Chap. 136 B'rost's reasons

Chap. 136  B'rost at the Bench

M'rvin looked hard at B'rost. The blue rider had been crying, his face now puffy and red. His snuffling was the only sound. He'd immediately sat down on the office floor, refusing to meet M'rvin's eyes.

M'rvin had called D'nis, the survey team leader, to attend. D'nis came in, followed by Siena, the Weyrwoman. The dragonrider who'd frogmarched B'rost to the Weyrleader's office stood apart from B'rost, ready to grab him should need be. 

"Sir, this dragonrider, B'rost, punched another dragonrider, K'ndar, in the nose without provocation. Many people witnessed it, to include myself. Oscoral, the night baker, directed me to bring him to your office," he reported.

There was several moments of silence, all eyes on the blue rider.

M'rvin cleared his throat, hoping to encourage the young rider to start. But B'rost said nothing.

Fine.

"B'rost, stand up on your feet."

B'rost shook his head.

"B'rost, stand up. Look me in the eye. It will go hard on you if you refuse to cooperate," he said.

Was this kid-he was just barely 18-going to force him to escalate measures of discipline he didn't want to impose? What was going on?

B'rost scrambled to his feet but kept his face down.

"Look me in the eye, B'rost, and explain to me your actions of this morning, in the dining hall," he said. 

D'nis wondered what in the name of Pern was going on. This wasn't B'rost, not the one he knew. This one looked sullen, resentful and his tears unconvincing. They appeared to be more  from adrenaline draining, rather than emotion.

"I punched K'ndar in the nose."

"Why?"

B'rost suddenly looked heated.

"I hate him!"

What???

"You…hate K'ndar? Why?"

B'rost shook his head. "You won't listen and you won't understand."

Siena was watching closely.

There is something in his heart that hurts Mirth, her gold, said.

"Try us, eh? We were your age once. What can have caused you to suddenly hate your teammate, classmate, and, we thought, friend? Did he do something to you?" she asked.

D'nis added, "B'rost, let me remind you…dragons cannot lie. If you lie to us, our dragons will tell us," he said, his voice cold.

B'rost gulped and shook his head. 

"Everyone is so taken with K'ndar. He found the artifacts, he was being chased by Toric, he went and found that new animal. No one gives ME credit, no one pays attention to ME," he said.

"So-you're envious of K'ndar?" Siena asked, "Jealous?"

B'rost frowned. "I'm NOT JEALOUS. See, I knew you wouldn't understand," he said flinching at her perfectly targeted accusation. He WAS jealous.

"I can't imagine why you'd punch him without a reason, and jealousy was the first thing that struck me," the Weyrwoman said, "and now I think you are saying I'm wrong. So, I'm listening. Tell me what it is I'm not understanding."

B'rost struggled.

"It's…it's…well, I used to look up to him, like a big brother. But it's like I don't even exist to him," B'rost said, "He just doesn't seem to have time for me."

He is feeling rejected. Like a blue or brown dragon, when I am rising to mate, I don't want any dragon but Arcturuth, my bronze, to mate me Mirth, her gold dragon, queen of the weyr.

Ahh. That was it. 

You are right. 

Rath told me, too. Rath says he's been thinking about K'ndar for a long time.

Do Corvuth and Arcturuth know?

Now they do.

D'nis and M'rvin exchanged knowing glances, as their dragons filled them in. They nodded to Siena. B'rost didn't see it.

She shook her head. Bloody hormones. They screwed up so many things so often. Why humans insisted on being in heat all the time, it seemed, made no sense. How much easier life would be if we could regulate our hormones, set a breeding season,  like every other animal. 

I find it so strange that you humans mate anytime you want, even if you don't want to. It makes your brains crazy Mirth added. 

Siena had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. B'rost saw that.

"SEE!! Now you think it's funny, right?" he shouted at her.

"B'rost, at ease. You have no reason to shout. We are merely trying to learn why you did such a thing, when I've known you long enough to know that you aren't the brawling type," D'nis snapped. 

"I am not laughing at you, B'rost. I understand, now. My dragon told me how you are feeling. Rath told her," she said.

"And mine," D'nis and M'rvin said, in unison.

B'rost flushed. In a way, it made this meeting so much easier. But he felt…betrayed by his blue.

They asked me. I can't not tell them what you are feeling. I feel it when you do Rath said to him, it hurts me when you hurt. Raventh wants to know why you hit K'ndar, too.

"It's not just that. I know he's straight. But I can't…can't tell my heart that. It doesn't listen."

"So you punch him in the nose?" Siena said, knowing the way through this now.

"Well…yeah. To make him pay attention to me, make him….respect me, maybe then, he'll understand why …it hurts for him to ignore me."

M'rvin sighed. 

"Have you had an argument with K'ndar regarding this? Even mentioned it to him?"

"Oh, no, no. See, that's just it, I don't…it's like I'm crazy. K'ndar has never hurt me, never. He  even protected me when Jenmay was after me. She scared me, and I…I..well, I ..girls and women, I don't..understand. But this morning something just snapped in me. I'm so sore from cutting papergrass yesterday, all day, in the hot sun, I got a headache so bad, I didn't have anything to drink all day. The stuff cut my hands to ribbons because the 

Masterfarmer's staff didn't warn me that I should wear gloves. That and I kept getting the yellow powder from the  grass in my mouth, my nose was all stuffed up and I couldn't breathe through it. It tasted strange," he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve, "even now, it's all I can taste."

