A Missing Tail

Sean was sitting on his hammock with about four friends. The hammock was swinging back and forth, along with the rest of the hammocks.

Most people were in hammocks, but a bunch of kids were playing on the floor, mostly little kids, with some lasses watching them. The kids were dashing around from hammock to hammock, holding on with their tails, with other kids chasing them.

“Hey, Sean, where’s your tail?” Meagus asked, flipping up into the hammock.

Sean reached out and wrapped the end of his tail around Meagus’s face, “Here’s my tail!”

Meagus pulled the tail off his face, “Not that tail, landy, your Elf buddy.”

Sean looked around, “I dunno. He’s probably with Seth and them.”

“No, he ain’t, I was just there. They asked me where he was.”

“Well, where else would he be?” Sean said, then, raising his voice, “Hey, has anybody seen Sionr?” The noise continuing he let out a loud Schip’s whistle. “Hey, has anyone seen Sionr?” he yelled, into the silence. Everyone looked at him, and shook his head.

“Lads, find him!” Sean said, and he and the other lads piled out, Sean heading up the gangway and out onto the deck. “Captain, Captain,” he called, holding on carefully, so as not to lose his grip, as he walked the deck. “Captain, have you seen Sionr?”

“Sionr? No. Is he missing, then?” The Captain straightened up and looked, along with Sean. Most of the sails were off, so, even though the wind was blowing and everything was dark, it didn’t seem there could be a lad aloft.

Their eyes scanned each figure, but no one was close to small enough to be Sionr. Sean would have searched the deck but several of his buddies were already doing so. They were still looking up at the masts and down at the deck when Meagus came up from below. Seeing Sean standing with the Captain he said, “Captain, we’ve searched below decks. We’re still looking, but unless he is deliberately hiding, we would have found him by now.”

“All hands, all hands,” the Captain yelled, “prepare to turn the Schip.”

The lads yelled, “All hands, all hands,” down the hatch, and took their places at the ropes. Seconds later the off-duty men came roaring up the stairs and climbed the various ropes. Sean saw Seth appear at the top of the gangway, and raced over to him, “My Lord Prince, can I talk to you below?”

“Sean, what is happening?”

“It’s Sionr, Sir. He’s missing. We’ve searched the entire Schip. The Captain thinks he must have fallen off, sir, when the storm hit.”

They searched for several days, but could find no sign of Sionr. One lad finally remembered seeing him at the top of the mast right before the storm; staring off, as he did so often, forward, toward their destination. Finally they had had to continue on their voyage, with a slightly more sober tone than they had had before. Sean frequently climbed to the top of the mast, where he was now. He remembered the first time he had taken Sionr here − never imagining that he could be leading him to his own death.

Not that the Visseren ever spoke of death by drowning. The phrase they used was, “gone to live with the Dolphins”. Sean liked Dolphins (who didn’t?) but he didn’t find the phrase much comfort.

---

At first he thought it was just a line of clouds. But Visserknaapen know that lines of clouds are not always lines of clouds. “George,” he called out to a Visser passing by, “Come take a look at this.”

George did come, and he did look. “Captain!” he called out, after looking for a minute, “Come look at this.”

The Captain hustled up the mast. He didn’t often get an excuse to do so and still enjoyed it. He glanced where George pointed. “Good eyes, George,” he said.

“Don’t praise me--Sean here spotted it.”

“Call it out then, Knapp.”

“Is it land then, Captain, the land I mean?”

“Sure is.”

“Land Ho!” Sean called down the deck, where people were already gathering − the Captain swarming up the mast being unusual enough to have alerted them to something being ‘up.’ Sean raced down the lines and Meagus raced up to him, “Is it the land, then, Sean?”

“The Captain thinks so.”

“Well, let’s go look,” Cladder said, and the Knappen and many of the Meisje crawled up the lines. Sean was about the join them, when Tristan came up.

“It is the land, then?” Tristan asked as Mgwan came up, his apron flapping in the breeze.

“Want to come see?” Sean asked, and Tristan’s eyes lit up, and he raced up the lines. Mgwan looked up and sighed, but Sean grabbed a rope and gave a whistle. Mgwan looked down, confused, as Sean, having attached the rope, around Mgwan, untied the apron and handed it to one of his Sisters who were milling about.

