me, yes, I remember, there’s poison in it, I think. I saw live birds, trapped, they weren’t struggling anymore, they acted as if they’d drunk too much fellis. Then the smandas, they come to eat whatever it is what got caught in the net. It takes ‘em days to eat the poor beast and it’s alive all the while. Nasty beasts, the smandas.”
He shook his head.
“Your mate, his bronze got caught? What happened to him?” Salish asked. Everyone else was silent, caught by his story.
N’orald laughed derisively.
“Aye, he were the biggest bird they’d ever caught! Must have been a celebration ‘mongst them smandas! Dinner for a lifetime! But no!!
“Their nets, strong enough for a wherry, but not a bronze dragon, hehehe! He had the netting all over his legs, but whooosh! He gave a mighty down stroke and bust out of that water, a smanda already on his leg. That one, he bit the bronze and then fell at our feet. Slimy beasts, ugly beasts. The bronze, he landed but then started feeling woozy, he said. So we all went home. That’s when we learned the spit turns to powder. That bronze, he were sick for days afterwards. The bite, it went septic just like that, the healer ended up having to cauterize it. It acted a lot like thread, except it works in water. For Pern’s sake, don’t get that powder wet, it gets sticky all over again. Nasty beasts, smandas!” he said.
He laughed, lost in his memories from almost five hundred years past.
“Ah, we were so stupid, we were, we weren’t supposed to be out nomading, so we didn’t tell no one! But Weyrlingmaster, he learned about it. We were dumbskulls! Our dragons told on us! And we were confined to quarters for rest of the training ! Extra duty? For turns, it seemed we was cleaning the latrines. The ones what didn’t go, they had life easy, easy! No tasks for them, no sir! So it took a while for the dragon healer to get to the bronze, and only because the dragon was sickly like, laying about, telling the other dragons he was ill. I think iffen my mate had taken the bronze to the healer right off, it wouldn’t have got so bad,” N’orald said.
“Do you know how the healer treated the bronze?” Salish asked, hoping.
“Uh...I do remember, the healer had no idea how to help the bronze other than treating the wound. It weren’t til later he realized there was something else, something that put the bronze off his appetite, you know. The bronze, he kept saying it was ‘busy’ inside. He was sick for a sevenday, sick as a canine. It were the bite that hurt him more than the netting. The wounds from the net, they...wait..”
He was listening to his bronze dragon.
“Menkarth says, the stuff in the net is a lot like thread but ‘inside out’. I don’t know what he means. He says it makes oh…….he hasn’t the words for it. The bronze did get better, he did. He slept and slept, he said, but he did get better,” N’orald said. “He were forever scarred for the rest of his life, and it was in a net pattern, not like typical Thread score. Made him look dangerous,” he said, laughing.
Salish wished she had more information, but the Oldtimer was...an old timer.
K’ndar felt relieved. Siskin hadn’t been bitten, he was sure of that.
The assistant, who’d been working all this time, said, “Thank you, Glyena, please put those tongs in the sink, over there, and I’ll clean them. K’ndar, I think your gloves, at least, should be burned, I wouldn’t wear them again. You’re right, this stuff is sticky as can be, I’m grateful we could get a sample,” he said.
K’ndar nodded. He had no intentions of using the gloves again.
“So, he’ll get better?” he asked Salish.
She heaved a big sigh. “K’ndar...Siskin is a tiny fire lizard, not a bronze. So. Um.” she said, wondering how to keep K’ndar from too much optimism.
But he was a dragonrider.
He saw her thoughts in her eyes.
“So,” he said, the words breaking his heart, “He still might die?”
She nodded, grief overcoming her, too. It was so hard to say these words, she thought. Sometimes I wonder why I DO this job.
A low moan broke from the audience filling the doorway. But one did not.
“He’ll make it, K’ndar, don’t you worry,” one of the crowd said, “Salish is the best, she fixed up my boy when he was scored years ago,” the man said, “even saved his eye. That were a bad one, you remember, Salish?”
Gratefully, Salish nodded, not really remembering...she’d seen so many scored dragons, but was too polite to say so. Still, she didn’t want K’ndar to expect too much from her working with a malady she knew nothing about.
“K’ndar, this is all new to me. I am grateful, sir,” she said, looking at N’orald, “for your so very helpful information. That helps me a LOT,” she said.
“My pleasure, lassie,” the Oldtimer said, and turned. The crowd respectfully opened a path for the old man to pass through.
“Now what?” K’ndar asked the healer.
“I’m going to keep Siskin here, do you mind? He won’t be alone, I’m certain Sebastian will be here alongside him, as long as he’s needed,” she said.
“Who is Sebastian?” Glyena asked.
At that moment, a large tuxedo cat leaped onto the examining table and sniffed at Siskin.
After several long moments, Sebastian sat, his tail wrapped neatly around his paws.
“THIS is Sebastian. He is the best comforter I’ve ever known. I didn’t train him. He trained US. He knows when a sick animal needs a companion. He will sit with Siskin for as long as the lizard needs him. When he leaves, I know that the beast is better. Fortunately, I’ve not had a dragon die on my watch,” she said, giving the old cat a head rub. The cat looked impassive. He was an old hand at this, his attitude said.
“Um…”, K’ndar said, knowing it was the best for Siskin. He wasn’t a healer. But he wanted the blue next to him. She knew it. She knew dragonriders better than they knew themselves.
“After all, a fire lizard IS a dragon. Just a small one,” she said, forcing a grin.
K’ndar nodded.
“Have your dragon keep in touch with him,” she said.
“He already is. He’s just sick with worry,” K’ndar said.
Not sick. Just worried. But I am in his mind. He is not thinking right now.
Raventh said, gently.
Will...do you think he might...die?
Raventh made a sound in his mind that felt like a pat on the shoulder.
I won’t let him
“Lassie, lassie!” N’orald’s voice indicated he was returning.
He shuffled back in, excitedly.
“I forgot. My memory is done! There’s poison in the smanda spit. It gets on the skin and then works its way into his innards. The longer it’s on him, the bigger the dose. But there’s a fix for it! It's vinegar!! Douse him with vinegar, it will neutralize the poison!”
The crowd scattered, everyone running for vinegar.
Siskin opened his eyes. They were whirling all colors of the rainbow, but they were MOVING, and K’ndar almost wept in relief.
The blue rolled onto his chest and tried to open his wings, but he was too weak. Groggy, his head bobbed, his nose touching the tabletop for a moment. Then he looked up, his eyes meeting K’ndar’s, and in the weakest voice he’d ever heard, gave his typical questioning ‘wheep’?
The crowd roared. K’ndar felt his already broken heart break again. He stroked the blue gently.
“It’s okay, lad, you stay here, alright?”
Salish was laughing at the success. Her table top was crowded with empty containers. More vinegar was arriving. It was all over the floor.
Glyena was beside herself with joy.
“Vinegar!! Vinegar!!” she shouted.
“Vinegar indeed! What is going on here, are you pickling the planet? What in the world are you doing with all that vinegar?” Hariko, the weyr’s beloved headwoman, came in, incensed.
Everyone laughed.
Salish sobered. She pointed a finger at K’ndar.
“You. Off to the healer. NOW.”
“Yes’m,” he said.
17 June 2020
Chap. 186 The Drystone Hut
Chap. 186 The Drystone Hut
We’re going exploring?
Yes, and this time I’ll be prepared for just about anything.
Where?
Well, I was considering the Western Barrier Mountains. I’ve never been there, but I do have the dragonstone coordinates of the Hold that Francie’s horse came from, I thought we’d start there.
But it wasn’t.
They appeared from between over what, at first, appeared to be a vast savannah. There were no mountains, at least not what he could see, even from this height. He could see the sun in a different position in the sky from his east coast weyr, so he knew it was a different time zone.
He put Raventh into a circle, high above, judging the landscape for a suitable landing spot. Flashes of reflected sunlight told him that it was not grassland beneath them. It was a vast marsh, studded with tree covered hummocks of sand/stone, an expanse of shallow water dense with sedges and rushes that stretched to the horizon. He’d never seen such a biome in his life.
Dismay filled him, bordering on panic. Where ARE we?
Don’t be afraid, we can always go back home.
I DID give you these coordinates, didn’t I?
He pushed the image of the dragonstones.
Yes, those are the ones you pushed. I’ve never seen them before.
Now he was puzzled. He had no idea where they were. Or….His blood chilled.
We didn’t time it, did we?
I don’t think so. I’ve only done it that one time, it didn’t feel like that time. Only Ruth knows WHEN he is, but I think we’re still in our own time.
He was relieved, but still, he’d made a navigational mistake, one that rookies make, one that, sometimes, rookies didn’t survive.
But I’m not a rookie, I’m not.
What is a ‘rookie’?
Same thing as a weyrling, a novice.
Raventh filed that in his ever growing vocabulary.
I see something down there. It’s a building.
Relief filled him. Buildings meant ‘civilization’, or at least human activity. He’d find out just what he’d done wrong. Still, he was upset. Maybe he truly wasn’t experienced enough to go out on his own, well, with his dragon and fire lizard.
See it?
No. He couldn’t see..oh, wait. Raventh pushed an image into his mind, of an elongated island, a penisula that stretched back to a tree’ed hummock of higher ground. Had it once been a road?
Think it’s solid ground?
I think so.
Well, then, let’s go down, pretend we intended this purposefully, find out where we are.
But that was a bust, too.
Raventh lowered gingerly, testing the landing, and then plopped down without fear onto a stone pavement, made of fitted flat stones. Vegetation had completely grown over the stones, vines snaking all over to the edge of what was an island. A circular, flat topped hut, made of the same stones, was the only structure. A wall behind it formed a sort of barrier between the hut and the marsh.
K’ndar dismounted. Out of long habit, he called out, “Hello?” although he could tell immediately the place had been abandoned a long time ago.
Siskin launched from his position behind Raventh’s head and flew to the top of the hut.
He walked to the edge of the pavement. Vegetation grew so thick and tall that he could just barely see the water level, less than a meter below the pavement. The water was still. He could just barely make out the bottom. It was muddy and full of small, active creatures. He judged it to be no more than half a meter deep. The air was heavy, fetid and still. He bet his boots that the mud would be deep and treacherous.
The sun beat down on him and he began to take off his riding gear. But a steady buzzing told him the marsh was alive with insects, some of which began to take an active interest in him.
Far off, he could hear a loud cacophony of birds, and saw clouds of them swirling in the air.
He had to duck his head to enter the hut through the small, narrow doorway. While close, the air was cooler inside and the shade welcome.
