Missing Threads

 

I've always seen writing a story as akin to weaving a tapestry - if you have a thread, you keep it around, even if it's only a little thing. If you drop threads, your tapestry starts to get a little thin, depending on how many threads you drop.

This eight-book series is great. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys dragons, and I will give it a five-star review on Amazon when I finish the last book. The main character has a great character arc while still retaining self, and her number two is suitably tortured - I do hope he finally gets his girl - we'll see. 

The threads I'm talking about aren't big and in the vast scheme of this story, they don't really mean much; they were just something that nagged at me. 

First off, early on, our dragoneer sent off a rider in search of a translator, because, for the first time, they were able to take a surviving enemy as prisoner, and now they needed to find a way to communicate. I can sympathize, but it didn't seem like she put in enough effort to that end. She left it up to another of her riders to devote the hours. I can understand not having a lot of time, but it just seemed like she could have given it more effort - just my opinion. She hasn't been in the dragonseat for more than a month, and it takes experience. So she sends this guy off on one of only two male dragons they have (That's another issue I'll address later), and he just vanishes out of the story and virtually out of mind. Time is difficult to judge in this series, so I can't tell you how much time passed before he surfaced again - suffice it to say, it felt like a while. He was badly injured, but he did manage to pass along some vital information about a heretofore unknown staging site farther along the mountain range. From this site, they, the enemy, were amassing a ground force large enough to deal with our dragoneer's dragons. The big question at this point was why. Generations of dragon wars every summer all summer long made no sense. She wanted it to stop, and ever since joining with her alpha dragon, she felt every ache, pain, and wound of any dragons around her, so I can sympathize. A short time later, they brought this rider and his dragon home. At that point, you never hear about that rider ever again.  I'm ready to start the last book, and I seriously doubt he'll show up now. The only thing wrong about this is, though the alpha dragon and her dragoneer are the only ones who join, the other riders get very attached to their dragons. If a dragon dies but the rider survives, he gets another dragon, but it's like when you get a new dog a couple days after the one you've had for years has died - there's an adjustment period - new habits and a different feel to get used to. This particular rider, even if he could never ride again, would have come to see his dragon or hung around to do chores or whatever. As it is, we don't even know if he survived or died. There was no funeral, and dead riders get a very visible funeral, The whole village turns out. I know I kept looking for him; he just never turned up in any capacity, not even a doctor's report. 

The next thread that got lost involved that camp. When word got back to the king about it, he sent an army of, I assume, comparable numbers to deal with the leak through the mountains near there. Our dragoneer flew over to investigate and found the site deserted. Since their big army force had failed spectacularly, anyone left behind had taken off only with what they could carry. When the king's army arrived, they were told to occupy that site, and then we hear nothing about that at all ever again. They even had a caravan come through that 'leak' and the staging site might as well have been overgrown and wiped away for all the mention. At the very least, a fast horse should have been sent ahead to announce the arrival of a friendly caravan from across the mountains. Nada

The next thing is kinda big if you ask me, but really has no real effect on the story. The enemy on the other side of the country wants their eggs, but since feeding their dragons had become a problem, the dragoneer had opted to not allow her dragons to breed that year - she just couldn't feed them, I'm thinking this wasn't planned when that first book was written. Okay, let me start at the beginning. I've raised chickens, ducks and geese, and I've noticed a time or two in other places the ratio of male to female in cattle and pigs. My dad used to raise both, but I was just a kid; I didn't pay attention to those numbers back then. Anyway, the ratio of male to female is almost always real close to 50/50. If these dragons lay eggs every fall, where are the young dragons? How long does it take them to grow up to be old enough to ride? I can see most eggs being sent to the king, because if you take twenty dragons laying even only a dozen eggs each, That's almost two hundred and fifty eggs. Now at 50/50, that's over a hundred males. What was here at the beginning was twenty females, which were the bigger fighting dragons, and two substantially smaller male dragons. The male dragons were used as couriers because they were much faster than the bigger females. Now, what with the every-year war, casualties were, after a fashion, constant. They should have had young dragons in training by young hopeful riders to take their place. So, logically, they should have kept at least ten female babies and at a minimum one male dragon to keep the breeding stock going, though it might be better if theirs went to the king and other males were sent back, just to keep the bloodlines mixed. That would take care of the one male dragon ridden by that one now-dropped rider, that was deemed unrideable by the time they were found. This is another detail that was never mentioned again. As it was described back then, He'd been left wearing his saddle for so long the straps had started to cut into his muscle - not so much that he couldn't fly home, but bad enough he could never be saddled again. I can only assume that even when they reach adulthood, they must keep growing some. Or maybe the leather straps had shrunk. It was never explained. So, I suppose he could still breed, but he couldn't carry a messenger. Plus, when you have baby dragons, you easily have children eager to take care of them. I don't know; I think it would have added some comic relief to the drama. It would have required a separate wing to the dragon barn, or maybe even a different barn altogether. Can't you just see some kid running through the heather holding his baby up so she could feel the wind rather than just pretending to be the next dragon rider? 

Like I said, five stars for this series. It really is a great read. Check it out. 

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A Recurring Dream

Last night I revisited an ancient mansion again. In my chain of dreams, I moved into this mansion. At first, it was only the front door, a dining room, a kitchen, and another big room off the living room that had been used to rent beds, I guess - there were like six or more beds in this room. There were also two regular bedrooms, a small bathroom and a back porch off the kitchen. 

In that bed renting room, there was another door to another section of the house, but it was locked. I could go out a sliding glass door, walk through a big flowerbed, and see into that other section. That sliding glass door was locked too.

