Henry Ferris + William Laurence + NPC Temeraire
G | Complete
Henry Ferris considered himself well traveled. He had been, in his twenty-three years, to five of the seven continents, had seen two imperial courts, helped cure a plague, been taken captive and escaped, and had survived both shipwreck and marooning. He'd been commissioned, promoted, and court martialed all before his twenty-first birthday. Most veteran aviators, men of the world though they were, could not claim to have seen half as much.
Nothing in Ferris's experience had prepared him for Atlantis, however. He awoke in a bed far softer than any he'd known in weeks… months? Since leaving China, certainly. The room was strange, but clean and neatly furnished. He felt grubby by comparison, feeling all the grime of weeks of winter campaigning, for all that he'd attended to his wardrobe and toilet as best he could under the circumstances. Captain Laurence had always set an example and a standard, and Temeraire's crew had been known as the smartest in the Loch Laggen covert - before Laurence and Temeraire came to be known for other things. Technically, Ferris was no longer a member of anyone's crew, not since his dismissal from the Corps. Temeraire had made it emphatically clear, however, that the dragon still regarded him as Laurence's first lieutenant whatever Ferris's standing in the eyes of the admiralty. It was something to live up to, a credit to the dragon and the captain he still served (albeit unofficially), to the family name (however sullied), and to his country (estranged or not). He had his pride.
...and one had to hold onto something in this strange place. As soon as Ferris began exploring the room, an apparition appeared at his bedside that made Ferris reconsider every tale of witchcraft he'd ever heard. He gathered the part about being recruited to an army, and drew himself up straight. “I'm cognizant of the honor of being chosen, but I cannot abandon my country in its time of need. Napoleon will overrun Europe if he isn't opposed by every man and dragon we have.” It sounded… well, a bit like something Captain Laurence would say, and Ferris flushed a little.
“You can choose to return to your own world after the one week trial period or at any time in the future,” the apparition replied. “You will return to the exact time and moment you left, and no one will have missed you.”
“That seems even more like witchcraft,” Ferris marveled aloud. He tried to think of a polite way of demanding assurances, and lacking one said, “You'll forgive me for not taking your word for it, but I don't know you well enough to trust you.”
There was a momentary pause as if the apparition was searching an invisible list. “William Laurence, Temeraire, and Tenzing Tharkay are currently representing your world to Atlantis and are indicated as names you might trust to verify this information,” the expressionless voice said.
Somehow that didn't surprise him. If there was some sort of trouble to be gotten into and another enemy to add to their list, of course Laurence would have found his way into the middle of it, and Tharkay seemed to have the same way of turning up in odd corners when they were in a pinch. “If I can speak to the captain myself,” said Ferris. “That would be fine.” And see what he's gotten us into this time.
“William Laurence is in Body 5,” the apparition informed him. It disappeared, and Ferris noticed the strange tablet on the night stand behind it. The metal plate seemed to show a map. Body 5 was apparently a house with a marker to identify it. Another marker blinked over a second house with the helpful note: “Your location.” Strange as it was, it was the most familiar thing about this place so far. A map Ferris could read. He navigated by the device until he caught sight of a familiar black dragon as he approached his destination - familiar in shape, at least, although looking even smaller than a Greyling.
“Temeraire?” he said, disbelievingly.
The pavillion set up outside the houses was something Laurence (and Temeraire) had both insisted on. And it was decked out in opulence, thanks to the human. Curtains, pillows, gems (mostly fake, due to the cost of real ones), and a great hulking stack of books. There was even a chair for Laurence, since he spent most of his free time with Temeraire, reading to him or just talking.
The dragon had spotted his former first lieutenant before his Captain had, head coming up in an alert way before even alerting Laurence, who had his head in one of those many books. “Oh, I say!” Laurence’s head came up and his face brightened at the sight of Ferris, someone he hadn’t expected in a million years to arrive here.
Temeraire was still the one leading the conversation, wings fluttering around him as he exited the pavilion before Laurence could even stand. “Ferris, it is good to see you.”
Once Laurence had finally gotten ahead of Temeraire, he still had a pleased grin on his face and his hand held out for a firm handshake. “Captain Ferris, welcome to Atlantis. I didn’t see the arrival list today, otherwise I would have made an effort to meet you straight away.”
Ferris was still not entirely convinced this wasn't a dream. He didn't remember falling ill, but that didn't mean this wasn't the effect of exhaustion or some battlefield fever catching up with him. That could account for the strangeness of this place, not to mention the fact that he was being addressed as Captain, a title he'd lost hope of gaining years ago, as if it were perfectly natural. He accepted the handshake, (Laurence was a very difficult man to refuse), flushing slightly at the address. “Thank you, Captain Laurence. It is good to see you both, and not only because you are the first familiar sight about this place.”
He included the dragon in the greeting, relaxing a fraction. Temeraire's enthusiasm was as infectious as Laurence's steadfast scrupulousness (He might mentally curse the captain's tendency to lead straight into trouble for a noble cause, but Ferris had never found himself able to stop following). “I am still not certain any of this is real. I had just determined to accept Captain Dyhern's offer. With all these Prussian dragons, and so few Prussian aviators, he seems confident they'll have need of me.” It wasn't the British Corps, but it was a chance to serve. The hope of being matched with his or her own dragon was the dream of every child who entered the Corps and realized by relatively few - even fewer since the dragon plague had ravaged England. It wasn't disloyal - or Ferris hoped it wasn't - to accept the opportunity when it came honorably.
That reminded Ferris of the last time he'd seen dragon and man. “I would have thought you on your way.” Not - he took in the pavilion with all its characteristic furnishings, so very Temeraire and so equally very Laurence - so demonstrably settled . “The egg?”
Laurence himself had no such intentions of correcting Ferris on the title, given his Admiralty was not something he had been as enthused about as others had, but there was Temeraire, puffing up proudly next to him, happy as a dragon could possibly be with gossip or information.
“Oh, really, Ferris. You have missed a great deal. Laurence is an Admiral now, though I suppose we’ve taken a break from that for a bit. But the egg turned out well enough, I think.” The dragon rushed on, determined not to let his Captain butt in or correct him in any way, as was usual when he liked to tell a story. “The war is over, Ferris. We have soundly beat Lien and Napoleon and have earned our respite.”
Laurence sighed, interrupting the dragon and nudging him on the side - a feat much easier when Temeraire is smaller. “The egg hatched into Ning and…” Laurence paused, searching for a kind word. “Things worked out in the end, yes.”
‘Things worked out’ was Laurence for ‘we were all captured and nearly killed at least once and instigated a revolution,’ but Ferris politely did not point this out. He couldn’t help wondering if Ning were as headstrong as her parents (her mother, in particular) if Laurence was unable to find anything more generous to say about her, and just what that would mean for China if she was. Meanwhile, while Temeraire might be as prone to dramatics as Laurence was to understatement, one of his statements could only mean what it said.
“The war is over?” And in their favor, as grim as the prospects had seemed at times. Ferris had had every intention of fighting Napoleon to the last, and he thought no less of any Englishman, but it had been long years since the war began. “That - hardly seems real after so many years, but it's excellent news. And congratulations on your promotion, Admiral.”