Chapter 50
Emerson was glad there were no sheer rock faces for him to climb, but the mountain still posed quite a challenge. After spending far too much time being a good boy and following all orders given by Gran and her underlings, the perfect day had finally come and so Emerson and Doom had put their plan into effect. It wasn't much of a plan, no elaborate set ups or complex timing down to the second, they just waited for a day that was not too cold and had some low cloud, and then they fought.
It was only a simple fight of the type most young married couples have, but it gave Emerson the excuse he needed to storm off into the forest. They both knew he would be in trouble when he eventually came back, but it did not matter because then their main task would be complete, and then the couple could really settle down and wait for the return of their friends.
Emerson had left with only a jacket over light clothing, and he was already feeling the cold by the time he had reached the climbing gear he had hidden a few hundred meters above the small town, in a place he jokingly referred to as Everest Base Camp. Having passed that point a few hours ago, the determined climber was now sporting gloves, a thick skullcap and a heavy insulated coat with a fur lined hood.
After a few hours of climbing, Emerson broke through the last of the low cloud and was able to enjoy the sunlight, even though the air was still cold and thin. No matter what jokes he may wanted to make, this small mountain was definitely no Everest so all he had to do was pace himself and keep going until he reached the top around the middle of the day.
When he did, the object he was looking for could not have been easier to find, even with a flashing neon sign that said "HERE 'TIS", which it didn't have. The information Emerson had been given by Professor Adisa proved to be spot on correct; what he was looking at was indeed a directional communications antenna dish, and not some kind of scanning radar searching for incoming meteorites. It was a little bigger than Emerson had expected, but not too big to stop him from taking the measurements the Professor had requested.
"Right... let's get this done" Emerson said to no one as he looked down on the antenna.
Placing his backpack on the ground, the intrepid investigator removed the special equipment he had been given to complete his task. The first piece he took was a metal disc about three hundred millimetres in diameter. The underside of the disc had three screw adjustable feet and a spirit level so Emerson could set it up straight and true in front of the antenna. Into this base, he then screwed in a long and equally adjustable bar, setting it with the centre hinge on the antennas lower lip. Finally he loosened the screw on the hinge and moved the top section of the bar over until it lightly touched the antennas top edge.
After checking the bubble in the spirit level once more to be sure everything was well in place, Emerson then took an angle reading from the upright bar. Satisfied he had taken the correct number, Emerson removed a small computer from the inside pocket of his coat. In reality it was nothing more than an old mobile phone, but there had not been a cellular mobile phone network operating on Earth for many decades. He opened up a compass app and held the phone to the centre of the antenna, taking a directional reading.
Having entered all these readings into the phone, Emerson decided to take a short break, devour a protein bar, and congratulate himself for a job well done. It would have been nice to have something a little more comfortable than the rocky ground of the mountain top to sit on, but it was still felt good to take a rest before he started the long hike down. As he ate, he looked out over the cloud tops far below him, and then up at the bright blue sky, where a dull half Moon looked down on him.
After about fifteen minutes, he finished off his basic lunch and turned back to the antenna, ready to pack up his measuring equipment. But just as he was about to pick up the bar he had used to measure the angle, he saw a gap at the lower lip of the antenna. Emerson thought about this for a moment; he was sure he had taken a correct reading, but he clearly needed to be sure. And so after loosening the hinge at the center of the bar, he repositioned the instrument until both ends touched the antenna disc once more, and took a new reading.
As he re-entered it into the phone, Emerson saw that the new reading was slightly different, but barely by more than a single degree. Feeling a little unsure of himself, the determined young man then opened the compass app on the phone and re-checked the antennas lateral direction, finding it too was slightly off.
"Okay now this is just weird" Emerson told the antenna.
He wanted to start back down the mountain as soon as he could, but there was no doubt he also needed to investigate this comms disc a little further; so after checking the time, he sat down and contemplated the antenna for a brief period. With nothing else to do, Emerson took out another food bar, this one made of seeds and honey, and started to slowly chew on it as he stared at the antenna dish.