At some point, I must have found a key to that door because I had to go upstairs to rescue a girl who went after some doll up there but didn't come down. 

In another installment, a guy decided he wanted to live in one of those rooms upstairs, but then he just vanished. I don't know what happened to him. He either left or the house ate him. 

Last night, apparently, I'd civilized the first and second floor, and now there were two boys, maybe four and five, or somewhere close. There was also a boyfriend. I got no sense that he was anything closer than that. 

I was cleaning this long narrow bathroom and I thought a little shelf under that window on that end would be perfect. I had this enormous house to explore, so I thought I go up and see what was in the offing. At the door to the next floor, the lights didn't work, and the youngest boy got scared. It was still day, so there was plenty of light, but there was lots of shadows and mysterious shapes. As I made my way up to the next floor up, I noticed that the other boy had followed me. I chewed him out for leaving his brother alone and probably scared, so I sent him back.

I assume they went on back down to their normal parts of the house and came across the boyfriend - maybe he was their father - I don't know. 

In the meantime, I found this perfect little cabinet. I'd pictured a small bookshelf, but this had drawers, and it was the perfect size. It had a smaller cabinet on top of it, rather like a buffet, but much smaller. The topper had small drawers too. As I went through those drawers, I discovered that this cabinet had been someone's sewing cabinet. That unknown woman from away back had probably been rich, considering the house, she was. These sewing things were exotic, top of the line, things, and some of them I couldn't even identify. I was carefully emptying those drawers, placing most of the things on a bed and the liquid items on the bedside table. I didn't want to risk something leaking and staining that spread. The smaller part, I'd already set aside. The left-behind dust mark was obvious, but it would wash away easily. 

The boyfriend found me as I was unloading the stuff. "What are you doing up here? I want you back downstairs right now."

"Okay," I said. "I'm almost done. I'll be down in a few."

He pulled the cabinet out of my reach and looked in a drawer. "What is all this junk?"

"Sewing things. This is so cool. I'm going to put this in the long bathroom."

"How are you going to move this by yourself?" He pulled a drawer all the way out, I was afraid he'd break it, but he just dropped it on the floor. Some contents bounced out.

"It's not that heavy," I said. I didn't think it would be very hard at all to get it down the stairs. One step at a time. I hadn't planned on getting any help and didn't think I needed any. 

"I want you down stairs now," he said and left.

"I'll be down in a few minutes," I said to his back. 

Now this is where my dream ended, but it left me thinking that I'd be booting a certain turd from my house. It was my house, and had been for years. Yeah, I wouldn't put up with that. 

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I Had a Dream

 The Vanished Series

I'm reading this really good series. It has a lot to do with the Navaho and some of their issues today, but that's not what my dream is about, though these people are involved. I'll do that sometimes, when a book is really good. This dream didn't have much to do with the book, just the people - two of them mostly.

There were two inflatable rafts, one with three people and one with two. They were floating down a quiet river. The water was like glass, it was so smooth. 

The leader, in the first boat was a proud Navaho, but he was dressed in his best army uniform, decorated all down the front with many ribbons and metals. The woman sitting in the middle of that boat was also dressed in a military uniform with a few such ribbons and metals, but not so impressive (They are not dressed this way in the book, not even close). She was white as was the man in the front of the boat. He was dressed like a businessman trying to rough it. khaki pants and a once-white shirt. 

In the second boat was two Navaho teenagers dressed like teenagers - bluejeans and some kind of T-shirt. The only real thing that marked them as Navaho was their dark skin and long black hair. I don't remember if they wore any jewelry or other such decoration. One was a bully, and the other was one of his toughs. 

The dream takes off with the teenagers deciding to start rowing ahead, ignoring the leader who tries to warn them back. Their mission is not just a peaceful float down a nice river. There is real danger out there somewhere, and if they're going to survive, they need to not be fools. 

Laughing, the kids row circles around the bigger boat. Eventually, as the sun starts to set, they pull over for a rest. As soon as they're out of the boats, the leader rounds up the instigator of the other boat. 

Now, in the book, the people of the reservation are all preparing for a festival where they sell artwork. There is also a stage setup where they show off traditional dances and such. This little detail is important.

The leader backs the kid up against a tree. "What's the matter with you? We're not playing here. It's dangerous out there. We have to be careful and quiet. Stop being an idiot."

"I'm not an idiot, not like you." The kid indicated the uniform and metals with no little derision. 

"This? I'm very proud of this. I worked hard for this. What are you proud of?"

"Proud. We ain't got nothing to be proud of no more." He indicated the woman. "Look at her. She got metals like you. What you so proud of?"

"What? You think because she's white, they just hand out those metals? She worked hard for them too, maybe harder than I did because she's a woman. Why aren't you doing anything at the festival?"

"I ain't about to go show off in front of a bunch of them. They..."

The leader slapped the kid across the face hard, rocking his head to the side. The tough took a step forward, but he wasn't quite brave enough to interfere.

"You are a fool. You can't fight a war against them; they won that war a long time ago, and they would win again if you tried, but don't you see? Even with all they've accomplished, they are lost. They got no pride. They're not proud of themselves or anything they've achieved. You? You're Navaho. You can be proud of that. You can be proud of your clan, your traditions, your customs. They don't have any of that. You need to show them what it means to be proud of who you are. You have so much more than they have. You are not lost. You have the Navaho way. They have no way."

And then I woke up. I thought it was kinda cool, so I thought I'd share. 

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