Chapter Four

K ris woke up in a comfortable bed and recognized the window and door layout. She was in the guesthouse. The light outside was pale, but morning was definitely on the way.

She sat up and saw an outfit laid out for her. A thicker bodysuit than the day before in a nice sedate green with a matching drape for the front and back with a sash for the waist. She took a quick solar shower and re-braided her hair. The stupid stuff grew ridiculously fast, and braiding it was the only way to keep it under control.

She checked herself out in the mirror before she headed out to the main house in search of breakfast. Her ring was ready for action.

Kris walked into the house and headed for the kitchen, smiling at the servants moving around early in the morning. She located a mild tea, some bread, and some slices of meat. Loading a plate, she walked out to the back yard and found a corner with a bench to sit and eat.

Morning was loud if you knew what to listen for. Birds, trees, and those huge beasts in the distance. Animals rubbed against each other. There were calls and cries. Leaves rustled, and even flowers had a muted song as they moved together. Inside the house, she heard the little girls shouting and their parents trying to get them to calm down.

Yorness came out and looked around. Her expression flooded with relief, and she walked over. “Kris! You are well?”

“Yes. I don’t know what happened in that infirmary, but I woke up feeling fine. I stole some food, and now, I am here.”

Yorness stood next to her and stared down at her. “What did Essan do to you?”

“A full workup. I feel fine now, but last night was hellish.”

“How so?”

“Tissue samples were taken from everywhere.” Kris stuffed the last of her food in her mouth and mumbled, “Everywhere.”

Yorness blinked. “Well, are you able to ride?”

“What am I riding?”

“One of those birds over there. Link beasts.”

Kris looked at one of the creatures as it flapped. “How do you stay on?”

Yorness laughed. “Saddles. Flat pads with straps.”

“Oh. Good. My mind was boggling.”

“They will be ready to go within the hour. Havess and her sister Neelis are excited to show you our side of the mountains.”

“Is that it?”

“You will be with the guide, Morienial. He’s my husband’s nephew and a professional guide for our wilds.”

Kris finished her tea and got up with her cup and plate. “When they are ready to leave, I will be ready. By the way, did Theera set out my clothing?”

“No. She was in the house by the time you got back.”

“Well, your ancestor has good taste in clothes.” She smiled.

“They aren’t a set that I chose for you.”

“Yeah, I guessed as much. Essan has that look.”

“What look?”

“He likes things around him to look a certain way.” She smiled. “It’s a guy thing.”

“I have never heard him described that way.”

“Well, Merchant, you know that my ability to describe things is one of my many talents.”

Yorness chuckled and nodded. “It is one of your charms. One of many. You are a talented female.”

“Takes one to know one.”

A servant took the dishes when they got inside, and Yorness took Kris to introduce her to her granddaughters properly. She would be riding with the two eldest and their cousin. Four was a better size for a trail ride.

The teens were excited to act as hosts, and when their cousin arrived, they ran to him with big grins. “Cousin Mori!”

Yorness put a hand up, and the male came over to them. “Morienial, this is my bodyguard, Kris. Kris, this is my deceased husband’s nephew. We call him Mori.”

The silvery grey male looked at her with a slight smile. “So, you are new to this world?”

“I arrived yesterday.”

“You seem to have caught on to local fashion.”

“It is this or public nudity, and I look like a plucked bird without clothing. So, do I need to bring anything?”

“No, I will have packs for everyone.”

“Oh. Good. Have you been notified of my allergies?”

He nodded. “I have. The cook here is preparing a meal for you.”

“Excellent. Well, then, Morienial, when do we leave?”

“Call me Mori.”

She smiled, and he grinned. Twenty minutes later, he was escorting the three ladies out toward the gate in the fence. Havess and Neelis were excited.

“I thought you ladies would be riding every day.” Kris smiled.

