Soaring

She then gently set the pair down on the soft sand and stepped back enough to get a better look at them. The one who had fallen was a young male and the other a female. She could tell that her assessment of their age had been correct. The female immediately bent to check on the condition of her companion who had collapsed onto the beach. Eirlan could smell the dried blood that matted his dense, red-brown fur and knew that the male had been seriously injured in the fall that resulted in his clinging to the side of the cliff. How seriously she could not tell, but that he was not still bleeding was a good sign. Suddenly the female stood and rushed over to the remains of the boat, checking various boxes that had washed up along the beach. It was obvious that she was searching for something, but the Dragon had no way of knowing what that might be. After a few minutes the female had apparently found the box she was looking for half buried in the sand and began frantically trying to dig it out. Eirlan carefully got up and walked over to where the female was working and with a single talon lifted the box from the sand and popped the lid open.

For the first time the female spoke. “Thank you, Lady. Had you not found us, I fear my brother would now be dead.” Eirlan nodded her head in acknowledgement and then introduced herself using the common language of trade.

“Lady Eirlan,” the female said and bowed her head again. "I am Brenna and my brother is Tolin.”

Brenna then began to dig through the box until she found a small green jar, it’s cap tightly sealed against water and air by a coating of wax. With her prize in hand, Brenna ran quickly back to her brother and cracked open the seal. Whatever the jar contained the smell was quite pungent and Eirlan wrinkled her nose in disgust as she pulled her head back. Apparently, the Sionnach also found the smell unpleasant for as soon as Brenna passed the small jar under her brother’s nose he began to cough and turned his head away. A moment later his eyes opened and he looked around the beach, obviously unsure how he had gotten down off the cliff relatively unscathed. When he spotted Eirlan, he gasped in surprise and tried to rise to his feet. Brenna pushed him back down and ordered him to lie still. His sister’s tone was so firm and authoritative that he quickly turned to look at Eirlan in order to hide his amusement. As he did so, Eirlan caught a faint touch at the edges of her mind. Suddenly he put one hand over his eyes and groaned in pain.

"Can you hear me, Tolin?" she asked him via mindspeech.

“Yes,” he answered verbally if somewhat weakly, “but it looks like that is going to be all for a while. My gift is only recently awakened and it appears this headache is going to interfere with it for a while. I see my sister has already told you our names.”

“Yes, and I am Eirlan. I am pleased that at least one of you can hear me. It will make things much easier. You’ll just need to translate for Brenna. For now, though, we need to see about getting the pair of you back home and you to a healer. I would be happy to carry you on my back if you are up to the ride.”

“I think Tolin might have trouble holding on to your back with his injuries and I am unwilling to rely on my own strength to hold him in place. Could you carry him in your hands?” Brenna asked.

“I could carry him, but that would not be advisable. It would not be as comfortable for Tolin and it would make landing difficult,” Eirlan explained, “Maybe we can devise some sort of harness…”

After discussing it for a moment the pair agreed that a harness would be a prudent move and Brenna began scouring the wreckage for the rope they would need. When she returned to her brother’s side, Eirlan asked if she should see about hunting for them, but Brenna didn’t think that would be wise with Tolin’s head injury. It would probably be safer for him to wait until a healer had seen him before eating anything to avoid the possibility of making him sick to his stomach, Brenna reasoned. Well, Eirlan didn’t know enough about either the Sionnach Daoine or the ways of healers to dispute the Brenna’s reasoning and so she simply sat back and waited for her to gather the material for the harness.

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