He was immediately impressed at the skill of the builders. There wasn’t a bit of mortar holding the rocks together. Each stone had been fitted tightly with its neighbor. Above the small door, a slab of stone formed a lintel. Opposite the door, there was a single window, shoulder width and height, looking out over the marsh. Below them, on the stone floor, were piled several stones, probably to be used to close up the window if one wanted. They hadn’t been moved in a very long time.
The stone flagged floor of the hut was covered with the detritus of countless years, the remains of insects, plants, droppings, and what else he couldn’t determine.
It felt...lonely.
Where AM I? How did I make this mistake? I don’t see any dragonstones, not a cairn, not….
It’s on top.
?
The flat part of this hut.
Oh, the roof?
Where Siskin is. The roof. Come outside, climb up on me, you can see them.
Instead, he found foot and handholds that had been purposefully made in the wall and climbed to the top of the hut. He wondered if it would hold his weight. It did. The hut felt solid, solid as, well, a rock.
Siskin chirped at him, tickled to be joined at his relatively high vantage point.
At the very top was a flat stone upon which runes, almost illegible from weathering, had been chiseled into the rock.
Sighing, he dug out his notebook and copied them. Looking at them, he could see where he’d made his navigational mistake, and felt better. It was almost an exact duplicate of the stones he’d intended to push, except for the fact that he’d gotten the two simple characters reversed. They were almost the same size as the slab itself. Probably intended for this exact purpose, big enough for a dragonrider to see from the air.
He brushed aside a layer of dirt and dried grass. Maybe there was a date? A name?
But there was nothing but the runes.
He looked around from his high spot. He’d never seen a marsh in his life, nor had he ever heard of one in Southern. But then, so much of Southern was still unexplored.
He climbed down and went back inside. Something nagged him about the hut.
Part of him was spooked by the overwhelming loneliness of the place. This was odd, as he was steppe bred, and delighted in the vast sky over his head and nothing on the horizon but clouds.
But this place had whispers of desperation. Someone had wanted to get far, far away from anywhere or anyone. How he’d gotten here, and how long he’d survived, was unable to discern. He could only have gotten here by horse...or by dragon??
I think dragon.
You think so?
Nothing here for humans. I smell wherries. I do not smell the animals humans live with. You can see the birds, those are birds out there, not wherries. There is life here, just not much for humans.
Raventh was right. He could see nothing that spoke of farming, or intentionally settling here...but this hut...ah. This hut. That was it. The stones, the slab...it had taken a LOT of work to build it. He could see, now, that the peninsula the hut had been built on was of stone and sand. Someone had collected these many stones, carrying them from a distance. Someone had carefully sorted the stones to fit tightly together, to make the walls fairly weather tight and solid. This hut had taken the brunt of centuries of wind and rain without complaint. This was no rough, thrown together in a moment’s shelter. This had taken time and a lot of hard work.
But how had they found the place to begin with?
He returned to the pavement and remounted Raventh.
Siskin chittered excitedly and leaped from his spot atop the hut, arrowing out over the marsh.
He sees something to eat Raventh said.
The blue fire lizard coursed over the vegetation, hovered briefly, then dived into the grasses.
I do not like this, K’ndar thought. He yelled “Siskin!”, knowing it was fairly useless. When Siskin was hunting, he focused solely on the hunt. Calling him back was a waste of breath.
The fire lizard climbed back into the air, and he called again. The blue ignored him.
Siskin hovered for a moment, then vanished into the grasses again.
He did not re-appear.
After several heart beats, K’ndar shouted “Siskin!”
Still no response.
Then...he heard Siskin screech in terror.
“SISKIN!” he shouted.
Something has him. Hang on.
Without hesitation, Raventh leaped into the air, flying to the spot he’d last seen Siskin.
Without a lick of wind, he worked hard to stay airborne.
I can’t see him! K’ndar said, scared.
I can’t either but I see movement in the grasses.
He hovered where he thought the fire lizard was, the powerful downwash of his wings flattening the sedges.
There!
K’ndar could just barely see the top of Siskin’s head. Something had his body underwater.
Siskin was struggling, his wingtips briefly breaking the surface of the water, appearing as if they were entangled. He vanished under the water, then re-appeared, coughing. He shrieked...and was pulled under again.
K’ndar saw things swimming through the heavy growth, attracted by the lizards struggles.
Under the water, he saw a round head with ghastly silvery eyes.
The fire lizard popped to the surface again, gasping. He clawed at the sedges, trying to climb them. The sedges gashed his skin and forepaws. He managed to scream again. His upper body was encased in a silvery, almost invisible netting. He clung to the sedges, his blood flowing freely now.
He met K’ndar’s eyes. K’ndar, for the rest of his life, would never forget the look in them.
It was one of terror and pleading for rescue.
GO BETWEEN! Raventh shouted.
One of the things surfaced, a long, tube shaped thing, grasping at the fire lizard.
Siskin, his head barely above water, shrieked again...and then vanished.
And re-appeared, high in the sky over head.
“GOOD LAD!” K’ndar shouted, but the lizard was still in trouble. His wings were plastered against his sides.
I will catch you Raventh shouted, and the fire lizard fell like a stone. K’ndar just barely caught him as he fell. The claws of his hind legs scratched his cheek.
Raventh power stroked downward to gain altitude, and flew back to the relative safety of the hut’s solid pavement.
Without dismounting, K’ndar held the trembling fire lizard for a long moment, his heart racing. He could feel Siskin’s heart thundering. Siskin whimpered.
It hurts. He is saying it hurts.
“Good lad, you’re safe now, it’s alright,” he said to the lizard. Oh no, the blood...Siskin was bleeding from his sides, his paws. He was almost completely covered with a sticky, rope like netting. His tail and wings were plastered to his sides, and his feet were completely encased in the netting. What the shard was this stuff?
He tried to pluck it off. It stuck to his gloves. It seemed to expand instead of loosen and his gloved hands were quickly immobilized by the netting that seem to swell. Then it got onto the sleeves of his riding jacket and kept sticking to his sides. As he tried to move his arms away, he could feel the netting tightening, almost pulling his arms back to the jacket. He and Siskin were glued together.
Got to stop the bleeding, I have to remove the gloves, oh, my cheek, I’m bleeding, too…
K’ndar. Look. Something is coming Raventh said, tightly controlled fear in his voice.
K’ndar looked over the marsh. The grasses were moving as if something-a LOT of somethings-were swimming their way.
Hang on. I am flying to the top of the hut.
Before K’ndar could wonder if the hut would hold the dragon’s weight, Raventh leaped to the top of the hut.
It held his weight.
How did you know it would hold your weight?
There’s dragonstones up here, right?
Duh.
I have this feeling of having done this a couple times, now. What am I, a quorl? Raventh said, in an attempt to lighten K’ndar’s fear.
K’ndar tried to laugh, but could only summon a weak grin. Siskin was writhing, trying to escape his arms. He was crying in pain and fear, his eyes black. The netting had him incapacitated.
“Siskin, easy lad,” K’ndar said. I have to get this stuff off of him, he thought. But his hands were almost totally immobilized now. They were stuck tightly to Siskin’s sides.
Siskin is beyond crazy right now. Just hold him.
Tell him I have him, he’s safe. I don’t want him to go between on his own.
I have. He’s not listening. He’s beyond me right now.
I can feel his heart pounding. I have to hold him, this netting..it’s getting all over me, he’s covered with it. I can’t get it off me or him.
He keeps saying its hurting him. It’s tightening on him and it feels like it’s burning his skin.
Shards, we have to….
Look. LOOK! Raventh said, in a tone that made his spine freeze, despite the heat.
K’ndar looked. There were creatures, crawling out of the water onto the pavement. They were a meter long, shaped like a slimy black tube with what appeared to be a thousand legs and a long, flattened tail. A pair of gigantic eyes gleamed from a bulbous head, with a fringe of something sticking out where the jaw met the skull. Their skin looked slimy. No, there were only six pairs of legs. The forelegs were longer than the others, and extended to just below the head. They bore extremely long claws, ones that looked more like fangs.
I thought tunnel snakes were ugly, these things make a snake look beautiful, he thought.
They slithered around, their short legs obviously not used to walking on dry land. They weresniffing.One even went into the hut.
Raventh hissed at them.
The creatures realized that they were above them. Their eyes locked onto K’ndar’s and Raventh’s. They looked like those of a dead fish. There were at least a dozen of the creatures, and K’ndar saw more coming from the marsh.
K’ndar was grateful they were safely atop the hut.
But no.
Three of the creatures had stopped to give them a good long look. How could anything like this have an expression, but they did, and it was one of malevolence. They heaved themselves onto their back legs, their forelegs on the walls of the hut. One tried to climb the vegetation that grew on the walls of the hut, but fell back.
“Ha ha, shaff it, but you’re the ugliest things I’ve ever seen, ” K’ndar laughed, despite being handcuffed.
Oh really, one of the biggest seemed to say. It returned all six legs to the stone and then began to spit a silvery thread onto the vegetation. Several others joined it, and within a few minutes, their spit had covered the vegetation growing up the side of the hut.
The threads changed color almost immediately, from white, to silver, to invisible.
Then the creatures began to climb the nets they’d built, spitting more as they climbed.
Shards shards what the shard were these things?
Siskin struggles to escape the netting weakened, and he stopped whimpering. He suddenly spasmed in a seizure, then relaxed. His eyes met K’ndar’s-and closed.
If only we had firestone, Raventh said.
Forget that, let’s get out of here. Siskin needs help NOW.
Home?
Home.
We’re going exploring?
Yes, and this time I’ll be prepared for just about anything.
Where?
Well, I was considering the Western Barrier Mountains. I’ve never been there, but I do have the dragonstone coordinates of the Hold that Francie’s horse came from, I thought we’d start there.
But it wasn’t.
They appeared from between over what, at first, appeared to be a vast savannah. There were no mountains, at least not what he could see, even from this height. He could see the sun in a different position in the sky from his east coast weyr, so he knew it was a different time zone.
He put Raventh into a circle, high above, judging the landscape for a suitable landing spot. Flashes of reflected sunlight told him that it was not grassland beneath them. It was a vast marsh, studded with tree covered hummocks of sand/stone, an expanse of shallow water dense with sedges and rushes that stretched to the horizon. He’d never seen such a biome in his life.
Dismay filled him, bordering on panic. Where ARE we?
Don’t be afraid, we can always go back home.
I DID give you these coordinates, didn’t I?
He pushed the image of the dragonstones.