Havess shook her head. “No, we only ride when we have a guide or guard with us. The mountains can be treacherous. They only let us ride out there with a guide and only after we are thirteen.”

Neelis said, “We do ride around the paddocks, but it isn’t the same.”

Kris nodded. “Right, just be warned that I am probably going to fall off a time or two.”

Mori said, “I wouldn’t recommend it. Folks frequently injure themselves in the fall.”

“I am not going to try, but I have been trained to fall. It is more likely than not.” Kris smiled. “I am realistic.”

Mori nodded with a slight smile. “I will endeavour to keep you on your steed.”

The next half hour was them separating their bonded birds while one had to be asked to take Kris. The little one at the back kept hopping up, but the other birds pushed her aside.

Kris asked Mori, “Why can’t I ride the little one? She’s not that much smaller.”

“She wasn’t bonded to anyone when she hatched. She’s wild. Never been ridden.”

“Can I try? If she doesn’t take the saddle, I will go back to trying to make myself agreeable to one of the others.”

Mori paused. “Fine. How heavy are you?”

“About half your density.”

“Ah. That might work then. I will get a saddle to fit her if you can get her to come forward.”

Kris smiled and walked toward the flock, and the tame beasts backed away from her. Her little buddy charged forward the moment there was a break, and Mori shouted, but Kris just stood still with her warm aura around her. The little miss came to her and snuffled her clothing. She stepped forward and pressed her head to Kris’s shoulder.

“Hello again, little girl. Your feathers are very pretty.”

There was happy trilling as Kris petted her little buddy. “Morning, darling.”

Mori spoke from nearby. “Well, she will definitely carry you. I will get a smaller saddle, and then, we will see if she will wear it.”

Kris spent a few minutes with her new friend, and when Mori brought the saddle out, she said, “He wants to put the saddle on you so I won’t fall off. Wouldn’t want your brothers and sisters stomping on me.”

The bird snuffled, and Kris kept petting her as Mori carefully put the saddle in place and moved smoothly to fasten it. It went in front of and behind the wings, and the front plate had a leather pad for the chest. The stirrup kind of arrangement began to make sense. When Mori backed off, he smiled. “That is better than I thought. If we can get you mounted, the other girls are ready to go.”

Kris nodded, and her beast raised her head. “Ready, baby girl?”

The bird straightened and nodded. Kris moved past Mori, boosted herself up to the saddle, and settled quickly. The release straps went over her thighs, and her legs were tucked forward and around the edge of the wings. The back of the bird was surprisingly wide.

Mori was staring. “Are you sure you haven’t ridden here before?”

“I have been on animals on my home world, but we ride quadrupeds.” She kept her voice low, and her steed sidled a little as she got used to the weight.

Mori made sure she was settled and got onto his own bird with a pack on his shoulders. “That was interesting. No wonder Aunt Yorness wants you around. I have never seen anyone tame a bird like that.”

“I needed a new hobby, and she is a sweetie. So, how do I steer?”

Mori chuckled. “My beast will lead, and yours will follow.”

“Oh. I hope this little girl keeps up.”

“Call out if she doesn’t.”

“The young ladies will hear a lot of curses if I go off track. They might shout.”

The girls laughed, and Kris mimicked their posture. There was no steering. The birds just took a direction and went that way.

She balanced with her legs bent, and Mori used his knees to coax his bird to turn around. A farm hand opened a gate, and they began to walk through the gate and toward a path that had an upward tilt. They were definitely travelling up a mountain.

Kris got into the rhythm of the bird walking, and her hips rolled and rocked with the movements. It was different on a biped. It was a rocking more than a rolling. Years of dance class were definitely coming in handy.

The trees and leaves had shimmering rainbows of colour. It was stunning. They travelled uphill for over an hour, and then, they stopped near a stream. Kris followed the others, unsnapped the ties to the saddle, swung her legs free, and lifted her leg up and over the back to slide off her side. She staggered, but her pretty bird turned her head and held her up.

