Bad Morning

Writers: Cali, Patrick
Date Posted: 4th January 2007

Characters: Kouna, Mosler
Description: Kouna grumpily wakes up to some shocking news.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 1, day 24 of Turn 4

Kouna turned and mumbled in her sleep as the early morning sun hit her face. She moaned and reluctantly tumbled out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud. She stumbled to the door, yanking it open, and walking right into a clumsy apprentice.

Alternately mumbling and shouting a stream of curses, the master dolphineer finally found her way to the Dining Cavern, and thankfully the klah. As the first sip trickled down her throat it was almost like a transformation. The snappy Hallsecond went from angry morning zombie to a polite perky woman. She noticed that Mosler had just set himself down for breakfast at a far table, and refilling her mug decided to join him.

"Sorry I didn't join you before," Mosler explained sardonically, "But I learned long ago to never go near you before your first mug of klah!"

"All the better for you." She smiled at her friend. "There was an apprentice outside my apartment who wasn't so lucky." She grinned. "I'll have to find him to apologize." She looked about the Dining Cavern for the unlucky apprentice.

"Later." Mosler waved it off and took a drink of his own klah, "I've got an interesting report you'll want to here about." "Oh really." The Hallsecond leaned on the table, her elbows propping up mug filled hands.

He loved to tease her, but he wasn't quite sure the klah had fully kicked in yet, so thought better of it.
"Tippo sent a special report in from Smooth Cove Hold. I've got it up in my office, but he got a report from one of the dolphins about men camping at one of the uninhabited islands. That in of itself didn't raise too much notice, but he said that then he got another report from the same dolphin a few days later of _different_ men camping on the same uninhabited island."

"Uh-huh." Kouna nodded her understanding, taking another sip of klah. "And what might this mean for the Dolphin Hall?"

"Well, Tippo got curious so he went to the island to investigate." Mosler explained, eager to get to the good part, "When he got there, he discovered a well hidden entrance to a cave system just behind the tree line and evidence of carts and a pulley system used to move cargo. He hadn't brought any glows or ropes so he didn't venture far into the cave and he couldn't find anything that identified a source or ownership so he went back and told the dolphins to report any more activity." "So are you saying that _our_ dolphins discovered an illegal mine?" this was something. "Do tell what you did with this information."

Mosler couldn't help but chuckle, he knew this sort of thing would fascinate her. "Well I just finished reading it this morning, dear. I haven't done _anything_ with it yet. And as for a mine, that certainly is a possibility, though a cave system would also be a nice place to store smuggled goods." he added before taking another drink of his klah.

"We should find out either way soon enough, Journeyman Tippo was going to take another look with some proper equipment the first chance he got. Unless you think otherwise, I'll just wait for that report to come in before taking this any further." He'd always valued Kouna's opinion, even before she was his Hallsecond, so he wondered her thoughts on this strange tale.

"I think sending a journeyman is exactly what I would have done." She put her hand to her chin. "But even if this is just a storage cavern, the fact that there's illegal smuggling is unsettling. And if it _is_ a mine, that could be even bigger news for Pern."
Her voice was low and thoughtful, almost as she was talking to herself.

"Agreed." Mosler said heavily with a nod. "Let's see what Tippo finds out."

Last updated on the January 4th 2007

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Bad Morning