The Quest for the Windtoss (Adventuring party!)

[Alsivor]

Aleda stared up at the ship, expression caught between sudden fear an fascination. "She's just come in, this ship?" she asked Shonn, "And far to the South?" She spoke out of turn, forgetting maybe that she was supposed to be ceding to G'tet or P'nset. Her mind whirled rapidly through facts, trying to piece it all together.

For all it had only been just shy of an hour, she felt the fatigue of having leaped so far through time, the confusion that niggled at the corners of her mind. Her sense of time, of days of hours of minutes was off, the flow of things disrupted. Would anything ever be the same again?

And yet she focused on the here and now. On this ship. On the mission and the question that was pressing insistently at the back of her mind now was: where was that dratted cat?

[Invisible]

Staring at the ship G’tet wondered what to do. He was no diplomat to convince this Varney to not go. Neither was he wealthy enough to buy him out of his next trip. No sailor, but even the greenrider knew what it meant for a ship to be riding so high. Either they’d just come in and unloaded or were headed out with as much cargo space to fill as they could safely have. Would this were easier he said with some frustration to Kalpeth who continued to have little luck catching fish. Her increasing hunger stung G’tet’s mind and made him somewhat rash, a little foolish even. I’ve something for you here, Kal. He showed a picture of the docks and the ship they stood before on the docks.

Heaving herself up out of the water with much splashing Kalpeth made a wet launch into the air and veered for the docks. To the dragons she left behind she sent a quick G’tet wants to show me something! in her usual tone of excitement. Once he knew his green was on the way G’tet turned to Shonn. “Thanks for your help, captain. You should be getting to your ship now I think.” Hopefully there’d be no trouble for him later. G’tet couldn’t worry about that right now.

When Kalpeth appeared overhead G’tet grinned and tipped his head up to admire her. It’s over here in the water, Beauty he told her with a mental picture of the water beside the Windtoss. Kalpeth, eager for a surprise dove down with no further warning to anyone to send a giant wave of a splash up over the deck of the ship in question. “Whoa,” the greenrider said out loud as he took a step back, bringing Aleda with him if he could. “What is up with her?” To Kalpeth he said Beauty? I need you to make a big hole in the side of that ship there. Under the water. Can you do that for me? Shaking his head he glanced around and just said, “She thought she saw a big fish.” Which might explain her thrashing about, yes?

G'tet? Won't that get you in trouble? Kalpeth asked as she splashed around near the ship. I would not get you in trouble. You are not trying to get in trouble are you? There's no trouble, Kal. It's why we're here. You'll be a hero! Well, she would not be a hero to anyone here but him really but that was all that was needed to make his words the truth to her.

[neopanther]

P’nset had stood silent for a moment, not sure why he was being addressed above the others. But then, there was G’tet, and Aleda beside him. And out of the three, he was the oldest, and male, which, likely in Shonn’s books counted for quite a lot. HE backpedalled in his mind, he didn’t really want to take the front now. P’nset wasn’t comfortable with boats. The sea, vast expanses of water. He’d never go any more than waist deep in the lake to help bathe Sarjenth if he could avoid it. And being out at sea, surrounded by nothing but water, made him fearful.

But P’nset seen an opening, there was little doubt about it, this was the boat they were meant to take. But Kalpeth was diving just as he was about to speak. He winced, shards this could go horribly wrong.
What’s she doing Sarjenth?
She just said that hers had something to show her.
G’tet... P’nset cursed inwardly, noestecan words crueller and felt more fitting in that instance. What was he doing?! How stupid. He detached his attention from G’tet. He thought silently for a while. Okay. So, at best Kalpeth had drowned this ship out, worst, she’d wrecked the boat. The former would mean the boat would have to be drained, it wouldn’t do to have water i n a boat, the same as if a Caminar caravan was open when it rained, it had to be bailed out before they set off again, water made it heavier and was a destroyer of resources, it wouldn’t make sense for them to sail. The latter, would create a much larger delay, a much larger problem, but, it could present them an opening.

Varney was looking for a mate. Well what if Shonn would be that person? The vouch for them, and bring them aboard as ‘workers’ too, well G’tet anyway, Aleda, could be one of their relatives who needs to go to such place where they were travelling, but. Then, if they manage to keep the fact that they are riders under cover from the rest of the ships men, they could use that, and run a coup d’état when the ship was sailing. Shonn would be able to do that. Easily.

