Chap. 375 The Weightlifter

Chap. 375 The Weightlifter

“Duh”, he said out loud, “I’m six hours ahead of Landing here. I have time to go skull hunting.”

His stomach, though, wasn’t so agreeable with the prospect of staying much longer. The arsters he’d eaten had been breakfast for it, and weren’t anything it it was used to.

We’ll just go down the coast a little bit. I can always return.

And I’ll wear something a bit warmer than this flight jacket. No one else seems bothered by this cold wind.

A skull, like the one at the dock? Raventh asked.

Yes.

Is there room for me on the dock?

He scanned the dock.

I think so. Why, are you…

Raventh was.

Within seconds, Raventh came soaring overhead. K’ndar heard horses shrieking in fear and shouts of protest from the auction arena.

Oh, shite, maybe we aren’t allowed to overfly the arena.

But it was too late. Raventh landed on the dock, not far from where the livestock ship was moored. He headed for the dragon.

“Hey, lout, what’re you doing? No landing on the dock, yob!” a dock man yelled from behind him. He came running with a marlinspike. From the arena, he saw a group of men running at him, too.

I’m trapped, he thought. I can either get a thrashing from those men or jump into the sea.

Get on me! Raventh said.

Better a live coward than a dead hero, he thought. He ran and leaped onto Raventh’s back, and without buckling in, yelled “launch!

Raventh went straight up, then headed out to sea. K’ndar reached for the buckles but the strap was flapping in the breeze.

Don’t go between, I’m not buckled in.

I won’t. I’ll clear the Hold and when I see a place to land, you can buckle in there.

Below them the men had gathered, shaking their fists at him and calling him not so nice names. They were soon left below and behind.

What was that all about? he wondered.

Why are they yelling? Raventh said.

I don’t know, but I have a feeling you weren’t supposed to fly over the arena, or land on the dock.

The queen told me to leave immediately. She said the humans don’t like it when dragons land on the dock.

K’ndar sighed. I’ll have to go back and apologize, he thought. Was I the only stranger there?

I didn’t know

Neither did I. Maybe next time you should just wait until I come back to the dragon meadow.

I heard you say you wanted to go skull hunting right away.

Yes, but, maybe not that soon. Never mind. I can fix it, just not today.

It’s probably not a good idea for me to apologize today, he thought. I’ll contact the weyrleader, and the Holder, for a time when I can come back and apologize.

I feel like a naughty kid who’s running from an angry baker after stealing a fresh pie.

With a few kilometers between them and the Hold, Raventh landed gently on the flat top of a pinnacle. K’ndar pulled up the harness and buckled himself in.

The wind was even colder and stronger up here. But the view!

The Hold and lagoon were far behind them. Now the coast was a wild one. The shore was lined with rocky cliffs, with great piles of boulders at their base. Innumerable masses of driftwood were amongst the boulders, making the shore unnavigable. The surf thundered into the walls, sending up great gouts of white foam. It was magnificent.

There was no beach that he could see, not for a long way. Maybe the arsterman had made a mistake?

Or maybe he meant the beach was north instead of south? I don’t dare turn around, I’m surprised P’jar hasn’t shown up to chastise us.

What does that mean?

It means, saying that we were wrong to overfly the arena and land on the dock. Chastise means that the Holders and Weyrfolk may punish us.

Punish? That means what?

Remember when I was a Weyrling, I broke curfew and was punished by having to clean the latrine for a few weeks.

I do. You were unhappy. But what is curfew?

It’s a rule I had forgot to obey when I was just a new weyrling. It’s not important now.

Oh. Falconth has already punished me, I think.

What?

He says the Weyr and Hold humans are angry. He says don’t come back until the humans have gotten over being angry.

Did you apologize?

For what? Did I break curfew?

K’ndar laughed, realizing there were just some esoteric concepts that dragons would never grasp. No. Don’t worry about it, Idragons don’t have a curfew. I can’t explain some of the things us humans do.

Are you ready to fly?

Yes he said, his harness tight across his body.

Raventh opened his wings. Even with an icy wind that provided no lift, he still floated into the sky. Once he had enough airspace, he began to fly. Siskin chortled from his usual spot just behind Raventh’s head.

K’ndar scanned the tortured coastline below.

It looked like a lost cause. If there were skulls on the rock strewn ‘shore’ beneath them, he knew, they’d have been battered to pieces. But the man had said a beach. Surely, in a coastline this long, there had to be one beach, at least.

If you see skulls, let me know. I’d like to find one to take back to Landing.

I see bones here and there, but not skulls.

We’ll fly for a while, then, well, I suppose we can come back sometime soon to do a better search.

This feels good. I don’t fly as much as I should. Even flying drill with the bronzes and Motanith at Landing isn’t enough.

