Date: Wed,  2 Aug 95 10:04:05 PDT
Subject: LOG: Kevlan and Berni's Trip to Estenar, Part 7

[Intro]:
Legend in Farann Province has it that the woods and hills surrounding 
the little township of Bremany and its outlying farmsteads do not like 
to be disturbed. Those that have occasionally ventured into the 
forests' reaches invariably seem to wind up lost, appearing some days 
later on the immediate outskirts of the town. But it is into these same 
hills that Kevlan Sharr's four-year-old niece, Fanna, who is possessed 
of a strange foresight as well as an odd starlight glow around her 
skin, has informed him that he must go in order to regain his singing voice.

Kevlan and his fiancee Bernadette have informed his father Orynn of 
their intentions. Startled by Bernadette's awareness of Fanna's 
abilities, as well as his own son's description of her 'glow', Orynn 
wonders whether his son has 'gone fey', but he disgruntledly gives his 
support to Kevlan's intentions. But the elder Sharr also vows to have 
his other sons waiting on the outskirts of Bremany in two days if 
Kevlan and Bernadette do not return from the hills in that amount of time....

----------
Kevlan rolls out of bed before dawn, propelled with an energy not unlike
  that of crystal song, given the longing look in his eyes. Softly, he
  nudges his love awake as well, his hushed voice relaying his feeling
  that it was best for them to leave in the morning, "So's Pa an'
  ever'body won't be frettin'."

As Bernadette yawns herself awake, Kevlan is already dressed, though he
  pauses to softly cup his hand against her cheek as she rouses into
  consciousness. Then, he grabs one of the carisaks they'd brought with
  them from Ballybran... and after a moment's thought, his gitar case as
  well.

Bernadette smiles and stretches felinely beneath the covers before
  dragging herself out of bed and going about her morning routine.
  Within minutes she, too, is dressed and prepared for their journey.

Recalling what Kevlan had whispered to her when he first awakened her,
  Bernadette asks in an equally hushed voice "Don't you think they'll
  worry if we just leave without saying anything to anyone?"

Kevlan turns to open the door, saying quietly, "Pa'll tell ever'body
  wheah we're goin'... an' we c'n leave a note, so... aah!" He comes to
  an abrupt halt right in the doorway, having just narrowly avoided
  tripping over the tiny figure of Fanna.

Bernadette blinks in surprise and makes a "shhhh" noise after
  Kevlan's own surprised exclamation, as she hurries over to the
  door to see what's going on. Behind Kevlan now, peering around his
  shoulder, she blinks again in surprise at the child.

The little girl is clad in a soft flannel nightgown dyed in a pattern of
  delicate pastel flowers, with a trim of white lace across its front.
  In one arm, she is clutching an old rag doll. And in the pre-dawn
  twilight of the house, her small face shimmers plainly. "Hi, Unca
  Kevlan," she says very softly.

Kevlan blinks several times in astonishment, then kneels before the
  child, and asks her huskily, "Fanna honey... what're you doin' up?"

"Ah had a dream an' Ah have t' tell you 'bout it," Fanna replies
  solemnly.

Bernadette pokes her head out the doorway above Kevlan's hunkered form
  and Fanna's little body, checking to see if they've awakened anyone
  else. Seeing no other movement and hearing no other sounds, she pulls
  her head back into the room and, putting a hand under Kevlan's elbow
  and Fanna's, she helps Kevlan to his feet and guides them both into
  Kevlan's room, declaring quietly, "We should probably talk in here so
  as not to wake the household..."

Kevlan nods, slightly shakily, pulling the door closed behind him as
  Fanna pads serenely into the room. As her uncle sinks down onto the
  bed, she climbs steadily into his lap, still clinging to her rag doll.
  Seeming disturbed, Kevlan swallows, then stammers to the child,
  "What'd you dream, honey?"

Fanna fixes the two adults with a plaintive blue stare and informs them,
  "You're gonna git lost."

Bernadette raises her eyebrows and glances first at Kevlan, then back
  at Fanna. "We're going to get lost?"

Kevlan looks rather more disturbed, returning Bernadette's glance. On
  his lap, Fanna nods very soberly, her huge eyes filled with concern.

Fanna pipes, "Uh-huh. Ah dreamed it."

Bernadette squats down before Kevlan and Fanna, looking at the girl
  closely. "Did you dream why?"

