Outside, the clock tower struck noon.
“It has been sixty days,” the naval captain noted.
A smartly dressed woman sighed. They were only two of the countless people awaiting news of The Horizon’s return, and yet they were certainly among the most interested. “So it has. And no news, captain?” The woman asked tiredly.
“None,” the captain replied stiffly. It was an old dialogue, one that they’d had many tis.
“Very well, we will wait one more month,” she said firmly.
“Joan,” the captain entreated, almost pleading.
“-and you may tell the operator that the ssage is cleared for transmission,” she finished.
The captain was only a little placated by this, and looked as if he would have liked to voice so dissent, but he eventually acquiesced, nodding.
The woman smiled consolingly. “Don’t worry about them yet, Martin. You know the ship is not ready, and they might not have felt the need to return yet,” Joan said in comforting tones.
“...Of course, Director Kirk,” Captain Siebert answered formally, and touched his hat as he excused himself.
Pryce woke up slowly, fumbling in the darkness for the lighter as the sun had not yet risen. Once he had lit the lantern he was able to read the ti; a quarter past six, another fifteen minutes until the signal arrived. He plugged in the radio and spent the remaining ti stretching so that he wouldn’t fall back asleep, and was a little startled to finally hear the ring.
Then a few monts later, a second ring.
Pryce’s heart stopped, and for a second he froze. In the next he scrambled for the nearest pen and notepad to record the signal. The radio had two bells of different tones, only one had been used up until now, as only one bit of information was required.
But to send a ssage would require more than that. The low frequencies transmitted could only store a paltry amount of information, nowhere near enough for spoken words.
So it was a good thing that morse code was invented over a hundred years ago - it was a relatively simple matter to translate a ssage into two unique signals, ‘dots’ to ring the sharp bell, and ‘dashes’ to ring the dull bell.
By the ti Pryce was able to begin recording he had missed the first few tones, but that was no issue - the ssage was sure to be looped. Soon he finished writing the ssage, but the ssage began to repeat one minute later just as he’d expected. With another repeat he was certain he transcribed the ssage with no mistakes:
-- . ... ... .- --. . / ... - .- .-. - .-.-.-
/ .-. . - ..- .-. -. / .- ... .- .--. .-.-.- / .. ..-. / .-. . --.- ..- .. .-. . -.. --..-- / .- .-- .- .. - / .-. . ... -.-. ..- . / .- - / . .- ... - / -.-. --- .- ... - --..-- / ..--- ..--- .-.-.- ..... / -.. . --. .-. . . ... / -. .-.-.- / .-. . ... -.-. ..- . / ... .... .. .--. / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .-.. .- ..- -. -.-. .... / --- -. / -- .. ... ... .. --- -. / -.. .- -.-- / ----. ----- .-.-.- / . - .- ---... / -- .. ... ... .. --- -. / -.. .- -.-- / .---- ----- ----- .-.-.- / -- . ... ... .-
--. . / . -. -.. .-.-.-
Using the morse code table, Pryce translated the characters one by one until he decoded the ssage:
SSAGE START.
RETURN ASAP. IF REQUIRED, AWAIT RESCUE AT EAST COAST, 22.5 DEGREES N. RESCUE SHIP WILL LAUNCH ON MISSION DAY 90.
ETA: MISSION DAY 100.
SSAGE END.
“What are you doing?” Fathom asked irritably, having been woken up by the sound of Pryce’s noise of frustration.
“People from the Mainland tell that they will co here in 40 days, this is not enough ti!” Pryce groused.
“People from the Mainland?” Fathom asked, bewildered. He had slept through the sound made by the radio, just as he had every other day. “Mainland is very far away, how can they tell you this?”
“Yes, mainland is over 10,000 kiloters away,” Pryce confird as he plugged the radio back in with shaking hands, and the signal that was still looping began to play once more. “Humans make a device that can make light that no one can see. This light goes very far, and this device can ‘see’ that light. We use light to make noise, and noise can beco English,” Pryce explained distractedly as he paced.
“How can light go far? Earth is round, light from far away cannot reach us,” Fathom said as he narrowed his eyes doubtfully at the unassuming radio receiver.
“This light is strange, it can hit the sky and bounce, so it can go very far. I don't know how this works, other humans know this better,” Pryce added as he dug through his belongings to find the map, though Fathom remained skeptical of this argunt. “Here, do you think this red mark is in the province we’re in?” Pryce asked, holding up the map.
