A Rambling Man? (wonder)

[lastthoughts]

Jihan had not really put much thought into a plan. Travelling aimlessly had a sort of romantic appeal. Yet, even for someone raised in as rustic conditions as he had been, the lack of small things like clean clothing was wearing.

But there he was, in it up to his shoulders, with a cranky runner as his sole companion and a strong suspicion he had left his intended track hours ago.

He had hoped to see the great inland sea near his birthplace again, and then to follow the river north to the ocean. But the side-trails this far into the country were maddeningly capricious. One was as likely to find a dead end as a destination, and if there had at one time been blazes they were long gone.

He could have gone the straight track to the Hold. But all of his seventeen years had apparently tackled him at one moment and left him in a haze of adventurous exuberance.

Which, of course, had led him here. Wherever that was.

"Flaming useless," he muttered, looking at the surrounding brush sullenly. The runner nickered agreement, and Jihan swatted its side.

Fortunately, the statement wasn't really true. Of his three options -- back, onward, and neither-- he chose the last one, and within a short time had made camp for the two of them.

Tomorrow he could decide whether to go back or press on. Tonight?

He spitted a bird he'd brought down earlier over his fire and settled in. The runner munched some grains and then had at the nearby bushes.

Tonight, he'd take comfort in the fact that for a week now it had been him alone keeping them safe and fed. And that felt good.

[wonder123]

There were two schools of thought when it came to travel by dragon. The first, and most obviousm was the going in and out of between. It was quite a handy ability. To disappear with one landscape below you and suddenly find yourself in a completely different place. Never having to worrying about being late, because as soon as you were seated a-dragonback, you were there. Nobody but weyrlings ever traveled another way, and that was simply because they hadn't learned yet.

And then came the vast, vast minority of just flying. The straight, longer option, where you could see the ground underneath slipping away from you almost as quickly as it had appeared.

In V'rant's opinion, this is what it was meant to be a Rider.

His arms were spead wide, inviting the currents of air over them as Certh zig-zagged lazily through the sky. They were on a Search, but for the moment they were just enjoying their freedom of being simply outside. Few riders, it seemed, actually flew unless under the threat of Thread. V'rant couldn't imagine not flying like this. He rarely pitied anyone, but how could Holders and others in Pern get by with just walking when one could ride a dragon?

He compromised as usual when E'dian allowed him on one of these jaunts. He was to be as inconspicous as possible. Certh must not be seen lest people be struck dumb or riot against them then and there. He must be cautious, yeah yeah yeah. What the Weyrleader didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Certh certainly wasn't going to rat him out to Xialanth. And they had come far enough between that they could enjoy the last stretch at their own pace.

I see smoke!

"Huh? What?" V'rant asked. He'd been daydreaming about one of his latest fancy.

Smoke, just there. The picture flashed before the rider's eyes, directing him to the soutce. "Well, it looks like it! I guess its our duty to investigate, Certh!" Maybe he could get lucky like J'sian and have somone fall right into his lap, he chuckled. At the very least, maybe he could share a fire and learn about the attitude of the Hold up ahead. "Let's land over there. You know you can't be seen...."

Certh came as close to a grumble as he ever did when he wasn't allowed to have his fun. But they both knew the rules.

[lastthoughts]

Although they'd been travelling the entire day, Jihan didn't drop off as quickly as he usually did. The suprisingly rich meat of the fowl sat heavily in his stomach, and his mind--so long involved in restless dreaming of these days elsewhere-- had not really been quieted by his questing. As night embraced him his thoughts melted into the vastness of the dark. He was not afraid. Rather, he let himself be aware of everything that could be out in those woods.

The tree he leaned against, the cooling air, the sudden creaking calls of birds and branches in the wind, the contented chewing of the old runner, berries, nuts, bark. So many pieces. He let himself imagine the other places he might go, letting them fill in the entities lost to the night.