Yes, those are the ones you pushed. I’ve never seen them before.
Now he was puzzled. He had no idea where they were. Or….His blood chilled.
We didn’t time it, did we?
I don’t think so. I’ve only done it that one time, it didn’t feel like that time. Only Ruth knows WHEN he is, but I think we’re still in our own time.
He was relieved, but still, he’d made a navigational mistake, one that rookies make, one that, sometimes, rookies didn’t survive.
But I’m not a rookie, I’m not.
What is a ‘rookie’?
Same thing as a weyrling, a novice.
Raventh filed that in his ever growing vocabulary.
I see something down there. It’s a building.
Relief filled him. Buildings meant ‘civilization’, or at least human activity. He’d find out just what he’d done wrong. Still, he was upset. Maybe he truly wasn’t experienced enough to go out on his own, well, with his dragon and fire lizard.
See it?
No. He couldn’t see..oh, wait. Raventh pushed an image into his mind, of an elongated island, a penisula that stretched back to a tree’ed hummock of higher ground. Had it once been a road?
Think it’s solid ground?
I think so.
Well, then, let’s go down, pretend we intended this purposefully, find out where we are.
But that was a bust, too.
Raventh lowered gingerly, testing the landing, and then plopped down without fear onto a stone pavement, made of fitted flat stones. Vegetation had completely grown over the stones, vines snaking all over to the edge of what was an island. A circular, flat topped hut, made of the same stones, was the only structure. A wall behind it formed a sort of barrier between the hut and the marsh.
K’ndar dismounted. Out of long habit, he called out, “Hello?” although he could tell immediately the place had been abandoned a long time ago.
Siskin launched from his position behind Raventh’s head and flew to the top of the hut.
He walked to the edge of the pavement. Vegetation grew so thick and tall that he could just barely see the water level, less than a meter below the pavement. The water was still. He could just barely make out the bottom. It was muddy and full of small, active creatures. He judged it to be no more than half a meter deep. The air was heavy, fetid and still. He bet his boots that the mud would be deep and treacherous.
The sun beat down on him and he began to take off his riding gear. But a steady buzzing told him the marsh was alive with insects, some of which began to take an active interest in him.
Far off, he could hear a loud cacophony of birds, and saw clouds of them swirling in the air.
He had to duck his head to enter the hut through the small, narrow doorway. While close, the air was cooler inside and the shade welcome.
He was immediately impressed at the skill of the builders. There wasn’t a bit of mortar holding the rocks together. Each stone had been fitted tightly with its neighbor. Above the small door, a slab of stone formed a lintel. Opposite the door, there was a single window, shoulder width and height, looking out over the marsh. Below them, on the stone floor, were piled several stones, probably to be used to close up the window if one wanted. They hadn’t been moved in a very long time.
The stone flagged floor of the hut was covered with the detritus of countless years, the remains of insects, plants, droppings, and what else he couldn’t determine.
It felt...lonely.
Where AM I? How did I make this mistake? I don’t see any dragonstones, not a cairn, not….
It’s on top.
?
The flat part of this hut.
Oh, the roof?
Where Siskin is. The roof. Come outside, climb up on me, you can see them.
Instead, he found foot and handholds that had been purposefully made in the wall and climbed to the top of the hut. He wondered if it would hold his weight. It did. The hut felt solid, solid as, well, a rock.
Siskin chirped at him, tickled to be joined at his relatively high vantage point.
At the very top was a flat stone upon which runes, almost illegible from weathering, had been chiseled into the rock.
Sighing, he dug out his notebook and copied them. Looking at them, he could see where he’d made his navigational mistake, and felt better. It was almost an exact duplicate of the stones he’d intended to push, except for the fact that he’d gotten the two simple characters reversed. They were almost the same size as the slab itself. Probably intended for this exact purpose, big enough for a dragonrider to see from the air.
He brushed aside a layer of dirt and dried grass. Maybe there was a date? A name?
But there was nothing but the runes.
He looked around from his high spot. He’d never seen a marsh in his life, nor had he ever heard of one in Southern. But then, so much of Southern was still unexplored.
He climbed down and went back inside. Something nagged him about the hut.
Part of him was spooked by the overwhelming loneliness of the place. This was odd, as he was steppe bred, and delighted in the vast sky over his head and nothing on the horizon but clouds.
But this place had whispers of desperation. Someone had wanted to get far, far away from anywhere or anyone. How he’d gotten here, and how long he’d survived, was unable to discern. He could only have gotten here by horse...or by dragon??
I think dragon.
You think so?
Nothing here for humans. I smell wherries. I do not smell the animals humans live with. You can see the birds, those are birds out there, not wherries. There is life here, just not much for humans.
Raventh was right. He could see nothing that spoke of farming, or intentionally settling here...but this hut...ah. This hut. That was it. The stones, the slab...it had taken a LOT of work to build it. He could see, now, that the peninsula the hut had been built on was of stone and sand. Someone had collected these many stones, carrying them from a distance. Someone had carefully sorted the stones to fit tightly together, to make the walls fairly weather tight and solid. This hut had taken the brunt of centuries of wind and rain without complaint. This was no rough, thrown together in a moment’s shelter. This had taken time and a lot of hard work.
But how had they found the place to begin with?
He returned to the pavement and remounted Raventh.
Siskin chittered excitedly and leaped from his spot atop the hut, arrowing out over the marsh.
He sees something to eat Raventh said.
The blue fire lizard coursed over the vegetation, hovered briefly, then dived into the grasses.
I do not like this, K’ndar thought. He yelled “Siskin!”, knowing it was fairly useless. When Siskin was hunting, he focused solely on the hunt. Calling him back was a waste of breath.
The fire lizard climbed back into the air, and he called again. The blue ignored him.
Siskin hovered for a moment, then vanished into the grasses again.
He did not re-appear.
After several heart beats, K’ndar shouted “Siskin!”
Still no response.
Then...he heard Siskin screech in terror.
“SISKIN!” he shouted.
Something has him. Hang on.
Without hesitation, Raventh leaped into the air, flying to the spot he’d last seen Siskin.
Without a lick of wind, he worked hard to stay airborne.
I can’t see him! K’ndar said, scared.
I can’t either but I see movement in the grasses.
He hovered where he thought the fire lizard was, the powerful downwash of his wings flattening the sedges.
There!
K’ndar could just barely see the top of Siskin’s head. Something had his body underwater.
Siskin was struggling, his wingtips briefly breaking the surface of the water, appearing as if they were entangled. He vanished under the water, then re-appeared, coughing. He shrieked...and was pulled under again.
K’ndar saw things swimming through the heavy growth, attracted by the lizards struggles.
Under the water, he saw a round head with ghastly silvery eyes.
The fire lizard popped to the surface again, gasping. He clawed at the sedges, trying to climb them. The sedges gashed his skin and forepaws. He managed to scream again. His upper body was encased in a silvery, almost invisible netting. He clung to the sedges, his blood flowing freely now.
He met K’ndar’s eyes. K’ndar, for the rest of his life, would never forget the look in them.
It was one of terror and pleading for rescue.
GO BETWEEN! Raventh shouted.
One of the things surfaced, a long, tube shaped thing, grasping at the fire lizard.
Siskin, his head barely above water, shrieked again...and then vanished.
And re-appeared, high in the sky over head.
“GOOD LAD!” K’ndar shouted, but the lizard was still in trouble. His wings were plastered against his sides.
I will catch you Raventh shouted, and the fire lizard fell like a stone. K’ndar just barely caught him as he fell. The claws of his hind legs scratched his cheek.
Raventh power stroked downward to gain altitude, and flew back to the relative safety of the hut’s solid pavement.
Without dismounting, K’ndar held the trembling fire lizard for a long moment, his heart racing. He could feel Siskin’s heart thundering. Siskin whimpered.
It hurts. He is saying it hurts.
“Good lad, you’re safe now, it’s alright,” he said to the lizard. Oh no, the blood...Siskin was bleeding from his sides, his paws. He was almost completely covered with a sticky, rope like netting. His tail and wings were plastered to his sides, and his feet were completely encased in the netting. What the shard was this stuff?
He tried to pluck it off. It stuck to his gloves. It seemed to expand instead of loosen and his gloved hands were quickly immobilized by the netting that seem to swell. Then it got onto the sleeves of his riding jacket and kept sticking to his sides. As he tried to move his arms away, he could feel the netting tightening, almost pulling his arms back to the jacket. He and Siskin were glued together.
Got to stop the bleeding, I have to remove the gloves, oh, my cheek, I’m bleeding, too…
K’ndar. Look. Something is coming Raventh said, tightly controlled fear in his voice.
K’ndar looked over the marsh. The grasses were moving as if something-a LOT of somethings-were swimming their way.
Hang on. I am flying to the top of the hut.
Before K’ndar could wonder if the hut would hold the dragon’s weight, Raventh leaped to the top of the hut.
It held his weight.
How did you know it would hold your weight?
There’s dragonstones up here, right?
Duh.
I have this feeling of having done this a couple times, now. What am I, a quorl? Raventh said, in an attempt to lighten K’ndar’s fear.
K’ndar tried to laugh, but could only summon a weak grin. Siskin was writhing, trying to escape his arms. He was crying in pain and fear, his eyes black. The netting had him incapacitated.
“Siskin, easy lad,” K’ndar said. I have to get this stuff off of him, he thought. But his hands were almost totally immobilized now. They were stuck tightly to Siskin’s sides.
Siskin is beyond crazy right now. Just hold him.
Tell him I have him, he’s safe. I don’t want him to go between on his own.
I have. He’s not listening. He’s beyond me right now.
I can feel his heart pounding. I have to hold him, this netting..it’s getting all over me, he’s covered with it. I can’t get it off me or him.
He keeps saying its hurting him. It’s tightening on him and it feels like it’s burning his skin.
Shards, we have to….
Look. LOOK! Raventh said, in a tone that made his spine freeze, despite the heat.
K’ndar looked. There were creatures, crawling out of the water onto the pavement. They were a meter long, shaped like a slimy black tube with what appeared to be a thousand legs and a long, flattened tail. A pair of gigantic eyes gleamed from a bulbous head, with a fringe of something sticking out where the jaw met the skull. Their skin looked slimy. No, there were only six pairs of legs. The forelegs were longer than the others, and extended to just below the head. They bore extremely long claws, ones that looked more like fangs.
I thought tunnel snakes were ugly, these things make a snake look beautiful, he thought.
They slithered around, their short legs obviously not used to walking on dry land. They weresniffing.One even went into the hut.