He snerked, a sound that was annoying to all of the adults.

Use a hanky, Siena thought, but she kept her opinion to herself.  

"You have considered, haven't you, that K'ndar…along with me and D'mitran, have been gone for several months, only managing to come home to our weyr once in a while, usually only enough time for an overnight in our own quarters, a refit and a decent shower, haven't you?

I hadn't even a chance to meet with M'rvin and Siena until two days ago, and right in the middle of harvest. We got one night to ourselves, then we're off on tasking. D'mitran, for instance, is on the other side of Singing Waters, harvesting nuts, after just one night or two with his wife and kids," D'nis said.

"Well, yes, I knew that. But he could have at least dropped by my weyr to say hello," B'rost said, beginning to feel defensive.

"Did you take the time to come visit him?"

"Well, noooooooo, I've been busy." 

"Those tunnels in the weyr go both ways, B'rost," M'rvin said, holding tightly to his patience.

 "Is that all of it?" he asked.

"Well, that, and the people at Landing, they treat me like a kid. Even after I worked so hard to get my skeleton recovered, that and the boulder, and no one is giving me any credit. It's K'ndar this. It's F'mart that. That was my skeleton and I got no credit for it."

Now he was aggrieved.

D'nis pounced.

"But, B'rost, I was there when it was found. You WEREN'T the first person to see it. D'mitran found it. Remember?"

B'rost's jaw dropped. "No, no," he stuttered.

"Yes," D'nis said, "I remember it clearly. You and K'ndar were wandering the strand, picking up rocks. You found a large boulder full of fossils. I was up on the edge of the treeline, taking readings, and D'mitran called us all when he found the skeleton.

Like all dragonriders, I have an excellent memory. Dragonriders have to have sharp memories, you know that. For you to forget that concerns me, B'rost. It's worrisome. To add to it, I have my data, D'mitran has his, K'ndar has his. D'mitran found the skeleton, not you."

He paused, gathering his argument. He had B'rost's attention,now, seeing the confusion in the teen's eyes.

"But D'mitran doesn't mind that you get credit because, you may not know this, but the Landing staff DO attribute the find to you. AND the boulder," he said, "and if I were to ask him, I'm betting D'mitran would say it doesn't matter WHO gets the credit, we were a team. A TEAM, B'rost, not the D'nis and D'mitran and B'rost and K'ndar steppe survey team. There is no "I" in team."

B'rost,gobsmacked, shied from admitting that D'nis was right. How had he made that mistake? It HAD been D'mitran. He'd forgotten that.

He felt sheepish, embarrassed and now only wanted to get out of the office. All feelings of resentment had fled.

"So, you see, B'rost, your anger is misplaced. K'ndar didn't have it coming. You owe him an apology," D'nis said.

The dragonrider behind B'rost, who'd taken it all in, said, "AND the woman who you shoved aside at the table. That was rude, and uncalled for," he said.

"You can't make somebody like you, B'rost." Siena added, "and I think you're casting K'ndar as the bad one when it's nothing of the sort. It's difficult, I know. I KNOW. I know how it feels when….when someone you have deep feelings for doesn't reciprocate. Or when someone you DON'T have a feeling for, still insists on shoving his way into your life.

When our female dragons rise to mate, us dragon women, green riders even more so than gold riders, sometimes find ourselves in a sexual situation with a man whom we abhor. It's not easy to deal with. I'm lucky," she said, looking sideways at M'rvin, her weyrmate, her eyes glowing with that look reserved just for him, "in that I love MY weyrmate. But there's a lot of women in Pern, not just dragonriders, who get 'stuck'-and I do mean stuck-with bedmates they don't particularly like. You are who YOU are, and K'ndar is who HE is. You can love someone without having to have a deep relationship with him."

"It works the other way, too," D'nis said, "I was utterly terrified that Corvuth would mate Jianath, Jenmay's gold. I think I'd sooner go between to my death rather than bed Jenmay," he said, shuddering at the thought.

I wouldn’t have tried too hard to catch her his bronze, Corvuth, said.

They all laughed, even B'rost.

D'nis thought of Danelle his weyrmate and Weyrwoman. I will never forget you, my love, never, he thought, his heart hurting all over again.

B'rost sighed.

"Okay. It's so hard to argue with my heart," he said.

They all nodded.

"In the meantime, B'rost, there is the matter of your assault on K'ndar in the dining hall."

The atmosphere turned chilly again.

B'rost stood up straight, this time, and looked M'rvin in the eye.

"Yes, sir."

"I will talk to K'ndar later today. He's asleep right now, after being given a dose of fellis by our healer, who had to reset the nose you broke."

"Billek said he should be out of it, soon enough, but he's restricted to quarters for the day," Siena said.

"Yes, sir."

