"This is one of four FTS farms in this sector."This is one of four FTS farms in this sector. This is ours, and if you look way over there you can probably see Piot's. See where those foothills begin, before the mountains take shape?" Garth nodded. "A little." "That's Piot's. He grows grapes on the hillland, and mostly grains on the valley floor. He's one of the finest vinyards on the ring, too. He's been there forever." "Forever is a long time." "He's been there long enough," Kiza said, smiling. "You know who Kitty Moran is?" "She's the Dragon lady, isn't she? The first human to walk through the Hall and come out the other side the same, right?" Kiza nodded. "Piot and she are good friends. I've seen the Dragons flying around his house sometimes. It's beautiful to watch them; they're so big and you can't believe that they could be graceful, but they are. Momma would wake me up sometimes to watch them fly around." Garth didn't reply. The enormous expanse of yellow before him was almost more than his mind could handle; the grain seemed to go on forever under the blaze of the Pendorian sun high in the daylit sky. The smell overwhelmed his sensitive Katckin nose, and he could barely make out the distinctive smell of animals over the incredible pollen that swept past them. The whitewashed porch made mostly of wood seemed to glow before his eyes. "Wow." "You like it here?" she asked. "It's so... big." He shivered. "It looks like it goes on forever. "It's not like Earth," Kiza said. "There, your horizon is 100 kilometers away. Here, you can see Piot's house even though it's like, forty klicks away, but if you look out over the valley that way, it goes on for hundreds and hundreds of klicks. Almost a thousand. You really lose perspective after a while." "I'm part of this now..." Garth said softly. "What?" Kiza asked, leaning against the railing and inhaling deeply. "Pendor?" "Yeah," Garth said. He jumped up on the railing and sat down. "I feel so weird today." "Why?" "I don't know." A bird flew by, black as night, and Kiza hissed. "Damn crows," she said. "What is there to feel weird about?" "I guess I'm not used to being told I can get someone pregnant." He laughed. "Pregnant. That's a condition dogs get into." He remembered who he was talking to, turned and looked at Kiza. |