Raventh hissed at them.
The creatures realized that they were above them. Their eyes locked onto K’ndar’s and Raventh’s. They looked like those of a dead fish. There were at least a dozen of the creatures, and K’ndar saw more coming from the marsh.
K’ndar was grateful they were safely atop the hut.
But no.
Three of the creatures had stopped to give them a good long look. How could anything like this have an expression, but they did, and it was one of malevolence. They heaved themselves onto their back legs, their forelegs on the walls of the hut. One tried to climb the vegetation that grew on the walls of the hut, but fell back.
“Ha ha, shaff it, but you’re the ugliest things I’ve ever seen, ” K’ndar laughed, despite being handcuffed.
Oh really, one of the biggest seemed to say. It returned all six legs to the stone and then began to spit a silvery thread onto the vegetation. Several others joined it, and within a few minutes, their spit had covered the vegetation growing up the side of the hut.
The threads changed color almost immediately, from white, to silver, to invisible.
Then the creatures began to climb the nets they’d built, spitting more as they climbed.
Shards shards what the shard were these things?
Siskin struggles to escape the netting weakened, and he stopped whimpering. He suddenly spasmed in a seizure, then relaxed. His eyes met K’ndar’s-and closed.
If only we had firestone, Raventh said.
Forget that, let’s get out of here. Siskin needs help NOW.
Home?
Home.
07 June 2020
Chap. 185 The Photographer
Chap. 185 The Photographer
Raventh was frolicking in the sea, with a cloud of fire lizards alternately playing or diving for the fish his antics scared up.
K’ndar sat amidst the rocks, watching. He had no desire to get into the water with his dragon. It was cold, and he didn’t care for swimming at all.
He heard a familiar voice.
“K’ndar!” his sister, Glyena, came running. He’d been so busy, he’d not seen her in a while.
She clambered up onto the rocks and gave him a hug.
He returned it. She’s getting so tall, he thought, and said, “You’re growing like a weed, sis!”
She smiled. “Shirae is a good cook and we’re learning too! I can make all sorts of things now, and I run every day, have you seen me?”
She found a level spot next to him and sat down. He put his arm around her.
“I haven’t, but it’s because I’ve been SO busy, what do you mean, run?”
“Running, K’ndar, just running. Not fast, but long distance. Like the Runners, the girls and boys who do message runs? Like from here to, oh, all over! What they do is run to a Runner’s Station, over the mountains sometimes, and then they stop at the Station and someone else takes the message and goes on. When I was little I read about a thing on Earth that was called the pony express and it was where people rode their horses kilometers and kilometers a day to pass on a message and they had to be fast and brave because raiders might attack them.” She paused for a breath.
She had always been a tsunami of speech.
“What do you mean, “When” you were little? You’re still little,” he said, “And how do you do that, talk without breathing?” he teased, squeezing her. She punched him.
“You’re a brat. I breathe in and out and the words just come out. But anyway we don’t do that here, the pony express, but I’d like to, it sounds like fun, and Jordan is so fast and he’s small, but now we have fire lizards doing that but there’s still a need for Runners and I might want to be one,” she said, “but it involves going by yourself and making sure everyone signs off so they know who carried the message and who it was from, and there were people on North who intercepted the Runner and took her messages. Those were bad people,” she said.
He nodded. “Well, it’s an honorable job and you’re right, it could be dangerous, but I know you’re not afraid,” he said.
“I’m not afraid but I DO keep my eyes and ears open, that’s what Shirae says we should all do, but anyway, guess what I’m doing today?”
“Besides talking my ears off, what?” he said, grinning.
She punched him again.
“I borrowed the camera from the library. It’s the one you donated! It’s the same one that D’nis has. And I’m taking photos. Look, see this little screen here, you can see some photos I took of Shirae and my sisters, they’re baking, and here’s a cat who lives with us, she just had kittens, and here’s my room and here’s Jordan, and Jordan, and Jordan..oh, that’s not a good one…”
The sun was dulled by the gray overcast sky, casting an almost brassy light, which made seeing the pictures hard to see. But that was okay. He was just enjoying having his kid sister alongside, chattering like a cuorl in a tree.
“It’s cold, today,” she said, cuddling up to K’ndar to steal some of his warmth, “but look at Raventh, he’s not cold at all, is he?” she asked.
“No, but I think he’s about ready to come out,” K’ndar said.
“Good, because I want to take a picture of him! Can I?”
“Of course, I can’t think of why not,” K’ndar said. Siskin flew in from where he’d been playing with several other fire lizards and settled on his shoulder.
Glyena gave the blue an admiring glance, then raised the camera and took several candid shots of K’ndar and Siskin. Then she looked at the screen again. “Oh, too bright. The light is so odd,” she said, in a professional tone of voice.
K’ndar shaded his eyes and by doing so, could see barely see the photos on the screen. He cringed, wishing he hadn’t.
“Yaah! Look at my ears, they stick out! I look like a wherry!” he said, grimacing.
“No, you don’t, K’ndar but your ears, they’ve always stuck out,” Glyena said, matter-of-factly, without looking up. She was scrolling through the photos.
“Oh,” he said, for lack of anything better. It’s not as if they could be fixed, now could they?
“Besides, no one likes having their picture taken because they always say they look ugly or stupid. So I don’t usually do it,” she said, “but you’re my big brother and I don’t care what you look like, I love you.” She smiled up at him.
How different the words were coming from his sister. He hugged her again, so happy to have her here at the weyr with him. Family. His sister, his dragon and fire lizard. Oh, and Jordan, ‘their’ horse.
“How long have you been playing with the camera?” he asked.
“A couple weeks. It’s been fun. We’re off of school for a few weeks, it’s called intermission, so I’ve been doing stuff I can’t when I’m in school. But I LOVE school, K’ndar, I love it, I kinda miss it. But now I want to take some pictures of Raventh,” she said. The brown was ashore now, the water streaming from his smooth flanks.
She wants to what?
She wants to photograph you. She has the molecular camera, the same tool that D’nis uses on our expeditions
What does it do? Does it touch me?
No. It is difficult to explain. I will have to think this through to explain it, but it doesn’t touch you.
“Okay, I think I have the settings right,” she said, and snapped a few pictures of Raventh.
She looked at them judiciously and shook her head.
“No, that doesn’t look right. Can you ask him to stand on those rocks, over there? With the sea in the background, it’s gray today, so that should make the camera happy,” she said.
K’ndar found himself shepherding Raventh to a set of boulders. The sea, quietly lapped sluggishly at their base.
What? I don’t understand.
She wants you to stand on these rocks, so you look nice for the picture.
I look...nice? What does that mean?
He ransacked his mind for...ah.
So you look handsome, the same as when you’re talking to the greens.
Handsome! I AM handsome. Like this?
And he posed.
“Like this?” K’ndar asked.
“Yes, yes, just like that, but I’m not ready yet,” Glyena called, “and not on that rock, no, move him just to that flat one, to the right.”
K’ndar sighed. He knew right then he had no patience to use a camera.
For the next few minutes, she had Raventh turning this way and that, until she was satisfied.
“That’s it! Now hold still, Raventh!” she called, and took several shots. And more and more.
“I don’t know, there’s something not right,” she said, looking at the screen.
“WHAT? This is getting old, sis,” K’ndar said from his spot near Raventh.
She looked up at him.
“You’re not in the picture, K’ndar, it’s okay, it’s Ravenths picture. But..oh, I know. He’s too happy looking, K’ndar,” she said.
Happy? I am happy all the time.
I know. I don’t understand her, either. She’s female.
They both sighed, making K’ndar laugh.
“What?” Glyena asked.
“Never mind. Raventh’s a happy dragon,” he said, grinning.
“Well, he needs to look fierce. Like he’s breathing fire, but without the fire,” she said.
Fierce?
It’s your face when you’re angry.
I’m not angry. She just said I look happy. She is confusing.
Well, you said it when I did...females…
Raventh laughed.
“He won’t look right if he looks happy, Raventh, can you look angry?” she called.
K’ndar sighed, growing exasperated, but…patience, K’ndar, patience.
Can you look angry? Make the face when the raiders shot at us and you pushed the bolts away
Oh, that’s easy Raventh said, and grimaced.
“Yes! Yes! Perfect!” Glyena cried, and shot a dozen pictures.
She looked at the screen and smiled-then frowned.
Can I go get a nap now?
“He’s done now and wants to go take a nap,” K’ndar said.
“Really? It’s not quite right, maybe just some more?”Glyena protested.
No more, I want a nap.
“He’s a dragon, Glyena, not an actor in a Gather play,” K’ndar said.
“I know, but,...oh, okay,” she said, disappointed.
Raventh crouched and leaped into the air, his powerful downbeat raising a cloud of sand over them.
Glyena shrieked, “My camera!”
Raventh flew to their weyr and vanished into his room.
“Is it damaged?” K’ndar asked, dismayed. Maybe such equipment shouldn’t be lent to kids.
She looked at it and blew the sand off. “No, it’s okay. It just will need a little cleaning, these are tough. Wanna see the pictures?”
“Sure,” he said.
This time he covered the screen with his hand to shade it.
“Wow, they came out nice,” he said, and Glyena smiled. “He’s a pretty dragon, K’ndar, I’m glad he’s ours,”she said.
Yes, he was hers, being family.
“But...”
“But what?” he asked.
She sighed. “It’s still not right,” she said.
“Why not? He looks fierce, right?”
“His mouth does, yes...but look at his eyes! They’re sky blue, he’s still happy!”
He shrugged.
“That’s Raventh. He’s a happy dragon,” he said, “that’s the fiercest you’ll ever get from him.”
Raventh was frolicking in the sea, with a cloud of fire lizards alternately playing or diving for the fish his antics scared up.
K’ndar sat amidst the rocks, watching. He had no desire to get into the water with his dragon. It was cold, and he didn’t care for swimming at all.
He heard a familiar voice.
“K’ndar!” his sister, Glyena, came running. He’d been so busy, he’d not seen her in a while.
She clambered up onto the rocks and gave him a hug.
He returned it. She’s getting so tall, he thought, and said, “You’re growing like a weed, sis!”
She smiled. “Shirae is a good cook and we’re learning too! I can make all sorts of things now, and I run every day, have you seen me?”
She found a level spot next to him and sat down. He put his arm around her.
“I haven’t, but it’s because I’ve been SO busy, what do you mean, run?”