"You've effectively taken a workman out of the day's schedule. K'ndar was working on the haying crew at Lord Dorn's Hold. For today, at least, I am assigning YOU to take his place on that crew. You will find it hard work. I suggest you wear work gloves and a bandana…and take some water with you. You may have heat exhaustion. In the meantime, I'll consider what punitive actions I should take against you," M'rvin continued.

B'rost gulped.

"Yes, sir." he said.

"Anything you want to add?" M'rvin said, relieved that this was over sooner than he'd expected.

"Sir, I want to say "I'm sorry" to K'ndar and Oscoral, and even you," he turned to the dragonman who'd brought him in. "I'm sorry," he said. The dragonman nodded.

"For the moment, apologizing to K'ndar will have to wait until tonight. He doesn't have much tolerance for fellis, it appears," M'rvin said.

Chap. 135 The "Fight"

Chap. 135  The "Fight"

He felt strange, almost resentful, although common sense told him he had no right to that feeling.

Everyone pitched in for harvest, no matter what they did in regular life. While it was accepted that the very old, the very young and the disabled were not expected to work, most of Pern's folks believed that if you didn't work, you had no right to eat the fruits of other's labors. When it was a question of fight thread or starve, well, of course, dragonriders didn't do the hard labor. 

But Thread was done, releasing an entire corps of dragonriders to do what groundpounders had done all their lives. He didn't feel too badly, though, having grown up on a ranch, he had worked hard for most of his life. It was just…not the kind of work he had ever done before.

Which did he want to do? Bale hay? Harvest the fast growing 'papergrass'-for that's what the once derided grass, formerly considered nothing but a weed, had suddenly acquired an immense importance to the Pernese. Or should he pick apples, pears, other fruit? 

Weyrleader M'rvin had allowed his riders their choice, with the warning, "Choose, if you don't, or there's too many in one task and not another, I'll choose for you."

He chose hay baling, solely because it meant he'd be near horses. Having grown up on the steppe, they'd seldom needed hay, as their cothold's pastures were well managed, allowing their horses and cattle to graze year round. His father would hire a team to put up what little hay they would need for the rainy and sometimes snowy months. 

However, in the time since his becoming a dragonrider and now, something had changed in him. That was his physical condition, and the enormity of a task where there was no steppe to rotate one's stock on. He was still in excellent physical condition, but it was for riding a dragon, not doing what farmers did every day.

The hay field ran on for what seemed kilometers. The grass had been cut a week before, allowed to cure in the summer sun, and now teams of men and boys were out, baling. A large steam engine drove the machine that turned piles of hay into tightly packed bales. The resulting rectangles of sweet smelling grass emerged from the machine like some cornered pupae from the back end of an insect. One then pulled the bale off the belt, tossed it onto a horse drawn wagon and once piled ten or twelve bales high, the filled trailer was drawn away by horses and an empty wagon took its place. 

He hated the steam engine…it was noisy, a clanking metal beast that screeched neverendingly, the leather belts protesting the heat, the dust, the cogwheels.  Cinders from the fire in its belly constantly threatened to set the hay stubble alight. Little girls and women stood by with shovels or heavy, soaking wet slabs of wool felt, to kill any flames that might take hold.  

His job was to grasp the bales from the baler and toss them onto the flatbed trailer. At first it was easy, but as the pile grew, he and the others were forced to toss the heavy bales higher and higher, to the boys who were atop the pile. Those boys had to balance atop the growing pile and still stack the bales into neat ranks, and they had to hustle as there might be three or even four bales coming at them simultaneously. Sometimes they fell off. 

"Every muscle in me hurts," K'ndar thought, laying in his bunk after the first day. His ears rang  from the shriek of the steam engine and its handmaiden, the baler. His hands were raw with blisters. No one had mentioned he might just want to wear some gloves? Even after a shower, tiny, almost invisible bits of hay clung to him as if glued, in his ears, in the corners of his eyes, even in his nostrils. He was so tired he hadn't wanted to eat, just clean up and sleep. 

What bothered him is that he was young, and thought himself strong and in the peak of physical condition.

Maybe so, but two years of riding a dragon had softened him. 

"I get to do the same thing tomorrow," he thought, groaning at the idea. 

What is wrong? Are you unhappy?

I am. I haven't worked so hard in I don't remember how long.

Why don't you just tell them you don’t want to do it?

Ah, I can't do that, Raventh, it's not right. Besides, what would I do for an excuse? That it's too hard? 

Yes.

It is hard work, and mindnumbing, but there are people who've done it all their lives and I don't hear them complain. I wonder if they even feel it.

Some do. You aren't alone.

Meaning what?

All the other dragonriders are thinking the same thing. Some of them are wishing they had Thread to fight instead of doing the work.

K'ndar laughed despite himself.

_______________________________________________________________________

He was still sore when he entered the dining hall for breakfast. It was filled with Weyrfolk. The dragonriders were unnaturally silent, though. It wasn't through resentment. They were all sore, not being used to the labor they'd done. But no one complained.

There was a spot on the bench next to a woman, who was already seated and eating her breakfast. 

"May I sit down?" he asked, her. 

"Certainly, sir, there's room. Have a seat." she said.

"Thank you," he said. 

