The Felines of Pern Chapter 16

We stayed in Ruatha Hold for the next two weeks. F'lessan and Tai couldn't stay away from Honshu that long, so they left us in Lord Jaxom's care. That didn't bother us; Jaxom had showed himself to be fair-minded and not hostile toward us. But he made a point of not watching us when we selected our meal from his herds each day.

I do not understand why that bothers you, Ruth told him on the second day. They are not nearly as messy when they eat as dragons are. Why do you not like to watch them eat?

"It's a Lord Holder thing," Jaxom told him. "Every bite they take is a bite out of my profits for the year. If you add their two races together, they ran for less than two minutes, and I'll be paying for it for weeks!"

He had asked us to refrain from eating his best breeding stock. "I don't know," Oclo had said thoughtfully. "I never ate breeding stock before. What does it taste like?"

"Oh, you won't like it!" Jaxom assured him. "It's very bitter and grainy. The regular livestock is much tastier. That's why the dragons eat it all the time."

Oclo swished his tail from side to side and said, "I'll think it over."

I glanced at Oclo. "You don't believe him, do you?"

"I'm humoring him," he answered archly. "I can't tell when humans are lying and when they're telling the truth, but if his breeding stock really tasted that bad, then he wouldn't have to ask us to leave it alone. That's logic."

"That's good logic," I nodded. We agreed to leave his breeding stock alone anyway, out of a desire to be pleasant guests at someone else's home.

Lord Jaxom's attitude toward us softened slightly when we offered to hunt tunnel snakes in Ruatha Hold at night. Just as at Honshu, we had to familiarize ourselves with the place, so we wouldn't run headfirst into something in the dark. Lord Jaxom and Brand, the "steward," seemed to be very busy, so rather than inconveniencing them, we thought it best to give ourselves a tour of his Hold. The people we met were all polite to us. Some spoke to us, but without Ruth or another dragon to translate, we couldn't understand them. We settled for a human-style nod of the head, and that satisfied most of them. Some of the women wanted to pet us on the head, and we would not allow this. If they tried it, we pulled away, and if they persisted, we growled, very quietly. That always got the message across.

The hunting was good that first night; Oclo brought in four dead tunnel snakes, and I got three. After that, we found almost nothing for the rest of our stay in Ruatha. Maybe the snakes caught our scent, associated it with death, and avoided the place for as long as the scent of hunters persisted. Regardless of the reason, Brand pronounced himself satisfied with our work.

Our routine was broken only once, early in our second week there. We had just settled down to sleep the afternoon away when a horrible wailing sound assaulted our ears. All around us, people were running into their buildings and shutting the doors and windows. The herdsmen frantically half-led, half-pushed their beasts into stone barns. Jaxom ran past us, struggling into his flying jacket as he went, too much in a hurry to talk to us.

We ran to Ruth's barn, where we found Jaxom rigging him for flight. "Ruth! Can you tell us what's going on?"

Thread is going to fall soon! You must get indoors. I will keep you safe.

This was very different from our past experience. In the wild, when the gray rain fell, we just kept a watchful eye on it and got out of the way if it was going to land near us. Anything that hit the ground was quickly devoured by the small insects that seemed to thrive on the stuff. In Honshu, there was no ear-splitting alarm. At a certain time on a certain day, people would just put down their tools and go inside the great stone building. After a while, they would come out and resume their work, as though nothing had happened. Here in Ruatha, they treated the fall of Thread like an impending calamity.

We tried to get into the main Hold, but the doors were already closed. The only cover we could find was Ruth's barn. We hoped that he wouldn't object to our staying there for a few hours while the emergency passed. When Ruth and Jaxom finally returned, they were blackened from tiny ashes and they stank of dragon fire. A hunter would be appalled to find herself in such a condition, but they seemed very pleased with themselves.

"That was a good fall," the human said to his white friend. "I don't think anything got through to the ground crews this time. I think the Lord Holder will be happy."

You know that you are the Lord Holder, right?

"Of course I know I'm the Lord Holder!" Jaxom replied with a smile. "And you did very well, too. N'ton gave us the 'well done' signal when we broke off."

He usually does that for me.

"Yes, you always do well. A man couldn't ask for a better dragon. Do you want to fly up to the lake and let the fire lizards scrub you clean?"

That sounds delightful.

"Then let me take your straps off, and you can go. I'll see you when you return."

Will you not join me? The fresh water will feel good to both of us.

"No, I feel like a warm bath today, not an ice-cold lake." He was still removing the straps from the dragon when Brand appeared at the door.

"Lord Jaxom, we've got a problem. Fergal got loose just as the Threadfall was ending."

