Exploration (1/2)

Writers: Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 12th May 2006

Characters: U'kaiah, Traelyn
Description: Keeping the promise he made a sevenday before, U'kaiah takes Traelyn out for a day of fun
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 11, day 21 of Turn 3

U'kaiah stripped off his riding helmet and stared up at the cliff face before them. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he grinned at the goldrider as she came alongside him.

Traelyn shaded her eyes against the bright sunlight as she turned them to the cliff. "In all its jagged mystery, it certainly is." Returning his grin, she gestured around. "Where are we, U'kaiah?"

"Silver River Hold," he said spreading his arms out wide and basking in the moment. He had been waiting a _long_ time to take this trip, and he was so excited his best friend was with him for it. "Isn't it wonderful?"

She eyed the surrounding area that stretched on and on, her grin still in place, but now it was amused. "U'kaiah... Where, exactly, _is_ the Hold?
I don't see it."

"We're standing right in the middle of it!" he said triumphantly as he pulled a piece of hide out of his pocket. "In fact, if I can read the map correctly, we are standing in the middle of where a weaver's workshop used to be. Or is it the stable... No, the stable is down back towards the tree-line a bit."

"We're in the _middle_?" Shards. Traelyn raised a hand to shade her eyes again as she looked out towards the trees. "What happened to this place?"

"Greed, corruption, and a total lack of common sense," he said turning around to get the whole view of things. "This was once one of the richest Holds on the Southern Continent, and yet it only lasted a couple hundred turns and then was gone. Just like that," he said with a snap of his fingers. "And since that time no one has lived here. It has been abandoned more than seven hundred turns."

She knelt down and grabbed a handful of the soil. It was moist, not dry. "The land seems fertile enough," she murmured, waving a hand from the ground to the land surrounding them. "Why won't more people settle here?"

"I think mostly because there are no other Holds or trading caravans nearby," the bronzerider said with a shrug. "Not to mention the fact that hardly anyone remembers this place is even _here_ anymore. The mountains have kept it fairly isolated from all but the most adventurous, and those adragonback. The ancient roads have long since been washed away."

Tilting her head back to look at him, she let the dirt fall through her spread fingers. "You've really done your research, haven't you?"

"Exploring abandoned Holds is one of my favorite past-times," he said with a shrug. "How would I know where to look if I didn't do a bit of research. But _this_ place... This one has always fascinated me. At the last Hatching there was a geologist's son who Impressed. When he told me his father brought him to this place on one of his excursions... Well, I just have to see it for myself!"

She smiled. His enthusiasm reminded her of a boy who'd just been given sweets. It was like the time when he had taken her to his favorite room in Dragonsfall Weyr--the Records Room. Slowly she rose to her feet. "You going to show me around?"

"Well, that is the plan," U'kaiah nodded. "But this is my first time too, so I guess we'll be showing each other around." He walked over to Kalamath and unhooked his pack. "I have lunch, blankets and glows in here. I'm ready when you are."

At Traelyn's silent request, Nyith lowered her golden neck so her rider could take down the other, smaller pack. Hooking it over her shoulders, she turned towards him. "Let's go."

"Ok," he said pulling out his hide once again. "I think we're on the wrong side. The main entrance should be around the other side." He grabbed her hand and began pulling her along. "See, the Hold was built right into the cliff face, much like Garnet Valley is. The outside is actually quite plain. That was intentional."

"No prized windows, huh?" He'd said this hold had been one of the wealthiest back in its time...wouldn't they have wanted to flaunt their wealth outwardly as well as inwardly?

"Like I said, this Hold was very wealthy. If you look around you can see that it is also wholly unprotected by any natural features once an enemy moved into the valley. All they had was this rock wall to protect them, so they made the main entrance as small as possible, with as little ornamentation as possible. This was both to help disguise entrances as well as to give potential marauders as few footholds as possible. Ingenious if you really think about it," U'kaiah said with an appreciative smile.

"Then once you get inside, there is a large indoor courtyard that could be easily defended. Not only would the enemy be forced into a straight line and bottle-necked outside, but they were bottle-necked yet again once they tried to enter the main Hold proper. You'll see it when we get inside, I hope." He grinned and pointed towards an opening, just large enough for two caravan wagons to pass through, and no wider. "And that's the Main Entrance there."