He'd begun working on his breakfast when B'rost approached him, his tray bearing a small amount of breakfast. Without a word, he forced himself into the narrow space between K'ndar and the woman.

She glared at B'rost.  B'rost gave her the stink eye. Something told her to let it ride. She moved over, giving him more than enough room to sit down next to K'ndar. 

Arsehole, she muttered under her breath.

Instead of his normal banter, B'rost grunted and began to shovel his breakfast into his mouth. 

"That was rude," K'ndar said, surprised at B'rost's uncharacteristic behavior.

He looked at K'ndar with a strange look in his eye. 

"You look fresh as the morning dew.  What did you do yesterday, stand in the shade and wave a fan over someone's head whilst they were working?" he snarled.

K'ndar was shocked at B'rost's accusation. 

"What? Where's this noise coming from? I threw bales of hay three meters into the air. All bloody day. My hands are raw and all I can taste is hay. You're the one who looks like he's sat on his arse all day," K'ndar retorted.

"Up yours, K'ndar, I worked it off. That papergrass does NOT want to cut. Except your hands. It grows behind you so you have to cut it twice, I swear, I'm done with that."

"Well, you don't get to take it out on me, mate. Nor anyone else. You don't have to like working at harvest but it has to be done. What do you want, to go out and get Thread scored?"

"That would be preferable, shards, yes. At least I'm sitting on Rath and not wearing holes in my knees."

"I'll swap with you, if you like," K'ndar offered, wondering if that would be wise. Maybe he should at least try cutting papergrass, he couldn't bear the machine's noise another day.

"It's a deal," B'rost said, pissy, "It can't be as hard as cutting papergrass, you don't look as if you even broke a sweat."

"Done," K'ndar said, "you little snot, I worked hard yesterday," 

The blue rider jumped to his feet, fists cocked.

"Snot, is it? Come on, big man, throw down. I'm tired of you, you're so high and mighty, come on, let's see what you got."

What in the name of Pern? The dining hall suddenly went silent, all eyes on them. B'rost was waving his fists in K'ndar's face.

"What the shard's got into you?"

"YOU, K'ndar, YOU."

Two of the dragonriders got up and approached them.

K'ndar didn't stand up. He fought the urge to respond. This was NOT normal B'rost behavior. 

"Come ON, big man, what, you're too goodygoody?" B'rost said, provoking.

"B'rost, shut up. Sit down, don't be an arse," he said.

The two men were at the table, one behind B'rost, and one behind K'ndar.

He turned to look at the man behind him. "I'm okay, I'm not going to…"

Without warning, B'rost punched him in the nose. 

Blinding white pain flashed in K'ndar's eyes. 

The one behind B'rost grabbed the younger man, bending his arms behind him and pushing him to the floor. 

The stars in K'ndar's eyes began to wane but the agony in his nose roared white in pain.

"K'ndar, you okay?" the man behind him asked.

He shook his head, a hand to his nose. It came away with blood.

"Shards, mate, you're bleeding," the man said. 

He could hardly hear for the roaring in his ears. B'rost? What in the name of Pern set him off?

He felt the blood running down his face. He could barely keep from vomiting from the pain.  

My nose, it HURTS.  I can't breathe through it. 

Despite being off shift, Oscoral, the night baker materialized. 

"You, there, keep that young buck down," he said to B'rost's minder, "step on him if need be."  The man did so, a bit more enthusiastically than necessary. B'rost, however, wasn't fighting him. He looked bewildered, almost ready to cry.

"Stand up, K'ndar, let me look at your nose," he ordered.

K'ndar stood up, woozy. Oscorals hand engulfed his entire lower jaw, turning K'ndar face left and right.

"There's plenty of blood here, K'ndar, but your nose, it looks broke to me," Oscoral said.

"It feels broke," K'ndar gasped, then stopped. Even talking increased the pain.

"Looks broke to me, too, had mine busted in a fight, long ago," 'his' minder said.

"Lemme up. I'll be good," B'rost said. 

"Not on your life, mate, you'll have to go through me, first, till Oscoral has his say," said his minder.

Oscoral turned and looked down at B'rost.

"My say? My say is you're fighting in MY dining hall? I don’t think so, 'big" man and if you want, try and take a swipe at me. Let him up, sir, let him up. Go ahead, you get first lick," he growled. B'rost scrambled to his feet.

Oscoral was about as tall as a mountain, and at the moment looked like he was about to erupt. 

B'rost shook his head.

"I'm sorry. He made me mad, I won't do it again. I've got to go, I've got to get to the papergrass team." 

Half a dozen voices rose in opposition.

"I heard the whole thing, Oscoral, this K'ndar? He was innocent. He did no such thing," the woman said, " this one here," she said, angrily pointing at B'rost, "he came in, shoved me aside like I was a sack of flour, then went at with K'ndar without a reason. He started it." 

"I'm sorry," B'rost said, without convincing anyone.

"Nope,sorry. It's done. You want forgiveness, you take on the haybaler today." K'ndar said, spluttering blood as he spoke. It was everywhere. 

"I think not, K'ndar. I won't tolerate fighting, nor will Hariko. You, B'rost..sir, take this rowdy to M'rvin. K'ndar,you're heading to the healer," Oscoral said.

