Threads in the Skein of Fate (Thayilli)

[Grognardsw]

Sameroth yawned, exposing her dagger-size fangs, as the woman slowly picked up the device and clipped it on her shirt.

She then spoke, and her foreign words were translated by the device.

"I am Elyse, and these are my companions Zith and Krane," she said. "We come in peace. We are explorers who crashed on your planet."

[Imladir]

Thayilli looked at the woman's lips, then at the device, cocking a surprised eyebrow. “That's convenient.” She mumbled, before speaking louder “I'm Thayilli.”

After a couple of seconds, she shook her head. “In peace? Is that why you slaughtered the Sulidors?” Seeing the woman's confusion, she added, “Big humanoids with lots of red hairs and a big long nose.”

[Grognardsw]

"The Sulidors?" responded the woman Elyse. "We have seen no creatures that you describe. We have been wandering for some days. We are glad to find people. You live in the area? Those are impressive beasts you ride."

[Imladir]

Thayilli squinted as she considered the woman, obviously not quite believing what she was saying. Before she said anything about that though, she started by addressing the most important point. “Dragons are not beasts. They are as intelligents as humans and you'd do well to not treat them as such. You do not want them to be displeased with you.”

After a moment to make sure that it was if not understood at least accepted, the young rider continued. “I also have a problem with you claiming that you didn't do anything to the Sulidors. I found them, and some of them died from wounds none of our weapons can inflict. And I am... Was... A healer, so I know what I'm talking about. The weapons used, and thus those who killed them, have to come from... Elsewhere.”

“Are you going to pretend you're not them? Then you're going to say you didn't abandon your mates to die when your ship was somehow struck by Threads?” She cocked an eyebrow, obviously not ready to believe that.

“Thankfully for you, it's easy to check. At least the first part of it.” Without pausing, Thayilli added, “Sam', check them. Tell me if you smell the Sulidors on them.”

[Grognardsw]

“What?!” exclaimed the man named Zith as Thayili explained how dragons were intelligent. At the same time Krith, the other man, said:

“Frak she can’t be serious - how -“

“Shut it! Of course she’s serious," snapped Elyse. The woman seemed to be in charge.

"Look now Thayilli, we meant no offense to you and your lizards." She smiled and bowed to Sameroth. "We didn't kill any Sulidors. We aren't the only ones to escape our ship when the thread destroyed it. There are escape pods across the planet. I don't know anything about abondening our shipmates."

Sameroth approached the strangers. They backed up some and looked nervous as the giant reptile’s shadow fell over them.

“It’s all right!” ordered Elyse to the men as Sam’s head came close and he sniffed.

“No Sulidor,” thought Sam to Thayilli. “But fear.”

"We haven't eaten in days and we're exhausted," said Elyse. "Can you help us? Take us in. Show us this ship. We can tell you about we're we come from."

[Imladir]

Alright, maybe not 'as much as humans'. Maybe as human children. Though to be fair, it was more a question of interest and the fact that dragons had…well, a dragon's memory. Which was saying it all. Not that Thayilly was going to go into details at the moment of course.

When the woman used the word lizard, she pinched the edges of her nose, tiredly. “Not lizards either.” Were they trying to piss the dragons off or something? Dragon wasn't that difficult of a word to use… “They understand you just fine. Or at least, they understand our language. You can test them if you want, but don't come crying when one of you gets dumped in the air from a few hundred meters.”

She shrugged. Not that it was likely to happen, but on the other hand, she had to admit that no one would dare be that dismissive of dragons so she didn't have any idea how they would deal with that. Though… “Granted, the most likely outcome is that someone would just bash your head in long before the dragons decided to do something about it. But that wouldn't change the outcome as far as you're concerned, would it?”

She glanced at Sam' when she reported that she didn't smell the Sulidors on them. It had been a few days of course, but she doubted the strangers could have washed the smell all that well considering their circumstances. “Yeah, fear is not terribly surprising I suppose.”

“Maybe.” She answered the woman's question. She took a moment to think about it then sighed: she wasn't going to leave them there after all. “Have Smoth and Torloth land, and tell H'rerra to grab the weapons once we've left.”

Aloud, she said, “We'll bring you with us. One of us will grab your weapons. And since we're going to pat you to make sure you don't have anything on you, I strongly suggest that if you…forgot…one of them, you add it to the pile now. You'll each sit in front of one of us. And you had better hang on tight, because right now I'm not too sure any of the dragons would be all that invested in making sure they caught you before you kissed the ground.”