"Again?" Jaxom looked annoyed. "Sometimes I wonder if that runnerbeast is worth the trouble he gives us." He turned to us. "The trouble with Fergal getting loose is that he's the fastest runner in Ruatha, so none of us can catch him on the ground. Usually, I have to herd him back home on Ruth, and it's hard for one dragon to drive a beast in a particular direction if the beast doesn't want to go that way. Today, we're both tired from fighting Thread. Corralling a stubborn stallion is the last thing I wanted to do this afternoon."

I glanced at Oclo, and he nodded. "He's not faster than we are. We can catch him for you."

He gave us a guarded look. "You're not going to eat him, are you?"

We laughed. Oclo said, "We know the difference between a valued animal and a breakfast. You have been a kind host to us; we're pleased to do something for you in return."

"Your tunnel-snake hunting is all I asked of you, but if you can bring that runner back for me, I'll be very grateful."

We nodded and faced Brand. "Which way did Fergal go?"

He got the translation from Ruth and pointed toward the mountains. "He's probably miles away by now. The last time he did this, he almost made it across the line into Fort before we caught up with him."

"We'll bring him back," I promised. We set off at an easy lope. The runner's scent trail was easy to follow, he left obvious hoofprints in many places, and after about half an hour, Oclo said, "I think I see him!"

He saw us, too, and took off at a gallop. We didn't sprint after him, but kept up our easy pace. After seeing us and fleeing from us three more times, the runner was clearly getting tired.

We got on either side of him and closed in. When he tried to run between us, I made a quick sprint to cut him off. He tried to go the other way, and suddenly Oclo was there. He turned around, and I was closing in on him, "encouraging" him to retrace his steps. We were relying on teamwork, with short bursts of speed, to bring this runner under control. It took us almost an hour to drive the recalcitrant runnerbeast back to where he belonged. Brand shut the paddock door – well, actually, he slammed it shut, and he seemed to enjoy doing it. He muttered something unpleasant under his breath as he stalked back into the Hold.

Jaxom, on the other hand, was quite happy about this. "That was very well done," he praised us. "You saved me a lot of work and aggravation today, and it doesn't look like you ran Fergal's hooves off. Maybe you hunters have your uses, even if you did cost me twenty credits and fourteen beasts." He eyed me appraisingly. "Rit, is it true that you're expecting a litter of cubs?"

"Yes, in about six months."

"I wonder if you'd be willing for two of your cubs to take up residence in Ruatha Hold, once they're older," he wondered. "Between hunting the tunnel snakes, your herding abilities, and the chance to fleece some runnerbeast owners who don't know how fast you are, a pair of hunters might be very, very useful around here."

I took a moment to overcome my disbelief. How long ago was it that the humans were fighting us and trying to eradicate us? Now, they were finding reasons to welcome us? I finally said, "That decision would be up to my cubs when they're old enough to think for themselves. We'll certainly make them aware of your offer."

The rest of our two-week stay passed uneventfully. It was colder in Ruatha than in Honshu, but not uncomfortably so. We weren't accustomed to so few trees and so much open sky. The people here were very much the same as the people in our home – hard-working, friendly to each other, and curious about us.

A day before we were scheduled to return home, a visitor arrived on dragonback. "Healer Ballora!" I shouted, and we ran over to greet her.

"I was in the neighborhood, and I thought I'd take an hour to visit my two favorite hunters," she smiled. She began to reach out to pat our heads, then pulled her hands back. "How are you feeling?"

"We are fine and healthy," I said.

"We took your advice about hunting more," Oclo added.

"You certainly look healthy," she nodded. "May I check your limbs to see how you're doing?" We allowed her to examine us. "Yes, you've definitely lost some weight," she said, as much to herself as to us. "That's good. If you were herdbeasts, I'd be concerned, but for a hunter, I think that's good and normal."

She sat down on a rock, facing us. "I've got something on my mind," she began. "I've been doing some research into the effects of mentasynth on felines, and I think I have a test that can tell me if one of you has the madness, or if you're likely to get it. Would you allow me to draw a couple of drops of blood so I can run my test on you?"

Oclo looked doubtful. "If one of us has the madness, is there anything you can do about it?"

"At this time, no," she admitted. "I'm still looking for information, and there may be a cure; I just haven't found it yet."

"So all you can do is give us bad news?" I said.

"I can also give you good news, by telling you that you don't have it and aren't likely to get it," she replied. "It's caused by the interaction of the mentasynth with a recessive gene – I can't explain what all that means. I barely understand it myself, but it works when my colleages do it on other kinds of creatures. Anyway, would you be willing to give me a few drops of your blood, like you did before?"

Oclo glanced at me nervously. "How much does it hurt?"

"It's like stepping on a small, sharp rock," I explained. "It's not fun, but I'm willing to do it again. Ballora knows what she's doing. If this enables her to eventually find a cure, then it's completely worth it."