“I…don’t know, this might be in the north-most province, we are in the second north-most province,” Fathom said, squinting at the map. “There is no detail, so it is hard to tell where this is.”
“This red dot is around 800 kiloters away, so you can probably reach it in 20 hours of flying. Can you reach the north-most province in 20 hours?” Pryce asked urgently.
“That will be…close,” Fathom huffed indecisively. “I can reach it if I go fast, or if the wind is good.”
Pryce didn’t reply to this, and only paced as he muttered to himself. Fathom reached out with a forelimb and blocked the human’s path in order to grab his attention.
“What?” Pryce asked, a little irritably.
“You have not explained everything that the other humans told you,” Fathom said drily.
“Oh…right, sorry,” Pryce said before reading the ssage and explaining the words that Fathom didn’t know.
“You said it took your ship 20 days to get here, right? How can this ship co here in 10 days?” Fathom asked after he had understood the ssage.
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“Yes, our ship can go fast enough to reach here in ten days, but bad weather and a big storm made my ship get here in…20 days,” Pryce said absently. He had skipped past the unfavorable ocean currents as he hadn’t taught the dragon that word yet, but that factor was unlikely to change. “The word for how water moves is ‘current’, and the direction of the current in the ocean was bad, it made our ship move slower than it should have,” Pryce said, half talking to Fathom and half thinking out loud.
“So the next ship will be here after day 100,” Fathom concluded.
“Yes…that is good, thank you for making think better,” Pryce said, taking a few calming breaths. “But we still do not have much ti, the solstice is on day 102.”
“Do we…need to go to solstice-celebration?” Fathom asked, slow and uncertain.
“That…is a good question,” Pryce answered thoughtfully. “Is it better to tell many dragons together about humans, or to go find the humans first? Can dragons fly over other dragon territories?” Pryce asked before Fathom could answer his first question.
“Yes, but only if we do not land for long,” Fathom answered. “And only if they see us,” he added a little mischievously.
“Then it might be better to go and find the humans first, then we can work on telling other dragons about us,” Pryce said.
“This is good, but not…great,” Fathom said slowly. “What I an is, we spent much ti talking about how to do things at the solstice, but now we are not using that plan.”
“I know what you an, but it’s not all bad,” Pryce shrugged. “We still need to tell other dragons about humans, we will just do it later, and more slowly. For now, we need a new plan to find the next ship.”
Fathom groaned.
“I landed this ship here because the ship was closest here, but we were supposed to land here, where the next ship is going,” Pryce said, pointing at the red X on the map. “But this next ship will want to try and rescue my group of humans, so they will almost definitely land here to find us.”
“What if they don’t land there?” Fathom asked.
“Do you think you can fly maybe five hundred kiloters up and down the beach? They should land sowhere there,” Pryce asked.
“That is not very hard, I think I will be healed when that day is here,” Fathom said confidently, but not without casting a longing glance at his still-bound wing. “But dragons who have territory here will see us if we fly there many tis, they will not like that,” Fathom warned.
“So we can bring them gifts, bottles will work, right?”
“Yes, that will make them happy,” Fathom reluctantly, evidently not very eager to give away things even if they weren’t technically his.
“Good, now I was thinking we can get so help. Do you know other dragons who might want to help us, or might like to learn about humans?” Pryce asked. “I can give them things to help us.”
“I don’t need other dragons to help,” Fathom grumbled pridefully, looking wounded at the suggestion that he was not enough for this task.
“Yes, I know you are more than enough help, but more dragons an we can see more land, and that ans we can find the ship sooner,” Pryce said placatingly.
“I understand,” Fathom grumbled discontentedly, not sounding appeased in the least.
“Do you think Celeste would like to help us?” Pryce asked, hoping this would be less offensive to the dragon’s pride.
Fathom perked up, spines flaring at the na of his daughter. “Yes…she will like to talk to you very much,” he said in sowhat nostalgic tones. “She asked many questions when she was small, many questions I could not answer.”
“Sounds like she gets that from you,” Pryce said, though this turn of phrase seed to confuse Fathom. “Wanting to learn things is called ‘curiosity’, and it sounds like she is curious like you are.”
“Yes,” Fathom said lancholically. “I have not seen her since she left. She is an adult now.” The dragon bowed his head as he said this, clearly hesitant to be reunited with his daughter.