 B'rost's man grasped the blue rider by the arm and said, "Right, me boy, we're to see the Weyrleader."

"No, it's okay, I said I'm sorry, I have to.." B'rost said, fearfully, but it was too late.

"Tell it to the Weyrleader, boyo, I saw what you did."

"You, K'ndar," Oscoral said, "You, go see Billek. Now."

"I'm okay, Oscoral, really, "K'ndar said.

"Nay, you're not, I've had me nose broke and I can tell you, things can go bad wrong if you don't get it looked at soon as possible. Don't sass me, sir, do as you're told." Oscoral said, a grin flickering about his lips, "before you completely cover my floor with blood."

_________________________________________________________________________

"Aye, it's broken, sure enough," Billek, the weyr's Master Healer said, moving K'ndar's head back and forth. The bleeding had stopped and his face was beginning to swell. 

"Any trouble breathing?"

"A little, well, yeah, a little." K'ndar said, the pain beginning to grow.

"It looks fairly simple, though," Billek said.

"Can you..oh, I sound so weird," K'ndar said, suddenly dismayed, "Can you, um, fix it?"

"I can straighten it, the sooner the better," Billek said, looking at the nose closely.

"Like..um, now?"

"It already hurts, yes?"

"Yes," K'ndar said.

"If I do it now, you'll be hurting for awhile but if you wait you'll hurt twice, and it might not straighten."

"Do it now, then," K'ndar said, "so I can get back to work."

"No, sir, you're not going to work, not today. I'm going to give you some fellis to numb the pain, I'll straighten it, then you're confined to quarters for the rest of the day. You'll need to put some ice on that. When you lay down, prop yourself up. The fellis may make you sick…it's powerful stuff, but it will most likely just make you sleepy. I'll numb you up now, send you back to your weyr, and I want you back here in the morning," Billek said, "I'll report your absence to the Weyrleader."

K'ndar shrugged. "Let's do it, then," he said.

Billek said, opening his medicine chest and withdrawing a small glass bottle. As he administered the fellis, he asked, "How did you happen to break your nose?"

"I didn't. B'rost, another dragonrider, punched me in the nose at the breakfast table."

"What? I don't know B'rost, did he..is he a brawler?"

"Uh uh," K'ndar said, trying to manage the rush of the fellis, "In fact…wow, that's some …whew, that's some strong stuff," he said. "B'rost is normally the gentlest of folks, I have NO idea what set him off, at me, especially. We were classmates and were on the survey team. I've never seen him like this, it was just boom, he's mad at me and bam, punched me in the nose."

"Hmmm. Maybe I'll talk to the Weyrleader about him. Lay down and be still…can you feel any pain?"

"Umm..no! It works that fast?"

"You've never had fellis before?"

"Nooooooooo, just numbweed when we got hurt and mum's chicken soup when we were ill," he said, feeling bubbly. It was the only word that fit. 

Billek laughed. "Tincture of Mum, that's the best cure I've ever known. Shut your eyes and grasp the edge of the bunk, here. This is going to hurt, even though the fellis will blunt most of the pain. I'll put your nose right, right about NOW…."

Before K'ndar could tense himself, Billek grasped his nose and …

Another blinding shaft of pure pain coursed through him. He shouted, involuntarily.

K'ndar!! K'ndar!! Raventh cried, and Siskin was screeching outside Billek's clinic.

"What, what is THAT???" Billek cried, alarmed. 

It's okay. I'm going to be okay, allright? Don't worry. 

He hurt you!

The healer had to, but it's okay. I'll be okay.

Rath said B'rost is crying. He was angry and he hit you, didn't he?

"K'ndar, can you hear me?" Billek said, unaware of the conversation, "There's something trying to get IN!"

"I can hear you," he said through the buzzing in his ears, "that's my fire lizard, it's just, my dragon and my fire lizard reacted to me. I should have warned them. I'm sorry I shouted at you," he said.

"I expected it, at least you can," Billek said, frightened at Siskin's miniature roars. Small he may have been, but he sounded ready to kill. 

Raventh, tell Siskin I'll be okay

He is furious. He thinks the healer is hurting you

Tell him he did not hurt me badly.  It needed to be done, now it's over with. I will be home shortly. Call him. Keep him with you until I am in the weyr. 

I've never seen him so furious. I will tell him to not hurt the healer.

That is good. 

You feel…odd. Like you want to sleep. But it's not sleep.

He DID feel odd. He felt woozy and, oddly, considering the circumstances, a bit giddy.

Billek could see it. 

"Will your fire lizard hurt me?"

"Heee heee," K'ndar said, suddenly amused at the funny things Billek said, "Probably! But don't worry, I told him to meet me in our weyr."

He is here with me in our weyr now.  

"It sounds like he's gone," Billek said.

"He is..he's with my dragon. I told him to not...not hurt you."

"I ask that because I'm going to help you to your weyr," the healer said.

I will make sure he doesn't hurt the healer. Let the healer help you. 

 

K'ndar laughed. "No, I'm fine. Really. I'm not a baby, you know. I don't need any help."