“Running, K’ndar, just running. Not fast, but long distance. Like the Runners, the girls and boys who do message runs? Like from here to, oh, all over! What they do is run to a Runner’s Station, over the mountains sometimes, and then they stop at the Station and someone else takes the message and goes on. When I was little I read about a thing on Earth that was called the pony express and it was where people rode their horses kilometers and kilometers a day to pass on a message and they had to be fast and brave because raiders might attack them.” She paused for a breath.
She had always been a tsunami of speech.
“What do you mean, “When” you were little? You’re still little,” he said, “And how do you do that, talk without breathing?” he teased, squeezing her. She punched him.
“You’re a brat. I breathe in and out and the words just come out. But anyway we don’t do that here, the pony express, but I’d like to, it sounds like fun, and Jordan is so fast and he’s small, but now we have fire lizards doing that but there’s still a need for Runners and I might want to be one,” she said, “but it involves going by yourself and making sure everyone signs off so they know who carried the message and who it was from, and there were people on North who intercepted the Runner and took her messages. Those were bad people,” she said.
He nodded. “Well, it’s an honorable job and you’re right, it could be dangerous, but I know you’re not afraid,” he said.
“I’m not afraid but I DO keep my eyes and ears open, that’s what Shirae says we should all do, but anyway, guess what I’m doing today?”
“Besides talking my ears off, what?” he said, grinning.
She punched him again.
“I borrowed the camera from the library. It’s the one you donated! It’s the same one that D’nis has. And I’m taking photos. Look, see this little screen here, you can see some photos I took of Shirae and my sisters, they’re baking, and here’s a cat who lives with us, she just had kittens, and here’s my room and here’s Jordan, and Jordan, and Jordan..oh, that’s not a good one…”
The sun was dulled by the gray overcast sky, casting an almost brassy light, which made seeing the pictures hard to see. But that was okay. He was just enjoying having his kid sister alongside, chattering like a cuorl in a tree.
“It’s cold, today,” she said, cuddling up to K’ndar to steal some of his warmth, “but look at Raventh, he’s not cold at all, is he?” she asked.
“No, but I think he’s about ready to come out,” K’ndar said.
“Good, because I want to take a picture of him! Can I?”
“Of course, I can’t think of why not,” K’ndar said. Siskin flew in from where he’d been playing with several other fire lizards and settled on his shoulder.
Glyena gave the blue an admiring glance, then raised the camera and took several candid shots of K’ndar and Siskin. Then she looked at the screen again. “Oh, too bright. The light is so odd,” she said, in a professional tone of voice.
K’ndar shaded his eyes and by doing so, could see barely see the photos on the screen. He cringed, wishing he hadn’t.
“Yaah! Look at my ears, they stick out! I look like a wherry!” he said, grimacing.
“No, you don’t, K’ndar but your ears, they’ve always stuck out,” Glyena said, matter-of-factly, without looking up. She was scrolling through the photos.
“Oh,” he said, for lack of anything better. It’s not as if they could be fixed, now could they?
“Besides, no one likes having their picture taken because they always say they look ugly or stupid. So I don’t usually do it,” she said, “but you’re my big brother and I don’t care what you look like, I love you.” She smiled up at him.
How different the words were coming from his sister. He hugged her again, so happy to have her here at the weyr with him. Family. His sister, his dragon and fire lizard. Oh, and Jordan, ‘their’ horse.
“How long have you been playing with the camera?” he asked.
“A couple weeks. It’s been fun. We’re off of school for a few weeks, it’s called intermission, so I’ve been doing stuff I can’t when I’m in school. But I LOVE school, K’ndar, I love it, I kinda miss it. But now I want to take some pictures of Raventh,” she said. The brown was ashore now, the water streaming from his smooth flanks.
She wants to what?
She wants to photograph you. She has the molecular camera, the same tool that D’nis uses on our expeditions
What does it do? Does it touch me?
No. It is difficult to explain. I will have to think this through to explain it, but it doesn’t touch you.
“Okay, I think I have the settings right,” she said, and snapped a few pictures of Raventh.
She looked at them judiciously and shook her head.
“No, that doesn’t look right. Can you ask him to stand on those rocks, over there? With the sea in the background, it’s gray today, so that should make the camera happy,” she said.
K’ndar found himself shepherding Raventh to a set of boulders. The sea, quietly lapped sluggishly at their base.
What? I don’t understand.
She wants you to stand on these rocks, so you look nice for the picture.
I look...nice? What does that mean?
He ransacked his mind for...ah.
So you look handsome, the same as when you’re talking to the greens.
Handsome! I AM handsome. Like this?
And he posed.
“Like this?” K’ndar asked.
“Yes, yes, just like that, but I’m not ready yet,” Glyena called, “and not on that rock, no, move him just to that flat one, to the right.”
K’ndar sighed. He knew right then he had no patience to use a camera.
For the next few minutes, she had Raventh turning this way and that, until she was satisfied.
“That’s it! Now hold still, Raventh!” she called, and took several shots. And more and more.
“I don’t know, there’s something not right,” she said, looking at the screen.
“WHAT? This is getting old, sis,” K’ndar said from his spot near Raventh.
She looked up at him.
“You’re not in the picture, K’ndar, it’s okay, it’s Ravenths picture. But..oh, I know. He’s too happy looking, K’ndar,” she said.
Happy? I am happy all the time.
I know. I don’t understand her, either. She’s female.
They both sighed, making K’ndar laugh.
“What?” Glyena asked.
“Never mind. Raventh’s a happy dragon,” he said, grinning.
“Well, he needs to look fierce. Like he’s breathing fire, but without the fire,” she said.
Fierce?
It’s your face when you’re angry.
I’m not angry. She just said I look happy. She is confusing.
Well, you said it when I did...females…
Raventh laughed.
“He won’t look right if he looks happy, Raventh, can you look angry?” she called.
K’ndar sighed, growing exasperated, but…patience, K’ndar, patience.
Can you look angry? Make the face when the raiders shot at us and you pushed the bolts away
Oh, that’s easy Raventh said, and grimaced.
“Yes! Yes! Perfect!” Glyena cried, and shot a dozen pictures.
She looked at the screen and smiled-then frowned.
Can I go get a nap now?
“He’s done now and wants to go take a nap,” K’ndar said.
“Really? It’s not quite right, maybe just some more?”Glyena protested.
No more, I want a nap.
“He’s a dragon, Glyena, not an actor in a Gather play,” K’ndar said.
“I know, but,...oh, okay,” she said, disappointed.
Raventh crouched and leaped into the air, his powerful downbeat raising a cloud of sand over them.
Glyena shrieked, “My camera!”
Raventh flew to their weyr and vanished into his room.
“Is it damaged?” K’ndar asked, dismayed. Maybe such equipment shouldn’t be lent to kids.
She looked at it and blew the sand off. “No, it’s okay. It just will need a little cleaning, these are tough. Wanna see the pictures?”
“Sure,” he said.
This time he covered the screen with his hand to shade it.
“Wow, they came out nice,” he said, and Glyena smiled. “He’s a pretty dragon, K’ndar, I’m glad he’s ours,”she said.
Yes, he was hers, being family.
“But...”
“But what?” he asked.
She sighed. “It’s still not right,” she said.
“Why not? He looks fierce, right?”
“His mouth does, yes...but look at his eyes! They’re sky blue, he’s still happy!”
He shrugged.
“That’s Raventh. He’s a happy dragon,” he said, “that’s the fiercest you’ll ever get from him.”
06 June 2020
Chap. 184 The Gift
Chap. 184 The Gift
Siskin raised his head from his curled position on "his" shelf.
Then, with a chirp, he flew out of the weyr.
Where is he going? Out to do his business? K'ndar asked. He was grateful that fire lizards, like dragons, were housebroken.
No! It's a green fire lizard, wearing a message pouch and a bell. I think it's Putzu Raventh said.
Hmmm!
At that moment, Siskin returned with Putzu right behind him.
She hovered in front of him, shivering to make the bell ring.
Clever, he thought, I never thought to teach Siskin that.
Her message bell and the fairly bulky message pouch both had Terilyn's chop on them.
She landed on Siskin's shelf, and wickwicked at him.
"Hello, Putzu, pretty girl, do you have something for me?"
She turned her head and cheeped. Fire lizards were normally reluctant to allow anyone other than their bonded owner to touch them, but training them to deliver messages also taught them that it was safe.
He put down his book and approached her.
"Clever girl, good girl. Let me take that message from you," he said.
He reached forward and gently removed a bundle from the pouch.
She whirred up into the air, relieved of her burden.
"Treat, Putzu? Treat?" he asked. He had a few meat scraps left from feeding Siskin.
Her eyes whirling a faint orange, she dropped her glance. No thank you. Then she chipped, flew past the curtain, and vanished.
"Weeeeeeeeeek?" Siskin asked, his eyes whirling green.
"You silly lizard, you've been fed, but…okay, here," K'ndar said, submitting to Siskin's blandishments. He had just a bit of meat left from dinner. “I shouldn’t feed you too much, you’ll get fat,” he said, teasing.
Never happen. Have you ever seen a fat dragon? Raventh said.
Come to think of it, no. I’ve seen thin ones, like Menkarth, but never a fat dragon.
He laughed.
Opening the bundle, he gasped. Terilyn had created a ceramic draft horse.
There was a brief note.
Hello, K, this brave little horse insisted he belongs to you. I hope you enjoy him.
K’ndar marveled. What talent! He could never ever produce something like this.
Where to put the little horse? His weyr shelves were fully engaged, either with Siskin’s regular roosting spot, or his books, and ever growing number of notebooks. He’d like to keep it here on his desk, but it was too subject to being knocked over by a certain fire lizard, or even his own movements while writing.
He cast his eye around his small weyr. Ah, the alcove. A small natural cubby in the rock wall, where he kept...the opal rock. He’d planned on giving it to Terilyn at the Ruathan Gather, but events had transpired to completely push it out of his mind...until now.
Too heavy? He hefted it, wondering if Siskin could carry it.
Siskin’s message pouch and bell was in with Raventh’s harness.
The opal just barely fit. He had enough room to add his note:
T, thank you so much for the lovely horse! He will have pride of place on my shelf. I had planned on giving this rock to you at the Gather, but, as you know, I was distracted...and forgot, and I’ve been busy since then. Before you ask, no. It is a gift, just as the horse is. Or, if you prefer, it’s to compensate you for whatever it cost you after Siskin and Putzu had their little love match. Thank you! K
He was always circumspect when writing notes, especially when they concerned something of value, like the opal. You never knew if a message could be intercepted by others, or a fire lizard caught by a predator.
Siskin, who’d returned to his shelf, recognized that he was about to be sent on a mission, and chittered. He loved transmitting things.