I know the feeling. For me, if I sit at the computer too long, my butt starts to hurt. I have to go out and walk.

Clouds of sea wherries and sea birds filled the sky. He watched them arrow into the sea, coming up with fish, or if empty, chasing the lucky ones. The cliffs were streaked white with the guano from the thousands of the fliers roosting on the face. The cliff sides resounded with their cries.

Gain altitude, please? I want to see over these cliffs.

Raventh obliged. Once above the top, K’ndar saw a yawning expanse of wilderness, one that reached the horizon without a sign of human habitation. No columns of smoke, none of the straight orderly lines of agriculture, no roads. It reminded him of the vast eastern steppe, the edge of which he’d grown up on. Far inland, he saw enormous raptors, circling high in the sky.

Much further to the south a mighty mountain range painted the horizon a dark, jagged blue. Their peaks were blinding white with snow.

Oh, how I love wilderness, he thought. And by the stars, Southern is far bigger than anyone could have imagined.

I could go like this for hours.

I thought we were hunting for skulls?

Oh, right. Yes

Raventh dropped closer to the shore. Which tide is it, he wondered. He couldn’t tell while flying. Large combers crashed into the rocks. They were mesmerizing. I’m cold, he thought, despite being atop a heat engine called dragon. How long should we search for a beach that might be behind us? Maybe we should just call it a day and head home.

We have time. Let’s just fly for a while.

Okay.

I never get tired of flying, he thought. He lost track of time until Raventh’s sighting broke his reverie.

There. A beach.

Indeed, there was a long wide strand of sand, strewn with rocks, but a beach nonetheless. Soon they were over it.

The surf, while far out, looked rambunctious. “Never turn your back on the sea,” he quoted.

Why?

Because it is treacherous. A big wave will take me out to sea and drown me.

I won’t let that happen.

K’ndar smiled.

Land?

Please.

Their landing disturbed flocks of tiny little birds that ran ahead but didn’t take wing. I’ve never seen such tiny birds, he thought. They’re running, not flying. A raptor swooped from the sky to nab one, but they scattered like dust in the wind. The hunter flew back out to sea.

He dismounted. His feet sunk into the wet sand just enough to create a definite set of footprints.

Overhead, seabirds and wherries flew singly or in large groups, squawking and creeling. At his feet, the strand was a long unending line of the wild sea’s litter. Shells, arsters stuck to rocks, driftwood, body parts of sea creatures, bones, feathers, rocks, rocks, and rocks, fish heads, seaweed, guano, dead birds, here a broken spar from a ship, there the side of of a block, all riddled with worm holes and bits of sodden and rotten rope. No speartooths.

Not far offshore, a sea stack reminded him of the tines of a hay fork.

“Hay Fork beach,” he immediately dubbed the beach. That’s our dragonstone for this place. I don’t know if it’s been named by someone from Western Weyr, and at the moment, I don’t want to ping P’jar to find out.

I smell something dead Raventh said, as he trudged alongside of K’ndar. K’ndar looked back to see their footprints in the sand. How fitting he thought, man and dragon side by side. Raventh’s footprints were easily twice as wide as his. And he’s a small brown. How big is a queen’s footprint?

Dead? Everything smells dead here.

Not like this smell. It’s new to me.

“Siskin? Launch?”he asked, hoping to send the blue fire lizard on a scouting mission.

But Siskin refused. Cowering on Raventh’s neck, he sent images of the clouds of wherries overhead.

There are too many predators here, he says.

“I’m sorry, Siskin. I keep forgetting you aren’t as big as Raventh.”


Siskin chipped agreement, relieved he could stay safely aboard his dragon brother.

How far away is this scent’s source?

A ways. Climb on, it’s getting tiring for me to walk on this beach. It’s all uneven, I sink down into the sand.

They flew for several minutes, then K’ndar saw an odd colored lump. A handful of winged scavengers were atop it. They appeared sated.

That’s it.

The beach narrowed here. Can you fit?

Yes, there’s room for me, but just enough.

Raventh backwinged to land. The scavengers held still for a moment, then fled with indignant squawks.

“Whew, it’s rank,” K’ndar said, “now I’m glad the wind is so strong.” He dismounted and walked to the lump, taking care to remain upwind.

He’d never seen one before, but two bony projections identified it immediately.

A speartooth. Dead. Despite the cold, it was covered with insects, tiny crabs and the guano of scavengers.

Siskin saw the crabs but decided safety was more important than eating.

“Whoa, we found one!” he shouted, “Look at it, it’s huge!”

Only then did he realize why it was dead.

It was fully entangled in a fishing net. I can’t see any detail in the beast, it’s so entangled, he thought. Only the areas not covered with netting had been eaten by the scavengers. Most of the body was, if bloated and stinking, still intact. The poor thing, he thought, never having considered what a danger a net was to a sea creature. It must have fought for hours.