“What?” Mgwan said, and then gave a yelp as the rope tightened, and his feet came off the deck. Sean, and Meagus who had just landed on the deck with a thump, grabbed the rope and pulled Mgwan over to a line.

“Grab hold and climb,” Sean said and, with Meagus and Sean gripping him, and the Knaapen overhead pulling, Mgwan was lifted and climbed up to the upper shrouds. “Lash him well, lads,” Sean said, and then, together, they looked out at the land.

“I, umm, I need to…” Mgwan said, recovering his poise, slightly.

“No you don’t,” Sean said. “Our cooks did fine before you were there, and they will do fine now. Look, do you see it?”

“Of course; a nice cliff, eh?”

Everyone turned to look at him, “A cliff?” Sean said. “You can see a cliff?”

Mgwan looked confused, “Well, yes. It is a cliff, isn’t it? I haven’t seen that many cliffs, but it looks like the others we passed on our last journey. A cliff, a reef at the bottom…”

“Captain, Captain,” Sean yelled. Seconds later the Captain was again at the top.

“What is it, Knaap? I already gave you the credit, what more do you need?” he said, grinning.

“Captain, our Sjefen claims he can see a cliff and a reef over there.”

Everyone turned and looked at Mgwan who, although it was difficult to see on his green skin, was blushing. “Can you then?” the Captain asked.

“Good sight you have, then. Tell me, what else can you see?”

“Just the cliff and a reef; there, in front of us, and as far as I can see in both directions.”

“Do you see any difference, in either direction?” a voice asked from behind them, and they all spun around − except Mgwan, who was lashed to the mast.

“My Lord Prince,” Sean said, but Seth just looked at Mgwan who was staring out… “No… both directions look pretty much the same.”

“Well, then, I guess we need to decide. Captain?”

“Well, if we have a choice, we might as well go downwind. Going back will be fine, either way, but beating up would be annoying.”

“Downwind it is, then,” Seth said.

After the Captain yelled the order for a slight turn downwind (everyone agreeing that they did want to get closer) Sean asked Seth, “Sir, did you know that Mgwan would be able to see farther than us?”

“Well, no, mainly because I didn’t think about it. It is a question of focus, not sight, really. The Svømte eyes can change their focus more than ours. I guess because of needing to see things in the swamp. They have good eyes, and great noses. But,” he said, pointing to Mgwan lashed to the mast, “they don’t climb all that well, and don’t have tails to hang on with.”

--

Mgwan was grateful when they let him get down. The Schip was close enough now so that even the Visser could see the cliff and reef easily, and he went gratefully back to the kitchen.

“Land, eh?” the Sjefen in charge of the kitchen asked him, as he and the various Visserfrau turned to look at Mgwan.

“Yes, although no place to land yet.”

“Well, they’ll need their dinner, anyway,” the Sjefen said, and everyone turned back to their job. Mgwan found some onions that needed chopping, and spent some time doing that, before moving back to the dessert he had been working on earlier, when the cry had gone out.

--

“I’m so excited,” Sean said, when he crawled in bed with Mgwan some hours later. “Do you think we will find a place to land tomorrow?”

Mgwan was prevented from answering as several Knaapen and one or two Meisje crawled in after Sean, and a good deal of wrestling ensued. A few minutes and some switching from a nearby hammock later, though, Sean turned back to him, “Well, do you?”

“I dunno,” Mgwan said, “You are the Visserknaap. What do you think?”

“Well, there must be. I mean, no land just has straight cliff and reef.

There has to be something different soon. What’s up with you, anyway?”

It was hard being around Visserknaap. One could hardly even frown before they were suddenly asking you why, and how you were doing. And lying to them didn’t work, either. Mgwan lowered his voice. They could keep secrets, anyway. And Mgwan really did want to talk about it. “I − do you think that Seth likes the job I am doing? Or is he just keeping me around out of, I don’t know why.”

Sean settled back on his back, and Mgwan turned to look at him. His eyes were staring at the ceiling. Finally, after almost three minutes, he turned back, and whispered into Mgwan’s ears. “You ask me a hard question, because we don’t think like that. I am a Visserknaap, and I don’t know much about ‘jobs’ and things. That is more a Farmer thing, or I suppose a Sjefen thing, I don’t know. But I know Seth likes you, and wants you around. Isn’t that enough?”