In normal circumstances, she'd have explained the bit about Between once in the air, but considering the language issue, she continued, “At some point we will… Hmm…” She took a moment to think about how to explain it while rubbing her lips. Everyone on the planet, even if they hadn't ever flown with a dragon, knew of the Between. Or at least what it meant. But the strangers…

“We'll tap your shoulder. You will take a deep breath and hold it, then it will get really cold - and dark - for five to ten seconds. No matter what, you do not breathe in that time.” Not that there was poison or anything, just…nothing…to breathe. So it wasn't like it would do much of anything besides induce panic, but it was a lot easier to just hold one's breath.

“Unless you want to stay here and take your chances? There are apparently others like you that we have to find.”

[Grognardsw]

Elyse nodded at Thayilli's explanation of the dragons and directions for flight.

"We'll be more respectful. And hold on."

She and the two men placed similar devices in the weapon pile.

They mounted as instructed and the dragons lifted.

Thayilli had Elyse in front of her in the saddle. The woman seemed poised for such a harrowing experience. Thayilli tapped her shoulder before Sameroth moved in Between and the stranger took a deep breath.

Blackness and cold enveloped dragon and riders. Before Thayilli could count to ten they remerged back into the blue sky of Pern above Arolos Hold.

"Amazing!" cried Elyse.

The dragons landed as a crowd was gathering. The dragons must have passed the news of the exciting find of the strangers.

F'lor greeted Thayilli as she dismounted.

"You found some of them! Excellent!"

[Imladir]

Thayilli didn't seem all that convinced by Elyse's reassurances, particularly when three weapons joined the piled. Still, she chose to not say anything for the time being, and simply helped the woman to Sam's back.

Back in Arolos, the young dragon rider answered F'lor with a nod, and a grumble, “Some of them yes. They're not the ones who killed the Sulidors though, those are still running around somewhere. They can't be all that far from where we found those though.” After all, they were on foot. It was only by chance that they had found this group first.

“They'll want to clean themselves and get some food I think, not sure in which order though. You probably should keep them mostly together for the time being however, they need a...something... to be able to talk to us and it looks like they only have one of those.”

“That being said,” she added sarcastically, “They seem to have trouble understanding the most basic instructions like drop your weapons the first time around, so be careful.” After a brief pause, she turned back to the strangers, “I suppose I can't hope that one of you is a Healer? Or knows how to operate the things that are in your ship's healer office or however you call that?”

[Grognardsw]

“We’ll keep an eye on them,” responded F’lor. “Get them settled and tomorrow question them.

“While not a doctor, I did have some medic training,” Elyse said to Thayilli. “How can I help?”

The two men requested food and fell into eating a big dinner. They received may stares, and returned them with cautious nods and smile.

[Imladir]

Thayilli briefly hesitated to answer Elyse's question. “We found your ship. It was… Well… a bit of a mess, but some of the people that…” She squinted, briefly paused, “were left behind were still alive. One of them, a metal man, decided to attack, and…” She grimaced, “It wasn't the smartest thing to do.”

“There was however a human alive too, but he suffers from a pretty massive concussion, and there's nothing we can do but wait and hope he'll wake up.” Thayilli shook her head. “Considering the Healer's office in the ship however, maybe there's something in there to help. It looks fancy enough. But I don't know how most of it work so I'd be more likely to harm him than anything else.”

[Grognardsw]

"I'd be happy to have a look at him," replied Elyse. "Yes the ship could have medical supplies that could be helpful."

Thayilli and Elyse made their way to the Healer's Cave. As they walked, the two women regarded each other with occasional side-long glances. Were they telling the truth? Could they trust each other? What would the off-worlder's presence on Pern mean for her planet?

The pair approached the still-unconscious man. Elyse looked him over, felt the pulse, examined his head.

"Scanners would be useful," she murmered. Thayilli didn't know what she meant.

"I agree he does seem to have a concussion. I don't think you have anything here that would be helpful, but if we could get him to the medical bay of the ship, and there is power, we may be able to help him."

[Imladir]

Thayilli rolled her eyes. She knew she wasn't the best healer, nor the most knowledgeable one - which often went hand in hand anyway and came with experience she couldn't possibly have - and she certainly didn't have access to whatever Elyse's people used to practice medicine, but it didn't take a genius to recognise a concussion.

“I don't know about power,” she suspected that what it meant for her wasn't what Elyse had been talking about but that didn't bring her very far, “and there are quite a few holes in the ship,” some - two... - of them much bigger than those caused by Thread, “But I suppose we can go there tomorrow.”

[Grognardsw]

Elyse smiled at Thayilli's mention of visiting the ship tomorrow.

