novelraw Chapter 106 32, Day 98: Blind Faith, Guiding Vigilance
Chapter 106 32, Day 98: Blind Faith, Guiding Vigilance
"Oh, someone is approaching the ship," Fortitude offhandedly mentioned. "It seems he waited until the others left."
"Do you think it's Trespasser?" Pryce asked, bringing out his binoculars.
"I can see that he is a green male…" Fortitude hummed, flicking her membranes as she squinted at the approaching dragon. "I don't know if he is the one we are looking for, but we will find out soon. Maybe you should be inside the ship until I tell you to come out."
"Good idea," Pryce nodded as he stepped away. "Call for me if you need help."
Fortitude laughed, a deep hiccuping noise rumbling from her chest. "That will not be needed," she said, and turned her gaze back up to the dragon in the sky.
«You – are you Jooral-ǂ?» the green dragon stammered as he landed on the ship. «Are you allied with the crafters?!»
«You know it is usually polite to introduce yourself first, don't you?» Jooral asked, her flight membranes sliding over her eyes in annoyance.
«Ah, apologies, I was too – well, my name is Sharnha,» the newcomer said, bowing his head in greeting.
«It's alright, I understand that this is all quite a lot to take in,» Jooral nodded good-naturedly. «And yes, I am Jooral-ǂ. Myself and others have allied ourselves with the crafters, and we're currently gathering more allies.» She tilted her head, eyeing him carefully. «Tell me, how did you find us?»
«Oh, well, I was at the Plateau yesterday, and I noticed that Ghorrah arrived from an odd direction before leaving soon afterwards. Now, normally I wouldn't pry into such matters, but I just had a gut feeling that this had something to do with the crafters, so I flew setward to see where she came from.» Sharnha spoke swiftly and excitedly, without much hesitation. «Of course, I wasn't able to find anything yesterday, and I almost gave up before I decided to search for another day – and good thing I did!»
«I see, how perceptive of you,» Jooral complimented.
«Oh it's nothing, just a skill I picked up in my years. I've always been a bit too nosy for my own good, though it seems like it's paid off in this case,» Sharnha said, laughing at his own expense before making a show of glancing around. «So, where are the crafters? Are they inside the ship?"
«Oh yes, they're just waiting for me to confirm that you're not a threat,» Jooral nodded. "Pryce, stay inside of the ship!"
«You learned their speech already?» Sharnha asked, his eyes widening in surprise. «How long ago did you start learning?»
«Oh, about eighteen days ago now,» Jooral said. «Oh look, here comes the crafter.»
She struck the instant Sharnha turned away, bowling him over and pinning him against the deck all in the blink of an eye.
«Wha–» Sharnha cried as he kicked and struggled – to no effect. Jooral could have held him down with her superior bulk alone, but her technique made it so that she barely had to exert herself at all. «What's wrong? Why are you-»
«Oh shut up,» Jooral hissed. «Don't bother. I know you're the one who found the ship four days ago.»
Sharnha's eyes widened in panic, and his eyes darted around as he tried to think of a response that might not anger her further. «What gave me away?» he sighed, going limp in her grasp.
«To be honest, your acting was quite good, and so was your story, but you're a few centuries too young to be trying to outsmart me, brat,» Jooral snorted. «We anticipated that you would try something like this days ago. Really, you should've just asked to join us instead of stealing that 'chain'.»
«So that's what it was called,» Sharnha chuckled mirthlessly. «Ah well, I admit I panicked a little, but Ighen hired me to check up on Hironh after breaking his wing, and I always finish my jobs. Perhaps I should have made an exception, just this once.» The green dragon shifted weakly under her grasp – not trying to escape, but merely making himself less uncomfortable. «So, what now? You've already decided what to do with me days ago, haven't you?»
«Indeed,» Jooral confirmed. «To be honest, I seriously considered killing you. It would be easy too; I could just toss your body into the ocean and there wouldn't be a trace of you left by sunset.»
Sharnha squirmed as she said this, his pupils dilating a little in his panic. They were close enough that Jooral could smell a faint but pungent scent of fear emanating from his head and neck, where some of the scent glands were located.
«That doesn't sound good,» Sharnha quavered, his voice quavering with thinly-veiled alarm. «I'm hoping there's a "but" coming?»