They were both quiet for a minute, the other sounds in the room sounding loudly in Mgwan’s ears, and then Sean whispered again, “If you ever 99 want to, you could always live with us, and work with us. We can always use another Sjefen in the kitchen.”

With that Sean turned back and wrestled with Meagus − quietly; and Mgwan was left alone with his thoughts.

“Captain, Captain!!” a voice came from high on the mast. Hadassah looked up, watching the Captain clamber up.

“Come on up,” Seth said, coming up behind her.

“What?” she said. She had been up the mast before, indeed the day after she had changed; but not often.

“Come on,” he insisted, pulling her by the hand.

She climbed up after him, the wind whipping her skirt from side to side.

It was an exhilarating feeling, although she was sure that she would not have enjoyed this as a Farmerwife. The wind was strong, and the sun beat on her face. She saw Seth looking back at her several times but, really, this was easy.

“What do we have, Captain?” she heard her Husband ask the Captain.

“A break, I think,” the Captain said, as Hadassah reached the top and stood beside her husband, several Knaapen moving out of her way. She looked where they were all looking but didn’t really see anything, anything different.

“Where exactly?” Seth said, and Hadassah saw Sean start to open his mouth and point, and then shut it.

“Just there,” the Captain said. “You see the line of reef, just there, near the horizon? You see how the colour changes slightly, a bit darker?”

Now that he mentioned it, Hadassah did notice it. It was darker, just a hint, but darker.

“An hour or two, and we should know,” the Captain said and Hadassah, realizing that they were in for a long haul, sat down.

A half-hour later pretty much everyone had climbed up at one time or another to look, and Met had joined her at on deck. “Well, it looks pretty good to me,” Met said. “Not huge, but something.”

Sean came clambering down from the very top of the mast, “I think it is about a mile long, and a good break in the reef,” he said to Seth. Seth clambered up to see, and the girls watched him. “Lads,” Met said, “love climbing around.”

Hadassah laughed, and they both watched Seth stare out, and then come back down. “Well, he knows more than I do,” he said, “but it looks good to me, too. The cliff is still there, though. That’s awkward.”

“Boats out,” the Captain called. Sean relaxed. He and most of the other Knaapen had been hauling on ropes for the last couple of hours, and he was glad of a break. He watched the boats pulling their way through the bay and up 100 Vonsbooks.com to the beach. It was a nice sandy beach here, probably because the reef had the gap in it − almost exactly the mile long gap he had predicted, although only with a half mile of really free water. That was enough, though. The Schip was anchored outside the reef, and the boats easily navigated the opening.

The cliff was still there, though, and would have to be climbed. Sean wished he could do it, climb the cliff with the ropes, but there was no way a mere Knaapen would be allowed to do so. Ellyll and Visser, both climbing races, were already preparing to go up; hauling ropes up so the rest of the party could join them.

Instead of getting to do that, Sean was to be hauling cargo out of the Schip and down to the boats, or, perhaps, getting to help row a boat. The beach, the Captain had decided, was deep enough for them to leave the supplies there. That way, once the ropes were up, and Seth had decided to make at least one base here, the Schip itself could leave for the Capital.

“Sean,” he heard from behind him. It was Mgwan. “Sean, are you ready to come?”

“I have to work,” Sean said. Mgwan looked puzzled.

“But the Prince said…” he said, and walked off. Sean had almost forgotten about it when, a few minutes later, Mgwan came back. “Seth says that you are to come with us on the next boat,” he said, and Sean’s heart leapt.

His friends looked at him jealously, but he darted off with Mgwan before someone could change Seth’s mind.

He went with Mgwan down below decks, and, as they came up to Seth and Hadassah, saw Seth grinning at him. But he didn’t say anything, instead turning back to Hadassah and talking with her. Sean looked around, and saw, besides Mgwan, Tristan, and Wynforr, the Ellyll and Visser chosen to climb.

They all looked out, and watched the boats returning.

Sean’s heart continued to beat fiercely, with guilty pleasure, until the boat was well away from the Schip − too far away for his Father or Mother to call him back. The Captain − Sean’s heart began beating hard again. What would the Captain say?