"You mentioned there were others - they are dead? And a metal man - that sounds like a robot. What happened when it attacked you?"

The evening hour was setting as Thayilli escorted Elyse out of the Healers cave and they walked toward the guest quarters. They were approached by two sentries along the way.

"F'lor said we're to guard the woman," said one of the sentries.

As the four walked through the cave corridors, out through a courtyard and into a different section of the Hold, Elyse marveled at the architecture.

"You have quite a place here," she said. "How long have your people been on this planet?"



At the guest quarters, Elyse said good night. "I look forward to our travels tomorrow. And thank you again for rescuing us."

The sentries stood at the door as Thayilli departed. A little later she ran into Jorone in the riders lounge.

"Those two men, Zith and Krane, they've kept to themselves," said to Jorone. "I don't trust them. What do you think?"

[Imladir]

“Besides this one,” she indicated the patient, “Only the metal man - the...robot? - was left alive. Sam' objected to him attacking. I tried to prevent her from killing it, but...” She grimaced. “He had attacked me, Sam' decided the only way to be safe was to kill him, so she did.” She sighed tiredly then: not that she didn't understand whu Sam' had done it, but...

“So don't try anything. Dragons are very protective, and while intelligent are very simple in that regard: if something is dangerous to them or their rider, they'll remove that danger and won't care one bit about about ethics or anything. So I strongly suggest that you do learn from that.” She briefly paused, looking Elyse in the eyes, to make sure she had received the message clearly. “Oh and... There's a hierarchy among dragons. Annoy a green and you might only have to worry about her. Though they share a lot, so who knows. But annoy a Queen?” She shook her head, “You'll have all of them on your back, and their riders whose life you've made complicated.”

Thayilli nodded when the sentries arrived, then added to Elyse “Until, and unless, you know what you're doing, I suggest you avoid them, or first ask a rider. It might look difficult here, but for the most part dragons only care about their own riders. As far as humans are concerned anyway, so it shouldn't be all that hard.”

For all answer to the woman's question, Thayilli asked one of her own “What makes you think we ever were anywhere else?” Sure, dragons could fly above the sky if they wanted to, but they didn't like it much, and their riders even less. As in not at all. So where would they go?

She nodded good night as she left Elyse in the guest quarters, then went to grab dinner. When Jorone asked his question, she didn't answer straight away, instead eating for a few seconds more while she thought about it. “Well, they kept weapons when we asked them not to. So there's that. On the other hand...” She cocked an eyebrow, “If you had been in their position, would you have done differently?”

She sighed “Elyse's group wasn't the one who killed the Sulidors, so I'm willing to be open, but until we know where they come from and why they're here... Besides Thread messing up their ship I mean.” She shrugged, “We'll have to wait and see. And find those who are still missing and did kill the Sulidors.”

[Grognardsw]

Elyse nodded at Thayilli's description of the 'robot' incident. "Something must have effected its program, it wouldn't normally have attacked a human."

"I'll avoid the dragons and their riders," assured Elyse.

When Thayilli posed a question back to Elyse' question of how long her people have been on the planet, Elyse looked stumped. "Hmm, I didn't think of it that way. That would make sense. I figured you were a colony or something..." Her voice trailed off.

Later, eating with Jorone...

"K'ressa said they dropped their belts and cooperated," said Jorone. "I would have done the same if faced with dragons. It's good they didn't kill the Sulidors. They must know about the others, if they were all on the same ship that crashed?"

Jorone chewed some greens sauteed in cafrey sauce.

"It's fascinating to think they came from another planet. For centuries we've been wondering if there is life beyond Pern."

Flashback

The strangers apparently understood as they unhitched their belts and lowered them to the ground.

“Lift your shirts and circle around,” Jorone said, acting out the action.

Torloth sniffed and stamped.

The two men did so; the woman just circled. They appeared to have no weapons.

[Imladir]

“Uh... If you say so.” Thayilli answered about the 'program' of the metal man, obviously not quite sure what to make of that. Probably a translation error.

As for avoiding dragons and riders, she simply shrugged: it would be fine if she was cautious, but avoiding them entirely wasn't really needed. Assuming it was possible in a Weyr.

---

“Oh they dropped their belts, but its not exactly what we wanted was it?” Thayilli shrugged, “Maybe we can put that on the count of a misunderstanding, but I'd rather be cautious as far as they're concerned. Between the Metal Man, or the 'robot' as they're apparently called, and what happened with the Sulidors...” She sighed.

“I'll ask Elyse about who else there was on that ship tomorrow when I bring her there to see what we can use of their medicine.”

