Dragondrums - Chapter Ten
Jun. 5th, 2021 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time we learned that the big adventure in which Menolly and Robinton were shipwrecked, they discovered the cove and Menolly used all her wilderness expertise to keep them both alive is not actually in this book. It happened off page a few years before. I still can't get over that bullshit.
Also, Piemur's fun survival adventure continues. And that is fun, but I'm still caught on the first part. What the fuck?!
Thankfully, for the lingering shreds of my sanity, we rejoin Piemur. He's apparently been sleeping in an incredibly cute sounding runner beast-fire lizard-human pile. Sadly, they've been woken up suddenly by the arrival of three single-masted ships sailing up the river.
Are they ships when they're on the river? I always thought those were boats?
Anyway, Piemur is pretty fascinated by this, and he watches as men, women and children descend from the ships and start unpacking. He gets a little indignant at the invasion of his privacy, which for some reason bothers me a lot less here than when Jaxom was whining in White Dragon. I'm pretty sure the reason is "I like Piemur better" actually.
It occurs to me that Piemur and Jaxom's stories have a lot of parallels. Both steal an egg. Both end up on the Southern Continent. Both find something of a sanctuary and get annoyed when it's disturbed. However, of the two stories, Piemur's is easily better. And I think it just goes to show us that we don't necessarily need high stakes for a story to be effective, as long as there is a legitimate challenge and the protagonist has some kind of sense of forward momentum.
The stakes were much higher for Jaxom. He needed to steal the egg to avoid a war. He does so. But the problem is, after that point, Jaxom just stagnates. He gets sick, he recovers on the continent, he macks on Sharra...oh, eventually he decides to get up off his ass and do some exploring. And at the eleventh hour he decides he wants his kingdom after all, the one he'd neglected for twelve chapters.
Piemur doesn't save the world when he steals Farli. At most he inconveniences a guy with the connections to replace what was lost sooner or later. But that's just part of the adventure. In the meantime, we're getting a very fun survival story, in which a kid figures out how to feed himself, feed his companion, find shelter from the elements, deal with predators, and so on and so forth. The story keeps moving, and that's what makes it much more fun.
But I digress.
After some observation, Piemur figures out that these folk are Southern Holders looking to harvest numbweed. This is disappointing, because the process is going to take a good number of days and he really doesn't have much hope of being noticed. Also, the smell of boiling numbweed is pretty hard to take. Poor Piemur is exceedingly irked at being forced out of his place right when he'd gotten everything situated to his liking.
Through Piemur's observations we get to learn a little bit of both numbweed process and sailing customs. (He rules out the idea that these folks are from the North because their sails are red. Apparently Northern seaholders are big on intricate, multi-colored patterns.) That's pretty neat too.
Piemur starts making plans to blend in with the group, take what he needs and slip away. We get some nice preparation stuff, which I always like reading:
So he made a neat bundle of his woven mat and tied it with a vine thong, ignoring the chittering of Farli, who disapproved of his activity and of the fact that he was ignoring her gradually more insistent requests for food. He stared at the walls of his little shelter and decided that there was just the chance that someone might hunt in the forest and discover his rude hold. He dismantled the sheets of woven grass and hid them in the thick leaves of nearby bushes. He couldn't remove the clearing he'd made, but he scuffed up the tamped-down earth and scattered dead fronds here and there so that a casual glance would make it appear a natural clearing. He silenced Farli's now urgent complaints by heading for the river. His fish trap, tied to his sunken Thread-tree, held more than enough to feed her amply. He gutted what remained after she was sated, and wrapping them in broad leaves, added that to his bundle. He hesitated a few moments before tossing the fish trap back into the water. Surely no one would notice it unless someone tripped over the silly thing, which seemed highly unlikely, and the fish it captured wouldn't suffer. He'd leave it, and then he'd have ample eating when he returned here.
It does sound like Piemur put a lot of work into this place.
So Piemur starts heading away from the group, talking to Farli. He's feeling introspective. Initially he tells her that if they weren't making numbweed, he'd have gone down to introduce himself. But he's not sure that's true. He could very easily have gone down there and made friends, and it'd be easy enough to explain Farli as having found a clutch on the beach. He starts thinking through his story, when he's interrupted:
A tall girl stepped into his path, blocking his way. On one shoulder was a bronze fire lizard, on the other a brown, both eyeing Farli intently. She let out an apologetic squak, as startled as Piemur. As she also dug her talons into his shoulder and tightened her tail about his neck, all that came out of his mouth was a choked cry of astonishment. A quick chirp from the little bronze caused Farli to relax her tail. Piemur turned his head toward her, annoyed that she hadn't warned him.