Kevlan frowns to himself, letting Bernadette handle this for now, though
  he cradles the youngling in his lap with reverent care.

Fanna's little face crumples slightly. She shakes her head, saying
  mournfully, "Ah saw you goin' inna trees an' then you get lost."

Bernadette smoothes the child's hair back from her face and says
  soothingly, "It's okay, Fanna. Don't get upset." She looks up at
  Kevlan briefly, then back to Fanna. "Is that the whole dream?"

Fanna continues, looking from grownup to grownup, "Ah don't want you t'
  git lost! But you hafta go look f'r your voice, Unca Kevlan!" Her
  expression grows more troubled, her small features quivering -
  reminding both Singers that despite her uncanny prescience, this _is_
  still only a four-year-old child.

Kevlan awws, and says tentatively, "It's okay, sweetie... it's
  alright... me an' Aunt Berni'll come back, we promise."

Fanna sniffles a little, and looks hopefully at the adults. "Okay."

Bernadette smiles and nods. "We'll be back. We might not get lost, you
  know. After all, not all dreams come true, honey."

Kevlan stifles a comment that, going by his brief troubled
  expression, suggests Fanna's have a better chance at being true than
  most.

The little girl regards Bernadette thoughtfully. "Ah saw flowers inna
  dream," she adds.

Bernadette smiles. "Were they pretty flowers?"

Fanna's tiny luminescent brow furrows. "They'ah pretty. Inna secret
  place. You hafta go theah. But you hafta be careful, too."

Kevlan blinks at this announcement, uneasily, but promises, "We'll be
  real careful, honey."

Bernadette nods in agreement with Kevlan. "Is there anything else you
  can remember from the dream, Fanna?"

Shaking her head, Fanna rubs her free hand sleepily at her eyes.
  "Uh-uh."

Kevlan says "Um... well, sweetie, you should go back t' bed, 'kay?"

Fanna abruptly looks very much like the tiny child she is, as she asks
  plaintively, "Promise you're gonna come back?"

Bernadette smiles as she stands up. "I promise we'll be back. You
  have to wear your new dress for our wedding, remember?"

Kevlan's eyes soften, and he hugs Fanna to him, assuring her,
  "Promise, honey. Swear on' th' Lady."

Fanna hugs Kevlan's neck, tension promptly leaving her face at his
  vow, and she beams sleepily to Bernadette.

Kevlan puts Fanna down then, and the child hugs Bernadette's legs,
  before earnestly padding out the door that Kevlan holds open for her,
  clutching her rag doll all the way.

Bernadette leans over to place a kiss on top of Fanna's head and says
  softly "Back to bed now, sweetie."

Kevlan watches the child go, then mutters, "Ah'll be doggone."

Bernadette looks up at Kevlan and simply pats his back.

Kevlan abruptly looks over, and asks, "You... still wan' go, Berni?"

Bernadette smiles and links her arm through Kevlan's and pulls him
  towards the door. "C'mon, let's go find your voice, love."

Kevlan smiles at that, crookedly, then grabs the carisak and gitar
  case again, and silently heads with Bernadette out and down the
  stairs.

The Sharr house is peacefully still, in the still-developing morning.
  Down on the dining room table is a piece of paper, propped against a
  cloth-covered basket; seeing this, Kevlan slows, and goes to pick the
  paper up. Kevlan scans it, then whispers, "Note from Pa. He an' Aunt
  Tammany packed us some food an' some other stuff... " He peeks into
  the basket, and grins sheepishly, producing a compass.

Bernadette raises an eyebrow as she gazes at the paper in Kevlan's hand.
Bernadette chuckles softly. "Looks like we've got their support...sort
  of."

Kevlan holds the note out to Bernadette; it reads in a blocky script,
  "Here's some provisions for you. You two take care and remember we'll
  come to hunt you if you don't get back in two days."

Amended to the note, in a completely different handwriting, is
  another line: "I can't say I understand this but I do know your voice
  is a part of you, Kevlan honey, so if you come back with it returned
  I'll bless the Lady. Take care. Love, Aunt Tammany."

Bernadette smiles and nods, as she picks the basket up. She looks up at
  Kevlan. "Ready?"

Kevlan nods, nervously but with a hint of a smile, and leads Berni out
  of the house.