“Thank you, Sweetie.” She stroked the feathers. “Pretty girl.”

Her steed chuckled and waggled her body a little.

Mori called out, “We are having some water and a snack before we go on further.”

Kris patted her bird and walked slowly to the others, sitting on a fallen log and accepting the food that Mori had. She scanned it and sighed. “Does anyone have a marked pack?”

Neelis paused halfway through. “Oh. I didn’t know what it meant.”

Kris passed Mori the pack. “Here you go.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“Do you want to haul a corpse down the mountain? I can’t consume about sixty percent of the food that you can. Food allergies. My throat closes, and my skin looks like I just got an acid burn.”

Neelis thrust the bag at her, “Here. Please.”

Kris chuckled. “No. Thank you. When your people eat, you secrete an enzyme I am also allergic to. So, I won’t risk it.”

Mori went and found another bag in the pack. “Lunch is also clearly marked.”

Havess asked, “How do you do anything?”

Kris shrugged. “I choose to live and do what I can to keep myself in that state. Your grandmother gave me this ring, and it detects items that my body will object to.”

Havess finished her snack, and Neelis slowly finished hers. Mori’s was long gone. Water wasn’t needed for the Kifessan. They weren’t water hogs like she was.

“Mori, is there any water in that pack?”

He looked again. “Yes.”

“Can you hand it to me?”

He handed it over, and there seemed to be a golden glow to the water. Kris was suspicious, and she scanned it. Her ring flashed red.

She handed it back. “Thanks for getting it out.”

Mori blinked. “The water, too?”

Havess frowned. “I asked for it to be fruit water. I hate normal water.”

Kris said, “It’s fine. I can find water.”

She stood up and used heat waves as a sensor. When she found a cool section a few metres away, she walked into the woods, and when she got to the cool spot, she found a tiny stream with icy water from the mountains. She scanned it, and it was good. Scooping mouthfuls while lying with her belly flat on the ground, she got enough water to fill her belly and then looked at Mori’s feet a short distance away.

“How did you find that spring?”

“Practice.” She pushed herself to her feet and smiled. “There we go. Ready to continue to travel.”

He was frowning. “Why do you need so much water?”

“I don’t have scales to regulate my temperature and humidity. My skin allows evaporation to cool me. It is warm here, so I need water.”

He blinked. “I see. Well, we are in a dry season. The wet season has just ended.” He paused. “Though there are still small storms in the mountains that result in mud floods at lower elevations.”

Kris nodded. “Yeah, that used to happen on my world as well. A tiny bit of water on soil or stone that can’t absorb it and the entire world turns to death.”

He nodded. “We are ready to continue.”

“Excellent.” She brushed leaves and ground cover off her and headed back to the animals. Time to continue their magical adventure.

Another hour passed, and they walked through a creek bed that was dry except for a trickle running through it. Kris looked warily to the higher mountains, and when they stopped for lunch and she got her proper meal, she asked, “Does the flooding happen a lot?”

“The mud flats fill during the rainy season.” Havess shrugged. “Right now, there are school trips there with kids soaking. It boosts the immune system. Neelis and I were supposed to be on that trip, but this is far more fun.”

“Far more fun than coating yourself in mud?”

Mori laughed. “It is used to keep the amounts of scale parasites down in the population.”

“Oh. Wow. Okay.” She blinked. “I had no idea that was a thing.”

Havess said, “Not everyone can afford the solar groomers that grandmother has armed her household with. We are all sparkling clean, and if anything ever itches, it is dealt with in moments.”

“Yorness is good that way. She takes care of her people.” Kris lifted her hand and tapped the ring with her thumbnail.

Neelis smiled. “Why did she get it for you?”

“Because she tried one of my ration bars. They are perfectly safe for me, but she was appalled that I travelled the stars and had to eat a bland and extruded bar to live. So, she had me tested, and the ring was programmed to detect what I was allergic to.” She smiled. “I only use the rations when I have to.”