“It's not her fault,” said the girl with a wide smile, easing her weight to one leg as she enjoyed Piemur's discomfiture. She had a pack strapped to her shoulders; a belt with a variety of pouches, some empty; dark hair wrapped with a band tightly about her head so strands wouldn't tangle in branches; and thick-soled sandals on her feet as well as shin guards tied about her lower legs. “Meer,” and she indicated the bronze, “and Talla know how to be silent when they wish. And when they realized that she was already Impressed, we all wanted to see who had got a gold. I'm Sharra from the Southern Hold.” She held out her hand, palm up. “How'd you get down here? We didn't see any wreckage as we came along the coast.”
Hey! It's Sharra! HI SHARRA! A pre-Jaxom Sharra! RUN SHARRA!!!
Piemur lies that he's been here for a while, having landed near the big lagoon. Sharra immediately assumes that there were others who were killed, because the lagoon is apparently treacherous in high tide. The outside shelf of rocks are very hard to miss unless you're right on top of them. Hah, I wonder if that's the same rock shelf Piemur had hid under.
Anyway, Sharra tells Piemur that, having survived what he presumably had, he clearly belongs in the South. This hits Piemur hard, and he thinks Sharra is as perceptive as "the Harper."
BWAHAHAHA. Poor Sharra, damned with faint fucking praise. When has Robinton EVER been perceptive.
But he's struck by the idea of staying on the continent and walking where no one else has been.
So they make friends. Piemur tells her his name and it slips out that he's hiding from the numbweed. Sharra confesses that her own job, finding other useful leaves and herbs, conveniently keeps her out of range of the numbweed smell. Piemur is happy to assist.
Sharra lets slip some interesting gossip: a northern Healer has sent her a special request. Sharra has some fun biases: mainly a mocking derision of dragonriders (fair, especially since she's mostly been dealing with the Southern riders) and the belief that Northerners aren't up to Southern standards.
These had come up a little bit in White Dragon, but not as much as I'd like. Given that Sharra ends up marrying a Northern Dragonrider, I would think her biases would be pretty relevant. And it might have been nice to see Jaxom try to earn her respect rather than be creepy.
So they spend a few days working together. In the first evening, Sharra cooks him the best meal he's had since Harper Hall. Interestingly, Sharra isn't inclined to ask any personal questions. Piemur volunteers a little (such as having been a herdsman's boy, when she comments on his skill with little Stupid), but she doesn't press. Instead, she talks about river explorations and the need for surveys. Of course the Oldtimers won't allow it, but Piemur does keep fighting the urge to mention N'ton when she complains about dragonriders in general.
#NotAllDragonriders.
So anyway, Sharra makes a great mentor. She shares her blanket, and helps Piemur find better leaves for bedding. She also teaches him about a particular plant for Stupid that can make up for the nourishment he's not getting from his dead mom. Apparently Stupid's constant grazing had been a dietary instinct, not constant hunger.
They continue working together and it really is quite fun. I think certain biology/botany inclined people would find the descriptions here pretty interesting. I just like seeing Piemur learn things and have fun. Sharra is a much better teacher than anyone in Harper Hall!
There is a funny bit of foreshadowing and/or reference when Sharra has Piemur help her get a plant that, when dried, helps with firehead fever.
It's both funny and infuriating that we've seen far more of Sharra in her element in one chapter of this book than we did in ALL of White Dragon. Has Jaxom even asked her about her interests or her projects? Hell, her fire lizards hadn't gotten to do anything. Whereas here, we learn that she's taught them to hunt and bring their catch to her. Piemur's pretty horrified when she disembodies some weird creature that they've brought back, as preparation for roasting.
They talk more about the Southern Continent and roast some dinner. The chapter ends here.
So this was actually the penultimate chapter of the book. Next chapter will wrap things up. It starts to become clear how and why Piemur started traveling the South on his own. I approve! The Southern Continent sounds much more amazing than Harper Hall! It's funny that there isn't really much suspense or climax at this point, but I'm not sure there needs to be. The real story here is Piemur figuring out who he is and what he wants to do, against the challenge/backdrop of the wilderness. Of course, McCaffrey might still pull something out of her ass at the end of the book. We'll have to see!