"Really? Stand up." Billek said, stifling a laugh.

"You are so funny, Billy. I AM standing up."

K'ndar. You are not standing up. Your mind is strange. Let the healer help you. 

 

The world was spinning now. It looked so strange. He felt light as a feather, as if he were nothing but gossamer. No wonder dragons could fly, it was easy, when you felt like this.

"I'll just put out my arms and fly awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," he said, giggling.

"I'm going to need help carrying you." Billek said, aware that laughing at a patient was considered unprofessional…but it was still funny.

"Jus' call Rabenth he can carry…" his voice dribbled to a stop.

Billek looked at K'ndar's still bloody face. He cleaned it off, gently.

"Baby you may not be, but you're fast asleep as one," he said.

Chap. 134 The Paladen and the Mystery Animal

Chap. 134 The Paladen and the Mystery Animal

Glyena ran her hands over the enormous skull of the paladen.

"It's so big," she said, "and I'm used to queen dragons, I thought they were the biggest animals on Pern," she said. 

The staff biologist smiled. "Not even close, Glyena. Oh, gold dragons are the largest LAND animals on Pern, but there's some huge beasts in the ocean that we've never seen that the dolphins have told us about. This paladen, for instance, was a surprise to us all. Part of that is the dearth of information we have, we've lost so much information over the years.  Only now are we able to relearn, re-discover, recover things like this skeleton," the woman said, " and dragon riders, like K'ndar and his team, are playing an important part in that renaissance."

"Because of  Aivas?" she asked.

"Yes, because of Aivas. Look at what we have right now! Paper! Electricity, generated by solar power. A wealth of information at my fingertips, it seems to have no end. It all came from the ancients building Aivas.  I have a job, here at Landing, because of Aivas. It was a revelation to us all. It's why record keeping is so important, we used to use hides, and they don't keep for long, especially in our climate here on Southern," she said. "But now we have the database in Aivas, where we can keep records on atoms, and paper so we can send it to someone without a computer...on paper!"

"And notebooks but my brother here is sloppy, he has to transcribe his notes because he writes so messy and…"

"Gee, thanks, Glyena," K'ndar said, glowering at his sister.

"Glyena, as long as the data he turns in is legible and neatly transcribed, that's all that matters," the woman said, winking at K'ndar over the girl's head, "he has all the right in Pern to keep his original notebooks. All we're interested in is accurate transcription of data," she said. 

"I do it on purpose to keep nosy kid sisters from reading my notes," he said, hoping it would back Glyena down a bit. It didn't. 

"What do you do with his notebooks?" 

"Well, first we scan them into the database. Then we type them in, yes, it's time consuming, but it makes certain that the scan and the type match. It's then indexed, and eventually, published."

"Published?" K'ndar asked.

"You know, like books are published. For instance. Your copy of "Natural History of Pern" was written and published, oh, 2300 years ago. Maybe earlier. The author, DeeAr Plank, cataloged every animal and plant he was aware of at the time. By that time, some of the animals that the ancients had brought with them, like horses, mink, and pronghorn, had successfully established, but other animals, like elk and deer, went extinct. 

Combine that with the fact that within a couple generations, people stopped talking to dolphins, and so the dolphins, although they knew of native creatures like this paladen and mosars, didn't tell us they existed. Dolphins learned that if it's not relevant to a human, we really don't pay attention. Fishermen want to know where the fish are, that's it. 

But now, with this paladen, for instance, we will add this new information to the database. All the data K'ndar's team and the skeleton recovery team created will be added to the database. That means pictures, DNA information, where it was found, that sort of thing. And one day, should we ever do a revision of "Natural History of Pern" it will include all that information," she said.

"You mean the data I write up in my notebooks? It will be in the revision?" K'ndar asked, astounded. "With my name?"

"Yes, sir, you. You'll be cited and credited for the data. You'll be mentioned as a member of the team that found it.  And D'nis, and D'mitran, and B'rost, who was so incredibly helpful in first, discovering the skeleton and two, working to make sure it got here in one piece. Well, almost one piece, we're missing the atlas."

Hmm, he thought, feeling both honored, and suddenly, aware that maybe he HAD been a bit sloppy in his data entry. 

From now on, he promised himself, I will be Sure Always to make my turn in notebooks neat and legible. That…and I'll make sure of when we go between. That had been scary, and he didn't want to do it again. 

I'll always ask you twice from now on Raventh said.

Promise?

Promise

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"I did manage to get two notebooks transcribed," K'ndar said to Raylan, Landing's technician.

The tech looked through them, briefly. He was very familiar with K'ndar's work, now.

"Nicely done, K'ndar. I like, especially, how you include D'nis's coordinates as well as include drawings of dragonstones and cairns. Although they're not as accurate as D'nis's data," he said.

"I know. Animals will knock cairns over, sometimes," he said, "but, I heard it too many times in Weyrling school..'redundancy will save your arse," he said.

Raylan laughed. "That's exactly what Francie says, and probably why she has two sets of buckles on her dragon harness."

"What is redundancy?" Glyena asked.

Raylan smiled. He loved teaching the kids, a passion Francie had ignited in him.