After about five minutes, he could already see the tiniest gap on the bottom lip of the disc and over time it was clearly getting bigger. Now he was sure of it; the disc was definitely moving extremely slowly, but why? Professor Adisa had hypothesized that Gran had been receiving information about incoming meteorites from another ground station somewhere down south of their current location, and although the disc was pointed in the right direction, it should be rock steady to stay aligned with the transmitter at the other end.
After taking a third set of readings along with the time and date, Emerson started to pack up his gear; he had spent long enough on this mountain and it was now time to go. After he had swung the pack onto his back and was about to leave, Emerson suddenly had a thought so he knelt down behind the disc and looked up in the same direction.
"This is getting really weird" remarked as he found he was once more staring at the Moon.
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While the crew of the Striker were more than pleased to see the Dragon Riders arrive later in the afternoon, the sight of the five new dragons filled a few of them with more than a little concern; which is a nice way of saying a few had to go and change their undies.
"FAR OUT!" Abigail called out as she rushed out of the rear hatch and onto the stern deck.
The dragons all touched down on a large concrete apron on the western side of Scalloway Harbour, where the Striker had been moored and the remains of the rescued fishing boat had been placed. While she had waited for Blue's return, Captain Debar had allowed some of her crew of marine engineers to help out with the rebuild of the boat, because it was so important to the survival and well being of the local people.
"I thought there were only two" Abigail stated.
"Oh we found way more than two" Haley admitted as she dropped down from Boris.
"I take it everything went according to plan" Captain Debar noted as she came ashore.
"Far from it Captain" Blue replied "but before we give you a full report, I think we'd better spend some time introducing everyone to the dragons. If you treat them right, they're wonderful creatures, but we did run into some trouble on the Faroe Islands with a crowd of very angry people, and they're still a bit skittish around strangers as a result."
"Then with your permission, I'll go first to show everyone not to be afraid" Debar nodded.
Blue had Haley keep a close eye on their Zippleback and Gronkle while Calla took Windstorm over to meet the Captain.
"Put your hand here on her neck and stroke down" Calla suggested, noticing that while Debar was putting of a brave face, she was clearly terrified.
"N-nice dragon" she warbled.
"Her name is Windstorm, and you're doing very well" Calla smiled.
After Blue had introduced his sister to Speedy, he helped her to get on the Night Fury's back. Walking around amongst the crew with a young girl sitting on the dragon, made the fearsome creature seem far less threatening. Once Speedy was able to see these people were not like the ones they had left back at the Faroe Islands, his broad smile returned and he started to sniff around and make himself acquainted with everyone. For the next step, Blue left Speedy with Abigail and walked over to the local people keeping their distance at the rear of the dock.
"Hello Mateo" Blue smiled when he saw the familiar man in the group.
"Ah... Blue... it is... very good to see you again."
"I suppose you recognise that guy" Blue pointed to Boris.
"Y-yes I do" Mateo nodded "and you would not believe how fast me heart is now racing."
Blue instantly thought back to when the four Fury's had thrown him into the middle of the ocean.
"Actually I think I might" he shrugged "If you're up to it, maybe you could come and say hi?"
"I am tempted to ask if it is safe... but your young friend..."
"Haley" Blue stated.
"Yes... she has no trouble?"
"To be honest Mateo, there was trouble, but the more we get to know each other..."
"...the more the trouble... it goes" Mateo finished the thought in broken English.
"Exactly" Blue smiled "Come over to your boat, I would like to try something."
The hull of the fishing boat sat in a cradle behind where the Striker was tied up. When Blue and Mateo had walked over, Blue called Haley to bring her dragon.
"Mateo, this is Boris" he introduced the approaching beast.
"H-hello Boris" Mateo gave a small wave.
Most of the other fishermen and local people looked on in awe and wonder, but a few took the same attitude as Blue had seen on the Faroe Islands.
"What are you doing man? That's one of the beasts that attacked us and half wrecked our boat" one of them declared.
"Si Desmond... and I'd rather try this, than get attacked again someday" Mateo responded.
"Don't be daft Mateo, ye wouldn't try and make friends with a shark now would ya?"
"No Desmond I wouldn't, but have you ever seen a group of children riding sharks before?"