He flew down to K’ndar’s worktable/desk/nightstand.
“Think you can carry this weight, Siskin?”
The fire lizard looked at the pouch, his eyes whirling.
K’ndar tied the message pouch, making sure the weight was centered on Siskin’s chest.
“Try it,” he said.
Siskin opened his wings and leaped into the air. He flew around the room, testing the weight.
After several moments, he whickered, his eyes whirling blue.
It is heavy, but he can carry it. He’ll be going between, anyway. But don’t use the bell. That might be just too much Raventh advised.
“Okay, Siskin, no bell. Carry to Putzu. Carry?” he asked, thinking of Putzu and Terilyn’s face as he did so.
Siskin chittered, then flew out of their weyr.
How bloody convenient fire lizards were, he thought, it’s amazing. Oh, I could have gone there on Raventh, of course, but…
Why not?
I have duty tomorrow, well, we do. After I finish this chapter, I’m going to bed.
After about ten minutes, he was beginning to worry when Siskin returned.
The pouch was empty save for a message.
Good grief, K, what are you thinking? But thank you, it is lovely, and I will think of ways to turn it into something even more beautiful than it is now. By the way, Putzu had her and Siskin’s clutch some time ago. She hid the clutch, so I have no idea where or how many. She did all the work, it didn’t cost me a thing other than meat scraps enough for a full grown dragon. But thank you, anyway! T
“Good lad! Was it too heavy?” he asked.
Siskin raised his head in pride. K’ndar didn’t need Raventh’s translating.
Of course not, Siskin said, I’m a blue. We can do anything.
Siskin raised his head from his curled position on "his" shelf.
Then, with a chirp, he flew out of the weyr.
Where is he going? Out to do his business? K'ndar asked. He was grateful that fire lizards, like dragons, were housebroken.
No! It's a green fire lizard, wearing a message pouch and a bell. I think it's Putzu Raventh said.
Hmmm!
At that moment, Siskin returned with Putzu right behind him.
She hovered in front of him, shivering to make the bell ring.
Clever, he thought, I never thought to teach Siskin that.
Her message bell and the fairly bulky message pouch both had Terilyn's chop on them.
She landed on Siskin's shelf, and wickwicked at him.
"Hello, Putzu, pretty girl, do you have something for me?"
She turned her head and cheeped. Fire lizards were normally reluctant to allow anyone other than their bonded owner to touch them, but training them to deliver messages also taught them that it was safe.
He put down his book and approached her.
"Clever girl, good girl. Let me take that message from you," he said.
He reached forward and gently removed a bundle from the pouch.
She whirred up into the air, relieved of her burden.
"Treat, Putzu? Treat?" he asked. He had a few meat scraps left from feeding Siskin.
Her eyes whirling a faint orange, she dropped her glance. No thank you. Then she chipped, flew past the curtain, and vanished.
"Weeeeeeeeeek?" Siskin asked, his eyes whirling green.
"You silly lizard, you've been fed, but…okay, here," K'ndar said, submitting to Siskin's blandishments. He had just a bit of meat left from dinner. “I shouldn’t feed you too much, you’ll get fat,” he said, teasing.
Never happen. Have you ever seen a fat dragon? Raventh said.
Come to think of it, no. I’ve seen thin ones, like Menkarth, but never a fat dragon.
He laughed.
Opening the bundle, he gasped. Terilyn had created a ceramic draft horse.
There was a brief note.
Hello, K, this brave little horse insisted he belongs to you. I hope you enjoy him.
K’ndar marveled. What talent! He could never ever produce something like this.
Where to put the little horse? His weyr shelves were fully engaged, either with Siskin’s regular roosting spot, or his books, and ever growing number of notebooks. He’d like to keep it here on his desk, but it was too subject to being knocked over by a certain fire lizard, or even his own movements while writing.
He cast his eye around his small weyr. Ah, the alcove. A small natural cubby in the rock wall, where he kept...the opal rock. He’d planned on giving it to Terilyn at the Ruathan Gather, but events had transpired to completely push it out of his mind...until now.
Too heavy? He hefted it, wondering if Siskin could carry it.
Siskin’s message pouch and bell was in with Raventh’s harness.
The opal just barely fit. He had enough room to add his note:
T, thank you so much for the lovely horse! He will have pride of place on my shelf. I had planned on giving this rock to you at the Gather, but, as you know, I was distracted...and forgot, and I’ve been busy since then. Before you ask, no. It is a gift, just as the horse is. Or, if you prefer, it’s to compensate you for whatever it cost you after Siskin and Putzu had their little love match. Thank you! K
He was always circumspect when writing notes, especially when they concerned something of value, like the opal. You never knew if a message could be intercepted by others, or a fire lizard caught by a predator.
Siskin, who’d returned to his shelf, recognized that he was about to be sent on a mission, and chittered. He loved transmitting things.
He flew down to K’ndar’s worktable/desk/nightstand.
“Think you can carry this weight, Siskin?”
The fire lizard looked at the pouch, his eyes whirling.
K’ndar tied the message pouch, making sure the weight was centered on Siskin’s chest.
“Try it,” he said.
Siskin opened his wings and leaped into the air. He flew around the room, testing the weight.
After several moments, he whickered, his eyes whirling blue.
It is heavy, but he can carry it. He’ll be going between, anyway. But don’t use the bell. That might be just too much Raventh advised.
“Okay, Siskin, no bell. Carry to Putzu. Carry?” he asked, thinking of Putzu and Terilyn’s face as he did so.
Siskin chittered, then flew out of their weyr.
How bloody convenient fire lizards were, he thought, it’s amazing. Oh, I could have gone there on Raventh, of course, but…
Why not?
I have duty tomorrow, well, we do. After I finish this chapter, I’m going to bed.
After about ten minutes, he was beginning to worry when Siskin returned.
The pouch was empty save for a message.
Good grief, K, what are you thinking? But thank you, it is lovely, and I will think of ways to turn it into something even more beautiful than it is now. By the way, Putzu had her and Siskin’s clutch some time ago. She hid the clutch, so I have no idea where or how many. She did all the work, it didn’t cost me a thing other than meat scraps enough for a full grown dragon. But thank you, anyway! T
“Good lad! Was it too heavy?” he asked.
Siskin raised his head in pride. K’ndar didn’t need Raventh’s translating.
Of course not, Siskin said, I’m a blue. We can do anything.
05 June 2020
Chap. 183 Reconciliation
Chap. 183 Reconciliation
Francie's advice stuck in his head.
"She's got something going on, K'ndar. The only way you can solve this issue with Lindea,IF you want to solve it, is to talk to her. If she doesn't want to talk, there's not much you can do to force her to do so. If nothing else, you can always say you tried. If all else fails, just be polite, distant, and realize it's not YOU that's got a bug up their butt, it's her," she said.
They'd returned from Sweet Grass much too late, so he had the entire next day to think about what he was going to say.
Steeling himself for what he believed was going to be a shouting match, K'ndar waited outside the dining hall. He knew Lindea was due to get off her shift, and thought being outside would make an audience less likely. He was wrong.
Siskin roosted on his shoulder. He'd just fed, so he was content.
Lindea walked out, heading for her weyr.
She glanced his way, looked away, then looked back-and kept walking.
"Lindea! Hi! Got a few minutes?" he called after her.
She stopped and turned. He could see her struggling to make up her mind.
"I'm really busy…" she said, frowning.
"No, you're not, you just got off work. Don't you have a few minutes to talk to me?" he asked, annoyed.
Her gold fire lizard, Zeta, swooped in from somewhere and landed on her shoulder.
She avoided his gaze, pretending not to hear. Instead, she crooned to the gold, "How's my beauty queen, Zeta girl?" She began to walk off, pointedly ignoring K'ndar. That pissed him off.
"She's pregnant."
She stopped and turned, shock in her eyes.
"She's…pregnant?" she gasped, unbelieving.
"Yes. I saw the mating flight," he said, making his voice cool. He'd been the target of her jealousy for long enough to give him the courage to return her coldness. It was still difficult.
"How…how did you…"
"She followed us, Lindea. Did you send her after me when I left here with Francie?"
He could see the panic in her eyes, telling him she definitely had done just that.
"Uh, uh,um,..isn't she a little OLD for you?" Lindea said, recovering fast enough to avoid the question.
Anger blew up in his mind, but he controlled it with an iron grip.
"That's a low blow, Lindea. She's a FRIEND, she's married, and I do not understand why you feel the need to treat me as if I've done something wrong," he snapped.
"I haven't…"
"Yes, you have. When Risal came to visit, you treated her like she hadn't bothered to clean up after cleaning the latrine. Now you're making snarky remarks about Francie's age. It sounds as if you're implying that I'm sleeping with them. Now you're about to walk off as if I didn't say hello. You don't have the time to talk to me, so I'll just cut to the chase. Why did you send your Zeta after our dragons when we left? Was it to spy on us?"
Lindea's face screwed up. "I didn't know she was in heat. She must have followed on her own," she said.
"Nice try, Lindea, but I've had enough of this nonsense. I have never treated you with anything but kindness and respect. Apparently you don't feel the need to at least be polite to my guests. If you don't want to be friends with me any longer, just come out and say so," he snapped.
"I…it's not what you think," she said.
"So what is it? I’m tired of having to defend myself every time I walk into the dining hall. Do you want to be friends or NOT?"
Her eyes rolled and she shouted,
"Can't you get it through your head that I want more than that?"
She whirled to go off. Zeta was hissing.
Confused, he was annoyed by the crowd that was forming, people always willing to watch a drama.
"What?" he gasped, his mind whirling upside down and sideways.
She was about to continue, but, seeing the crowd forming, turned to stomp off.
"Don't you dare run off, Lindea," he said, "face it. You're treating me like shit and it needs to be settled, one way or another," he said.
She stopped, heaved a sigh and said, "Let's go somewhere where we're not the center of attention."
The people who had obviously been listening suddenly found a hundred different directions to gaze, except theirs.
"Zeta. Go home. I'll be there shortly," she ordered her gold fire lizard.
Taking her cue, K'ndar said, "Siskin. Go home. Go to Raventh."
The fire lizards obeyed.
Lindea said, "In the office," and re-entered the dining hall. K'ndar, followed her in a daze, wondering what she meant by "more than that".
Drul, a drudge was cleaning it, but when she saw the look on Lindea's face, she froze.
"Drul. We need to talk without being overheard. Please make sure no one is listening, to include YOU," Lindea snapped.
"Yes'm," the girl said, and fled.
