21 Hivvem 4385: The Crefian Nest

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

The flight through the Verticals went great! It would've been faster if Mirhandrax had been able to fly on an ulgrane too instead of Flying Like a Bird. Even so we made pretty good time and didn't get into even one fight flying down past the Verticals. I think Mirhandrax was disappointed. Glory Blaze was super-nice and agreed to carry a couple of the crates for us so we didn't even have any trouble getting the fruit down there.

The crefians were SO HAPPY to see me and Intoxicating Sky again! Refia is just as sweet and kind as I remember although she's not the nest matriarch any more because she passed the role to her sister Inifsi and now mostly Refia plays with the children all day. Which sounds better than being matriarch to me and makes me wonder if Refia had to bribe her sister with something to get her to do the matriarch thing.

I remembered Refia's grandchildren from my last visit of course but I didn't recognize Flitlegs and Redspots at all because they were just caterpillars last time and now they're full-grown with big intangible wings like panes of stained glass. I had to spend a ninth of an hour with each admiring them and telling them how pretty they are. Then we played hide 'n seek because they're not that grown-up yet. All the adults who were in the nest the last time I was here still remember us slaying the jack o' hooks for them -- it turns out that was two years ago and not last year. The crefians wanted to know how everyone else was doing which meant I had to break the news that Lastsplash was dead and Haroof was missing and probably dead. Miskael is fine though he just retired from adventuring after Lastsplash died. Still that was sad.

After that, Inifsi insisted on perching us and the whole nest among the gathering branches and having me tell the story about fighting the jack o' hooks again even though it's not a very good story as adventurer stories go. Ostensibly this was for the nestlings who were too young to remember and for the crefian family who's moved to the nest since then. It turns out either I don't remember the adventure that well or the crefians have embellished it a bunch (or most likely both) because they kept interrupting me to add details. After a while I told Engas to go ahead and tell it for me.

Oh and they LOVED the fruit that we brought and I was TOTALLY right that they would be happy to trade us babyberries for it.

Unfortunately they didn't have the babyberry bush any more.

It turns out that a couple of months ago a thunglaze -- a tiny furred bipedal nonprime not much bigger than my hand, with two long slim ears and a short muzzle -- had come to the crefian nest. It was accompanied by two furomi -- nonprimes that look rather like shaggy Gormorror-sized versions of the thunglaze. The thunglaze was called Armenswall and wanted to trade for not just a few handfuls of fresh babyberries but for the whole berry bush. Armenswall offered in return enough orange trees to make a little grove.

"But orange trees don't grow in the Verticals the soil's not deep enough and you don't get enough consistent sunlight," I said as Refia was explaining.

Refia's orange and red wings drooped through the branch she was perched upon, her antennae kinked unhappily. "I know. But these trees were enchanted. Armenswall swore to us that they'd been growing for years in the Verticals. And you know we've more use for orange trees than the babyberries. So we agreed."

"Of course, the thunglaze was a lying little cheat," Inifsi added. "The magic wore off on the orange trees three days later, and all of them died. Leaving us with nothing for our bargain."

"Oh that's AWFUL," I said. "Do you know where they're from did you already demand your babyberry bush back or at least get new trees?"

Refia bobbed her insectoid head glumly. "They make their home a score of miles from here. We sent a group to complain, but they only laughed at our naïveté in accepting the deal in the first place. We've not the power to confront them with force over it, not in their own lands."

Outcast grimaced, exchanging a look with Mirahndrax. "It's only six days to winter now. There's no way we can go elsewhere for knowledgefruit at this point."

Mirhandrax nodded his great shaggy head. "We will have to get it from this thunglaze, then."

So I guess it's going to be an Adventure after all.