“Shonn, you’re a good man, I don’t expect you to oblige us, but... how would you like to captain that ship?” P’nset didn’t reveal all of his plans just yet, mainly because he could feel them in his head being okay, but they mightn’t be logical to a sailor, things changed at sea. Silently P’nset hoped that the mild jealousy present would sway the man.

[Xinnai]

M'sella had followed silently, dark eyes tracking movements, his thoughts whirling idly. This mission was their undertaking and he was just a follower, and not even important at that. He shoved hands into his pockets as he stood in front of the mammoth wooden structure, watching the Telgari as they did this and that.

Josteth contacted his rider, the man catching the wave of sleepiness and languor that the brown was riding on. How goes it?
I'm not sure actually. I'm kind of vague on the specifics.
Shouldn't you ask someone then?
I think I'm gonna wait it out, buddy. We'll just see how this all goes.
The brown didn't bother for a reply. He drew back from his rider and descended into the slumber he'd been wishing for, now he was undisturbed and free from the madness that had accosted them.

[Alsivor]

Aleda shot P'nset a look for those curses, though she too was staring at Kalpeth in surprise. She cleared her throat and leaned in towards the greenrider. "She is not ah, what's the word? About to rise?" The sabedoria asked of G'tet in an undertone, looking out at the green dragon with some confusion.

[Invisible]

G’tet allowed himself a moment to bask in the joy Kalpeth felt at finally having something to do. Something she had been assured no one else could do. The two of them enjoyed their moment despite what went on around them because it was theirs.

Aleda’s question drew him back to the dock and he looked over at her with a wide grin. “Not at all,” he assured her with a wink. “Not for another- Well, we should be home by then don’t you worry, Aleda my dear.” He lowered his voice so only those closest to him might hear after making sure those were only the ones he knew. “Easiest way to keep them from finding the problem is to make sure they can’t sail to it. I told you I had a plan.”

He heard part of what P'nset said and suppressed a curse of his own. Did the man not realize they wanted to go home? They needed no big plan. They just needed to stop the ship from leaving the dock. Maybe he could have been more concerned about Varney and his crew's livelihood but he just wanted to go home. Who wanted big long plans? No, what was required of them was action and action now. Kalpeth sinking the ship was the quickest way to solve the problem short of murder and he was not going to do that.

[neopanther]

P’nset let his eyes widen in sock at what G’tet said. “I mean nothing G’tet, but that’s a man’s livelihood there. That you’ve just had your dragon punch a hole in. We just have to stop the boat from getting there. And ruining people’s lives that just happen to fall in our way is no way to go about it.” P’nset shook his head, “You know they can just get another ship don’t you? A man who is like Varney – or what he sounds to be like – won’t let this go, you by effect have just put our necks, Shonn’s neck, and M’tani’s neck on the line, along with a myriad of other consequences. What we do now impacts us more than anyone, we may have no home to go back to if you don’t tighten your reigns G’tet.” His words were slow, thoughtful, patient, only the barest hint of anger. “Rash decision made on your own will only hinder us more.” He felt certain that G’tet was going to lead off now. He knew he’d rile the green rider by telling him this, Shards, but why could there be someone else here, Th’ane, someone, anyone who would see it from his point of view?
I don’t think G’tet means it.
Nay, neither do I hence my anger, if he would pause, and share his thoughts, there might be a more [/i]rational solution.
Aye, but Kalpeth’s is a man who sees a problem, and fixes it the easiest way he knows, it might not be the most effective, or last the longest, but it fixes it and removes it from his way, perhaps that is the fault of a green rider’s lack of responsibility in the Weyr. Conversely, you and I know that to fix a problem, it is best to do it thoroughly, and thorough is not necessarily quick,[/color]
Correct as always Sarjenth.[/i] P’nset felt what anger had pent up, ebb away slowly.

[Alsivor]

Covering her mouth with one hand, Aleda suddenly realized what it was Kalpeth had just done. She stared for a moment, then looked back at G'tet. "That's ... not a bad idea," she murmured softly then tipped a look over her shoulder at P'nset, shooting him a quizzical look. "But, do we know for sure they hadn't gone yet? What if we're off?" This back to G'tet as she considered the damage to the ship.

