+- World of Pern (https://pern.second-pass.net/forum)
+-- Forum: Fort Territories (https://pern.second-pass.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Forum: Fort Weyr (https://pern.second-pass.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=123)
+--- Thread: [G] [C] 742.02.04 | Impressions of Another Kind (/showthread.php?tid=4821)
742.02.04 | Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 02.Feb.21
The touching gone horribly awry had left her mind reeling, even days later. Calling the mood ‘melancholy’ was an understatement, and many moved as if in a sluggish daze, as if hoping to disappear into the very shadows. Others she hadn’t even seen since that terrible morning…
Rudi crooned from where he sat on the table in front of her, butting his head into her hand for affection, eyes whirling slowly, echoing the anxiety and worry she felt. She’d called him well away from the Sands, giving him a firm command to stay with her, both for his safety and her own need of comfort.
An egg damaged, killed…no matter how large or small the clutch, it was devastating. Had it been touched? Did it ever feel the presence of a human before one shattered its life-preserving shell? She liked to think that it had felt the love of one of the candidates before it was killed…so that it might have known that not all humans were awful. Briefly, she wondered if it had been the one she'd laid a hand on, and the idea both saddened her and brought a small measure of solace.
Rudi had crept up her arm to perch on her shoulder, burying himself in her hair, seeking to console both himself and his person in any way he could. He trilled as he noticed the other redhead walking past, and Aederyn nodded to the tall woman. They’d been at the gold egg together when it happened. She offered her a small, sad smile and a wave as the girl collected a plate and made her way off. Rudi hummed in her ear as another woman sat down nearby, dark blonde hair pulled away, a sadness in her blue eyes, no doubt reflecting the mood of the entire Weyr. “Hey.” Aederyn offered, unsure what else could be said.
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 02.Feb.21
"Hey," she got in return and Zarah reached to pet Shard in much the same manner as Aederyn was petting Rudi. The big brown shifted to tuck himself around her neck, warm and affectionate, his eyes reflecting sorrow as well as mild anxiety.
"Do you need company?" She offered a soft smile and pulled her klah in for a sip. There was little to be done about the grief that followed such a loss but all the Weyr felt it.
It made her cold and a little numb.
"I've plenty room at my table."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 03.Feb.21
With a small smile and shrug, she moved herself from her current spot to the one opposite the other woman, mug of klah in hand. Resting her elbows on the table, she took in the figure across from her.
Even with those few words, she decided she liked this woman. Despite the subdued atmosphere still hanging over everyone, giving them all a right to be a introspective, and even a bit selfish…after all, there was now one less egg on the Sands, meaning one less opportunity to Impress, this woman was still reaching out to see what others needed.
Aederyn hadn’t seen her around before; she must be visiting from another Weyr. She vaguely recalled her scrambling to get out of the way of rampaging Malvayth, as most had been doing during the touching. She hadn’t seen what came of her after that initial panic. “You okay?”
Absently, she rubbed at the small sand burn on the side of her own forearm she’d earned when she tackled the other candidate dodging a particular gold tail. Not quite entirely unscathed, but certainly luckier than some of the others.
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 04.Feb.21
"I was on the outside when everything happened," Zahrah said, "and able to take a few of the younger Candidates to safety. Emotionally, I think all of us are bruised and battered in some way from the experience."
She sipped her klah contemplatively.
"The loss of a dragonet is almost unthinkable as it happened. The instigator should be barred from the Sands unless they both had a hand in it. Violence should never be an answer around the clutch."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 08.Feb.21
“Agreed.” She nodded. “That someone could be so careless foolish around such fragile things…” The thought still left a bitter taste in her mouth and she swallowed hard. “Good job helping some of the others. Doesn’t cease to amaze me how many candidates there are, and so many from other Weyrs, too.” She raised her eyebrows as she thought about how the candidates’ barracks had filled seemingly overnight.
“I guess, all the better to offer the dragonets as many chances to find their match as they can, right?” A number had come for the clutch a month ago, and even more, mostly other women, had piled in for this one. This woman being among them. “You’re visiting, right? For a chance at the gold?”
Rudi chirped, his mood lightened slightly as well, and hopped to the table to try and coax the other brown down from the woman’s shoulder, pleased to have yet another playmate.
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 09.Feb.21
"Mm," Zahrah nodded, "but I'm not sure this one likes me. She wasn't sure I had room for a dragon in my life."
She had spent her life ready for a dragon, ready for that part of her that would never be full to be filled. She half shook her head.
"I have a daughter and a very lovely man who both understand that if or when I Impress, my dragon will always come first. There is nothing I want more than a dragon in my life. The right dragon will see that and if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 09.Feb.21
Aederyn laughed a bit. “By the time I got to her, she was just tired. Tired and overwhelmed. I think I was probably the fifth or sixth set of hands on her shell, after all.”
