It's Not As If ... (1)

Writers: Kaysea, Jane, Ainsley
Date Posted: 19th July 2009

Characters: Lihona, Linli, Jezz
Description: The little girls from the riverboat go out gathering nuts early one morning.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 3, day 24 of Turn 5
Notes: Riverboat Sungazer.

"We'll have to make sure we get back on time," Lihona commented without any concern as she climbed over the low stone walls that fenced the stock in on the flood plains that stretched for dragonlengths around the Hold. It was very early in the morning - especially for _her_ - and the three of them had plotted to sneak off the Sungazer and gather the nuts that they hoped would have fallen from the big tree overnight. They had to be early to beat the Hold children who had refused to share their bounty with the girls' the day before, and they had to be back before the Sungazer left.

"Well it's not as if they'd leave without us," Linli chimed in, following her cousin over the stonework. "But they'd be mad if we stopped them leaving on time." she considered. "C'mon Jezz."

Jezz took a moment to balance on the stone fence before hurrying after her cousins. "I'm not ready to be in trouble again just yet," she stated by way of agreement as she caught up to the other girls.

"Well we just have to make sure we get back in time," Linli said positively, holding out her hand to help Jezz down. "And you know Da and Lineal were only worried about you. I think you were brave, I would never have done it, myself."

"Me neither," Lihona assured the younger girl as she set off along the track through the wind-ruffled grain crop toward the great tree in the corner of the field. "That paddlewheel scares me worse than Thread."

"It seemed right at the time and I thought I could do it," Jezz answered as she broke off a stalk of grain and swished it in the air before picking up her pace again. "I'd never try it again, though. It was really scary!" Looking ahead to the tree she changed the topic suddenly as she was apt to do, "I hope we can get lots of nuts today."

"We should. The wind was blowing quite hard last night. I got up and peeped out the window to check." Perhaps if she had been born aboard the Sungazer as Linli had she would have known just by the movement of the boat - for it had been moving at its moorings - but she had been born a long, long way away and sometimes that had its disadvantages.

"As long as we've beaten the Holder mob, we'll find plenty, I s'pect," Linli said, her own footsteps picking up to match that of her cousins.

Jezz fingered her gathering bag thoughtfully as she moved along, "I'd love to have one of mum's nut pies, seems like a long time since she made one."

"Tonight we'll all have some!" Linli replied determinedly.

"Look! There are some." Lihona picked up one of the dark crumpled balls and stripped the black hull off to reveal the round nut underneath. "See. That's one."

"Oh! And there's another!" Jezz exclaimed, "They sure do look different just off the tree."

"I'd never seen the tree until we came to live on the Sungazer," Lihona admitted as she bent down for another, and another. "Nuts were tithed to the Weyr and came just in their shells."

"Did you not have trees at the Weyr?" Linli asked, not having considered this before.

"Not very close," Lihona said, thinking back to her home in the bluffs beside the river. "And not trees like this. It was more like a forest. And then the sea."

"So no redfruit trees either?" she was surprised and felt a little sorry for Lihona, she had missed out on the fun of scrumping for fruit like she and Jezz and Tahna had been able to do each time they stopped along the river. It was no wonder she was so excited about this adventure.

Putting another few nuts into her carrying bag Jezz sighed, thinking more of the adventures Lihona must have had rather than what she had missed, "I sure wish I could see a Weyr. You are really lucky Lihona."

"I don't know about redfruit -" She wondered about that for a moment as she kicked along in the litter of leaves and twigs under the tree. "Or about lucky. It's just ordinary, really, except everything's big, and it has dragons. Perhaps my uncle will take us there for a visit one time."

"Ooohh! Do you think so?" Linli asked, her eyes opening as wide as saucers at the suggestion. "I love it when your other family visit. The dragons scared me at first, but I'd like to meet one next time they come to visit."

"That we be so, so, so great!" Jezz squealed. She had been enthralled with the dragons and since her first sight of them.

"I'll ask R'harne when he comes, unless it's Teykara, then I'll ask her," Lihona said casually, thinking that a direct approach was likely to work better than getting her parents' permission to ask. "I've nearly got half a basket," she said, admiring the nuts as she placed another couple in with the rest.

"I should look harder, I haven't as much as you two." Linli said, her eyes scouring the ground before her.

"I think my sack is around half," Jezz said shaking it. The girl looked up at the sky her brow furrowed. "How much time do you think we have?"

"A little longer," Lihona said, more as a protest than a statement. "I might be able to fill my basket."

"Are you sure?" Linli asked, glancing up at the sun, briefly, before scouring the ground for nuts again.

Lihona wasn't sure but she was determined but after a little while she felt that her basket was full enough - and they had certainly beaten their hold-bound cousins to the prize. "Now we can go back," she said with a smug tone.

"Just a couple more?" Linli asked, her eyes not leaving the ground before her. "I'm not quite full."

Jezz turned back to the trail, "I think we better go. Mum will have a fit I have any part of holding up the boat."

"My father wouldn't even think it was funny," Lihona admitted, though her father usually found the humour in most the antics of the children aboard the Sungazer. She glanced down at her basket, pleased with the way the morning had gone.

Last updated on the July 21st 2009

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It's Not As If ... (1)