Traelyn looked on, her appreciation for this abandoned place growing with each step. "In what did this Hold find its wealth, U'kaiah?"

"Silver. At the time they thought it would be one of the richest veins ever found on Pern. And it was quite rich, to be sure. But they mined it too fast, spent it too easily, and grossly overestimated just how much silver there was. They put all their faith in the mines, and when they suddenly ran out of silver, the Hold had not diversified enough to survive."

"Shards. Those poor people..." she murmured.

"Oh no, Trae," U'kaiah laughed as he put his arm around her shoulders. "The people survived. It was the _Hold_ that died. The people moved on elsewhere, and eventually this great feat of architecture was abandoned and forgotten."

They were almost at the entrance now. "Look, Trae," he said pointing up at the cliff face. "You can still make out some of the windows. See those slits up there? They were small so that no one could climb in and out of them. But they were cut with that V-shape groove at the bottom you can still barely make out on a few of them so that archers could fire their bows down on any forces that might try to invade. Ingenious," he smiled.

"All right now," he said pausing outside the great hole in the cliff-face.
"Shards, it's a wonder of construction this hasn't caved in over the turns. Now Trae, I want you to wait here just a second." He pulled a small whistle out from his belt. "I just want to check and be sure." Walking to the entrance he leaned in and blew on it as hard as he could -
a loud, shrill, annoying sound. Straining his ears for any sound that may be heard over the reverberating echo, he waited and listened for a good minute and then blew it once more. Nothing. Smiling he reached for her hand. "Sounds like its just us and the tunnelsnakes."

She wrinkled her nose at the mention of those vile creatures. "Great. But if we see one, _you_ get to handle it, U'kaiah. I hate those things."
Then she pointed to the whistle. "What was that for?"

"Just in case there was something _larger_ than a tunnelsnake living in there," he said with a wink. "Luckily, this area isn't known for felines."

Her fingers tightened around his. "Good."

"Come on, I'll protect you from the tunnelsnakes," he grinned.

As they walked through the entrance, U'kaiah pointed out the holes in the sides that had undoubtably been where doors had once hung, and behind them a large slit that had at one time held a reinforced, secondary door. The dirt they had been walking through gave way to titles of a variety of stones, now covered in age old dirt, and at the end of the narrow passageway, a courtyard, just as he had promised. Cavernous and still illuminated by sunlight through the ancient slit-windows, and before them, the great entrance into the Hold that one would expect from a people as affluent as they had once been purposed to be, but instead of imported stone, its columns, entranceway, and ornate, though now crest-fallen decorations, were all carved straight out of the natural rock. It was one large sculpture leading into the Hold proper.

"Shards," U'kaiah whispered in his awe as he looked at all the incredible detail that still remained. "How could anyone have forgotten _this_?"

"I don't know," she whispered back, her dark eyes huge as she took in the ancient beauty. Once they reached the center, Traelyn paused, slowly pivoting around to take in all the sides. "I can only imagine how all of this looked when the Hold was populated..."

"Look down, Trae," he said pointing to the stones they were standing on.
U'kaiah gently scraped away the layer of dirt on a small section to reveal several colored stone tiles. "It looks like a mosaic of some kind."

"What of?" she wondered, kneeling down to study the colors and shapes. Using her fingers to dust more fine dirt off of them, she glanced up at him. "Maybe it's the Hold's symbol?"

"I'd say that's a fair guess," the bronzerider grinned. "Hold on a sec." He pulled a glow out of his bag and climbed the stone steps. "I'll be right back," he called over his shoulder as he walked through the Hold entrance door. It wasn't long before he appeared again. "Just what I was afraid of," he sighed. "Blocked. Cave in, it looks like."

"Shards. I really wanted to see more of the inside..."

"Oh, you may yet one day," U'kaiah said sliding an arm around the goldrider's waist as he took another look around the courtyard. "A Hold this size wouldn't have just _one_ entrance, you know. That wouldn't be safe. But, this does look like a flaming great spot for a picnic, don't you think?"

Last updated on the May 13th 2006

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Exploration (1/2)