The Felines of Pern Chapter 20

Epilogue:

When word of F'lessan's achievement reached Benden Weyr, F'lar answered with a message of his own. He had decided that Landing would be administered by out-of-work dragonriders after D'ram and Lytol retired, and he offered F'lessan the job of temporary Weyrleader until a gold dragon rose and a "real" Weyrleader was chosen for Landing Weyr in the time-honored fashion. "You've shown that you can be a leader, get along with difficult people, and get things done, and that's what Landing needs. You'll become one of the most influential people on Pern!"

"Thank you, but no," F'lessan replied. "I like it where I am, doing what I'm doing."

"Think carefully before you say 'no,' F'lessan," Lessa advised him. "This is an extremely important task, and it will be a very prestigious position as well. You'll have respect and power out of proportion to your age. If there's any other job you want later, you can ask for it and you'll get it."

"But I've already got the perfect job," he replied. "I want to reach out to the hunters and arrange peace with them, one hunting band at a time. That's a challenge worthy of a bronze rider, and it will benefit the entire Southern continent and everyone on it, to say nothing of the benefit to the hunters. I can't tell you how satisfying it was to take a bite out of that chunk of meat, knowing that it meant survival and health for the hunters, and safety and prosperity for us people. I want to know that feeling again, and again and again. If I can't fly a dragon through the air, then that's the next-best thing."

"There isn't much in a job like that to appease the thrill-seeker in you," his father observed.

"When you're nose to nose with a hunter who has already tried to kill you twice, that's thrilling enough for me," F'lessan replied.

"There's no arguing with that," Lessa nodded.

F'lar shrugged and glanced at his weyrmate. "He knows what he wants, even if it's unconventional, and he won't settle for less. He's your son, all right."

She smiled. "As if you never knew what you wanted, or ever settled for less! Are you going to try and tell me that you never strayed from the traditional path?"

"Well, hardly ever," he admitted.

Talad's band of hunters was willing to observe a cease-fire with the humans, but that wasn't the same as trusting them. That changed on the day when Kur, whom Oclo had mounted just before the band put him out, went into labor and was unable to deliver her litter. The hunters had no cure for her state and no treatment for her pain. In desperation, Talad sent San to ask the humans for help.

Zaranth heard her coming at a dead run and asked if something was wrong. When San panted out her message, she relayed the hunter's words to Golanth, who sent an emergency message to Ista Weyr. A moment later, a brown dragon appeared and landed with Healer Ballora on board. While the rider complained about exhaustion from timing it, Ballora asked why she was needed. San and Rit explained the problem.

"Get on board, quickly, both of you," she ordered. "Rit, give the dragon a mental picture of your meeting circle." The dragon flinched when they leaped onto his back, but the rider calmed him down and prevented an incident. Rit had never been more than a passive passenger on dragon flights before, but it was easy to visualize the circle, and one cold jump between later, they were there. San just stood there, awed at the sight of three species cooperating so perfectly, even though they were making it up as they went along. Ballora slid off the dragon and ran over to where Kur lay on her side, panting and wincing in pain.

"Breech birth," she said tersely after a quick examination. "I've handled plenty of these, but never on a hunter before. I guess there's a first time for everything. Rit, tell her everything is going to be fine." The hunters didn't understand what the human did next, but about a minute later, the first of four healthy cubs was born. The mother also turned out fine, although somewhat sore and tired. That was the last time anyone in the band said anything unkind about humans. Once again, the healer had made the difference in winning the trust of the hunters.

Once the excitement had worn off, Rit went to Talad with the news about the treatment for the madness. The band held a meeting that night to discuss it, and after much back-and-forth and many reassurances from Rit, they agreed that it was worth a try. Rather than exhaust Zaranth with all those trips between, Jaxom and F'lessan put their heads together and came up with "the hunters' riding sling," a simple wherhide apparatus that hung over a dragon's back. It allowed two hunters to ride, one on each side of the dragon, in reasonable comfort. Four of these slings allowed Monarth (who was "borrowed" for this project) to carry eight hunters at once, in addition to his rider. As soon as enough flight-blankets had been made, he and T'gellan took the entire hunting band between, including the adult cubs, in just three trips. The other hunters hated it every bit as much as Rit and Oclo did, but they agreed that anything was better than living in fear of the madness.