«Lucky you,» Jooral snorted. «I was telling you the truth about us gathering allies. It's more sensible to use what we can, and I feel that you're the pragmatic sort who would be happy to agree on a mutually beneficial relationship.»
«Oh yes, of course,» Sharnha wheezed, nodding desperately. «I did lie about how I found you, but I do want to work with the crafters, honest!»
«Hrrm. Alright, what do you want from the crafters?» Jooral asked, without letting him up.
«Erm…well, I don't know much about them yet, so that's difficult to say,» Sharnha weakly stammered, looking rather taken aback by this abrupt change in questioning. «The important thing is to build a rapport with the crafters, so how about I help out for the next ten days and we call it even?»
«So in other words, you think your life is worth ten days of aid?» Fortitude chuckled. «Well, I suppose that's a fair trade. Let's see if the crafter thinks the same thing.» She ignored Sharnha's flustered expression to turn her head back to the door of the ship. "Pryce, you can come out now!"
«Would you mind letting me up?» Sharnha wheezed. «I promise not to try anything.»
«Oh…alright,» Fortitude sighed as she stepped off of the green male. «You're lucky I don't like bullying males.»
«Could've fooled me,» Sharnha grumbled.
«What was that?»
«Nothing!» Sharnha squawked. «Just…thanking you for the opportunity, is all!»
Pryce warily eyed the green dragon as he stepped onto the deck. He certainly seemed familiar, but Pryce wasn't confident that he would be able to differentiate two individuals with the same color.
"This is Sharnha, he admitted to being the one who stole Hironh's chains," Fortitude said, and proceeded to summarize the trespasser's motivations.
«I'm sorry for stealing the chains,» Sharnha said, bowing in apology. «I was shocked to find a crafter ship, and I must admit I panicked a little – though that is no excuse for my poor judgement,» he hastily added upon receiving Fortitude's glare.
"Did he tell anyone else about the ship?" Pryce asked.
«You don't have to worry about that,» Sharnha confidently replied. «I've only told Ighen, and no one's going to believe him when he doesn't have any proof of his own.»
"Do you agree with that?" Pryce asked, turning to Fortitude.
"He does not have a good relationship with his parents, but they might listen to him," Fortitude rumbled, frowning in thought. "He does not have much motivation to lie."
"Well, at least he hasn't been spreading the news around," Pryce sighed. "Alright, let's accept Sharnha as an ally, and then we can tell him everything we've told the others…after he gives back Fathom's chains, of course. I'm guessing he hid them somewhere nearby?"
«Oh, of course, I'll bring those right back,» Sharnha dutifully nodded, and sprang off the ship to fly back towards Loahm.
"Are you sure we can trust him?" Pryce asked.
"Of course," Jooral nodded, glancing up at the retreating figure in the sky. "You have things no one else has; it is easy to trust others if you have what they want."
The radio remained frustratingly silent as Anvonh languidly panned her head about. She made an incremental adjustment to her wings, steadily regaining a bit of altitude that she had gradually lost to her inattentiveness.
She was so bored.
She'd been prepared to remain vigilant on her patrols, but the only other dragons she saw flew above Loahm, nearly a hundred kilometers away from her route over the ocean. At such a distance they appeared as mere dots, being just barely visible against the blue sky, so she didn't really have anything to worry about at all.
A dragon could fly in a state of half-wakefulness with ease, but scanning the horizons required a certain degree of conscious thought; just enough to make patrolling unbearably mind-numbing.
The ocean all looked the same, no matter where she looked, so she didn't even have the luxury of a changing landscape to occupy herself with. Anvonh attempted to combat her boredom with some practice maneuvers (which did not count as playing, no matter what she knew Ghorrah would say about it).
This practice was certainly more engaging, but it also had the unfortunate side effect of tiring herself out, and she had to spend the rest of the day's travels in a sedate and boring glide.
And now she was back to patrolling, with nothing to hold her attention.
Skies above, there were still another four days until the Solstice! Who knew working with crafters could be so boring?
At least she was nearing the end of her route. Anvonh scanned the skies again – and was surprised to see a faint yellow speck in the distance.