Also, Piemur's fun survival adventure continues. And that is fun, but I'm still caught on the first part. What the fuck?!
Thankfully, for the lingering shreds of my sanity, we rejoin Piemur. He's apparently been sleeping in an incredibly cute sounding runner beast-fire lizard-human pile. Sadly, they've been woken up suddenly by the arrival of three single-masted ships sailing up the river.
Are they ships when they're on the river? I always thought those were boats?
Anyway, Piemur is pretty fascinated by this, and he watches as men, women and children descend from the ships and start unpacking. He gets a little indignant at the invasion of his privacy, which for some reason bothers me a lot less here than when Jaxom was whining in White Dragon. I'm pretty sure the reason is "I like Piemur better" actually.
It occurs to me that Piemur and Jaxom's stories have a lot of parallels. Both steal an egg. Both end up on the Southern Continent. Both find something of a sanctuary and get annoyed when it's disturbed. However, of the two stories, Piemur's is easily better. And I think it just goes to show us that we don't necessarily need high stakes for a story to be effective, as long as there is a legitimate challenge and the protagonist has some kind of sense of forward momentum.
The stakes were much higher for Jaxom. He needed to steal the egg to avoid a war. He does so. But the problem is, after that point, Jaxom just stagnates. He gets sick, he recovers on the continent, he macks on Sharra...oh, eventually he decides to get up off his ass and do some exploring. And at the eleventh hour he decides he wants his kingdom after all, the one he'd neglected for twelve chapters.
Piemur doesn't save the world when he steals Farli. At most he inconveniences a guy with the connections to replace what was lost sooner or later. But that's just part of the adventure. In the meantime, we're getting a very fun survival story, in which a kid figures out how to feed himself, feed his companion, find shelter from the elements, deal with predators, and so on and so forth. The story keeps moving, and that's what makes it much more fun.
But I digress.
After some observation, Piemur figures out that these folk are Southern Holders looking to harvest numbweed. This is disappointing, because the process is going to take a good number of days and he really doesn't have much hope of being noticed. Also, the smell of boiling numbweed is pretty hard to take. Poor Piemur is exceedingly irked at being forced out of his place right when he'd gotten everything situated to his liking.
Through Piemur's observations we get to learn a little bit of both numbweed process and sailing customs. (He rules out the idea that these folks are from the North because their sails are red. Apparently Northern seaholders are big on intricate, multi-colored patterns.) That's pretty neat too.
Piemur starts making plans to blend in with the group, take what he needs and slip away. We get some nice preparation stuff, which I always like reading:
So he made a neat bundle of his woven mat and tied it with a vine thong, ignoring the chittering of Farli, who disapproved of his activity and of the fact that he was ignoring her gradually more insistent requests for food. He stared at the walls of his little shelter and decided that there was just the chance that someone might hunt in the forest and discover his rude hold. He dismantled the sheets of woven grass and hid them in the thick leaves of nearby bushes. He couldn't remove the clearing he'd made, but he scuffed up the tamped-down earth and scattered dead fronds here and there so that a casual glance would make it appear a natural clearing. He silenced Farli's now urgent complaints by heading for the river. His fish trap, tied to his sunken Thread-tree, held more than enough to feed her amply. He gutted what remained after she was sated, and wrapping them in broad leaves, added that to his bundle. He hesitated a few moments before tossing the fish trap back into the water. Surely no one would notice it unless someone tripped over the silly thing, which seemed highly unlikely, and the fish it captured wouldn't suffer. He'd leave it, and then he'd have ample eating when he returned here.
It does sound like Piemur put a lot of work into this place.
So Piemur starts heading away from the group, talking to Farli. He's feeling introspective. Initially he tells her that if they weren't making numbweed, he'd have gone down to introduce himself. But he's not sure that's true. He could very easily have gone down there and made friends, and it'd be easy enough to explain Farli as having found a clutch on the beach. He starts thinking through his story, when he's interrupted:
A tall girl stepped into his path, blocking his way. On one shoulder was a bronze fire lizard, on the other a brown, both eyeing Farli intently. She let out an apologetic squak, as startled as Piemur. As she also dug her talons into his shoulder and tightened her tail about his neck, all that came out of his mouth was a choked cry of astonishment. A quick chirp from the little bronze caused Farli to relax her tail. Piemur turned his head toward her, annoyed that she hadn't warned him.