The woman spoke of her family, a man and their daughter, and she found herself thinking on her own family. “Mm, must be nice.” Her family had pretty much washed their hands of her, except of course for Alekse.“To have their support.” And she meant it, too. But family was who you made it. Other than her brother, her family was her chosen people, in the Weyr, many with winged companions of their own.
She adjusted herself on the bench, offering a small smile. “My brother likes the idea of my Impressing. He’s glad to see me here in the Weyr. We don’t talk a whole lot, though, or at least, not as much as I’d like. He’s off somewhere east right now, chasing some girl.” She chuckled at that. The idea of him committed was still such a novel idea. “I’m hoping to get a message to him though when the Hatching starts that he might be able to attend. If he can hitch a ride with a dragonrider. According to his last letter, he’s become acquainted with several over that way.”
She leaned forward on her elbows, glad for the conversation and distraction from the events of the last several days. “So, a daughter?” This woman didn’t seem very old, her child must be a young thing. As a mental side note, she couldn’t help but think on how everything over the last month has circulated back to children and relationships. She was beginning to work through it, and it was slowly becoming more and more comfortable a topic. “How old?”
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 09.Feb.21
"A daughter, yes. Zarel's ten," she said with a smile. "Eleven, soon, as she likes to remind me. She wants to Stand like me and to be a Runner as well. She's quite fast. But whatever path is hers, she'll find it, I'm sure."
Zahrah sipped at her klah for a while and then smiled radiantly.
"A brother supporting you is lovely," she said with a nod. "I hope he'll be able to attend, then. There are no shortage of riders willing to give a ride to Hatchings, that's for sure."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 12.Feb.21
“She’ll get to fly either way, then, either with wings or her own two feet.” Aederyn laughed. It was nice to hear of other girls aspiring to a craft, and she was glad Weyrfolk seemed so much more accepting of it.
“If your family makes it for the Hatching, I’ll have to meet her. I Ran for a while before I—was searched.” She almost said before ‘she ran off’, but thought better of the impression that might leave. No sense mucking up conversation with needless information that would lead to uncomfortable questions. And she had been Searched. It was just at her request.
Eager to turn the conversation away from herself, feeling she may have talk too much lately, as well as wanting to make a friend of her conversation partner, she asked after the girl again. “Was she born in the Weyr? She’ll be able to stand soon, won’t she? Wouldn’t that be grand, to Impress young. Grow up with a best friend and companion.”
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 12.Feb.21
"At Katila, which seems lifetimes away now," Zahrah said softly. "In another turn, she'll be eligible. You should meet my daughter, then. She does love running and will have an awful lot of questions. So far, since we're from Benden, she's been working on running from the Weyr to one of the older stations on the route. She's getting quite fast about it even in winter."
She sipped more klah and smiled.
"It would be lovely to Impress that young," she agreed. "Perhaps a little older for my sake but I can't tell a dragon what to do or not to do."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 12.Feb.21
The thought briefly crossed her mind of this Benden candidate being the one her brother had run after…but no. She had a man already, and a child with him, and she got the impression that they’d been happily together for some time. Couldn’t be her. And Runners were common enough that the craft could be sought by anyone with a talent for speed and pace. A shame…this woman was quite nice. If he were going to be taken with anyone, she hoped it was someone like this woman. But if not her… Was he after that other Benden girl? Elloren? Hm…She’d have to watch that girl more carefully.
“Very true.” Aederyn replied, nodding in agreement. She’d stood at one Hatching already, and the next was right around the corner, any day now. She hoped against hope that her life mate would be among them, but no amount of willpower could make a dragon choose her. “Well,” she plucked her klah cup from where she’d abandoned it earlier. “To Impressions. Whatever and whenever those may be.”
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - Zahrah - 12.Feb.21
She raised her cup to that easily. There was nothing more she could drink for than good Impressions.
"To all that come with it," she added gently. "Hopefully, quick and clean Impressions. I've seen some..." Zahrah shook her head and huffed softly. "No, everything will be fine, I'm sure. It has to be. I can't think any other way about it."
RE: 742.02.04 Impressions of Another Kind - A'ryn - 12.Feb.21
“Indeed.” Aederyn frowned into her mug. Thankfully the last Hatching she’d stood at was fairly calm, other than the chaos created by the sheer number of hatchlings. “Quick, clean, and easy. There are only a dozen eggs, it should be.” But then the memory of Malvayth’s own hatching came to mind, and the earthquake, then the mauling, and the gold’s shrieking… Setting her lips in a determined line, she repeated those last words, more for her own comfort than anything. “It should be.”
Across the hall, a small bit of motion caught her eye. Elloren was getting up and moving toward some other candidates gathered around the table where klah and sweet rolls were set out. Hm… Her mug, she now saw, was in need of a refill… “Well, it was an absolute pleasure making your acquaintance, and I hope we get the opportunity to talk again. For now, though, more klah.” With that, she rose, headed toward klah, and, perhaps, the person her brother had taken to so much…