"It means doing things, like making notes several times, so if you lose it in one format, you still have it in another. For instance, you say your brother's notebooks are messy…but this transcribed one, for instance, is neat, organized, and easily read. So right now, there are TWO copies of his data.  We'll scan it into the database, meaning there will be THREE copies, and if and when we revise and republish the book, there will be FOUR. That's redundancy."

"Oh." Glyena said, resolving to not ask such a question again, fearing that the answer would be even more voluminous.

Raylan tucked the notebooks under his arm. 

"How many left?" he asked K'ndar.

"Four. They're not in order, though, I wanted to turn in the latest one, the one with the animal we saw on Western," K'ndar said, "and I'm wondering if Miklos got the DNA figured out on it."

Raylan grinned, nodding his head. 

"Ah, he did! Come back with me, Jansen has a report already printed out for you. By the way, we're still working on those little plants you found. Even Aivas had nothing on them, which is hardly surprising, considering that only a few people were doing cataloging and no one, it seemed, had been on Far Western. Preliminary reports on the plants, though, are interesting in that they seem to have levels of a hormone we've never seen before, so we're trying to grow them here," he said, leading them into the interior labs.

They clustered around the computer tech's desk. 

"Hello, K'ndar, and who is this?" Jansen said. 

"I'm Glyena, K'ndar is my big brother, we came here to see the paladen," the girl said.

"What do you think?"

"It's big. BIG but it has flat teeth on the bottom so I think it would probably be a gentle thing, like a cow."

Jansen smiled. "K'ndar, before I give you the report, I want to check something."

She worked on her keyboard for a moment. An image of the animal appeared on her screen.

"Is this your little mystery animal?"

"It is! It IS!" It was going so fast, I only got a glimpse of it, but that is definitely what I saw. And D'nis, he saw it too. I saw it looking silver and he saw it looking black, I still can't figure that out," he said, excited.

She handed a report to K'ndar, suppressing a grin.

"What is it? What is it?" Glyena asked, unable to stop.

"The animal is Vulpes volans Eridani, or an "Eridani Flying Fox," she said.

"It's from Eridani?" K'ndar said.

"Yes, we think that when the colonists stopped there for whatever reason, they took on a cargo of Vulcan beasts as well as those from Aldebaran 4 and Terra."

"What's a fox?" Glyena said, forgetting her resolution, but this was with Jansen, not the biologist. 

"Sssh, listen, Glyena, I'll read it aloud," K'ndar said.

Vulpes volans Eridanus

Not a true fox, Vulpes volans eridanus, (common name Eridani Flying Fox), is endemic to Eridani A's sole planet, Vulcan. Despite its name, the flying fox is closer in metabolism and  behavior to mustelids, and morphologically, to canids. It is in no way related to Terra's now extinct 'flying fox', which was a large species of bat.

The flying fox is quadruped, placental and homiothermic (warmblooded).

Adult males typically weigh 18-20 kilograms, with head and body length of 350-460 mm, with a tail length of 90-105 mm.

Adult females typically weigh 15-20 kilograms with a head and body length of 320-400 mm, with a tail length of 70-110mm.

Most commonly found in forests, open meadows, and densely vegetated areas. It digs burrows in which to live and raise young. Burrows are often usurped by other burrow dwelling creatures. On Vulcan, it has been found sometimes living in a symbiotic relationship with other creatures, their dens providing housing for the symbiote, and the symbiote providing protection for the flying fox from larger predators. It will also den in amongst tree roots, amongst rocks, in hollow logs and in dense forest, in tree cavities.  

Activity is normally diurnal and crepuscular. 

It is an excellent climber, routinely scaling tall trees and vertical cliff faces using semi-retractable claws. It can often be found near water but has never been observed voluntarily swimming. 

Seasonally monogamous, females mate once per year, irrespective of season. Gestation is 65-180 days, depending on delayed implantation. Delayed implantation occurs in response to hibernation, although the flying fox hibernates only in polar habitats. 

The male aids in feeding and raising the young, bringing prey, and, later, live prey for the young. Number of young (kits) varies between 2 and 6, with four being the norm.  The young are born blind, are weaned at two months, and become independent at about 1 year.  Sexual maturity comes at two years. Lifespan in the wild is approximately 10 years, longer in captivity.

Dentition being typical of carnivores, the flying fox eats eggs, insects, small avians, mammals, fish, invertebrates, and reptiles, and has been known to scavenge in times of food shortages.

The flying fox's fur is unlike those of other furred mammals.  The fur is composed of two layers, an inner and outer coat. The hair of the outer coat is composed of long, hollow, transparent hair serving as insulation against the cold habitats found on Vulcan.  The surface of the outer hair is composed of microscopic scales that reflect light and give the appearance of color. The basic skin color is black, with the hairs reflecting sunlight or absorbing it as needed. This gives the fur color the appearance of being a hammered metal, almost silver color and other times, solid black. 

Each hair of the outer coat is controlled by an individual nerve. The fox can change the rotation of each hair. The pattern of stripes and spots on the fur can be re-arranged in order to camouflage the fox if needed; change the entire body color from black to silver and all grades in between; and is also used to create an alarming display of 'giant eyes' to frighten off predators.  

