Kenist Miana Stories: Koaekaeala and Dune at the Abstract Destiny

"Tery? Terynesa!"

Several others shushed Koaekaeala as he padded into the small library. He ignored them, but he did make his call silent instead of disturbing the place's peace. As he never did bother learning how to read and write in his own world's languages, and thus had never actually stepped foot in here before, he hadn't known that people kept it quiet. Though, on hindsight, it made sense.

::Terynesa? Dune told me you were in here.::

"Koaeeeeeee!"

The kit's squeal elicited another round of shushing, but apparently Terynesa-- who should have known better, given she spent a few hours a day in this place when they were at the ranch-- didn't care. She came rocketing out from whatever corner she'd holed herself up in and barreled into his chest at top speed. Thankfully, she was still much smaller than he was, so all she did was knock the wind out of him and make him stagger back a step, flaring his under-sized wings for balance.

"Oof!"

"You're home!" Terynesa exclaimed happily. The rest of the library didn't shush her again, but heads did crane to see what the disturbance was, and those close enough to see glared darkly.

"I am," Koae agreed sedately, then suggested, "Why don't you get your books, Tery, and we'll talk outside?"

"All right," she chirped back at him, and bounded back the way she'd come. Koae followed with less excess energy and, since though she showed signs of various other magics she had yet to display any telekinesis, let her pile books onto his back. Thankfully, she only had three this time. Also thankfully, she did not try to scramble up with them, because though she still only came up to his chest, she was certainly heavy enough that he could no longer carry her, not and share the space with a trio of leatherbound books.

"Did you have a good trip?" Tery asked as they passed out of the library. "Did you find anywhere good for enkeyns? Did you kill anything? Did anything hurt you? You look all right-- a little skinnier, though."

Though Koae was not wont to smile, Tery usually managed to make his muzzle twitch with the urge to do so. She asked so many questions!

"I wouldn't call it 'good'," he replied. "It was not particularly profitable, however. I did have to kill things, mostly for dinner." Not that anything had been particularly tasty, though.

"Mostly?" she repeated slyly.

"You are entirely too bloodthirsty for a child," Koae told her loftily. She just grinned at him. "But yes. Mostly."

"I wish I could have been there," she sighed.

"It would have been too dangerous."

"You came out all right."

Since Koae had been patched up by Sharian healers, of course he looked like he'd come out all right. His right foreleg still pained him, but he took care not to show it.

"I am an experienced explorer," he reminded her. "You are not even two years old, and still fumbling with your magic. Remember the incident with your den-room wall?"

Tery's ears went back with mild embarrassment, obviously remembering just that incident, but she recovered quickly. She was, all in all, a cheerful child. "Next time?"

"If I am not warned ahead of time that there will be much risk," Koae agreed-- as there had been, for his latest exploration, and well-justified warning. The planet had been quite dangerous, and though he dutifully explored as much of it as he could, he had quickly decided that it would not be high on his list for recommended colonization. More than once he'd had to use claws, teeth, and horns for more than hunting his dinner, and he'd wished more than once quite heartily for the full use of his wings. The planet had been in no way suitable for a half-grown child.

And yet, if he were honest with himself-- and he did try to be-- Koaekaeala knew that he'd missed her and wished she'd been with him. She'd come with him for several of his shorter explorations, when diviners and preliminary surveys said it wasn't likely to be too dangerous, and even accompanied him for one of his longer ones. They'd spent the better part of year on one largely uninhabited planet, giving it very careful study, as it seemed a good possibility for future settlement.

"Enough about me," Koae said, shaking his mane. "I would rather not think about that trip, much less recount it. What have you been doing while I was gone?"

"Reading a lot," Terynesa replied readily. "Dune's been helping me-- I'm pretty good now!"

Koae sighed lightly as his young bond launched into a long, rambling description of things she'd read during his absence. He was glad Dune helped keep her occupied when he was away; the little sa'enkeyn tutor truly was a blessing in that way. He, himself, had never learned to read his own world's language, though he'd picked up a few written languages in his travels by necessity, but Terynesa, without him to talk to, seemed to have dived into reading easily and energetically. Of course, she managed to find all manner of strange things through her reading....

"Next time they give you a vacation," she was saying, "I've found just the place to go! It's right here on Kartyn-- somewhere, anyway. I know the general area it's supposed to be in. I've read all about it."

She usually had some new legend for them to investigate whenever he came from after leaving her at Kenist Miana for a while. Her desire to explore things-- to simply do things, for that matter-- far outstripped his own. He explored because it was something useful he could do, which he was marginally good at, not out of any particular drive to find something new, be remembered for finding it, or even make a difference in the world. Compared to Terynesa's urge to do just those things, he felt rather like he didn't measure up. Really, next to her, he felt positively boring. But he had no idea what to do about that.

Still, Tery was young yet. If her enthusiasm continued into adulthood, he'd deal with it, then.

"What do you think?" she asked him eagerly, at the end of the picture of words she'd painted for him of her current legendary locale.

"We'll see about it when you're grown, Tery," he told her warmly.

"You always say that," she retorted, wrinkling her nose at him.

"You are not yet grown, so it still applies," he answered.

"Yeah, well... I'm keeping a list! So when I'm finally 'grown up', you won't have any excuses."

"I'll look forward to it," Koae assured her. "But as you are not grown up yet, let us keep to the ranch for now. I, at least, am famished."

"Well, okay," Terynesa acceded, butting her head into the fur of his mane affectionately. "If you can't adventure, at least you can eat, right?"

"Right," Koae chuckled softly, and she led the way at a trot while he followed sedately but contentedly after her.