Hardt's Tale: A Mobious' Quest Novel

by Gwendolyn Druyor

  But as the day wore on the dragon felt himself losing all composure. He’d not been allowed to visit the Lander’s bower as Nyah declared Nahni was overtaxing her patient as it was. He’d begged Edwarg to put forth the healthful benefits of additional male interaction but the healer had pointed out that it was unlikely the lander would be able to tell the difference between male and female dragons so the closest he’d come to the creature was sitting on his belongings.

  The night itself was bright in anticipation. The air was clear and sunset had released the day’s oppressive heat. Inside the infirmary everyone gathered was trying to behave casually. Sophie was awake and chatting with Deg and Dorat about the amazing recent improvements in Nahni’s flight abilities compared to the neglect of her intellectual studies. All three were pretending not to notice the young dragon in question protesting from Sophie’s wingside. Nyah, when she wasn’t compulsively checking the doorway, was explaining to Danny the remarkable physiological similarities between the lander and older telfs. The main differences she’d discovered, aside from his unusual height were that his basal temperature was significantly warmer and he had no tail whatsoever. His chest was solid, with no gills. His heart beat slightly faster but that could just indicate that he was out of shape. His hand/fingers and foot/toes length ratios were slightly less even and he showed no webbing, but Nyah’s tutor had told her of telfs hatched in his day with no webbing so this man could just be a throwback in that respect.

  Danny was only half-listening to her medical analysis. His interests lay in less scientific areas although he did want to ask the Lander about the live births they’d all heard rumors of and though it made him smile to think how he’d laughed at the kid’s questions this afternoon, he had a whole lot of questions about mating too. He wanted to know about the stone buildings and the fancy rafts. He wanted to hear their music up close and learn how they found their soul’s purpose.

  Danny was facing the entrance so he saw Edwarg peek around the edge of Sophie’s walled off room and retreat back into the main infirmary. Those around Sophie continued their conversations unaware but Danny’s extreme lack of interest in her subject caught Nyah’s attention in time for her to shush the others for Edwarg’s return. This time he pulled the edge of the separating wall aside so that Akai could enter. Walking beside Akai, was a very tall and pale man. His face was clean shaven and his hair nearly shaved off. Other than the paleness, he looked quite healthy and excited. He looked curiously at Danny as he entered but almost immediately saw Sophie and rushed over to her.

  “Hello, Sophie. Do you feel better.” He said it like a statement, looking around at her unbandaged wing.

  “Yes. You look better too.” Sophie was operating this time on her own wits, not addled by painkillers. She looked hard at the man to see if she could see any difference in him. He was more energetic, but that could just mean he was less frightened this time, having had time to get used to dragons with Akai and Nahni around him at the bower.

  The Lander turned next to Nahni and said a brief hello to her. Dorat had moved in when the man rushed over and he turned to her next, offering her his hand, palm up. “Hello Dorat. Thank you clothes.”

  She was gratified by his appreciation for the clothes she’d sent to him with Edwarg. He’d had nothing of his own and a person could only survive so long in an easy-open infirmary gown. She was also pleased to see that she’d gotten his measurements just about right. He could use a little more room in the shoulders, but she could easily fix that. If he chose to stay.

  She smiled at him. “Thank you, Hardt.”

  He turned next to the huge dragon. “Deg?”

  The old counselor smiled and nodded. “Hello, Hardt. Good to see you again.”

  “Hello.”

  Nyah approached the lander and held her hand out to him as he had presented it to Dorat, palm up. Instead of covering her hand with his, palm down, the strange man placed his hand under hers, palm up. Danny recognized the gesture as one of submission or perhaps courtesy. The others all knit their brows in confusion.

  “Hello, Nyah. Thank you.”

  She struggled to get past the hand gesture she’d thought she understood and led him back over to Danny. “Hardt. I’d like you to meet someone new.”

  “Hello Hardt. I’m Danny. I’m very happy to meet you.”

  “Hello Danny.”

  “Well that about covers the extent of his ability in pleasantries. Should we present him with his things now?”

  “Akai, some patience.” Edwarg turned on the eager dTur. “This is Danny’s first chance to see the man.”

