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.
1 comment:
Well that's a sticky situation!
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