Well, that was inconvenient. It would be suspicious of her if she turned around now. Perhaps it would be a better idea to fly around this individual before doubling back later.
Just as she was about to commit to this decision she realized there was another dragon behind and above the first, with this new dragon possessing a rather vibrant orange hue.
Anvonh recognized this odd flight formation, realizing that these two were most likely Nanzo and Lakath – no one else had reason to fly so close to one another.
Relief flowed through her as she angled her wings to intercept the two dragons, though she did have to begin the rather irksome process of removing the radio receiver so that she could hide it within her hands. It was odd how the prickly "velcro" could stick to fuzzy things, but she did appreciate how easy it was to use compared to a normal rope.
Even her loudest roar couldn't be heard until she was about fifty beats* away, so she had to spend over three hundred beats* closing the distance before she could bellow out a greeting. A response echoed back five beats* later, confirming their identities.
*TL Note:
1 beat ≈ 12 seconds or 200 meters.
50 beats ≈ 10 minutes or 10 kilometers.
300 beats ≈ 1 hour.
5 beats ≈ 60 seconds.
Beat by beat they closed the distance between them, until they were close enough for Anvonh to visually identify them. Their colors had changed a little since the last time she'd seen them, but their physical features had not – especially the orange female's white, scarred eyes, which gazed in her direction despite their blindness.
A few beats closer and Anvonh could hear Lakath's signature clicks, which she made in short bursts. She ignored those odd noises, and called out a proper greeting to the two older dragons.
«Hello, Anvonh,» Lakath and Nanzo replied, dipping their heads politely.
«What are you doing here, if I may ask?» Lakath asked as she stared with her usual unblinking expression. «Delivering news, I assume?»
«Did something happen at the Plateau?» Nanzo asked, his expression critical but not hostile. The two of them likely assumed that Ghorrah and Jooral had sent Anvonh to the Plateau to bring any important news back.
«In a way, yes,» Anvonh answered. «But I'd need a promise of confidentiality from you two before I answer those questions.»
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«I promise,» Lakath said, her milky eyes blinking interestedly.
Nanzo did not immediately respond, instead his eyes darted to Anvonh's clenched foreclaws before glancing back at Lakath, who stared back at him with an expectant air. «Very well, you have my promise. Now, what did you find? Should we fly back to tell Ghorrah-ǂ and Jooral-ǂ?"
«You don't need to worry about them,» Anvonh grinned, but her smile faded as she considered a possible difficulty, «Err…how good is Lakath-ǂ at landing?»
Pryce frowned as he sipped at the dark liquid. The "coffee" tea still had an unpleasant bitter taste even with a generous helping of sugar and butter, and those two ingredients made anything taste good.
Perhaps some other method of preparation could make it more palatable, but he rather doubted these coffee beans would ever be popular.
Dragons, on the other hand…
"This is even better than before," Fortitude said, licking her pot of coffee clean. "But it is a little too sweet. Can you use less sugar next time?"
"I don't have many beans left," Pryce said. "I'll have to save some for Xylem. I'm sure he'd be interested in trying some."
The elder nodded in agreement, though she looked a little forlornly at her empty pot. "Oh, Anvonh is back early," she said, then her head perked up in surprise. "There are two others with her."
"What?" Pryce looked up and saw a few faint dots to the south. "Can you tell who they are?" He asked, grabbing his binoculars.
Fortitude's eyes shifted as she scrutinized the unknown dragons. "No, they are too far…wait, those must be Lakath and Nanzo," she said, sounding faintly surprised. "You have not heard of them. They will be good allies, but I did not expect them to leave their home."
"I see…do they live far from here?"
"Far enough. Anvonh must have seen them while she was patrolling," Fortitude mused. She paused, then asked, "Can humans cure a human who cannot see?"
Pryce blinked, surprised by what seemed to be a non-sequitur. "That's called being blind, and no, we can't cure that. Why do you ask?"
"Lakath is blind."
"She's…what?" Pryce stammered, returning to his binoculars. "But she's flying, how can she fly if she's blind?"
"Lakath spent many years learning how to use sound to see. Now she can do many things without help, but she does need Nanzo's help to fly."
"I see," Pryce murmured. "Are they partners?"