They grinned and chatted about food across the stars. Another hour went by while they talked, and then, it was time to head home.

The birds had been foraging while the others ate, and Kris let out a low croon that brought her ride toward her with a cheerful prance.

She hauled herself back into the saddle and strapped in. She was ready for the run, but when they crossed tiny creek after tiny creek, the problem that Kris observed was that the creeks were no longer tiny. The beds were filling with water. She felt ill and urged her bird up next to Mori.

“How fast can you get them down the mountain?”

“Fast. Why?”

“Can you contact that mudding area and get them to evacuate? The mountain is about to lose a lot of dirt right down those creeks.”

“That hasn’t happened in over a century.”

She stared at him. “But it has happened.”

He blinked. “Hells.” He got a com out of his pack and said, “What if they can’t evacuate?”

Kris smiled and turned her bird. “I am a bodyguard. I am going to get down there as fast as I can and divert it for a bit.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Practice. Get me a signal when things are clear.” She moved, and her bird didn’t have a problem leaving the tiny flock. They headed straight down the hillside, no path, no curated areas. Kris cheated. She used a heat wave to crumble and sizzle trees out of her way. Her bird caught her urgency, and they went fast.

“Sweetie, if we do this, you are getting a very impressive name.”

The run continued.

They arrived at a meeting of creeks, and the bird followed instinct and ran into the low river, moving with the water. Kris heated the base of trees, and soon, there was a channel that would keep things from overflowing too badly. It raised the edge of the river by several feet, and they were fused to the ground. Wood bending was something she had researched.

The bird kept running because she told it to, and when Kris saw the expanse of a resort down below, she turned and unstrapped her legs, getting off the bird and saying, “Get up and on the wall. I will be fine. I have done this before... sort of.”

In the distant hills, she saw the wave of dirt and water descending. Kris flexed her hands and focused, catching the first wave of mud and searing it into a shape, and then the second and then the third. She built a wall as fast as she could with a directed point so that it would remain in the channel. It was not a strong dam, but she kept reinforcing it until she got the signal. She hoped it was coming soon.

* * * *

Y orness caught Mori’s message and called Essan. “There is a mud flood heading to the resort. You need to order the evacuation.”

“ Already done. Why the concern? ”

“Kris is up there until she gets an all-clear signal.”

“ What the hell is she doing? ”

“Holding back the flood. You have access to her emergency com. Tell her to stand down.”

There was silence, and Yorness said, “Overlord?”

The line was silent. Yorness got a drone and sent it with a message for Kris to stand down. She wasn’t going to get to safety without it. Yorness had seen her friend hold the line before. It was terrifying. Singleminded didn’t begin to cover it.

The drone flew and used the ring to find Kris. The screen in Yorness’s hand showed what she had feared. Kris was standing in the flood path, and fire was creating a thick wall with rising water behind it.

The drone saw the dark speck of Essan streaking toward her, and Yorness called out through the speaker. “Kris! Evacuation is complete. Let it go.”

“ Understood .” Kris’s eyes were molten gold. “ I just have to get to a point where I can get out of here. ”

There was a chirp, and the drone saw a beast with a saddle on it. It was standing on the edge of the very high wall, and its wings were extending in agitation.

Kris glanced at the bird and grinned. “ If you think we can. ”

Yorness watched as the bird headed toward Kris. Kris cut the fire and quickly mounted the bird, and to her shock, they began to run through the flood path.

While Yorness watched in astonishment, Kris crouched over the animal’s neck as the wings began to flap with each stride, and in a sight that hadn’t been seen in five hundred years, one of the beasts took flight.

Yorness watched them gain altitude and get out of the river bed. Essan was flying over them, and at that point, she learned something new. She could tell that he was irritated by the way he was flying. That was angry flying if she ever saw it.

The bird angled, and Yorness smiled. It was coming home.