K'ndar, right behind Lindea, suddenly felt asif the office was a trap.
Lindea turned and having managed to collect herself, said, "Yes, I had Zeta follow you. I wanted to see what you and that woman were up to."
"I won't ask why you think it's any of your business, because you've already decided to make it so. So instead, tell me, what did you see? What did Zeta show you?
Her face fell.
"Some pretty mountains, lots of animals, people," she admitted.
"Annnnnnd? Any…action…between me and Francie?", he said, oozing sarcasm.
"No. At least, not what Zeta saw. She came right back. You saw her mating?"
"Yes. Francie has three fire lizards. Zeta flew off with her bronze, Coora. Didn't you see that in her head?"
"Um…..I …wasn't looking for that," she said, crestfallen.
"No doubt," K'ndar said, growling. "No doubt. Because NOTHING happened between Francie and me. She's a friend, a better one than you, by the way."
She grimaced. "That's not fair, K'ndar."
"Fair? Is it fair to treat me like a dungboot when I have a friend with me who happens to be female? Why not when I have a male friend? What will you do when my sister has breakfast with me? Or my mum? Or our Weyrwoman? Treat me like shit?"
She hung her head.
"I'm sorry. You're right. I…I was jealous. You showing up with these women, I guess, it hurt me, to think that…well…"
"Well, what? I'm not gay, Lindea, I like females. I never thought I'd have to ask your permission before I spoke to one," he snapped.
She took a deep breath and said,
"It wasn't meant that way, it wasn't. It's just, I kept wondering, why isn't he showing me the same sort of attention? Why are we just friends?"
"Because we are just friends. You have male friends, I've seen you with them," he said.
"Yes, but, they're not friends like you are, K'ndar."
She glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was overhearing. Drul had done a good job, no one was eavesdropping.
"I've treated you like every other female friend I have, Lindea. No different. I've never made a move on anyone, at least not here," he snapped.
"That's the point," she said.
"WHAT is the point? I can't read your mind, Lindea, I'm sick of your mind games. You seem to think you know me pretty well, so you know I hate guessing games. So just come out with it, eh?"
She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Then, it came out, in a flow of emotion.
"I have always liked you more than you can ever know, K'ndar. I just didn't show it. I was jealous, because…I want to be married to you, K'ndar, or at least weyrmates. I love you. I want to have children with you," she said.
K'ndar's world staggered. He felt his stomach knot. Love? She loves ME? And wants to settle? Having kids?
His wits scattered, but his soul reached out and snatched them back.
No. I'm just now spreading my wings, he thought, I'm not ready for this. He had no words, no way to say it, but she was expecting some sort of response, and instinct told him it wasn't his bolting.
"So…"
"So, yes, I've been trying to tell you without telling you. I wanted it to be your idea. I want to start a family. With you," she said.
Ah. The straw tossed to the drowning man. He grabbed it, desperately.
He shook his head.
"Lindea. I'm a dragonrider. You know this. You were Searched but didn't impress because, unless you've changed your mind, you told me you didn't want the lifestyle of a dragonrider. When dragons mate, we do, too, and it's not always with someone we want, or are even attracted to. Isn't that why you didn't want to impress a dragon? Because you couldn't bear to be with a man who you can't bring yourself to have sex with, but his dragon flies yours? I'm sure you feel the mating urge when Mirth is about to rise, even if you HAVEN'T impressed a dragon. Right?"
"Well, yes, but,"
"It's the same way with men, Lindea. Only we have it worse. It's EVERY time ANY female dragon goes into heat, green or gold. I remember talking with my wingmates, when Jenmay was 'weyrwoman', we were terrified that Jiannath would go into heat. F'mart swore he'd commit suicide if Kenth flew her gold. I have never been so happy to fly Thread as I did the day she did mate, it kept us out of the weyr," he said, remembering that day. Just the memory of the horrid Jenmay brought shivers.
She just looked at him, at a loss for words. She wasn't convinced, he could see it.
"Lindea. I've liked you from the minute I met you. I always thought of you as special. But I'm sorry. I'm not ready to settle down, I am not interested in sharing a weyr or marrying anyone right now, and most importantly, I don't want children."
"What?" she said, unable to even conceive the notion.
"I don't want kids. None. Not now, not ever. I've known since I was a kid myself that I didn't want any. Maybe that makes me selfish, or crazy, if so, I'll own it. But I'm not ready to settle down, and I don't want children," he said in a rush.
"Not…any? Not even Just Two?"
"Not ANY. Not one. Not two. None."
She backed up until she found Hariko's benchseat and sat down, her turn now to be flabbergasted.
"None?" she repeated, unbelieving.
"None. Several reasons but two most important. I've read some of the history of Terra. One of the reasons their world was destroyed was because of too many people. Too many people! Do you know that, when the settlers left Terra, there were 10 BILLION people on Earth? Billions! And that was AFTER billions died of famine, disease, fighting each other for a drink of water. I can't even come close to grasping that number. People reproduced and used up all the resources. Do you know that the only thing they had left to eat was insects? I don't want that happening to Pern.
We can't escape an overpopulated planet, not this time, only one starship left and her engines were used to knock the Red Star out of its orbit. That, and there's only one way to get to her, by dragon. That term Just Two? They meant that, the Ancients, they knew very well why they'd escaped, and counted themselves lucky. They crafted the Charter to warn us to not have any more than two children, to replace the parents. We don't have any predators here, to keep our numbers 'sustainable'. To prevent our destroying this last chance humans have of surviving."
He stopped to catch his breath. Odd, he thought, he'd used the word sustainable twice in as many days.
"That, and I just don't want to have children. Okay? So you go ahead, treat me like a dirty dungbooted jerk, it's fine with me. I'll find times to eat here when you're not working. That way you don't have to snub me like you've done. For that matter, I don't have to STAY here, I can go anywhere I want on this planet, and find people who don't treat me like you have," he said, thinking, but I don't want to leave this weyr. It's home. But I have to get out of here, I just can't deal with this. I'm done.
"Just do me a favor, please? Next time you want to snoop into my personal affairs, DON'T. It's none of your business WHO I see, who I fly with, even who I sleep with."
He turned to walk out.
"K'ndar."
He stopped, knowing she was going to stop him and dreading her next move.
Her face pale but composed, Lindea said, "I'm sorry. I was wrong," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
He softened. He didn't like to hurt her. I'm a softie, I'm too soft hearted for my own good, but I have to get her to see.
You are soft hearted. That is a good thing. I wouldn't want a human who was hard in the heart Raventh said.
"It's okay, Lindea," he said, at a loss on how to mend the rift. Of if he even should.
"It's not okay, K'ndar. I treated you badly. I wish…I wish I'd had the courage to …um..."
"Bring this up before this? I know. I wish you had, because I'm sorry, but my friends now think of you as a stuffed up wretch. I kept wondering, why is this sweet natured Lindea, suddenly turned into sour wine? But now I understand."
Lindea snuffled. "I want kids. Two. I want a husband, someone who's,well, not a dragonrider lifestyle, I like dragons, of course, but..I want someone for ME. I thought, you were the one, I know how kind you are, how smart you are, I..dreamed you were the one," she said. She sighed.
"But, Lindea…I'm a dragonrider. Didn't that make a difference?"
She shrugged. "I hoped it would be the same sort of situation as what Lord Jaxom and Lady Sharra have. Yes, he rides a dragon, but he's not a dragonRIDER, like you, and the rest," she said.
"Lindea. Jaxom rides Ruth. Ruth is a sport. He's neuter. He's never demonstrated any interest in mating. Raventh does, he's ALWAYS chatting up the greens. I am who I am, Lindea, I can't change myself to make you happy, and honestly, I don't want to," he said.
She nodded.
"I know. It was, well, I guess I was hoping, even dreaming, that you would, well, change to um, make me happy. But never mind. I can't change myself either," she said.
She got up and approached him to take his hand.
That sent his nerves skyrocketing. Don't kiss me, don't, Lindea, he thought, I don't want to cave…
She was disturbingly beautiful.
"I'm sorry, K'ndar, I was mean. If you'll forgive me, I promise I won't treat you like that again. I'd still like to be friends, though? Please?" she said.
He took a deep breath.
"Sure," he said, unsteadily.
"Thank you. Thank you for being honest with me, about no kids. And for telling me about Zeta. That was a mistake I won't make again," and she tried to laugh.
K'ndar shook his head. "Well, this time, we'll make sure the kids in the weyr don't know she's pregnant."
They both laughed. It felt good.
Francie's advice stuck in his head.
"She's got something going on, K'ndar. The only way you can solve this issue with Lindea,IF you want to solve it, is to talk to her. If she doesn't want to talk, there's not much you can do to force her to do so. If nothing else, you can always say you tried. If all else fails, just be polite, distant, and realize it's not YOU that's got a bug up their butt, it's her," she said.
They'd returned from Sweet Grass much too late, so he had the entire next day to think about what he was going to say.
Steeling himself for what he believed was going to be a shouting match, K'ndar waited outside the dining hall. He knew Lindea was due to get off her shift, and thought being outside would make an audience less likely. He was wrong.
Siskin roosted on his shoulder. He'd just fed, so he was content.
Lindea walked out, heading for her weyr.
She glanced his way, looked away, then looked back-and kept walking.
"Lindea! Hi! Got a few minutes?" he called after her.
She stopped and turned. He could see her struggling to make up her mind.
"I'm really busy…" she said, frowning.
"No, you're not, you just got off work. Don't you have a few minutes to talk to me?" he asked, annoyed.
Her gold fire lizard, Zeta, swooped in from somewhere and landed on her shoulder.
She avoided his gaze, pretending not to hear. Instead, she crooned to the gold, "How's my beauty queen, Zeta girl?" She began to walk off, pointedly ignoring K'ndar. That pissed him off.
"She's pregnant."
She stopped and turned, shock in her eyes.
"She's…pregnant?" she gasped, unbelieving.
"Yes. I saw the mating flight," he said, making his voice cool. He'd been the target of her jealousy for long enough to give him the courage to return her coldness. It was still difficult.
"How…how did you…"
"She followed us, Lindea. Did you send her after me when I left here with Francie?"
He could see the panic in her eyes, telling him she definitely had done just that.
"Uh, uh,um,..isn't she a little OLD for you?" Lindea said, recovering fast enough to avoid the question.
Anger blew up in his mind, but he controlled it with an iron grip.
"That's a low blow, Lindea. She's a FRIEND, she's married, and I do not understand why you feel the need to treat me as if I've done something wrong," he snapped.