"All right," he said doubtfully. We both stood there and allowed the human to jab our forelegs with a needlethorn, then drip the blood into tiny glass jars.

"Thank you," Ballora said as she sealed the jars. "I wish all my patients were as reasonable as you are. I had to draw blood from a bull herdbeast last week, and it took six assistants with ropes to make him hold still. I'd rather treat you and your kind anytime." She stood. "I'm glad I got the chance to see you again. Do you like it here in Ruatha?" We chatted for a few minutes; then the dragon rider called to her, saying it was time for them to go. She tucked the glass jars inside her garment to protect them against the cold of between, said goodbye, and climbed onto the dragon's back.

"We'll be going between tomorrow," I said.

"Don't remind me," he sighed.

"Will you wear your coat this time?" I asked.

"I haven't decided yet."

In the end, he never had to decide. When Zaranth arrived with Tai and F'lessan, they brought something new. It looked like the blankets that the humans put on their resting places, but they had a hooded opening on one corner.

"Your head goes into the hood," F'lessan explained, "and then we wrap it around you. It won't be as confining as the coat, but it will still keep you warm against between."

Oclo tried on his flight-blanket. "This is much better than the coat," he decided. "Much better! Why didn't you think of this before?"

"We were thinking in terms of how people dress when they go between," Tai said. "When I stopped thinking like a human and tried to imagine how a hunter would feel, that's when I came up with this idea. It's thicker and warmer than the coats, and it's a lot easier for us to make, so it's better for everyone."

So my random musings had been correct! We were adapting to their ways, but they were adapting to our ways as well. Slowly but steadily, we were learning how to live with each other. Neither side was triumphing, and neither side was surrendering. We were coexisting.

Wrapping the flight-blanket around me took only a few moments. They had sewed some loops into the outside of it, so they no longer had to wrap the flying straps around us; they just threaded the straps through the loops. It was a significant improvement in every way.

Well, in almost every way. It still was bitterly cold in between. But the humans assured me that nothing could change that; the best they could do was to keep us from getting too cold. When I saw Tai rubbing her hands together after we arrived, I knew that they suffered from between just as much as we did.

It was good to be home again, with our familiar resting places. F'lessan told us that the tunnel snakes had begun creeping into Honshu again in the two weeks since we left, so we would have good hunting tonight.

"Have the hunters attacked anyone since we left?"

"We keep seeing them near the Weyrhold," he answered, "and we keep scaring them away with dragon fire. I don't think we've actually hurt any of them, but we've put a scare into them. They haven't been back for four or five days."

"That's pretty much what I expected," Oclo said. "Be assured, Woo won't quit."

"Did you eat Lord Jaxom out of house and home?" F'lessan asked, obviously hoping for a "yes" answer.

"We ate well," I answered, "but Lord Jaxom was happy with the service we gave him in return. I think he would be pleased if we visited his Hold again."

"I wasn't expecting that," F'lessan admitted.

Even more unexpected was what happened next. Within a week, no less than five Holds, three Crafthalls, and two Weyrs sent messages to Honshu, asking if they could borrow us for a week or two for tunnel-snake duty.

"Lord Jaxom must have told the other Lord Holders what a good job you did for him," F'lessan decided, "and now, everybody wants you!"

"Ted Tubberman gave your ancestors mentasynth so they could do a better job hunting the tunnel snakes," Tai added. "When that experiment went wrong because of the madness, nobody ever tried anything else to solve the tunnel-snake problem. We've just been enduring the awful creatures for thousands of Turns, and we never knew that our solution was still here on the Southern continent, waiting for us to make contact with you."

"This could really put Honshu on the map," F'lessan mused. "Maybe we can get better terms on our trade deals if we include a couple of weeks of tunnel-snake hunting with each deal."

"Do we have any say in this grand endeavor of yours?" Oclo asked pointedly.

"Of course you do," F'lessan replied. "Is there a problem?"

"Flying between is the problem," he said. "I'm not willing to be flown in cold circles all over the planet just to make things better for you."

"I thought you liked your visit to Ruatha," Tai said placatingly. "These other places will be similar – they'll be something new and different for you."

"New and different is good," I said, "but between is never new or different, and it is not good."

"There's one thing we can do to make the going-between part better," F'lessan said decisively. "We can insist on package deals. For instance, you've been invited to hunt tunnel snakes in Fort Weyr, Fort Hold, and the Harper Hall. Those places are very close to each other. We'll require them to work it out so you can visit all three places in the same time frame, one after the other. You'd have to go between once out and once back to visit all of them, and possibly the Healer Hall and the Runnercraft Hall as well, instead of going between in and out of each place separately. Would an arrangement like that change things for you?"

Oclo seemed to waver. "We'll talk it over between the two of us," I decided, "and we'll let you know."

"Fair enough," F'lessan nodded.