"They are close, and they have known each other for a long time, but they are not partners. You…probably should not ask them about it," Fortitude warned.
"Understood," Pryce said. He had no intention of prying into their private lives, but the warning was nevertheless appreciated. "Is there anything else I should know?"
Fortitude paused, tilting her head in thought. "Nanzo is good at fighting, but not as good as Kharno or Helsha. Lakath was very strong, but that was before she was blind. She can still fight, but only on the ground. Like me."
"I see…" Pryce murmured. "...How is she going to land on the ship?"
"Oh." Fortitude said, and scratched her chin. "That might be a problem."
Celeste was the first to land while the others circled up above the ship. "I know we did not plan to talk to Lakath-ǂ and Nanzo-ǂ, but I saw them near the end of my patrol and thought it would be good to bring them back," she said in a rush, preemptively defending herself.
"Don't worry, you made a good choice," Fortitude reassured. «We do know them, after all.»
Pryce watched as Nanzo guided Lakath on several passes over the ship. She made odd clicking noises as she flew, which he suspected served as a form of echolocation. She descended a little more with each pass, until she flared her wings and dropped onto the deck. The landing was a bit rough, but done with surprising grace for one with no eyesight.
He watched as she folded her wings against her back, exposing two ghastly scars located along the side of her torso – had she been impaled by something? Pryce wasn't sure how the injury had occurred, but Lakath appeared unaffected by the old wound.
«This ship is very easy to hear. It must be all that metal,» Lakath said, pleased. Her head cocked back and forth, quickly locating Fortitude. «Hello, Jooral. I assume that is you?»
«Indeed. Your hearing has improved,» Fortitude warmly replied.
«Practice always helps,» Lakath nodded as Nanzo landed behind her and voiced his own greeting. «So, where is the crafter?» she asked, her spines splayed as she panned her head around.
"Hello," Pryce said, causing the blind dragon to jump in surprise. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hide."
«I suppose it should be expected for someone so small to be so quiet,» Lakath murmured upon hearing Fortitude's translation. «Anvonh tells me that you can understand some of our speech, so I'll try to speak slowly and clearly. May I inspect you?» she asked, approaching him step-by-step with incremental clicks.
"Of course, so long as you don't hurt me."
Celeste relayed his acceptance, then watched in amusement as Lakath clicked at Pryce to get a good 'view' of him.
«Your scent is fainter than most animals, but oddly salty,» the blind dragon murmured.
Unsure of what to do, Pryce offered a hand for her perusal, which she accepted with a few careful prods with the back of her talons.
He tried to ignore how awkward it all was.
«No scales, but no fur either…hide, but soft?»
"I do have fur here," Pryce said, which Celeste translated. Slowly, he guided Lakath's talon to the top of his head.
«Strange…» Lakath murmured, her jaws slightly parted in perplexity as she gently patted his head. «You are very difficult to visualize.»
«Don't tell Kharno that he let you do this,» Fortitude chuckled. «She wanted to pat his head, though Pryce refused her request.»
«Ah yes,» Nanzo said. «Anvonh-ǂ mentioned you were trying to gather allies.»
«Yes. We did not expect you to travel to the Plateau, else we would have tried to find you,» Fortitude said in a slightly apologetic tone.
«Don't worry about it,» Nanzo said, snorting good-naturedly. «I would have preferred to stay at home, but Lakath insisted that we come see the crafter – the one Qnaro found, I mean.»
«Well, if everything goes according to plan you should be able to meet her tomorrow,» Fortitude said, before giving them a summary of their current state of affairs. This took a considerable amount of time, so much so that Sharnha returned just before she could finish her story.
«That's Sharnha – just met him this morning, and he turned out to be the one who snuck onto the ship four days ago,» Fortitude said, gesturing to the green dragon as he set down Fathom's chain harness. «He's since apologized and is now working for us.»
«Oh, great, of course he would be here,» Nanzo snorted in disdain.
«Do you know each other?» Celeste asked, glancing between the two males.
«We were neighbors as hatchlings,» Nanzo coldly replied. «I grew up. He did not.»
«Still as much of a dried branch as ever,» Sharnha sighed. «And to think you used to be fun."
«Cease your bickering," Fortitude growled, interrupting the two before an argument broke out. «Nanzo, I trust that we have your support?»
