06.May.20, 01:43 PM
Her general uneasiness faded with each passing bit of conversation. She learned a little bit more about what happened regarding the plague that sent the dragonriders south. She was able to roughly gauge the blue rider’s age, and he was older than he appeared, having Impressed before all of the dragons disappeared south. She wondered at that. She’d heard that dragonriders aged slower, but wasn’t sure how true that was. He was also in great physical shape, and that likely helped.
The smell of rich stew teased her and enticed her to step further into the weyr, and she took in the comfortable surroundings, idly trying to guess which doorway led to where the dragon slept. D’hys returned a moment later with a tray of fruit and her eyes lit up at the treat. Fruit didn’t travel well when a person was on foot, becoming bruised and soft by being bounced around in a pack, so it wasn’t something she typically had outside of eat-in meals at a station, and she usually preferred to take dry rations or easy-to-hold snacks and keep on her way.
She eagerly took a slice of something sweet and juicy and closed her eyes as she savored it. Aederyn lowered herself into a chair as D’hys did, and took a moment to swallow the fruit before responding. Careful of what she said, she responded.
“I came from Station 300, closest to Fort Hold, after delivering a message pouch. They didn’t have anything for me to run anywhere else at the time, hence the free day today. I had spent a good deal of time before that farther north, with my sister and her husband, helping to prepare for their new son.” She slowly sipped at the water the blue rider had offered her, unsure how to phrase her next thoughts without seeming like a whining child. “After being continually dismissed, my craft and rank treated as a joke,” she paused briefly, letting her eyes flick back up to the man before looking back over the fruit and selecting another piece, “and being told that women are only good for producing offspring, I was glad to return home, but that didn’t last long as the rest of my family apparently thought I would be better off warming a holder’s bed than running on the traces, too.” The sweet fruit did little to mask the bitterness she felt for that. She heaved a sigh. It felt good to voice her thoughts. She smiled ruefully. “I had made some friends here, and if they don’t appreciate a well-practiced craft they at least appreciate that…a person is still a person.” The last bit sounded a bit silly, but it was something she did find to be true. She smiled as she thought of R’dal and R’dare and wondered if their weyrs were close by. Sitting back in her chair, she watched the blue rider’s face as she finished her second slice of fruit.
The smell of rich stew teased her and enticed her to step further into the weyr, and she took in the comfortable surroundings, idly trying to guess which doorway led to where the dragon slept. D’hys returned a moment later with a tray of fruit and her eyes lit up at the treat. Fruit didn’t travel well when a person was on foot, becoming bruised and soft by being bounced around in a pack, so it wasn’t something she typically had outside of eat-in meals at a station, and she usually preferred to take dry rations or easy-to-hold snacks and keep on her way.
She eagerly took a slice of something sweet and juicy and closed her eyes as she savored it. Aederyn lowered herself into a chair as D’hys did, and took a moment to swallow the fruit before responding. Careful of what she said, she responded.
“I came from Station 300, closest to Fort Hold, after delivering a message pouch. They didn’t have anything for me to run anywhere else at the time, hence the free day today. I had spent a good deal of time before that farther north, with my sister and her husband, helping to prepare for their new son.” She slowly sipped at the water the blue rider had offered her, unsure how to phrase her next thoughts without seeming like a whining child. “After being continually dismissed, my craft and rank treated as a joke,” she paused briefly, letting her eyes flick back up to the man before looking back over the fruit and selecting another piece, “and being told that women are only good for producing offspring, I was glad to return home, but that didn’t last long as the rest of my family apparently thought I would be better off warming a holder’s bed than running on the traces, too.” The sweet fruit did little to mask the bitterness she felt for that. She heaved a sigh. It felt good to voice her thoughts. She smiled ruefully. “I had made some friends here, and if they don’t appreciate a well-practiced craft they at least appreciate that…a person is still a person.” The last bit sounded a bit silly, but it was something she did find to be true. She smiled as she thought of R’dal and R’dare and wondered if their weyrs were close by. Sitting back in her chair, she watched the blue rider’s face as she finished her second slice of fruit.