  “And my first chance, completely conscious.” Sophie added.

  Akai stood and looked frankly at both Edwarg and Sophie. “He doesn’t speak dTelfur.”

  Danny pushed up to standing on his front legs too. “Language isn’t everything. If he chooses to go, I won’t have had the chance to know him like you have had.”

  Deg interrupted the two before their argument got too loud. He spoke quietly. “Danny, Edwarg, look at the lander.”

  Hardt had a queer look on his face. He was glancing from Akai’s newly revealed chest to Danny’s and back again. Edwarg started laughing and walked away from the females to stand beside Danny.

  “Nahni, stand up and show Hardt your chest.” Deg laboriously lifted himself and strode over to stand with the boys. Nyah was still standing beside Danny and when he arrived, Deg gave her a gentle shove with his nose to go stand on the other side of the room.

  The lander laughed and offered the healer his arm to escort her over to the females. As they approached young Nahni though, he stopped, puzzled. Her chest was different because she was still a kid and hadn’t grown teats yet. She had boy-like nipples, small enough to still be completely hidden under her thick baby-fur. He looked over at the males and clearly understood that she was definitely with the women and asked Nahni a question in his own tongue to which Nyah, still at his side, responded by cradling her arms like she was rocking a baby.

  This allusion did not make Nahni happy. She snorted at the healer. “I am not a baby. I’m not even sleeping in the nursery anymore much.”

  The lander reached up and put his hand on her muzzle to get her attention. “Nahni!” He took the imaginary baby, with exaggerated care, from Nyah’s arms. He turned it in his arm so he was holding it to his shoulder, like he was burping the baby, then holding the invisible child by its invisible waist, he bent down and set it on the ground. He put his hand out as if measuring the child’s height and slowly raised it, looking to Nahni for clarification. When he reached about waist high, Nahni nodded. Akai, Dorat, and Sophie, all behind Nahni’s line of vision, shook their heads in unison. Dorat put her hand out at waist high and lowered it to her thigh, looking to the others for verification.

  The lander nodded imperceptibly at her and smiled back at Nahni. “Deg?”

  He cradled his arms, pointed to Deg, and looked questioningly up at the little dragon, with a glint of laughter behind the eyes. She shook her head. “No.” So he handed his fake baby to Nyah who, with less alacrity, set the baby down, raised her hand to her own height and then bent her shoulders over, bending and tottering forward as if she were using a cane and had no teeth. It was Deg’s turn to snort at Nyah, in rueful acceptance of his age. Hardt looked up at him, over Danny’s head and bowed low, an amused look of respect on his face.

  “You see, Akai. That is how we can communicate without language.” Deg spoke softly while Nyah and the lander made their way over to Danny to pantomime that Danny was about the same age as the lander appeared to be. He guessed correctly that Akai was roughly the same age as Nyah and that Sophie’s age lay somewhere between Deg and Akai.

  The lander pointed at the group of females and said a word in his language. Then he walked over to the males, included himself, and said a different word. He repeated this and then looked at Nahni. She looked at the females around her, spread her wings a little and said “Women.” Then she leaned he
r head forward and shook it at the boys. “Men.” The Lander repeated the words after her when she said them a second time and nodded, satisfied. Then he moved to the center and spread aside some of the grasses on the ground. He pointed at Nahni and put a hand at waist height, with a smile for Dorat. He pointed at Deg and tottered with an imaginary cane. Then he put a hand on his own chest and bent down to the dirt. He put a mark down for each season and pantomimed each. Then he drew a circle around the marks from the first one around and back to it. He looked around to see all heads nodding at him. He’d indicated a year. About the time from one shedding to the next. Above the circle he drew eighteen lines and put his hand on his own chest again. This time when he looked around for confirmation that they understood, all the conspirators were looking around at each other.

  “Oh boy.” Danny exhaled heavily.

  Sophie looked between Deg and Nahni, who’d had the most success with the lander’s signals. “He can’t mean he has only eighteen sheddings?”

  “I don’t think they even shed, Sophie.” Nyah was trying to smile reassuringly at the lander who couldn’t follow the conversation.

  “Years then. Is he younger than our Nahni?”