"You can be sure of one thing," Tai added. "We won't send you anywhere if you aren't willing to go. You're not a couple of drudges who are expected to do what they're told. You're free-willed, intelligent beings, and you have the right to choose what you do with your lives." F'lessan nodded.

We found a quiet corner in one of Honshu's living spaces, sat on their padded seats, and talked it over. "First, we'll talk about the down sides," I began. "Are there any drawbacks to what they're offering, aside from having to go between?"

"I can't think of any," Oclo admitted, "but that's a big one."

"The only other drawback I can think of," I went on, "is that they may want to send us to someplace that's cold. I know that the humans live in some cold places, and I think the tunnel snakes live there, too. We'll have to ask about that when they offer us a work assignment."

"What about the up sides?" he asked.

"We'll eat well," I said. "All of these places have promised to pay us in whatever food we require."

"We could stay right here and get all the food we need," he pointed out.

"True, but it gets monotonous, always eating the same things every day. Lord Jaxom had a huge variety of beasts for us to choose from. I think the other Lord Holders will have similar arrangements. The Weyrs are all about dragons, so they'll have plenty of the beasts that dragons like to eat, which will be the same as what we eat here. I have no idea how the Crafthalls will provide for us. They might acquire some prey animals from the nearby Holds."

"If we go to Ballora's Beastcraft Hall, we'll probably see the greatest variety of prey on Pern," he concluded. "We'll just have to go and see. Okay, what else?"

"We'll get more of the humans to think nice things about us," I said. "Eventually, if we get enough Lord Holders and Craftmasters on our side, we can get them to cancel the population-control scheme. That will be good for all of our kind."

"True. What else?"

I shrugged. "It will give us something different to do. I never used to crave variety when we lived in the forest; maybe that's because variety was impossible there. But now, I like a change in the daily routine. I like seeing different places and meeting new people."

"And eating new animals," he observed pointedly.

"I won't deny that," I admitted. "And, judging by the way you devoured more than half of that caprine beast at Ruatha, you like a change in your diet now and then, too. But, for me, the biggest reason is the chance to see new places and learn new things. Oclo, there's a whole world outside the forest, and it's full of things that we never even imagined! I want to learn about those new things. I want to learn everything! Maybe some of those things will be good for the hunters, or maybe they're nothing but curiosities to us, but I want to know. Now these humans are offering us the chance to go all over the world and learn those things, and all they want in return is for us to do what we do naturally – hunt! How can I refuse?"

He slowly smiled. "Okay, you've talked me into it. As long as we can minimize the trips between, I'll go." He paused. "But when our cubs arrive, we'll stay here until they're weaned, right?"

"Absolutely right," I nodded. "Our family will need a home, a place of our own. We've got a few months before that happens, so we've got time to make some visits to the rest of the world. Let's talk to F'lessan and Tai, and find out where we're wanted."

It turned out that there were two "package deals" already offered to us. The Fort area was one; the other was Telgar Hold and the Smithcraft Hall. The rest of the requests were scattered all over Pern.

"We'll wait on those others," F'lessan decided. "Maybe one of their neighbors will put in a request in a week or two, and then we can make a package visit out of them. In the meantime, I'll notify Lords Groghe of Fort and Larad of Telgar that you may be visiting them soon. We'll find out which of them needs you the most. The Holders will bear the greatest burden of feeding you, compared to the Halls and the Weyrs, so we'll let the Lord Holders work out who gets you first."

"Are those places cold?" I asked.

"Telgar is kind of cold, yes," he answered. "Fort is neighbor to Ruatha, so the temperature is very much like you experienced at Ruatha Hold. Fort Hold is the oldest human settlement on the Northern continent, and Fort Weyr is the oldest weyr. You'll be able to see what kind of work our distant ancestors were able to do, back when they had the science and technology they brought with them from Old Earth."

"I'm curious about that," I nodded. "When do we leave?"

"I'll arrange the days and the dates," he said. "It will probably be a few days, at the least, before they're ready for you. They'll have to arrange for your food, and they'll have to provide a dragon to fly you around and translate your words for them. You can relax and enjoy the Southern sun for a few days."

That enjoyment was cut dramatically short two days later. A dragon arrived and dropped off a passenger, Healer Ballora. We greeted her happily, but she didn't return our greeting.

"I need to speak to both of you, privately," she said. We led her to a small room in Honshu, a so-called "conference room," and she closed the door and sat down in the nearest chair. We sat on the floor facing her.

"I don't know how to tell you this," she began, shaking her head and staring at the floor. "I've run your blood tests three times. I'm positive about this. Rit, the madness gene is latent in your system. You don't have it now, but there's a high likelihood that you'll develop the symptoms someday." A tear rolled down her cheek and her voice fell to a whisper.

"Oclo… you've already got it."