How is it dead?

It got entangled in a fishing net. It probably drowned, or died of exhaustion.

It’s not a skull. It’s all there.

Yes, he thought, disappointed, I wanted a nice clean skull.

“What am I saying? I have not just the skull but the whole animal!” he whooped. What a treat! Wait til Landing sees THIS!

Uh. How am I going to get it to Landing.

He looked seaward. The tide had indeed turned, and was incoming. Maybe I won’t get it at all. Once the sea lifts it, it will be gone.

We aren’t going to take it to Landing?

I don’t see how. It’s so big.

So? I can carry it!

Uh, I doubt it. It’s huge. It’s almost as long as you are, not counting your tail.

Why do you think I can’t? Raventh said, insulted.

I didn’t say you couldn’t, I just don’t know if you can.

I can lift anything. It has ropes all over it. Remember when the Weyr’s dragons lifted the trees off the beach after the hurricane? They used chains but it’s still the same thing.

Yes, but you didn’t. We were odd man out. We were the spotter, remember?

I CAN DO IT Raventh insisted, in a tone that brooked no dissent.

Raventh…

Let me try. If I can’t I will drop it.

Arguing with a dragon is useless.

Maybe the net isn’t all the way around it. I have to check.

Grateful for his riding gloves, he tried to roll the beast over. All he accomplished was disturb a mass of flies. “Damn it, I might as well try to push Mt. Garben. We’ll have to leave it,” he moaned.

Humans! Raventh said in a scathing tone. Without another word, the dragon waddled up to the speartooth, hooked his fore talons in the net and pulled.

It rolled over, showing that the net was, indeed, completely surrounding the animal. Hundreds of tiny insects and crabs fled in panic from being uncovered.

What a sad and painful way to die, he thought.

How did you know to do that?

Have you never seen us eat a kill? We eat the whole thing. When the top part is gone, we roll the kill over till it’s all gone.

Stars, I never realized how strong a dragon can be.

I will get up on this beast. Tuck my hind talons into the ropes. I will lift it, if it’s too heavy, I will land and let it go.

Are you sure?

The brown snorted derisively. I am RAVENTH!

Yes, the tide was coming in. Fast. Pern’s two moons made for far more complex and faster tides than anything Earth had ever experienced.

Okay. If you can get enough altitude with it, we’ll go between to Landing. Drop it at the downwind side of the stables.

Let me try first without you on my back.

Raventh climbed atop the rotund lump. From somewhere on the body, a huge pocket of gas hissed out. K’ndar stifled his gag reflex. Stars, but it’s stinky!

Help me with my hind talons.

K’ndar guided the talons of both hind feet into the netting. I oil these legs almost daily, but I’m still impressed with the solid muscles in them, he thought. They’re like tree trunks.

I have it. I’m going to launch.

With mighty strokes of his wings, Raventh launched as he normally would, rocking back on his hindquarters and leaping into the air. The lump shifted backwards, pulling him out of the sky. He dropped it. It flopped onto the land, expelling yet more gas. He landed behind it.

I knew it. Too heavy. Thank you for trying. Let’s go.

NO! I can lift the weight! It is unbalanced. It is too heavy in the rear. I need to move as far back as I can.

Raventh climbed back atop the body and placed his hind legs further back. He lifted each of his legs to allow K’ndar to hook the talons under the ropes. K’ndar had to go to the downwind side to set Raventh’s legs. Even with the cold wind, the smell of the lump was overpowering. It was then he noticed that much of the rope was rotted. And slimy.


“The ropes might fall apart,” he grumbled. Or worse, slip out of his grasp.

I will try it again. Stand back, if it falls I don’t want it to land on you.

NO DOUBT!

Raventh launched, jumping up into the air using all four legs, rather than launching from his powerful hind legs. That, K’ndar knew, was far more difficult. The down wash from his wings scattered sand and flotsam over him. This time Raventh went up, up, and K’ndar felt his wave of triumph.

Yes. It is heavy, all of my launch is from my wings. But I can do this! The balance is much better. I am coming down now, get on. It’s hard work to jump into the air rather than launch.

Are you sure?

Of course. Climb up. We only have to do this once.

K’ndar scrambled aboard. He pushed Landing’s stables into Raventh’s mind, out of habit, not necessity.

One more time, Raventh launched. K’ndar felt the enormous effort it took, as Raventh said, all the initial lift was solely from his wings.

I am fine. The load is balanced.

Raventh powered upwards with sheer strength, rising to a decent altitude. Beneath them, the sea began to reach the spot where the speartooth had been washed ashore.

Just before they went between, K’ndar said, You are the most amazing dragon on all Pern.

I know.


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