«Of course you do. I have not forgotten what you have done for us,» Nanzo said, bowing deeply.
«You have mine as well, of course – even if there's not much I can do,» Lakath added, a little bitterly.
«Regardless, your help is appreciated,» Fortitude nodded.
«Speaking of support,» Sharnha said. "What would you like us to do?»
"I think we should have him go to the Plateau and take Devotion's place," Pryce suggested. "I'd rather she be with us, and Sharnha has more experience collecting information anyway."
"Good idea," Fortitude nodded, and swiftly relayed his instructions.
«Understood, I'll be back as soon as I can to let you know if anything happens,» Sharnha nodded, and moved to leap off the ship.
"Oh, wait," Pryce said, and retrieved a bottle of wine. "Do a good job and I'll give you a bottle, alright?"
Sharnha's eyes widened, and he nodded eagerly before darting off back to Loahm with vigorous flaps of his wings.
"Good motivation," Fortitude chuckled approvingly.
«What about us? What would you have us do?» Nanzo inquired.
"We need help teaching others about humans," Pryce replied, "so right now I just need you to learn as much as I can teach you."
«Well, I can't complain about that,» Lakath warmly nodded. «I have so many questions that I don't even know where to begin.»
"Good," Pryce nodded. "Oh, before we begin – I should tell you that I can't pronounce your names very well. Is it okay if I give you new names?"
Lakath cocked her head as Fortitude translated for her. «Ah. Yes, Anvonh has told me of this. Are you sure you cannot say 'La-kath' and 'Nan-zo'? No? Then what name would you give me?»
"…How about Echo?" Pryce suggested after a moment's thought. "An echo is what you hear when a sound bounces back to you."
"Ek-co…" Lakath rumbled, testing the word. «I like this word. You may call me 'Echo'. What about you, Nanzo? Do you want a new name?»
The yellow male shook his head. «Just…do your best to call me Nanzo.»
"Understood," Pryce nodded, and turned to Lakath, "Now, you said you had some questions?"
[JOURNAL ENTRY EXCERPTS]
Day 98,
Sharnha is a strange one. Perhaps he's merely intimidated by Fortitude, but he seems rather skittish. Still, I believe he can be trusted to serve his own interests.
Lakath is quite an interesting individual. According to Celeste, dragons aren't naturally proficient in echolocation. They're able to hear the shapes of cave walls in the dark, but finer details elude them.
Nanzo is rather stoic, but he seems trustworthy.
…
Callan should return to the rendezvous point tomorrow, assuming that she's still on schedule. If she's late then Kharno should be able to intercept her when she tries to speak with Yantha and Karoth (the 'Twins').
It's a strange thought, that tomorrow I might see another human again.
Pryce leaned against the bulwark of the ship to watch the setting sun. He wasn't looking forward to breaking the news of the crew's death to Callan and the others, but it was his responsibility, and there was no way to avoid it.
A few minutes passed, and he glanced up to see a dragon flying towards the ship.
"Fathom, who's that?" Pryce asked warily.
"Hmm? Oh, Nanzo is coming back," Fathom said, mildly surprised.
The others – Celeste, Fortitude, and Devotion – were roused at the commotion, but laid back down when they realized who it was. Minutes later the pale yellow dragon landed gracefully upon the deck, his eyes fixated on Pryce.
«Hello, Pryce,» he rumbled, but then paused and looked as if he didn't know what to say. «I have a question I would like to ask you in private.»
«How are you going to talk to him if you cannot understand his speech?» Fathom asked, eyeing him warily.
«It is a simple question. He only needs to nod if the answer is yes.»
«Well, I am still not leaving,» Fathom said stubbornly. «If you are worried about me telling anyone else, then I promise not to do that.»
«...Very well,» Nanzo sighed. The yellow dragon visibly gathered himself before lowering his head to ask in a whisper, «Can you fix her eyes?»
'She' needed no antecedent.
"No. I am afraid I cannot," Pryce said regretfully.
Nanzo wilted, in a way that Pryce had never seen a dragon do before. «I see,» he rasped, and turned away to leave.
"Wait."