“I guess we now know that there is in fact life outside of Pern. And that they're humans.” She smiled wryly, before grunting. “And that they have weapons we know nothing about, weapons that they're not shy using.” She sighed, “We'll have to be cautious. Though at least they don't seem to have dragons, that's something I guess.”

[Grognardsw]

Jorone and Thayilli finished dinner and were joined by K'ressa and a few other riders. They talked for a little while about the day's exciting events. Thayilli learned that a camp had been set up around the crashed ship and Master-level experts brought in from multiple Holds. The ship was being mapped and illustrated in detail by artists and engineers; its metals and other unknown materials analyzed and tested in comparison to Pern alloys; the many and varied objects cataloged and experimented upon, their uses theorized and in some cases discovered. The dead bodies and remains of the metal man were being autopsied to learn their inner anatomical differences to Pern natives.

The mystery of how Thread could have damaged the ship was as great a mystery as where these people came from. There had been no Thread sightings from any of the Holds, Weyrs, villages or traveling caravans. Could Thread be up there, in the oceans of black sky and stars that fill the night time horizon? Much thought and conjecture was being given to this by Hold and Dragon leaders. Could it mean that Thread was on its way planet-side? If so, that would fall outside the normal Pass pattern.

During dinner and post conversation, it didn't escape Thayilli's attention that Jorone still had eyes for her. As the conversation petered out and the tired dragon riders retired for the night, Jorone offered to walk Thayilli back to her quarters.

[Imladir]

During dinner, and the conversations that followed, Thayilli didn't pay any attention to Jorone, lost in thoughts as she was, asking herself the same questions everyone was, but without saying anything for the time being. Plus, the fact that she straight-up wasn't interested in any kind of romance for the time being - still not having digested the idea of what would happen during Sam' nuptial flights - certainly didn't help.

It was probably because of that, that she simply shook her head at Jorone's offer, “Nah, don't worry about it. I'll just go to bed. Gotta wake up early to get Elyse to the ship.” She then proceeded to walk to her room, where she promptly jump into bed.

[Grognardsw]

The sun rose on Arolos Hold.

Thayilli picked up Elyse in her quarters and they walked to the dragon caves. The off-worlder was eager to see the ship.

"So only their riders can fly with a dragon?" she asked as Thayilli checked the saddle on Sameroth. "Do the dragons have telepathy with other humans or just their riders?"

Thayilli hadn't heard that word 'telepathy' before, but she got the gist of it.

Dragon and riders lifted into the chill air, the wind whipping through their clothes. They jumped between and reappeared above the crashed ship. Several other dragons were in the air, arriving or leaving as the watch personnel changed shifts.

Thayilli noted the camp sprawled around the ship, many tents for Hold representatives, dragon riders, engineers, metallurgists and blacksmiths, artists, and supporting services such as cooks and cleaners.

"Quite an operation you have here," said Elyse.

Sameroth landed and the two women dismounted.

"You've ransacked the ship," Elyse stated. Thayilli wasn't sure if she was being critical or not.

Thayilli led Elyse into the ship to show her the Healer's chamber, or 'medical bay' as the off-worlder had called it. Elyse stopped to examine the ragged hole in the ship made earlier by the dragons.

"What happened here?" Elyse asked.

[Imladir]

“For the most part yes, at least alone. They can agree to carry someone else, but always with their riders.” Thayilli answered Elyse's questions. “And they can talk among themselves and to anyone they want. They pretty much never do with any human other than their riders though, not unless they really like that person.”

“Yeah.” The young rider commented about the "operation", as it was the first time she saw it since the initial discovery even though she had been the one to initiate it. She was however a bit distracted by the need to check if there were any other Queens around. Which was of course unlikely, but that meant that Sam' would be the de facto ranking dragon. Not really an issue if all the others were from Arollos, but such would not be the case here. “Be nice with them, alright?”

On the ground, she shrugged when Elyse mentioned the ship being ransacked. “It's not going anywhere and there wasn't anyone around, so...”

At the question about the ragged hole, Thayilli grinned, amused, “Well, we found the door on the other side,” she pointed in that direction, “but we couldn't get it opened. Karnth melt it, but then it was too hot for us to get in of course.” she rolled her eyes. “So instead,” she pointed at the hole, “We decided to use one of the holes here. It wasn't big enough, but the dragons really enjoyed solving that problem.” She shrugged, “It's not often they get to play with something that doesn't crumble straight away under their claws.”

“And well, I realize it's not a chew toy or anything,” even though the dragons would really like using it as such was left unsaid, “But it's a good thing they did otherwise we wouldn't have been able to help the crew member we found, so...”