The inner coat is extremely dense, composed of short hairs that are light,soft and serve as excellent insulation. The female, before birth, makes a nest of her inner belly fur. 

The fox is remarkable in its ability to glide using a furred, skin membrane along the side of the body. It is attached to the ulna at the foreleg and the stifle of the rear leg. Spread by rods of cartilage, the flaps consist of sheets of muscle that can be tensed or relaxed in order to control flight. The tail of the fox is flattened in a vertical axis, controlled by a stiff, fairly substantial tailbone. Using the tail as a rudder, the fox is capable of gliding extremely long distances. It is incapable of powered flight.

Flying foxes reside in temperate, sub-polar and polar zones. It has never been found in tropical, prairie, or desert climates. 

Several attempts have been made to farm the flying fox for its fur. However, it has proven unwilling to be domesticated (as in ferrets, mink, or tribbles) and rarely reproduces in captivity. As juveniles, they have been kept as pets but upon sexual maturity prove to be irascible, aggressive, and ill tempered. 

Attempts were also made to hybridize the fox with cats and mink, (Terran colonies) and norvaths (Aldebaran 4) in order to create an even more luxurious fur. The resulting animals survived to maturity but were invariably sterile. Implantation of externally fertilized eggs resulted in absorption of the embryo early on in development. 

Citation:

Walker's Mammals of the Galaxy, 20th edition, Ranald Nowak, editor.

Jansen said, "It took me a while to find this, but watch this video."

A video appeared. In it, an almost totally silver flying fox was standing, broadside to the camera. Something off camera startled it. Stripes on its fur flashed, appearing in a pattern of a large set of eyes on its sides. It then jumped into the thick underbrush ahead of it.

"That's it, I saw it do that!" K'ndar exclaimed.

 "You saw it change the pattern on its fur, did you?" Jansen asked.

"I DID. It was, well, it was frightening, for a moment," he said, "These huge eyes looking at you and then vanishing. D'nis said it reminded him of the fake 'eyes' on the face of a tabby cat. If you look just right at them, they look like eyes," he said.

"Which is precisely the point. It made you stop. If you'd been a predator, that's all the fox would need, to make you stop, giving it just enough time to escape."

"What is a 'fox'? And a bat?"  Glyena repeated.

Jansen called up a picture of Terra's red fox.

"This handsome little beast is a 'red fox'. It was a canid, like dogs, but not related. They went extinct on Terra long before the colonists left, but embryos and DNA were stored from not just them, but just about every animal left on Terra, which wasn't many. I think one of our colonists brought a number of this flying fox from Eridani  and reconstructed it and released it, hoping it would adapt and survive, like so many of the Terran creatures that we know today," she said, mournfully. 

Why the Terrans had destroyed their natal planet, she still was unable to comprehend. 

Thank the stars Aivas told us the whole story, so that we can keep that from ever happening again.

"But K'ndar said it's only on Far Western continent," Glyena said, thinking how beautiful the Terran red fox had been. 

"There's a tenet in biology, Glyena, about animals..or plants or fish, or birds..that one would think should be in a spot. It says that the reason an animal isn't where you think it should be is because it "hasn't arrived yet, can't compete there, or can't persist there."

"Compete? Persist?" Glyena repeated.

"In this case," K"ndar said, "I think it means that the flying fox can't compete with other carnivores in the Northern continent, carnivores like our dogs, or the big cats, wherries, or even fire lizards. And they can't persist here in southern because, it says here, they aren't found in jungle, prairie or tropical climates. Our weyr is not tropical, it's too far south of the equator, it's more like the steppe we grew up on. But it's still too warm, I think.  I would bet that at some time in the past, someone released them on Northern and Far Western, intending to have them establish, but they died out on Northern," he said. 

"They may also have persisted on Western because, if I remember your preliminary reports, there is nothing ON Western save tunnel snakes and avians. No predators. No competition," Jansen said.

"I think you're right, ma'am, " K'ndar said. 

"They're so pretty," Glyena said, "Maybe we should try and raise them again?"

"No, Glyena, that didn't work," Jansen said, "remember what the report said. Another thing to know is that these creatures, being fox like in some ways and mustelids, like mink or ferrets, in others, were probably susceptible to the diseases of BOTH. We here on Pern are very, very lucky in that the colonists, the Ancients, made sure that the animals they brought from Terra, or Alpha Centauri, or Eridani, were free of disease. I've read a lot about it, and the healers have too. There were diseases, like the plague we had here, and 'firehead', both of which I'm certain you've been vaccinated for, that killed animals and people all the time. 

But an animal that was native to Terra, for instance, had no antibodies against diseases found on Eridani. Maybe the flying fox died off in Northern from diseases from our dogs, or cats, or ferrets..or even from us humans," she said, noting that Glyena's eyes were glazing. 

I do tend to go overboard when I discuss what I've learned in my wanderings in Aivas's galactic sized database, she thought. 

"Amazing," K'ndar said, elated at finally having a name for the animal, and wanting to learn more about it.

"I want to see one," Glyena said, tugging on K'ndar's sleeve.

"Me too," Jansen said.