Thicker barks to the north, and shade trees, dripping-sweet fruits. Fish the size of men under roiling waters, boats like buildings pursuing the sky itself. And dragons. Once they had been not been legends, nor their riders spoken of with derision. He was young and good, and could not bring himself to dislike a man he'd never met. And the stories, the stories were almost to magnificent to have happened anyway.

They managed without those beasts, out in the fields that had become his home. Life was hard, but they still created things, grew things. If men became wicked in times of scarcity, it was not because a man on a flying lizard made them so: they chose their own routes.

Unable to sleep, Jihan pulled a knife from his belt and a hefty chunk of fallen limb from the ground, and carved away at it carefully as his mind wandered. He was no Craftsman, but he had spent many an evening in the time just after harvest with little else to occupy him. Slowly, the wood wore away into the shape of a long and fluid form with open wings.

[wonder123]

If he'd thought about it, V'rant really should've had Certh land farther away. If he'd thought about it, he would have thought the better of coming up on a fire after night had fallen, not quite knowing who might be sitting around its edges. However, if he spent a lot of time thinking about things he shouldn't do or have done, Pern would be quite the boring place. He patted his boot knife, more out of habit than to check if it was still there.

V'rant was not much of a worrier. If something was going to happen, it would. He doubted anyone he was about to encounter would stand against a dragon though. The blue rider grinned into the night. That was his ace in the hole.

A twig snapped beneath his foot as he made his way into the edges of the campsite. "Hello?" V'rant shouldered a pack he brought along to give him credibility. He did not see Jihan underneath his tree. "Just a fella wonderin' if he could share a fire for the night?" The blue rider called out.

On second thought, maybe he should have done more research.

[lastthoughts]

At the sound of the snap, Jihan shifted silently into a crouch, set down the etching and held his knife at the ready. The bole of the tree and light of the fire gave him a moment before he would be noticed, and he used the time to appraise the newcomer.

The other man was large and solid, but something about him was too...clean for a bandit. He looked too well-fed to be out wandering the forests, but what did Jihan know? He had spent most of his life basically in the middle of nowhere. He stuck the knife into the dirt beside him and leaned back against the tree. His pose was casual, but he was a naturally feral looking young man.

"Be welcome, then, stranger," he said.

[wonder123]

The welcome was friendly enough. V'rant almost sighed in relief - when had he started holding his breath? Even after all these turns, the threat of the unknown was still enough to still his breathing, if only for a moment. It had been a while since he'd left the Weyr. As much as the bluerider hated to admit it, he was out of practice. There was a time when the appearance-conscious rider would have thrown himself into the perfect disguise. But these days few were ever allowed out on Weyr business.

And to be honest, whenever V'rant did find himself free of its confines, he and Certh rarely spent it on work.

"You have my thanks." V'rant nodded to the shadowed man. His face was too dark to see in detail, so age was impossible to distinguish. He'd have to see where the conversation led to, in order to draw any conclusions of his new friend if he stayed in his seat. V'rant dropped his pack and crouched near the fire, allowing for the man to, hopefully, view him as no threat but not easy prey. It was a fine line to walk here in the wild occupied by Holdless men. "Where are you bound?"

[lastthoughts]

The man looked uncomfortable, that had to be a good sign. Besides, what reason did he really have to make up a story?

"I don't really know for certain yet," Jihan said, "North, by way of Ponaa hold was the plan." He shifted forward into the firelight, and the flames illuminated his canine smile. "I'm looking for a new start, I guess you'd say. Or a new location. I got this feeling one day that I was missing out on something."

"How about you? I'll not lie, I wasn't expecting to come across anyone else out here unless they were trying to stick me to get old Stump over there," he gestured in the direction of the drowsing runner, "And judging by the direction you came from, you're both coming from and heading nowhere in particular." Actually, that could have been wrong. But Jihan wasn't about to admit that he was fairly certain he was lost. At the least, the man had come from a direction other than where he'd been and a trail he would not have chosen to go down.

"I'm Jihan, by the way."