[Omnia Munda]

"She's just readying to go out," Shonn answered Aleda, correctively. G'tet's remark was more welcome, though, and though the captain didn't smile there was no question that he was quite pleased to be rid of this whole strange affair. He took one last look over the strangers, as though he planned either to remember them well or forget them entirely, then turned and prowled back up the dock.

So it was that Shonn was innocent of all misdeeds when the Windtoss began to roll and pitch as though she were suffering a storm as gracelessly as her name implied. She tilted, threw a short wave of water up onto the dock, and creaked as her moorings twisted and pulled. Alarmed, the greenhorn who'd been looking for his way aboard leapt backward and asked, "Did you see - "

But then he was staring at the water. The worst of it was hidden by the bulk of the ship, so Kalpeth was first to know how successful her work was, first to see the boil of bubbles shootingt for the ocean surface. Hard work for a green with no way to anchor herself in the water, the hull was nevertheless cracked.

After a short and violent roil, the stream of bubbles grew thin and constant. The lapping waves dampened the Windtoss' wooden hull an inch higher than before, then another inch higher. Had the sea been violent all of this would be excused by the storm, but with the afternoon's 'fall banished the sky was clear.

The boy gaped openly for quite some time before realizing in a quiet voice, "She's breached." He stared up at the ship's decks, then down the docks, then up them, expression one of horror. "Get away," he told the strangers, then broke into a run as though to go past them toward the wharf - even a greenhorn evidently felt it his place to order landlubbers around, when a ship seemed to be at stake. "Move!"

[Invisible]

“Shards, P’nset,” G’tet swore with a laugh. “Don’t you remember your history? M’tani surely did no one any favors. We owe the man nothing.” The greenrider could care less about the current turn’s weyrleader. What did it matter? He would just deny them being Telgari and point out no one at the Weyr knew anyone with those names. “As for the man’s livelihood he can raise her or something. Or get a new one or something. We’re here to stop a sharding plague. Would you have us talk nice to the man? It needed doing and I won’t apologize.”

Truth be told he was glad it was done. This ship had taken so many lives. “He can get a new ship, but he won’t be leaving now. Won’t be in that storm. Won’t come to the same place. We did it, man!” He turned to Aleda with an exuberant grin. “We changed history,” he told her with a wink and a saucy grin. Then he reached for her hand to take it and run back towards land with her as the ship rocked dangerously and the boy gave his warning. “You heard the man!” he said with suppressed glee.

It did not matter what dour P’nset wanted. Nor what missing Th’ane wanted for that matter. G’tet had taken charge and done things his way. Kalpeth in the water heaved herself up and made a graceless leap into the air where she circled overhead. She worried about trouble and thought a dragon in the sky might be advantageous. If trouble occurred she would land and people would get out of her way while G’tet and his friend climbed on to go home. Home. She could feel home through her rider and yearned for it as much as him. Home. Where she would get to eat.

[Alsivor]

Aleda nodded along with G'tet's words. "She'd have been back here in two sevens carrying sudden death," the sabedoria murmured softly, staring at the wounded ship like she can't quite believe what just happened.

The greenrider's exuberant grin was infectious and she smiled back at him, eyes warm for G'tet's honest enthusiasm. Other more troubling thoughts whispered in the back of her mind, but she didn't voice them aloud just now. She just let him grab her hand and she laughed a little, ran with him.

They were going home and there would be no plague. They'd changed history. The question still niggled at the back of Aleda's mind though: how? What would they be going home to?

[neopanther]

P’nset shook his hea,d perhaps G’tet was to young and too foolhardy, perhaps the Saboderia was the same, but as far as he could see, they were working against fate. Call his thoughts old, narrow-minded, but that wouldn’t be the only thing that they had to come here to do, else G’tet could have come alone. There would have been no need for J’fel to send them all. And all P’nset could think was that they had just ruined some man’s life. His family. His future, his hopes and his dreams, in one over anxious swoop. They’d never raise as a ship like the Windtoss. Once she was sunk, she was sunk. P’nset moved from the area, vaguely following the other two.

He felt like an old man in young company. Completely alienated from them. Their mindset was completely different.

“Yes, in what manner have you changed history.” He mumbled sourly behind them. That ship could have changed everything. The man who sailed it. They weren’t here to make a big splash in a foreign ocean. They weren’t meant to drop a stone in the river and completely divert its course in the hope of killing the fish below. They were there to swiftly take out the fish, take out the threat, like a bird, disturbing the water as little as possible before returning with their prize.