"Hey... I'm nineteen" Haley protested.
"I'm almost fifteen and even I don't like being called a child" Calla agreed.
While the two men argued across the apron, Boris sniffed at Mateo before turning his attention to the large boat sitting on the cradle. Looking up over the side rail, the Nightmare could see where he had torn out the built in fish hold from the bow deck, and realised for the first time that he and Windstorm had actually stolen from their riders friends, and done considerable damage o their boat. So as the humans continued to discuss the situation in aggravated tones, he turned to Windstorm and gave a short grunt. The Nadder soon picked up on what was happening and replied in agreement. And then to everyones surprise, both dragons spread their wings and flew away unexpectedly.
"Windstorm... where are you going?" Calla called out in desperation.
"Ah good riddance" Desmond snorted "Now how do we get the other ones to go too?"
Calla was more confused than upset. She simply wondered why her dragon had suddenly left, and would she come back?
"What do we do Blue?" she asked.
"We follow them" Blue answered with determination and ran back to the where the Striker was moored.
"Excuse me Abby, but I need my dragon back" he said but by the time he and Calla had lifted off, they spotted the wayward dragons flying back in.
Much to everyones surprise, Windstorm and Boris had just flown out just south of the harbour and picked up some fish which they brought back and presented to the people of Scalloway. Windstorm had brought back a large fish in each talon, but Boris brought only one. It was however quite an impressive catch; it was a two meter porbeagle shark.
"Oh my goodness" Desmond gasped as he took a step back "W-what do we do with these?"
"I'd suggest you clean them and distribute the fillets in the town" Blue noted.
"After you've said thank you of course" Calla added.
This was not the first time Blue had been surprised by the dragon's intelligence along with their capacity to comprehend, and he was sure it would not be the last.
"I-I don't understand" Mateo shook his head "Do they... understand what they did? Do they remember?"
"It certainly looks that way to me" Haley said as she rewarded Boris with a chin rub.
"You have to remember that the dragons have been living by themselves for over a thousand years" Blue told them all "Until they found their way to the surface, none of these dragons had ever seen a human, or knew about our existence. So when they came across your boat, to them it was just a convenient source of captive fish; they didn't know they were stealing."
"Are you trying to tell me that now they do?" Desmond said doubtfully "Oh come on, an animal is just an animal and doesn't know from stealing."
"Well that's not true in all cases" Calla replied" Some animals can be trained not to take food from the dinner table, and dragons appear to be much smarter than most animals."
"And from what I've seen, they do have a highly organised social structure that could very well include a sense of ownership. I have seen some dragons arguing over food, so it looks like in some ways they are just like us; even Calla's been known to steal food from my plate."
"I was just being playful" the young girl shrugged.
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Hello everyone :D
Don't worry about Boo and the shelf Vin, both are now fine and ignoring each other. As to anime I have watched and liked, I have seen the first story arc of Yu-Gi-Oh and thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't think much of it when the main characters were gone though. It wasn't the blood in High School of the Dead that go to me, it was all the horror, screaming and general terror.
In the past I have enjoyed such diametrically opposed anime as Princess Tutu and Neon Genesis Evangelion, Full Metal Alchemist to Nichijou, as well as Sword Art Online to K-On (and many others). What really draws me in is something that is surprisingly different like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
As soon as I read the question comment from Guest about how much Debar knew about the total number of dragons, I suddenly realised I didn't know. Now you would think that as the author I would know but I hadn't given it any real thought. Yes I did assume Blue had told her everything but because I didn't write it at the time, I couldn't be sure that he did.
If this sounds odd then you may be interested to know, that is how two of my characters have died in past stories. The spy Fotherington and Martian resident Talon Descott both had bright futures in the stories I was writing but I suddenly found I had written them into a place of no return and was left with three choices: 1) Go back, re-write and don't put them in peril, 2) Come up with some ridiculous idea to save them, or 3) Let nature take its course and have them die. For the sake of not letting the story get to predictable, I went for the third option. Professor Adisa was the exception; when I first came up with this elderly mentor, I knew from the beginning of the first book that his death would not be spectacular, but simply the accepted ending of a life well lived.
More soon, Marty.