But, in the end, the Captain said nothing − just glancing at Sean and the others before issuing instructions. Sean, and the others, stood and watched as the Visser and Ellyll snaked out the ropes, and then started climbing.

Neither Ellyll nor Visser were specifically made for climbing cliffs (although both were excellent climbers), so it had been decided to send some of each. Dwarves were, actually, cliff climbers, but in this case everyone desired speed, which the Dwarves weren’t known for, so even the Dwarves were happy to let the other races lead.

There seemed to be no great advantage to either form in the ‘race’ to the top. The two Ellyll were more easily able to get past spots with narrow and difficult handholds. The Visser, however, were stronger, and thus better able to haul others up once they had found a hold. In the end they had the Ellyll ranging ahead, and when one of them reached a high spot, they secured their rope and helped the lightest of the Visser up, who then helped everyone else up, along with the long ropes they were hauling.

The climb continued, until one of the Visser found a particularly good crack and heaved himself the remainder of the way to the top. They saw him peer cautiously over the edge, and then pull himself up. A minute later he was back, and shouted for them to attach the Schip’s rope to his cord.

While the crowd on the ground was doing that, the others on the cliff made it to the top and the Schip’s cord (despite its weight) was easily hauled up and attached. It had been decided that Seth, Sean, Ishvi and some others would climb the Schip’s cord, while a chair lift was being installed for Mgwan, the General and the chief Dwarf using some lighter ropes and a wooden winch.

Sean, who started climbing the second the ropes were let down, reached the top well before the General and the others were pulled up. He noticed that almost everyone was standing ranged a good distance from the cliff edge and facing away from the cliff edge.

Sean moved quietly alongside, and looked where they were looking.

The cliff edge was the local high point, the ground sloped down away from them. And there, seemingly several hundred yards away, he saw what they were looking at. There, ranging along the vast prairie, were dozens of huge animals--enormous fat animals, grazing in small groups. Far, far past the animals, stood tall, snowcapped, mountains.

As everyone was standing very quietly, Sean could hear the leaders’ discussion: “Welcome General, Chief Engineer,” Seth said.

“What do we have here, my Lord Prince?” asked the General.

“Well, my Lord General, it seems we have new neighbors… rather large new neighbors. None of them have yet come over here by the edge of the cliff, and they have ignored us so far, but it doesn’t yet seem wise to me to bring our women and our tents up.”

Everyone looked out over the plains at the very large animals. To proceed to the next phase of colonization, they would need to set up a permanent camp, move the supplies into it, and send the Schip back with the news. Did they have to move the Schip? This bay had seemed, except for the obstacle of the cliff, an excellent first step.

The silence broke as people separated into small groups, each discussing various options. Sean had no particular thoughts so he hung around Seth and the General and listened to their conversation. He noticed 102 Vonsbooks.com that while they talked the Chief Engineer was particularly silent. At times he paced over to the edge of the cliff. One time, while he was staring over the cliff, he suddenly straightened up and stumped decisively back to the other leaders.

“My Lord Prince,” he stated, “I believe that I have an idea.” Seth and the General stopped their discussion. “My Lords,” he continued, “I believe that we actually have an excellent situation here, if we take advantage of it properly.”

--

“We’re going to what?” Hadassah asked. Seth had come down the cliff again, and they were sitting in front of a tent the Visseren had set up for them on the beach, watching the other tents being put up, and, now, the sunset..

“Build a fort up on the edge of the cliff, right on the edge, right there; a semi-circular fort, with just a low wall on this side.

“A fort? So, you are thinking of actually settling here?”

“Yes. There are several things that weigh against the area, but others that weigh in its favor. There is water, and the Dwarves have said that it will be easy for them to get it to go up on its own, as it were, with some kind of machine that they will make. Getting the cargo up there will be difficult, but, again, the Dwarves say they can make an elevator for us.”

“Once we are up there, though, we will be well nigh invulnerable.

Making a wall will be easy… look at all the rock that is just sitting there. The Chief Engineer tells us that this rock is great for making walls, and he is practically drooling about being able to mine it here, on the cliff face. They say that, with the elevator there, the mining will be easy. Can you imagine anyone trying to attack us here?”

“What about the Beasts?”

“They are ignoring us, for now at least.”

---

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