  “He’s awfully big. And learns really fast.” Nahni couldn’t figure out what his scratching could mean. “Should I tell him how old I am?”

  “Go ahead, little soul.” Deg nodded at her.

  So Nahni pulled her tail around and scratched forty-three lines into the dirt by the lander’s year-circle. The lander shook his head and repantomimed the seasons, trying to clarify that he indeed meant one full year. Nahni pointed at her lines and nodded. Edwarg stepped forward then and laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. He cleared back more of the grasses and began marking his lines in parcels of ten.

  “You can’t possibly remember how old you are, Edwarg.” Nyah scoffed at him.

  The healer kept scratching his lines in the dirt. “I can give him a general idea.”

  The lander stopped counting Edwarg’s lines and stared unbelievingly at him when he passed ten parcels of ten and kept going. He looked at the telfs and dtur around him and went a bit paler.

  “Akai, could you drag that chair over here? I think our guest is about fall down.” Nyah took the chair from Akai’s tail and set it down for the lander. He sank into it and returned his eyes to Edwarg’s continued scratching. At about three hundred and fifty lines the healer hesitated, scratched out a few more lines, and put parentheses around the last ten. Nyah stepped away from Hardt’s chair to help the old man up from his knees. Then they all looked at Hardt and waited for him to look up from the three hundred and fifty give or take lines.

  He didn’t. Not for a long while. When he did, he looked around at their expectant faces, perhaps trying to judge their shedding numbers too. When he got to Deg, his eyes widened and he leaped from the chair shaking his head and waving his arms in front of him. He walked over to Sophie’s area and said “Women,” walked over to Danny’s side and said “Men.” Then he looked with a wide grin for approval.

  Akai sat back down on her chest, “Enough interaction for you, Danny?”

  “I’ll give him his things now.”

  “Yes.” Almost in unison, the others all agreed. The age talk had been too much for any of them.

  So Nyah led Hardt back to the chair and Danny reached behind Sophie with his tail to pull out first the staff and set that in Hardt’s lap and then the tied cloth holding the lander’s sac, clothes, and other small items, which he set at the man’s feet. The lander brightened at the sight of his belongings. He pointed at the dragon’s head carved into the top of his staff and smiled at them all. As an artist, Akai wished she could ask him for a closer look, but felt they should get on with the question as quickly as possible. She wanted to be able to stop lying to her bowermate and her friends. Nyah brought out the bandage he’d used on Sophie’s head and added it to the pile on the cloth which he was packing up in his sack and on his person.

  Deg looked to Nahni. “Did you teach him stay and leave?”

  Nahni just nodded, too nervous to speak, but Edwarg spoke up for her, “We also taught him home and he knows the words lander and dTelfur.”

  The largest dragon in dTelfur history stepped forward and moved the temporary wall aside with his wing claw. It was a humbling gesture, indicating the importance of what was to come. A dragon’s wings were sacred, not to be used for common labors. But Deg took his and placed it on Hardt’s back. He ushered the man with his bags and his staff to the infirmary entranceway. Then he carried himself slowly back to the group of dTelfur around Sophie. The lander came with him. So Deg escorted him again to the door. And again the lander returned with him to Sophie’s bedside.

  One more time the old dragon patiently took the man to the entrance. He stopped there with him and said, “Leave.”

  As he ambled back to the assembled conspirators, Sophie adjusted herself so she could have a better view of him. “Deg,” she drew the word out for a moment, approaching her subject cautiously. “I believe you just threw our guest out.”

  Deg stopped. He looked back at the entranceway. It was empty. The lander had gone. Deg had told the lander to leave and the man had. He’d walked out of the infirmary into the village.

  “Could one of you youngsters go after him and offer him our other option?”

  A scream was heard outside before anyone could move.

  Then, as they all but Sophie dashed for the entranceway, a voice cried “It’s a lander! Cut him off!”

  “Girsat, your nets! I’ll dive in.”