“It's not her fault,” said the girl with a wide smile, easing her weight to one leg as she enjoyed Piemur's discomfiture. She had a pack strapped to her shoulders; a belt with a variety of pouches, some empty; dark hair wrapped with a band tightly about her head so strands wouldn't tangle in branches; and thick-soled sandals on her feet as well as shin guards tied about her lower legs. “Meer,” and she indicated the bronze, “and Talla know how to be silent when they wish. And when they realized that she was already Impressed, we all wanted to see who had got a gold. I'm Sharra from the Southern Hold.” She held out her hand, palm up. “How'd you get down here? We didn't see any wreckage as we came along the coast.”
Hey! It's Sharra! HI SHARRA! A pre-Jaxom Sharra! RUN SHARRA!!!
Piemur lies that he's been here for a while, having landed near the big lagoon. Sharra immediately assumes that there were others who were killed, because the lagoon is apparently treacherous in high tide. The outside shelf of rocks are very hard to miss unless you're right on top of them. Hah, I wonder if that's the same rock shelf Piemur had hid under.
Anyway, Sharra tells Piemur that, having survived what he presumably had, he clearly belongs in the South. This hits Piemur hard, and he thinks Sharra is as perceptive as "the Harper."
BWAHAHAHA. Poor Sharra, damned with faint fucking praise. When has Robinton EVER been perceptive.
But he's struck by the idea of staying on the continent and walking where no one else has been.
So they make friends. Piemur tells her his name and it slips out that he's hiding from the numbweed. Sharra confesses that her own job, finding other useful leaves and herbs, conveniently keeps her out of range of the numbweed smell. Piemur is happy to assist.
Sharra lets slip some interesting gossip: a northern Healer has sent her a special request. Sharra has some fun biases: mainly a mocking derision of dragonriders (fair, especially since she's mostly been dealing with the Southern riders) and the belief that Northerners aren't up to Southern standards.
These had come up a little bit in White Dragon, but not as much as I'd like. Given that Sharra ends up marrying a Northern Dragonrider, I would think her biases would be pretty relevant. And it might have been nice to see Jaxom try to earn her respect rather than be creepy.
So they spend a few days working together. In the first evening, Sharra cooks him the best meal he's had since Harper Hall. Interestingly, Sharra isn't inclined to ask any personal questions. Piemur volunteers a little (such as having been a herdsman's boy, when she comments on his skill with little Stupid), but she doesn't press. Instead, she talks about river explorations and the need for surveys. Of course the Oldtimers won't allow it, but Piemur does keep fighting the urge to mention N'ton when she complains about dragonriders in general.
#NotAllDragonriders.
So anyway, Sharra makes a great mentor. She shares her blanket, and helps Piemur find better leaves for bedding. She also teaches him about a particular plant for Stupid that can make up for the nourishment he's not getting from his dead mom. Apparently Stupid's constant grazing had been a dietary instinct, not constant hunger.
They continue working together and it really is quite fun. I think certain biology/botany inclined people would find the descriptions here pretty interesting. I just like seeing Piemur learn things and have fun. Sharra is a much better teacher than anyone in Harper Hall!
There is a funny bit of foreshadowing and/or reference when Sharra has Piemur help her get a plant that, when dried, helps with firehead fever.
It's both funny and infuriating that we've seen far more of Sharra in her element in one chapter of this book than we did in ALL of White Dragon. Has Jaxom even asked her about her interests or her projects? Hell, her fire lizards hadn't gotten to do anything. Whereas here, we learn that she's taught them to hunt and bring their catch to her. Piemur's pretty horrified when she disembodies some weird creature that they've brought back, as preparation for roasting.
They talk more about the Southern Continent and roast some dinner. The chapter ends here.
So this was actually the penultimate chapter of the book. Next chapter will wrap things up. It starts to become clear how and why Piemur started traveling the South on his own. I approve! The Southern Continent sounds much more amazing than Harper Hall! It's funny that there isn't really much suspense or climax at this point, but I'm not sure there needs to be. The real story here is Piemur figuring out who he is and what he wants to do, against the challenge/backdrop of the wilderness. Of course, McCaffrey might still pull something out of her ass at the end of the book. We'll have to see!