Fathom looked down at Pryce, who considered his next words very carefully. "Human medicine is always improving. A deadly illness ten years ago is a minor inconvenience today. We don't have any way to fix eyes that have been damaged like Lakath's, but that won't always be the case. Maybe it'll be fifty years from now, or a hundred, but I'm confident that one day it will be possible for her to see again." He gave a sad smile. "I'd probably be dead by then though. Humans don't live long compared to dragons."
Fathom translated this for him, though he seemed bothered by Pryce's mention of his more limited lifespan.
«...A hundred years, was it?» Nanzo asked, glancing back at the island. «That is a long time, but…at least now I finally have a path forward.» The male bowed deeply, his eyes shining with emotion. «Thank you. Truly.»
He left without another word, leaving Pryce and Fathom to watch as he flew back to the island, his vibrant yellow hide standing out against the pale blue sky.
Kharno was no stranger to long trips, and the flight from the ship to the Twins was not a particularly long journey as flights went, but it was definitely a restless one. She'd flown as fast as she could, leaving at sunrise, dropping by the Plateau in case the Twins had left their homes, and finally reaching the end of her journey at sunset.
She took a deep breath, and filled her lungs to the limits of their considerable capacity before roaring out her greeting. It was swiftly returned, and she followed the sound to its source. Two dragons sat outside one of many cave entrances that formed a network of underground tunnels. Even before she landed the scent of smoked meat was thick in the air – evidence of preparations they had made for the Solstice.
«Greetings, Kharno-ǂ,» the twins said in unison, their heads inclined in greeting.
«Hello, Yantha-ǂ, Karoth-ǂ,» Kharno said, returning the gesture. «Has Qnaro-ǂ arrived yet?»
She had spent her long flight pondering how to go about asking the twins without giving herself away, but any attempt would have quickly turned into a series of vague questions to determine how much the other knew.
In the end she decided that this simple question was the best approach, as one of the two would likely give away something in their surprise. In the worst case, she could simply leave. Neither of the twins were foolish enough to try and stop her by force – they might succeed, but not without receiving grave injuries mere days before the Solstice.
«What?» Yantha exclaimed, the smaller but elder twin appearing to be genuinely surprised. «Why would he be here? Did something happen with the crafter?»
Kharno tilted her head, scrutinizing Yantha. He was tense, confused, and…wary? She glanced at Karoth, the larger but younger twin, who merely remained silent with a contemplative look in his eyes.
«Ah, so he has not,» Kharno sighed, her wings slumping in disappointment as she turned to leave.
«Wait,» Karoth rumbled. Slowly and deliberately, he said, «Qnaro is no longer here.»
«Karoth!» the smaller twin hissed, tail lashing in agitation. «We promised not to tell anyone anything about that!»
«That did not break our promise," the larger twin pointed out. «She also knows something about Qnaro, and by extension the human. It would be foolish not to learn what she knows.» Karoth paused, then added, «In fact, you are the one who told her that we made a promise at all.»
Kharno knew that Karoth was the more reasonable of the twins, so she was quite certain that he would arrive at this very conclusion. He also stood to benefit regardless of whether or not they were on the same side, and – like most people – could be trusted to side with his own interests.
Still, her satisfaction at having guessed correctly was rather dampened by the fact that she had indeed been too late to find Qnaro.
«I assume you two have made a promise to Qnaro?» she asked, interrupting the bickering dragons.
«We cannot say,» Yantha said stiffly while glaring pointedly at Karoth.
«Well, I guess that means I can trust you,» Kharno said, sitting down and making herself comfortable.
There was a chance that this had all been a ruse to make her surrender her information – they were certainly cunning enough for that – but Kharno had centuries of experience in talking to others. Word choice, cadence, posture, the minute details of body language – none of these escaped her attention, and over the years she had developed an excellent sense for when someone was telling the truth.
Of course scent could also be used to infer the emotions felt by another, but it was incredibly rude to go sniffing at others for any reason. Besides, Kharno was quite confident that the interaction between them had been far too natural for it to have been a piece of artifice, and she highly doubted that the two of them had prepared for her unexpected line of questioning.
«First, make me a promise of confidentiality,» Kharno said, her jaws parting in a grin. «Then I can tell you what you want to know, and tomorrow I can show you something very, very, interesting.»