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.