openmisc | Kent/Feldspar

Kent and the hatchlings arrive with some of the other visitors. Chert goes to help with the fire but Kent stays near the tree. He can hear rustling in the leaves and he catches the sound of the grunt up above, but before he can alert them, the pinecone drops and there's a small flurry of activity to get them down and out of the branches.

Kent lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding and reaches for the other two to keep them back.

"This happens a lot?" he asks and Gabbro laughs.

"Oh yeah. I mean, we got the fire out fast this time."

Marl and Tuff climb the tree and work to chop and untangle Feldspar from the branches, Mark whistling for the onlookers below to watch out for falling twigs.

“Is anything broken?” Hornfels calls up to them, catching Feldspar’s helmet as it drops to the ground

“I don’t think so,” they mutter. “I’m bleeding somewhere though. Hey, Slate!”

Slate shields their eyes with their arm. “Yeah?”

“Your thruster threw off the balance of the controls! Locked the steering up.”

“Good to know!”

“Good to know, is that all you have to say?”they can hear Gossan hiss.

“What else do you want me to say? You pilots are aware of the risk. Felds knew there might be an issue with the flight, but I had to know for sure.”

“Hey!” Marl calls down. “We’re gonna drop Feldspar, so get something to catch them!”

In short time a blanket is found and held out by the awaiting villagers, and down Feldspar falls with a quiet grunt.

He eventually lets the hatchlings go but hangs back a little as the villagers rally around their crazy test pilot.

Kent has one hand on his stick, the other in his pocket, and he waits until Chert joins him again and takes his arm.

"They alright?" he asks them, as if Kent hadn't been listening the entire time.

"Oh, they're fine. Just bleeding. Come on. I'm supposed to take you back to the village," they pipe up.

Well all’s said and done it’s just another scar to add to the collection. Rutile patches up the long gash along their back with a low grump, but has learned a long time ago that it’s not worth saying anything to them about being careful. It’s just in one ear and out the other.

Feldspar spends a little time in the observatory giving Slate detailed notes about how the ship handled, then calls it a night and slowly limps their way towards the top of the waterfall to sit in peace a spell. Contrary to popular opinion, they don’t do any of this for the attention. It’s the love of exploration and the need for the next thrill that always keeps them going, and they hate when the whole village has to come out and fish them down from a tree.

And Kent was there. They could see him as they were being carried away, still with the three hatchlings, who may have been used to all of this by now but were no less startled when it happens.

They sigh and pull their harmonica out from their pocket, humming a note first before blowing through the mouthpiece to play a slow, quiet song.

The villagers bring food for Kent, but they establish a routine for him where he joins others in their homes and tells stories and he gets fed.

It's a great system, and Kent is happy to oblige. It keeps him from brooding. But Horfels isn't going to let him be alone for too long. They invite him to the observatory and he starts to work on comparing maps.

The next time he hears the harmonica at night, though, he follows the sound up.

Feldspar has only seen Kent here and there, busy with his work with Slate on the tech and Gossan in the Zero G cave. They see Kent with Hornfels in the observatory though, and it makes them smile to see him look so at home. They worry for him.

In the morning they’ll take a trip up to the lunar outpost to see Esker, but tonight they want to sit at their spot on the waterfall and play a bit. They can see Kent’s cabin from here - it’s reassuring in an odd way.

He's careful around the waterfall. There aren't any barriers that he knows of here, and he doesn't want to go spiraling into the abyss. Or the river.

But he does walk up, his feet slipping a little on the path as he taps his can in front of him.

Feldspar hears the stop tapping sound despite the hum of the harmonica. They sit up and lower the harmonica from their lips, listening quietly to whoever it is coming their way.

Maybe Gabbro. That hatchling loved to hang out with them by the waterfall to stargaze.

“Who’s there?”

Kent laughs softly.

It's Feldspar. Of course it is.

"I'm a ghost," he calls out as he continues up the path. "Here to haunt you forever."

A ghost, or his friend, Kent! Feldspar hops up with a quiet laugh and goes to meet him on the path.

“Braving this path on your own? Clearly you’re looking to be a ghost. What are you doing up here?”

"I was following the sound of the music," he tells them, reaching out a hand for their arm. "I wasn't planning on stepping off of any cliffs. Not all of us like the thrill."

It’s a bit of a well-deserved dig, but it stings a little coming from Kent. They aren’t sure why that is exactly; it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve heard it, and they certainly wouldn’t deny it either. It’s just…

They want Kent to understand.

Feldspar takes their arm to lead him the rest of the way up the path.

“I like to come here and stargaze.”

And Kent wants to understand, too. So he holds fast to them and walks the path. He has no fear now, nothing can touch him.

"Hornfels was showing me charts, but - doesn't sound like you have constellations like we do," he says. "What do you see out there?"

"That's a shame," Feldspar says, and means it. They bring Kent to where they had been sitting and guide hi down onto the rock that served as their bench. "About your stars, I mean. Guess we're pretty far apart."

They frown and glance upwards. "The planets first. Our moon, then Giant's Deep, Brittle Hollow, the Hourglass Twins, Dark Bramble. They float by as the night progresses. I'm not sure which one I like best, but I can't say Giant's Deep doesn't have a kind of pull on me. We haven't been able to send a probe to that planet, so who knows what's beyond the swirling clouds and storms?"

"It's fine," he assures him. "I didn't think there would be any that were exactly the same. It's all about looking for patterns."

Kent reaches down and sets out a few rocks. The first is their sun. Then the other planets as they're named. They seem exceptionally interesting - all of them. He lays them out beside him.

"Brittle Hollow was where you found me, right?"

Feldspar adds Timber Hollow in between the Hourglass Twins and Brittle Hollow, then Giant's Deep, then the Dark Bramble, their fingers accidentally brushing against Kent's as they fix his model.

"Yeah, by the north pole. I was going to look at some ruins up that way when I heard your ship crash."

"Giving you a much better adventure," he teases, running his fingers along the stones, pausing a little at the Hourglass Twins. "Two planets or - a planet and its moon?" he wonders.

“The adventure of a lifetime, some might say.”

Not them, of course - there’s always more out there.

They look at the two rocks representing the hourglass twins and switch a small stone out with one that’s equal to the other. “Two planets. There’s a phenomenon where sand travels between them. I’d love to see it for myself instead of just through a telescope.”

"Wow, I don't even know what would cause that," he laughs. "That sounds - well, way beyond my scope. When you see it, tell me?"

“Way beyond our scope too. It’ll come around in about an hour, if we stay out that long. Right now it’s Giant’s Deep in front of us.”

"You said storms. Is it a gas giant?" he wonders, leaning back on his elbows.

“That’s what we assume,” they say, leaning back on their hands. “Do you have a planet like that in your solar system?”

"A few, yeah. There's Jupiter, eleven times bigger than our planet and a storm that's been going for centuries. Saturn, with rings, Uranus, that spins on its side, and Neptune, where the winds would blow you apart," he laughs.

“Amazing.”

Heh. Uranus.

“Nothing habitable, I would assume? You’re exploring through satellites and probes?”

"Oh nothing habitable. Too much atmosphere, no real solid ground. The closest we have is Mars, a rocky planet nearby," he explains.

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