Part 38: The Sound of Music
"Acceptable, Pip?" Simon asked, holding him back behind the others and speaking in a low tone. "Did you really tell her she looks 'acceptable'?"
"Senistraz asked if she was acceptable in her human form. Pip said 'yes'!" he replied defensively.
Simon sank his forehead into his hand in dismay. "What were you thinking?" he hissed at his dragon friend's human form.
"Pip answered the question," Pip replied. "In case Simon did not notice, Senistraz is missing her long, elegant tail. She is missing her bright, sparkling scales. She has no spines at all!"
Simon gave Pip a disgusted look and then looked up at Senistraz. "You're right, Pip! She looks very human. Such lovely round hips. Such smooth, soft skin. Such long, flowing, glorious hair. How true, she's an acceptable dragon, but what a magnificent human!"
Pip turned to glower at him.
Simon raised an eyebrow at him.
Pip turned to look after Senistraz. Then he sighed. "Pip was unkind."
"Yeeeeah…" Simon said. "But wait until later to fix it, or it'll seem insincere. And give her a kiss, too."
"Kiss? The wet, slobbering mouth thing that you do to Blake?"
Simon grinned. "That's the one, Pip. Don't knock it til you've tried it!"
He moved up to walk beside Blake again, leaving Pip to trail a bit behind. Soon Pip had caught up, and Blake was holding Simon back.
"Did you tell him he was mean to Senistraz?" Blake demanded in a low hiss.
"Yes. But not quite so bluntly," he said with a grin.
"I can't believe he told her she was 'acceptable'!"
"Well, in his defense, she asked if she was acceptable, and he said 'yes'," Simon defended his friend.
"Who would have thought that dragon men are as stupid as the regular ones," she said. From ahead, Shirra started laughing.
Simon snickered softly as Pip and Alistair said, "Hey!" together.
"Now who's mean?" Simon asked her with an arch smirk.
She stared at him with hands on hips. "Well, Senistraz is my friend."
"Pip is your friend, too," Simon said. "He didn't mean it the way it came across. We men may not always say things in the right way, but we're honest about it."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"See?" Simon said. "There you go, right there. I meant what I said, and nothing more, but you're reading all kinds of things into it."
"Now I remember why I don't spend time with humans," Gillim told Dugan.
"Too much fun for you?" Shirra asked.
"Too crazy," he answered with a grunt.
With a generally improved mood, they continued down the tunnel. Simon gestured to Pip to hold Senistraz' hand. Then he took Blake's in his own. Pip frowned, and Simon gave him a direct, 'just do it' sort of look. With a soft sigh, Pip rolled his eyes and moved up to take Senistraz' hand.
Simon was pleased and deeply amused by the poleaxed look on Pip's human face when Senistraz looked up at him with a huge smile as he took her hand in his.
As they progressed in, Gillim and Dugan stopped to chat for a moment. Gillim and the diggers continued while Dugan dropped back a bit. "We're going downwards. Someone's been diggin' in these tunnels, but they ain't done very well." He moved back up, his duty of informing that the tunnels were inhabited complete.
It was no surprise, but it was ominous to hear it said out loud. The buoyant mood was lost at this terse announcement, and they continued down the tunnel with hands hovering near weapons.
The first real signs of activity came in the form of feral nugs. The sound of them scurrying away and the sight of their droppings warned of human habitation ahead. The fact that this was the deciding fact that this was the first clue was a poor sign for the state of the inhabited areas. Even in caves, nugs would only thrive in areas of filth—one of the reasons they were hard to find in most dwarven settlements.
Simon suddenly noticed that he was hearing something else, as well. 'Stop' he signaled. He tilted his head, until he realized that it wasn't an external sound. "Do you hear that?" he asked softly.
"What?"
"I can hear Pip and Senistraz' songs, and Alistair and Velistara's. But I hear another now, too. Softer, higher." He whispered it, hoping the others might be able to hear it, as well.
They stood in silence for a few moments. "Pip hears nothing new," Pip said. "Only Senistraz, the Mother, and the Father."
"I hear it," Blake whispered. "Soft, faint."
"I have a song?" Alistair asked.
"Of course. I can't hear your thoughts when you're in human form, but your music never fades even then," Simon told him.
Blake agreed and Alistair looked shocked. "I only hear Velistara," he said, his voice somewhat disappointed.
"Pip only hears Senistraz," Pip added.
"Senistraz hears Pip." That was Senistraz. "Blake and Simon hear all dragons?"
"I thought everyone could," Simon said with a shrug.
"I hear them all, though the black one only seems to appear to Simon," Blake said.
"Pip thinks this is because Simon has had more practice with telepathy. Senistraz and Blake did not get to talk properly." He patted Senistraz awkwardly as he saw the sad look on her face at his words. Then he pulled her close when she looked about to cry.
Similarly, Simon cradled Blake as she looked away and obviously fought her emotions.
Alistair waited a few moments before he asked, "Can you sense a direction?"
"I think this way," Simon said, pointing left.
"There's a branch that way a ways ahead," Gillim said. "It looks safe enough, despite the humans' horrible stonework."
"Let's go that way, then. I'm less worried about capturing anyone as I am about freeing that dragon," Alistair told the dwarf.
They headed up the damp, cold, dirty passage towards… they knew not what.