One hand around Kevlan's arm, the other grasping the basket's handle,
  Bernadette follows soundlessly behind her fiancee.

Outside, the sky is just beginning to lighten with the coming rise of
  Estenar's primary, Andurin, over the eastern horizon. The farmstead is
  alive with the sounds of early morning birds and insects; a light
  breeze blows, laden with the scents of green growing things and dew.
  Nearby, the skimmer is parked, glittering faintly in the slowly
  growing light.

Kevlan opens up the skimmer, sets his gitar case, the carisak, and the
  basket of food in the back seat, then quietly lets Bernadette precede
  him into the front.

Bernadette clambers into the skimmer and settles herself in the
  passenger's seat, turning her head to watch Kevlan climb in beside
  her.

Closing the hatch behind him, Kevlan pauses a moment, considering the
  control panel before him. "Ain't flown a skimmer in a while," he says
  ponderingly. But this vehicle's controls are visibly simpler in design
  than those of either Kevlan's sled or Berni's, and without much
  trouble, Kevlan gets the skimmer started up and lifting off.

Bernadette mutters quietly "Just like riding a bike..."

Kevlan giggles a little, huskily, not saying much as the skimmer at his
  hands lifts with a muted 'thrum' of crystal up into the sky over the
  farmstead. He circles the vehicle around... and then points it towards
  those distant, treelined hills.
Kevlan murmurs absently, "Lady Bright, that little gal's... " He trails
  off, shakes his head, and finishes, "... somethin'."

Bernadette shivers unconsciously in response to the crystal's active
  presence, and watches the passing scenery. She turns to look at Kevlan
  as he speaks and smiles. "She's quite a gem.."

Kevlan smiles solemnly. "Ain't too many folks like her. Ah... don't
  blame Pa f'r gittin' a little antsy 'bout all this... Ah, uh... got
  th' feelin' Fanna ain't done stuff like this too much befoah... "

Bernadette smiles thoughtfully. "Well, perhaps she hasn't had to help
  someone quite this way before..."

Kevlan shrugs a bit, but not dismissively, simply by way of
  acknowledgement. Most of his attention is out the skimmer's airshield,
  as with the same careful care he might exhibit looking for claimsites
  in the Ranges on Ballybran, he studies the approaching line of hills.
  "She... dreams true, Berni. Fey folks always do... "

Bernadette nods slowly. "Yes, well, she _is_ only four, Kev. I didn't
  want her worrying.."

Ahead, mostly black in the dawn's light but growing slowly greener, the
  hills silently fill the view out the airshield. Kevlan nods again to
  Bernadette's words, but falls silent once more as the skimmer floats
  onward. The hum of the green crystal in the engine is the only noise,
  the harmonics vibrating a chord on the edge of the Singers'
  consciousness.

Bernadette idly fiddles with the laces of her boots as she watches out
  the viewscreen.

Kevlan remains silent, for the most part, as he flies the skimmer in low
  towards the tops of the hills. After perhaps half an hour of flight
  time the vehicle drops in across a verdant bank of trees whose leaves
  are gilded by the sunlight. Kevlan's gaze sweeps along this expanse,
  and he murmurs, "Ah forgot... "

Bernadette looks over at Kevlan curiously. "Forgot what?"

Kevlan's voice has turned huskily gentle, and though he doesn't look
  at Berni, he answers, "Forgot what th' woods were like.... " Strangely
  distracted of mood, he flies the skimmer past what might have been a
  clearing wide enough to land the vehicle in, piloting the craft on a
  slow course deeper into the hills.

Bernadette simply looks out at the forest, obviously not seeing them as
  any different from other forests she's seen on other planets.

Perhaps another half hour passes; by now, the sun is earnestly on its
  way into the sky. Andurin's light is gentler than Scoria's, more
  yellow, tinged with a hint of green... falling like liquid gold along
  the treetops. And at last, Kevlan slows the craft over a meadow on a
  hillside, and lands it.

Kevlan murmurs, "Heah, Ah think."

Bernadette sits up straighter in her seat and looks around. "Well, looks
  as good a place as any to me." She turns and smiles at Kevlan. "You're
  the boss."

Kevlan grins a bit, but still distractedly. He pauses to power down the
  vehicle, then turns and climbs out, inspecting the surroundings.

Bernadette scuttles out of the skimmer, stretching as she looks
  around, as well.