“Why do you not want to see Celeste again?” Pryce asked.
“I failed her,” Fathom snorted bluntly. “She had to leave because I could not protect her. Other dragons will not attack one who is not an adult yet, it was safer for her to leave.”
“Couldn’t you have left with her? Find a new ho?” Pryce asked hesitantly.
“...maybe, but maybe we will not find-” Fathom said before shaking his head. “No, that is wrong. I stayed to protect our ho, and because I did not want to leave the place Abyss died.”
“I see…that is a hard decision,” Pryce said, walking up to Fathom’s lowered head to comfort him. “Where is she now?” He asked quietly after a few monts of silence.
“Not very far, maybe ten hours of flying north,” Fathom answered. “She is living with two other adults.”
“Two other adults?” Pryce asked, surprised. “Are they in a clan together?”
“I do not think so. It is strange, but she lived there before she was ten years old,” Fathom said, flattening his spines in a draconic frown.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to see them?” Pryce asked.
“That…should not be dangerous, one of them cannot fly,” Fathom noted contemplatively.
“Can’t fly?” Pryce asked, taken aback.
“Yes, she was hurt very bad a long ti ago. The other dragon helps her live.”
Pryce was surprised by this compassionate behavior, but it was not surprising that so mates would love each other more than others…unless the other was acting out of so form of responsibility. “Do you know anything about these two dragons?”
“Not very much, but I do not think they are dangerous. I think they helped Celeste, so I think they will not be dangerous.”
“Alright, we will go see them when you can fly,” Pryce nodded. “I’ll bring sothing good to give them, if they have been protecting Celeste.”
“Yes, that is a good idea,” Fathom said. “Maybe…I should give them sothing, to thank them,” he added a little reluctantly.
Pryce nodded, surprised that Fathom would voluntarily give sothing when he was not obligated to. Perhaps he was rubbing off on the dragon?
“Please try and teach more dragon words, I want to try again,” Pryce said, changing topics.
“Why? You can not hear our words very well,” Fathom grumbled in annoyance. He was not a very patient teacher when Pryce struggled so much to make any progress.
“What if I need to understand dragons, and you are not with ?” Pryce asked.
“Why would I not be with you?” Fathom asked, genuinely confused.
Pryce shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe in the future I need to understand what dragons are saying, and maybe you are sleeping or hurt, and you cannot help .”
Fathom rumbled discontentedly, but eventually agreed with additional coaxing. The rest of the day was spent with Fathom experinting different ways to teach Pryce his language. Simply repeating simple words in Draconic was not very effective, as Pryce could not physically reproduce the sounds. In the end, they worked out a system where they would talk casually, but Fathom would replace so English words with draconic ones, and then Pryce would have to guess the aning until he got it right.
It was a slow and painful process, but Pryce felt like he made so progress by the end of the day.
“Thank you for teaching today,” he had said later that night; he was grateful that Fathom had continued to teach him despite the dragon’s visible – and sotis vocal – impatience.
Fathom had curled up on his bed, and his head was tucked underneath a wing as he mumbled sothing that sounded vaguely like “You’re welco”.
Pryce chuckled before turning to go to sleep as well. He was tired from the day’s work, but not in an unpleasant way. The bone-deep discomfort of not knowing what to expect or plan for had faded, and he slept with a lighter heart knowing he would not have to talk to dozens of unfamiliar and unpredictable dragons at once.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 60,
I received the ssage from The Mainland today, the new plan is to intercept or et the rescue ship before they encounter any dragons. The fact that many dragons will be at the solstice celebration instead of protecting their territories will an that we will be less likely to encounter any dragons.
We will need to tell them about humanity eventually, but at this mont there’s no bad blood between our people; the most important thing is to keep it that way.
I didn’t want to think about things this way, but the truth is humanity poses a far greater threat to dragons than the reverse. The last thing I want is for so power-hungry idiots to use an unfortunate incident to justify the invasion and subjugation of this island.
On a lighter note, I plan to continue my efforts to learn Draconic, at least until Fathom’s wing is healed enough to remove the chain and stitches. Once freed, he’ll essentially need physiotherapy to regain the ability to fly.
I don’t know how long that will take, but once he’s recuperated we’ll go and et his daughter.
I'm a little anxious, but if Fathom thinks it's safe then things should be fine.
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