"You do have to rest that leg, don't you?" Jaxom kept his face expressionless.
Piemur caught his eye in surprise and then they both burst out laughing until Sharra, joining them, wanted to share the joke.
The next few days passed most agreeably for the three, starting with Ruth's assurances about the Harper's continued improvement. The first morning, noticing that Stupid had cropped all the ground greens in the area, Piemur asked if there was any grassland nearby. So Jaxom and Piemur flew Ruth to the river meadows that lay south and east of the cove, a good hour's flying inland. Ruth willingly helped harvest the tall waving grain grasses which Piemur pronounced fine fodder that might even put poor Stupid into condition. Ruth told Jaxom that he'd never seen such a hungry-looking runner.
"We're not fattening him up for you," Jaxom said, laughing.
He is Piemur's friend. Piemur is my friend. I do not eat the friends of friends.
Jaxom couldn't resist repeating this rationalization to Piemur, who howled with laughter and thumped Ruth with the same rough affection he used on Stupid.
They packed half a dozen heavy sheaves of grass on Ruth and were airborne when Piemur asked Jaxom if he'd been to the peak yet.
"Can't fly between." Jaxom didn't bother hiding his frustration from Piemur.
"Too bloody right you can't. Not with fire-head!"
Jaxom blinked at Piemur's unequivocal agreement.
"Don't worry! You'll get there soon enough." Piemur squinted at the symmetrical peak, shading his eyes with one hand. "May look near, but it's several, four-five maybe, days' travel. Rough country, I'd guess. You've…" he paused to give Jaxom an unexpected blow in the midriff which robbed him of breath, "got to get fit first! I heard you puffing, hacking down that grass. Huh!"
"Wouldn't it be easier to bring Stupid here and let him graze? There aren't any dragons about, except Ruth. And he's agreed not to eat Stupid!"
"Once he sees wild ones, he won't come back. He's too stupid to know he's much safer with me with a dragon to bring him food, instead of eating him as food."
Stupid was delighted with the contribution to his diet and whistled with pleasure as he munched away at the piled grass.
"Just how intelligent is Stupid?" Sharra asked, stroking the creature's rough dun-colored neck.
"Not as smart as Farli, but not really stupid. Limited is a fairer assessment of his scope. Within those limitations, he's pretty bright."
"For instance?" asked Jaxom. He'd never thought much of runner beasts.
"Well, for instance, I can send Farli ahead, telling her to fly so many hours in the direction I've pointed, land and pick up anything lying on the ground. Generally she brings back grasses or bush twigs, and sometimes stone and sand. I can send her to look for water. That's what fooled me about the Big Bay. She'd found water, all right, so Stupid and I humped after her. I didn't specify drinking water." Piemur shrugged and laughed. "But Stupid and I have to go on foot, and he's right smart about ground. Kept me from sinking in mud and those shifting sands time and again. He's clever about finding the easiest route over rough going. He's also good at finding water… drinking-type water. So I should have listened to him when he didn't want to cross the sands to the Big Bay. He knew there wasn't any real water over there, although Farli insisted there was. I trusted Farli that time. Generally speaking, the two make one good reliable guide between them. We're a team-Stupid, Farli and I.
"Which reminds me, I found a fire-lizard clutch, a queen's, five…" Farli chittered at him, "all right, maybe six or seven coves back. I kind of lost track there, but she'll remember where.… In case someone wants some. You know if green fire-lizards weren't as stupid as they are, we'd be up to our ears in little green ones. And they're downright useless."
Sharra grinned. "I remember the day I found my first clutch in the sands. I didn't know the difference between green and gold nests. Oh, how I watched that clutch… for days. Never told a soul. I was going to Impress all of them…"
"Four or five?" Piemur asked with a laugh.
"Six, in fact. Only I didn't realize that a sand snake had got the lot from beneath long before I found the nest."
"How is it, then, that sand snakes don't get a queen's eggs?" Jaxom asked.
"She's never far from her clutch," Sharra said. "She'd spot a snake tunnel right away and kill it." She gave a shudder. "I hate snakes worse than I hate Thread."
"Much the same thing, isn't it?" Piemur asked, "except for the direction of attack." He gestured with both hands, one coming down, the other coming up on an imaginary victim.
During the hot part of the day, Jaxom, Sharra and Piemur began to turn his Records, measurements and rough sketches into proper detailed maps. Piemur wanted to get the report back to Sebell, or Robinton or F'lar if so directed, as soon as possible.
In the cool of the next morning, with Stupid as pack animal and Ruth overhead, the three friends backtracked to Piemur's queen clutch. Twenty-one eggs were in the nest, all nicely hardened to within a day or two of Hatching. Their approach had sent the wild fire-lizard queen to cover so they were able to excavate the eggs, packing them carefully in the carrier they had strapped to Stupid's back. Jaxom asked Ruth to alert Canth that they had fire-lizard eggs.
Canth says that they are coming tomorrow anyway, Ruth replied. The Harper ate well.
Ruth gave them such snippets of information about Master Robinton periodically. It was as good as being in the same Hall with the invalid, without having to hear him complain, Piemur observed.
They returned to the shelter cove through the forest. The fruit trees near the clearing had been picked clean and if F'nor were coming, he'd surely appreciate some fresh fruit to take back to Benden Weyr.
"Should you be around when F'nor comes?" Jaxom asked the young harper.
"Why not? He knows what I've been doing. You know, Jaxom, when you see how beautiful this continent is, you wonder why our ancestors went north…"
"Maybe the South was too big an area to keep Threadfree until the grubs had been seeded," Sharra suggested.
"Good point!" Then Piemur snorted with derision.
"Those old Records are worse than useless; they leave out the most important things. Like telling farmers to watch for the grubs in the North and not mentioning why! Like leaving the Southern Continent alone, and not why! Though if there were half as many earthshakes then as there are now, I can't fault them for common sense. When I was on the way to Big Bay, I bloody near got killed in a shake. Nearly lost Stupid from fright. If it hadn't been for Farli keeping her eye on him, I never would have caught up with the stupid idiot!"
"Earth-shakes happen in the North," Jaxom said, "in Crom and High Reaches and sometimes Igen and the Telgar Plain."
"Not the kind I've been through," Piemur said, shaking his head at the memory. "Not where the earth drops beneath your feet and two paces beyond you lifts above your head half a dragonlength."
"When did that happen? Three, four months ago?"
"That's when!"
"Earth only trembled at Southern, but that's scary enough!"
"Ever seen a volcano pop up out of the ocean and spew fiery rock and ash about?" asked Piemur.
"No, and I'm not sure you have, either, Piemur," Sharra said, eyeing him suspiciously.
"I have, and N'ton was with me, so I've a witness."
"Don't think I won't ask him."
"Where was it, Piemur?" Jaxom asked, fascinated.
"I'll show you on the map. N'ton's been keeping his eye on the place. Last time we met, he said the volcano had stopped smoking and it had built a regular island about itself as neat as… as neat as that mountain of yours!"