The meadow is at a higher altitude than Kevlan's family's farm, and
  here, the air seems purer, sweeter somehow despite it being slightly
  thinner. As the last traces of the engine crystals' song die into
  silence, the noise of the wood resumes around the edges of the meadow;
  distant birds trill, and somewhere off in another direction is a noise
  that might be that of running water.

Kevlan stands by the skimmer for a moment, simply breathing in the air,
  his gaze tracing about the grassy meadow almost as if he expected to
  see a black vein glinting somewhere amidst the pastoral scenery. He
  says softly, "Berni honey... git mah datapad? It's in th' sak Ah
  brung."

Bernadette plants her hands on her hips and surveys her surroundings
  once more. "So, which way?" She looks at Kevlan and, with a small,
  "Oh.." clambers back into the skimmer to retrieve the requested
  datapad. She returns a moment later with the device in her small hand.

Kevlan gives Berni a half-absent smile by way of thanks, and flicks
  open the tiny device, rapidly typing in a bit of data. "Better git in
  our coord'nates, Ah make us out roughly... " His voice trails off in a
  short string of numbers, as his gaze flicks up to note the position of
  the rising sun. To Singer vision, a ghost of a crescent moon - Lareen
  - can be seen on the western horizon, on its way down.

Bernadette walks to the edge of the forest and peers in between the
  trees.

With the data entered, Kevlan pockets the pad, then considers.
  "Should prob'ly scout 'round," he mutters.

Although she's not out of earshot...especially for a Singer...she
  appears to have not heard Kevlan's mutter as she slips under the
  canopy of tree branches on the outskirts of the forest, still within
  his sight.

The trees into which Berni peers are tall, deciduous ones, thick of
  trunk and tall enough to be clearly venerable of age. Immediately by
  the treeline, the dewy meadow grows damper, before giving over to an
  equally damp carpeting of layer upon layer of fallen leaves. The
  sunlight that has begun to warm the open meadow has not yet penetrated
  the canopy of the leaves, and the temperature drops palpably. Tendrils
  of mist sneak in and around the ancient trunks.

Kevlan blinks, then starts after Berni after verifying the position
  of the sun once more. He catches up in several quick strides, taking
  care to make no noise with his footfalls as he enters the trees.
Kevlan whispers, barely audibly, "Lady Bright... trees musta been heah
  longer than folks that settled th' planet... "

Bernadette steps back out of the treeline and peers around, trying to
  ascertain which mountain she's supposed to be climbing with Kevlan.
  Again, the whisper goes unheard, or unnoticed.

Kevlan pauses to gaze reverently up and up and up as high as he can to
  the treetops, though he keeps half a glance on his sweetheart on the
  skimmer.

Bernadette decides the trees are blocking her view, and inspects a
  couple of the trees' trunks around her. Finding a suitable one, Berni
  carefully, yet fairly swiftly, begins climbing the tree.

To Bernadette's senses, no immediate hint of where to go or where to
  look can be found... everything around her is either sunlit meadow, or
  the mistwreathed trees. The hill on which the skimmer has landed rises
  up in one direction over them, another hill immediately nearby
  providing the other side of a drop down into a valley that can be more
  clearly seen from the tree the Singer scales.

Kevlan comes to the base of the tree, and calls up, his voice still
  oddly muted, "See anythin', honey?"

Bernadette, still climbing upward, peers over her shoulder down at his
  upturned face. "No, not yet. Fardling trees nearly block out
  everything." She shimmies up even higher, calling "I think if I can
  get high enough, I might be able to see something..."

Under Bernadette's adroit hands, the trunk of the tree is rough and
  gnarled... slick with moss. Branches curl tightly out to mingle with
  those of the trees immediately nearby. The climbing is rough going...
  until at last a clear spot between branches provides a better view of
  the valley - and a glint of light that isn't cast by the skimmer.

Far above Kevlan's head, and barely visible between the thick foliage of
  the tree, Bernadette comes to a halt and calls "I think I see
  something..."

Kevlan glances around restlessly at the foot of the tree, seeming as if
  he wants to pace, but thinks better of it.

All that can be seen at this distance is a flash of... something, that
  comes and goes depending on the angle at which it is viewed. But the
  glint is down in the heart of the valley between the two immediate
  hills....

[End log.]