Ballora continued her experiments with the madness cure (which, unfortunately, involved drawing blood from Honshu's hunters several times) and concluded that, if the hunters went between once every eight months, it would keep them safe and sane. F'lessan added a new responsibility to his workload: he now had to keep track of which hunters were due for a ride between to keep them sane. He created a set of wooden boards which he laid flat on the ground near the edge of the clearing. Each board had a hunter's name at the end, and rows of depressions in which a small round stone was set. Every week, each stone was advanced to the next depression; when a stone reached the end of its board, it was time for that hunter to take a quick flight between. That way, the hunters could see how close they were to needing a "sanity flight," as they soon called it, without having to pester F'lessan for dates and times. They learned to recognize their own names on the boards, and that was the beginning of their learning how to read.

F'lessan asked Rit and Oclo for advice on which hunting band to contact next. "If I were you," Oclo decided, "I'd make contact with the band of unattached males first. Some of them are going to become Teds for the other bands someday, and if they are already convinced that humans and hunters can get along, then they'll take that belief with them to their new bands. You'll be able to influence multiple bands at once. That will only make your job easier." F'lessan agreed to his logic. Tai and Zaranth began mapping out that region from the air, so they could easily find their way in and out when they were ready for the next step in their plan to bring peace to the hunters and their human neighbors.

Hunter Rit wasn't the only one affected by her visit to the Harper Hall. Menolly was quite moved when she learned all about Rit and Oclo's story, and, as she often does, she expressed herself by writing a song about them. The first verse was about Rit, the second about Oclo, and the third was about the peace agreement. She arranged for that last verse to be sung in harmony, which pleased Rit very much. (If you want to sing it, Menolly's melody bears a certain resemblance to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, but please don't accuse her of plagiarism because she has never heard that song.)

When you're fearing
You'll lose all,
When fears begin to rise
That life will fall,
When hope has died, oh, we'll lift you up.
Your end will not come 'round.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter.
Life and health, you've found.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter.
Life and health, you've found.

When they've put you out,
When you have to flee,
Believing you're ill-starred;
They're done with you.
Come in, apart
From those heartless ones
Who sent you outward-bound.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter.
Home's the place you've found.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter.
Home's the place you've found.

No more killer girl,
No more fight.
War time has gone, feline;
Put your teeth and claws away.
Peace now is mine, yours; now I see a friend,
Dovetailed with humankind.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter.
Life and peace we find.
Find your niche, oh my troubled Hunter!
Life and peace we find!

The End

o

A/N
This story is the latest in my growing history of trying to redeem the reputations of villains. I've done it with Pellomar, the bully from "Dragonquest" ("Tales from the Weyrlings' Barracks") and I did it with Smaug, the dragon from "The Hobbit" ("Wicked Worm"). This time, I tackled the very bad reputation of the felines of Pern.

When I started writing this story, I did some quick research on cheetahs so I could write about them accurately. They are amazing animals! They're beautiful to the human eye, they almost never attack people, they don't steal other cats' prey like lions and leopards do, and they're the fastest creatures on land. I immediately knew that I would have to say nice things about them. I'd been planning to do that anyway, but they wound up portrayed as a lot less savage than I'd originally envisioned them.

The idea of telling the hunters' story in the first person, and the humans' story in the third person, wasn't a conscious decision I made. I just started writing it that way in the beginning, then noticed that I was doing it, liked it, and kept going.

Sometimes, when I need to name a new character, I glance at my bookshelf. Green dragon Merceth and rider Lacki are named after Mercedes Lackey, who co-wrote "The Ship Who Searched," which might be my all-time favorite Anne McCaffrey book. Green Novith is named after Naomi Novik, who wrote the Temeraire books. The hunters' names were made up as I went along.

This is the longest story I've written for the Pern fandom (and my fifth-longest story among all my fandoms), and also the most popular. I have written stories for other fandoms with over a hundred chapters, and stories that have reached a view count in six figures (or, in one case, seven figures). But I have never written a story that has drawn as many comments of "More, please" as this one received. I'd love to know exactly what aspect of this story became such an addictive substance.

On Dec 6, 2021, this story passed the 8000-view mark. Thank you.

On or around May 7, 2022, this became my first Pern story to pass the 10,000-view mark. Again, thank you to everyone who reads this.