"I haven't…"
"Yes, you have. When Risal came to visit, you treated her like she hadn't bothered to clean up after cleaning the latrine. Now you're making snarky remarks about Francie's age. It sounds as if you're implying that I'm sleeping with them. Now you're about to walk off as if I didn't say hello. You don't have the time to talk to me, so I'll just cut to the chase. Why did you send your Zeta after our dragons when we left? Was it to spy on us?"
Lindea's face screwed up. "I didn't know she was in heat. She must have followed on her own," she said.
"Nice try, Lindea, but I've had enough of this nonsense. I have never treated you with anything but kindness and respect. Apparently you don't feel the need to at least be polite to my guests. If you don't want to be friends with me any longer, just come out and say so," he snapped.
"I…it's not what you think," she said.
"So what is it? I’m tired of having to defend myself every time I walk into the dining hall. Do you want to be friends or NOT?"
Her eyes rolled and she shouted,
"Can't you get it through your head that I want more than that?"
She whirled to go off. Zeta was hissing.
Confused, he was annoyed by the crowd that was forming, people always willing to watch a drama.
"What?" he gasped, his mind whirling upside down and sideways.
She was about to continue, but, seeing the crowd forming, turned to stomp off.
"Don't you dare run off, Lindea," he said, "face it. You're treating me like shit and it needs to be settled, one way or another," he said.
She stopped, heaved a sigh and said, "Let's go somewhere where we're not the center of attention."
The people who had obviously been listening suddenly found a hundred different directions to gaze, except theirs.
"Zeta. Go home. I'll be there shortly," she ordered her gold fire lizard.
Taking her cue, K'ndar said, "Siskin. Go home. Go to Raventh."
The fire lizards obeyed.
Lindea said, "In the office," and re-entered the dining hall. K'ndar, followed her in a daze, wondering what she meant by "more than that".
Drul, a drudge was cleaning it, but when she saw the look on Lindea's face, she froze.
"Drul. We need to talk without being overheard. Please make sure no one is listening, to include YOU," Lindea snapped.
"Yes'm," the girl said, and fled.
K'ndar, right behind Lindea, suddenly felt asif the office was a trap.
Lindea turned and having managed to collect herself, said, "Yes, I had Zeta follow you. I wanted to see what you and that woman were up to."
"I won't ask why you think it's any of your business, because you've already decided to make it so. So instead, tell me, what did you see? What did Zeta show you?
Her face fell.
"Some pretty mountains, lots of animals, people," she admitted.
"Annnnnnd? Any…action…between me and Francie?", he said, oozing sarcasm.
"No. At least, not what Zeta saw. She came right back. You saw her mating?"
"Yes. Francie has three fire lizards. Zeta flew off with her bronze, Coora. Didn't you see that in her head?"
"Um…..I …wasn't looking for that," she said, crestfallen.
"No doubt," K'ndar said, growling. "No doubt. Because NOTHING happened between Francie and me. She's a friend, a better one than you, by the way."
She grimaced. "That's not fair, K'ndar."
"Fair? Is it fair to treat me like a dungboot when I have a friend with me who happens to be female? Why not when I have a male friend? What will you do when my sister has breakfast with me? Or my mum? Or our Weyrwoman? Treat me like shit?"
She hung her head.
"I'm sorry. You're right. I…I was jealous. You showing up with these women, I guess, it hurt me, to think that…well…"
"Well, what? I'm not gay, Lindea, I like females. I never thought I'd have to ask your permission before I spoke to one," he snapped.
She took a deep breath and said,
"It wasn't meant that way, it wasn't. It's just, I kept wondering, why isn't he showing me the same sort of attention? Why are we just friends?"
"Because we are just friends. You have male friends, I've seen you with them," he said.
"Yes, but, they're not friends like you are, K'ndar."
She glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was overhearing. Drul had done a good job, no one was eavesdropping.
"I've treated you like every other female friend I have, Lindea. No different. I've never made a move on anyone, at least not here," he snapped.
"That's the point," she said.
"WHAT is the point? I can't read your mind, Lindea, I'm sick of your mind games. You seem to think you know me pretty well, so you know I hate guessing games. So just come out with it, eh?"
She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Then, it came out, in a flow of emotion.
"I have always liked you more than you can ever know, K'ndar. I just didn't show it. I was jealous, because…I want to be married to you, K'ndar, or at least weyrmates. I love you. I want to have children with you," she said.
K'ndar's world staggered. He felt his stomach knot. Love? She loves ME? And wants to settle? Having kids?
His wits scattered, but his soul reached out and snatched them back.
No. I'm just now spreading my wings, he thought, I'm not ready for this. He had no words, no way to say it, but she was expecting some sort of response, and instinct told him it wasn't his bolting.
"So…"
"So, yes, I've been trying to tell you without telling you. I wanted it to be your idea. I want to start a family. With you," she said.
Ah. The straw tossed to the drowning man. He grabbed it, desperately.
He shook his head.
"Lindea. I'm a dragonrider. You know this. You were Searched but didn't impress because, unless you've changed your mind, you told me you didn't want the lifestyle of a dragonrider. When dragons mate, we do, too, and it's not always with someone we want, or are even attracted to. Isn't that why you didn't want to impress a dragon? Because you couldn't bear to be with a man who you can't bring yourself to have sex with, but his dragon flies yours? I'm sure you feel the mating urge when Mirth is about to rise, even if you HAVEN'T impressed a dragon. Right?"
"Well, yes, but,"
"It's the same way with men, Lindea. Only we have it worse. It's EVERY time ANY female dragon goes into heat, green or gold. I remember talking with my wingmates, when Jenmay was 'weyrwoman', we were terrified that Jiannath would go into heat. F'mart swore he'd commit suicide if Kenth flew her gold. I have never been so happy to fly Thread as I did the day she did mate, it kept us out of the weyr," he said, remembering that day. Just the memory of the horrid Jenmay brought shivers.
She just looked at him, at a loss for words. She wasn't convinced, he could see it.
"Lindea. I've liked you from the minute I met you. I always thought of you as special. But I'm sorry. I'm not ready to settle down, I am not interested in sharing a weyr or marrying anyone right now, and most importantly, I don't want children."
"What?" she said, unable to even conceive the notion.
"I don't want kids. None. Not now, not ever. I've known since I was a kid myself that I didn't want any. Maybe that makes me selfish, or crazy, if so, I'll own it. But I'm not ready to settle down, and I don't want children," he said in a rush.
"Not…any? Not even Just Two?"
"Not ANY. Not one. Not two. None."
She backed up until she found Hariko's benchseat and sat down, her turn now to be flabbergasted.
"None?" she repeated, unbelieving.
"None. Several reasons but two most important. I've read some of the history of Terra. One of the reasons their world was destroyed was because of too many people. Too many people! Do you know that, when the settlers left Terra, there were 10 BILLION people on Earth? Billions! And that was AFTER billions died of famine, disease, fighting each other for a drink of water. I can't even come close to grasping that number. People reproduced and used up all the resources. Do you know that the only thing they had left to eat was insects? I don't want that happening to Pern.
We can't escape an overpopulated planet, not this time, only one starship left and her engines were used to knock the Red Star out of its orbit. That, and there's only one way to get to her, by dragon. That term Just Two? They meant that, the Ancients, they knew very well why they'd escaped, and counted themselves lucky. They crafted the Charter to warn us to not have any more than two children, to replace the parents. We don't have any predators here, to keep our numbers 'sustainable'. To prevent our destroying this last chance humans have of surviving."
He stopped to catch his breath. Odd, he thought, he'd used the word sustainable twice in as many days.
"That, and I just don't want to have children. Okay? So you go ahead, treat me like a dirty dungbooted jerk, it's fine with me. I'll find times to eat here when you're not working. That way you don't have to snub me like you've done. For that matter, I don't have to STAY here, I can go anywhere I want on this planet, and find people who don't treat me like you have," he said, thinking, but I don't want to leave this weyr. It's home. But I have to get out of here, I just can't deal with this. I'm done.
"Just do me a favor, please? Next time you want to snoop into my personal affairs, DON'T. It's none of your business WHO I see, who I fly with, even who I sleep with."
He turned to walk out.
"K'ndar."
He stopped, knowing she was going to stop him and dreading her next move.
Her face pale but composed, Lindea said, "I'm sorry. I was wrong," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
He softened. He didn't like to hurt her. I'm a softie, I'm too soft hearted for my own good, but I have to get her to see.
You are soft hearted. That is a good thing. I wouldn't want a human who was hard in the heart Raventh said.
"It's okay, Lindea," he said, at a loss on how to mend the rift. Of if he even should.
"It's not okay, K'ndar. I treated you badly. I wish…I wish I'd had the courage to …um..."
"Bring this up before this? I know. I wish you had, because I'm sorry, but my friends now think of you as a stuffed up wretch. I kept wondering, why is this sweet natured Lindea, suddenly turned into sour wine? But now I understand."
Lindea snuffled. "I want kids. Two. I want a husband, someone who's,well, not a dragonrider lifestyle, I like dragons, of course, but..I want someone for ME. I thought, you were the one, I know how kind you are, how smart you are, I..dreamed you were the one," she said. She sighed.
"But, Lindea…I'm a dragonrider. Didn't that make a difference?"
She shrugged. "I hoped it would be the same sort of situation as what Lord Jaxom and Lady Sharra have. Yes, he rides a dragon, but he's not a dragonRIDER, like you, and the rest," she said.
"Lindea. Jaxom rides Ruth. Ruth is a sport. He's neuter. He's never demonstrated any interest in mating. Raventh does, he's ALWAYS chatting up the greens. I am who I am, Lindea, I can't change myself to make you happy, and honestly, I don't want to," he said.
She nodded.
"I know. It was, well, I guess I was hoping, even dreaming, that you would, well, change to um, make me happy. But never mind. I can't change myself either," she said.
She got up and approached him to take his hand.
That sent his nerves skyrocketing. Don't kiss me, don't, Lindea, he thought, I don't want to cave…
She was disturbingly beautiful.
"I'm sorry, K'ndar, I was mean. If you'll forgive me, I promise I won't treat you like that again. I'd still like to be friends, though? Please?" she said.
He took a deep breath.
"Sure," he said, unsteadily.
"Thank you. Thank you for being honest with me, about no kids. And for telling me about Zeta. That was a mistake I won't make again," and she tried to laugh.
K'ndar shook his head. "Well, this time, we'll make sure the kids in the weyr don't know she's pregnant."
They both laughed. It felt good.
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