And what did they owe M’tani? Shards but they owed that man a great deal. G’tet clearly did not realise the magnitude. It would be their undoing if they were riders with a Weyr from another time. P’nset shook his head, it looked like he was just tagging along for the ride here.

[Omnia Munda]

The greenhorn, obviously, did not share in their exhilaration. He, too, ran; unlike the others he was just racing to convey his news, news that would come too late: the Windtoss was failing. Even now, behind them all, the crewman who'd had the security of the vessel was throwing the ladder over, the one the greenhorn would have ascended, and scrambling down as best he could before throwing himself awkwardly onto the dock. The wood carried the resounding thud forward through its planks, shuddering under the feet of running men and woman - small warning of what might be to come when the ship's hull gasped its last and gulped a great swallow of sea as she went under. Better not be on this dock then.

But there was someone coming up the dock, and she looked to have no fear of the increasing roils and waves that rocked the sinking ship beside the pier. She was Rosie, the terrified-into-dumping-her-drinks girl who served at the bar where they'd met the Blond Baby's captain, and she was now heading right toward the quartet (and by chance the greenhorn, who ran past them all in his hurry to holler for 'Help, help! The Windtoss is breached!') with an expression of certainty, deep as oceans, in eyes that had become strangely brilliant, strangely keen.

"Call your dragons," she told them as soon as she was within distance to do so, and her voice was mellow, fathoms full of timbres. "G'tet." Her eyes lighted upon him, expectant.

An image crystallized in Kalpeth's mind. The clarity was almost painful, the detail harsh in its perfection. Telgar Weyr, nothing more: the home from which they all came. A green dragon was frozen mid-flight, sailing above the bowl. Her color was rimed 'round the edges by the pale light of the autumn sun; a figure rode her, trim in heavy leathers, one arm raised in salutation to an unseen arrival. Shadows lay just so on the crags and cracks of the bowl below, and the mountains rose icy white and blue to the north.

"Share," said Rosie, then turned to P'nset, her eyes bright with the endless depth of complete command. "I'll ride with you."

[Invisible]

If G’tet was worried about what they would return to he didn’t show it outwardly. He was too busy looking proud of himself. Shells, didn’t P’nset see they’d changed history? Didn’t Aleda see what a wonder that was? Well, he would be thrilled for them all. He was just about to say something when Rosie came upon them and spoke. He stared at her for a moment confused and then looked around at where they were and nodded his head.

Beauty? Time to go home I think he sent to the green who circled lower to begin to land. While waiting, unaware of Kalpeth’s direction being given he stared at Rosie some more. It wasn’t until out here in the light that he could place the niggling thought in the back of his brain into the proper order. “Shards,” he said to the girl as he watched Kalpeth make her customary rocky landing. “You look like-“ But she couldn’t be S’gur’s sister because she was missing and- “Shards,” he said again with more feeling as he tried to haul Aleda to where Kalpeth awaited them. Home she told her rider with an excited yearning to be just there. Not just for dinner either.

While making her landing Kalpeth had done as instructed and sent the image shared with her to the other dragons. In her confusion she sent it not just to the Telgari dragons but to Josteth as well. Come back with me she lured the brown in her flirty forgetful way. Come see our Telgar, Josteth. She gave no indication of what she did to G’tet. It may have been a mistake showing him their home, but once realizing what she did she saw no reason not to bring the handsome brown back with her like some sort of trophy.

Once she was landed G’tet climbed aboard her and then helped Aleda up as well. He would not launch them into the air until he saw the others up as well. Only when they were all in the air did he tell Kalpeth Take us home, beauty. I need a drink.

[Alsivor]

The cracking of the ship, the dock sounded sharp and harsh in Aleda's ears as she ran with G'tet. She looked over at her shoulder at the destruction and felt the odd wildness, the thrill at having changed history and a sudden sense of weariness. Yes. Time and then some to go. She blinked at the barmaid as she declared her intent, uncomprehending. She only followed along though, took G'tet's offered hand to climb aboard Kalpeth.

Once the greenrider was aboard, she wound arms around his waist tightly and took a deep breath, let it out. "All set," she told him and let the past fall behind her in thought and deed.