Chapter Three. POV Nyota.
Hiiii everyone. In case you missed my redo on the previous chapters, I just wanted to let y'all know that I acquiesced and stopped with the accents. :{P silly non-linguistics student people.
A bit about this chapter; it is rather short and lacks a bit of action, but I hope it fleshes out the base relationships that I want to utilize. Now, it's not that I don't like Uhura. Not at all, I actually adore her in TOS. Less so with the 2009 movie, but still—Go Nyota. It's just that in my opinion she's more likely to puzzle out this situation in the manner I want to write. And I want to save Spock's POV for another idea.
Summer is almost over and I can't wait to go back to Uni. But that also means that my already tenuous grasp of 'schedule' is going to fray even more. Sorry to those that still wait on me to write, and sorry to those that stumbled upon me expecting regularity.
Dive Twisted.
~Sano.
The Journey to Fief Dunlath was a long, awkwardly silent one. All for Chekov and the lovely shape-shifting girl called Daine. Nyota watched with wary amusement as the boy overcame his initial fright and vied for the shapeshifter's attention against the random woodland creatures that literally poured out from the forest. Daine seemed to pause over each and every rabbit, squirrel, and hawk that dropped from the trees. Deer followed their small caravan even after a russet colored wolf rejoined them.
Daine ruffled its ears and then giggled, claiming another wolf called 'Broken Fangs' had sent this one back for being insufferable. The redheaded woman chuckled and elbowed the man, asking where the wolf had learned such a word.
It struck Uhura how at ease the three strangers acted considering just hours before they'd been holding her and the crew at…. Magic point, were one to believe them. The tall man, Numair, she knew he had somehow controlled the black force field that had enveloped the landing party, but none of her instruments had picked up on any type of known energy signal. Even more disconcerting was the fact that their universal translators weren't being activated. Millions of worlds in the Universe, millions of languages, yet here were people who obviously spoke Terran Standard as a primary language. Yes, there was a universal quality to intelligent life that gifted it language and as such all languages had a seed of that 'sameness' that linked them together, but this was something else. That link was tenuous at best, and to this day Linguists like her squinted and frowned and drank until they could puzzle that hair fine and continually splintering quality into something they could point to and say, 'yes, this is it…maybe, possibly,'. These people could have, theoretically, developed the same language as Earth, but it was so incredibly unlikely she could laugh. Tribes on Earth in the Twenty Century had been discovered, having formed nearly atop one another but speaking languages so different that they could have been on different planets. But this… this was identical. Sure, she heard different syntax, a more formal delivery, and occasional phrases sounded odd to her, but this was a near identical dialect of Terran Standard.
She looked at Spock, suppressing a smile as he tripped ungainly over an exposed root, and tapped her computer when his eyes met hers. He nodded, and she knew he was thinking about the language similarities as well. Did this mean they had been sent back in time again? If that were true, she thought while chewing her lip in worry, wouldn't the country's name have come up in their data banks? And this so-called magic was frankly terrifying. If another post-warp culture had dropped weapons and technology onto this planet and simply disappeared it was possible they were in big trouble.
What other possibility could there be? Magic simply didn't exist. Not in the fairy tale sense at least. Spock was right, sufficiently advanced technology really was indistinguishable from magic to those that weren't familiar with it. But why wouldn't these people, Alanna, Numair, and Daine, share real cause of the force field when it became clear that the Crew was also in possession of technology of a similar nature.
"Miss Daine, awre you not worried of being bitten?" Chekov leaned in close as he peered at the plump red squirrel in her hands. The party had been paused for a quite a while now as she nodded and smiled, clearly sharing something as the red fellow chattered excitedly and pressed his nose to hers. It turned and send a scathing reply toward Chekov, who pulled back with a tremble in his bravos nature.
Daine however laughed at him, "Odds Bobs no! The last time I was bitten badly was by Keladry's griffin. And he was just a baby—no manners at all. None of the People would bite me,"
Alanna cut her off, "Unless Cloud thinks you deserve it,"
Daine scowled at the redhead as Alanna and Numair guffawed. The Enterprise Crew traded unsure glances and chuckled weakly.
"People?" Chekov ran a gentle finger down Flick's back and grinned as he scampered away up the nearest oak.
Daine looked slyly at Numair, "He says Sweetmunch still wishes she'd bit you," To Chekov she nodded, "People. Animals that aren't human, immortal, or divine. They call themselves the People,"
"How can you talk to dese animals? They hawv no idea of the world like you and I do," Chekov asked. Uhura could almost hear Kirk and Sulu flinch at the steely look that came over Daine's eyes.
'Foolish Russian,' Uhura thought to herself with a sigh. It wasn't enough they had to watch Spock and his blunt words, it would seem Chekov was just as bad.
"They may not think about taxes and waging war and whether to wear pink silk to dinner or blue, but I assure you, the People have a better idea of the world than most two-leggers. My Wild Magic allows me to talk with them directly, but if more two-leggers would take the time, they could even talk to them,"
"Not to mention that prolonged contact with our little Magelette effects a permanent change in the animals' cognitive processes. They do become, in fact, more human like in their thoughts," Numair began to tick off on his fingers, "They start to exhibit an accelerated ability to learn to adapt to human interaction; like learning signals and routines without extensive training. They also acquire a much more concrete knowledge of the passing of time and begin to recognize dates and significant events,"
This time Daine and Alanna both
shushed the dark-haired man.