  Nyah and Dorat were first outside the infirmary. Dorat didn’t pause as Nyah did to survey the scene. So when the telf hunter Girsat dropped his nets from Tally’s back, the seamstress was caught in them as well. By the time Danny reached the entranceway with Edwarg and Nahni, he saw Hardt and Dorat struggling on the ground in a game net not twenty paces away. Just beyond them to the south Kiely, a hatchling dTur was shielding a hatchling telf who lay crumpled on the ground in a dead faint. Sesch, the only astronomer with social skills was heading in their direction from the south at a dead run, three more hatchlings behind or above him. By the time Danny reached the net to release Dorat and the lander, Nahni was hollering at Sesch while Akai was bearing down on Tally and Girsat who had landed just north of their captives. The ruckus only grew when Dorat’s mate, Viscier, and his attached dTur, Tian cruised in for a landing.

  Trying to waylay her stars tutor, Nahni half flew half ran towards him yelling, “Sesch, she’s okay. Kahrier and Kiely are fine. Stop running. They’re perfectly safe.”

  But the man waved her out of the way. “Get away Nahni. They’ve caught a lander under there.”

  Nyah was having no more luck with the terrified hatchling and her unconcious friend. She couldn’t get little Kiely to stop bugleing her distress and almost got hit by the kid’s wings.

  Danny tried to throw a few words of support into the argument raging between Akai, Girsat, Tally, Tian, and Viscier. Akai managed to convey to Tian at least that his friend’s mate was also caught in the net and while Viscier continued screaming at the woman, young Tian helped Danny lift the net off of Dorat and Hardt.

  “Quiet.” Deg’s calm baritone was heard above it all. It carried to the dTelfur who had been woken and were approaching to explore the cause of the midnight din. Everyone quieted but Kiely who thought that Kahrier was dead. And once Nyah showed her that her friend’s eyes were open, she too listened to Deg.

  At the center of the gathering stood Hardt, held tightly in the embrace of the fearful Dorat. She was standing behind him, facingViscier and the hunters, with her shaking arms wrapped protectively around the lander despite her belief that he had killed dTserra. One hand on his heart, one splayed on his stomach, Dorat was nearly as pale as Hardt from fear and anger.

  Tian, who was closest to them by virtue of having helped to lift the net, leaned his head in and tilted it at the stranger. Then he turned to Dorat and whispered, “I
s that really a lander? It’s kinda pretty.”

  “He knows a few words, Tian. Why don’t you introduce yourself.” Deg’s voice again carried over the beating wings and bated breaths.

  “Deg, make him let Dorat go!” Viscier desire to attack was barely kept in check by Deg’s presence.

  But it was Tian who turned to his friend. “Visch, it’s Dorat who is holding the lander. Doesn’t want you to hurt him, do you Dorrie?”

  “Yes. Please don’t hurt him.”

  “Say hi, Tian.” Nahni encouraged him, then ducked her head in chagrin remembering Deg’s standing request for silence.

  Tian was a private kind of dTelfur. He liked spending quiet time alone or with Vicier and Dorat. Finding himself suddenly the center of attention was an unusual and unsettling experience. He looked around at all the faces. They were all staring at the lander who looked more frightened and out of place than Tian felt any dTelfur should in all their life even if they weren’t dTelfur. He took courage from Nahni’s grin and decided to be nice to the guy.

  “Hello.”

  The creature replied! “Hello.”

  Dorat was not surprised, nor was Danny. The crowd however was shocked. Viscier fumed at his atchs but Tian turned his focus back to the lander.

  “I am Tian.”

  “Hello Tian.”

  An involuntary grin creeped into Tian’s eyes at the sound of his own name on this foreign creature’s lips and he automatically nodded when its eyebrows raised in a clear request for approval of his pronunciation.

  And the creature spoke again. “I am Hardt.”

  For just how long, Akai wondered, could the man impress them by saying his name? Even hatchlings could inspire glee by sitting up only so many times before they were expected to improve upon that skill. But for now, the magic had been worked again. Those who had heard were too awed to whisper it on to those who hadn’t. The efforts of Girsat, Viscier, and Tally to reach and presumably attack the lander were, momentarily Akai knew, forgotten. She took advantage of the situation and walked around the frozen Tian to usher Dorat and Hardt back towards Deg. Little Nahni joined her to protect the lander from the south and Nyah rushed forward to grab his belongings and follow after them. Danny picked up the staff with his tail and escorted her.