"Numair, quit lecturing,"
Spock lifted and eyebrow, "I think this is obviously a type of telepathic link. Similar to the links among the fauna of Vulcan,"
"Nonsense," Chekov announced, "Telepathwy vas inwented in Russia,"
"Where is Russia?" Chorused Daine, Numair, and Alanna.
Uhura gasped with mirth at the crushed and horrified look on Chekov's face.
Spock's budding geography lesson was cut off by a tremendous crashing coming from ahead of them. The Enterprise crew scrambled together as their captors warily took more guarded stances until Daine smiled,
"Iakoju! We're over here!" She waved and Uhura felt herself begin to relax.
That is until a gigantic aqua skinned ogre came crashing through the thicket, her thunderous footfalls drowning out Numair's musings that one Lady Maura was concerned.
"Phasers!" cried Kirk, leaping infront of his crew valiantly, even as his face bleached white in fear, "Get behind us! We can protect you!"
Numair turned quickly, flinging a hand wrapped in silvery black fire out at them, yanking the phasers from Uhura's and the rest of the crew's grip. The devices clattered to the ground at Numair's feet. Sulu, undeterred, grabbed up a brand from the forest floor and brandished it with a quaking flourish,
"Captain, Everyone, run!"
Iakoju looked at them, tiny ears swivling in confusion,
"What… are they wearing?" she asked.
"Och! It can talk!" Scotty rubbed his eyes.
Iakoju frowned and turned to Numair, "What they mean? Of course Iakoju can talk. Are strange humans stupid?"
Alanna reached up to pat the Ogre's lower arm and laughed, "We don't know yet. Iakoju, is everything alright?"
Iakoju pulled a roll of parchment from her pouch and handed it to the red-headed Lady Knight, "Lady Maura say the Mages have scryed trouble at Port Legann. Carthaki raiders. Emperor Kaddar says they are dis-senters,"
Uhura noticed the immediate change in the group. Daine's face blanched, Numair and Alanna traded dark looks. The Ogre apologized then motioned behind herself, toward the barest hint of a road. More a jumbled dirt track large enough for perhaps a hand drawn wagon.
"Lady Maura send more horses, and have your things readied. She say Kitten already leave with Tkaa from Capital. She say you all best go straight to King Johnathan, not to Dunlath. She say she understand visit cut short, next time longer,"
In a flurry of activity the crew found themselves forced to the side. Numair opened his palm flat in front of his face, and frowned as black sparks fizzled. Uhura watched as Alanna did the same, purple fire like her eyes blooming and withering.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Trying to reach Johnathan," muttered Alanna.
"It looks like there's still too much distance to open a speech spell," Numair turned to Daine, "Love, I hate to ask you, but do you think you could go ahead? I know you'd rather be with Kitten as well. And we'd just slow you down with this group," he motioned to Uhura and the crew.
Daine nodded and shook out her shoulders. Suddenly feathers sprouted from her skin and her eyes moved closer together over her rapidly elongating beakish looking nose. Soon a goshawk struggled free of the girl's homespuns and leaped into the air. Wings clawing for height, the bird was gone before Uhura really realized what she was seeing. Next to her, Bones turned to Spock and whistled.
"Got a logical explanation for that, Hobgoblin?"
Spock merely ran a slightly shaking hand over his chin and closed his eyes. Uhura knew how he felt. It was shaping up to be one of the stories that makes Captain Kirk's ship the most famous, infamous, respected, pitied, feared, and loved of the fleet. And she wasn't sure she wanted the honor of being here anymore. After a slightly deeper breath than was quite Vulcanly, Uhura suspected he was picking up bad habits from Kirk and Bones, Spock turned to the Lady Knight and Mage,
"Where are we going?"
Even the Ogre smiled at his strained voice.
"Corus. The capital city of Tortall,"
The horses Iakoju brought them stood calmly within a ring of wolves. A pack donkey named Bother whickered unhappily with a cross looking grey pony introduced as Cloud. After their gracious captors bid goodbye to the wolves and the ogre, Uhura tried to mount her horse. It took a try or two, but oddly the creature seemed to sigh and used it's head to push her rump up into it's saddle. She squeaked and watched unnerved as the other horses helped similarly the rest of the crew. Of the entire landing party, only Leonard and Scotty were familiar with horses in the least bit. Spock particularly had a difficult time seating himself. He flinched each time his bare fingers brushed the animal, and she could tell by the worried looks he received from Jim and Bones that his mental shields were oddly reinforced.
As they set out, Numair turned in his saddle to smile at Spock, "You really have no idea how gratifying it is to find someone with a worse seat on a horse than myself,"
Everyone's laughter mixed with the steady clop of hooves on the dirt and Uhura let herself believe that maybe, just once, this wouldn't end with red shirts in the mud soaked with blood. Her dress uniform was a lovely shade of crimson, and she would hate to get it dirty.
So, there we have chapter three. How did you like it? As always, reviews are what I whore myself out for, and I do so love getting them. Next chapter they get to the City, and the humor starts up in earnest. Or at least my humor does. Good night, and sleep tight.