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+---- Thread: Undesired Friendship [Allendris] (/showthread.php?tid=342)
Undesired Friendship [Allendris] - V'ler - 18.Mar.12
Was it worth it?
That was the question of the moment, wasn’t it? Valerian wished it wasn’t, wished he was still under the stars in his own hemisphere, and wished the man sitting further down on the beach would stop glaring at him like he had caused their misfortune. As far as he knew, he hadn’t. Then again, his mouth had landed him a few bruises over the Turns and he had made a handful of enemies by nature of his very profession so perhaps he did carry some of the fault; for himself. He didn’t even know the other man, he didn’t think, but he did see a lot of people on a daily basis though this particular man would have likely stuck out given his appearance and the way he carried himself. But the young lord, or so Valerian figured him to be, was currently of no importance. His situation was.
What had been the starting point that undoubtedly sent him down the path that ended on an island in what he had surmised to be the southern continent? That was simple enough to answer and the recalling of such a memory brought out a small grin at his audacity. He was only eleven, not quite yet a man and not at the proper age to apprentice at a Hall but that hadn’t stopped him from throwing down the hoe he had been using to tend to a field for the last three hours and loudly proclaiming he had had enough of turning the soil, planting seeds, and working until he dropped with exhaustion. He wanted to be a Harper and nothing would change his mind. As the second son, fourth child overall to his parents, he had seen the kindness and encouragement his siblings had received and while his chosen method of announcing his passion was questionable, Valerian knew it would be supported. It had been but only after a swift punishment for shirking his duties such as he had in front of the apprentices and journeyman they hosted that day.
Yes, that had been the point where his current path had been revealed leading him to Turn after Turn of studying and hard work of a different sort. Yet all of that practicing of songs, copying of records, shaping the wood for guitars, stretching the leather taut over the cylinder of a drum, and minding what he said to his masters until they believed he enjoyed everything he did had paid off and he became a journeyman. Unfortunately his first assignment saw him going to High Reaches to teach though it was he who had done the learning; he hated children and hated the snow and cold with nearly equalling passion. Although children with snowballs outranked both. Fortunately his next assignment had been in Southern Boll where they still had unruly brats running around but the weather was much fairer.
However, while his fit in his father’s field started it all, it was naturally his final location before the island that was the true culprit for being stolen away. He had returned to Harper Hold to relax and work on other aspects of the craft as teaching was something he simply put up with when the fateful moment hit, bringing him to not only a new location but, Valerian knew with unreasonable certainty, a new life.
The little boy in him, even the grown Harper, had felt a fluttering of joy when he awoke on the island and saw the large majestic blue beast. That joy attempted to turn into full blown excitement until Valerian realized he was in an unfamiliar area and a slight tingling of a memory of beating wings echoing in the night before everything went black hit him. He had been captured by the weyrfolk?
It didn’t matter in that moment the hows and whys of it all. Dragons lived! Regardless of the naysayers and the beatings he had received for attempting to enlighten the idiots that held land, Valerian never doubted that. It had always seemed impossible in his youth for an entire species of such magnificent creatures to be wiped out by an illness. Dragons and their riders never let harm befall the other so they would have come up with a solution to save as many as they could. It was a belief he had held onto all his life and it was with great internal fanfare and triumph that he took in the view of his first dragon.
But did they have to go and cart him away such as they had? Why had they done such a thing? At least his capturer had been kind enough to grab his guitar in the process though it was likely done out of a desire to leave no evidence behind.
So, was it worth it?
With another glance around him, keen eyes taking in everything from the instrument lying beside him to the decent sized hut that could no doubt house more than the two of them currently sharing the stretch of warm sand to the way the ocean lapped at the beach just mere feet from him, carrying the collected grains back into its large body for its own stolen adventure, Valerian shrugged. This was a new experience and he was starting to get restless at Harper Hall anyway so why not go along with being kidnapped by a dragonrider for a little longer to see where it took him? He was by no means ecstatic with what had happened but he was smart enough to know that he couldn’t change anything just yet, despite what I’shan – was that the bouncy and apologetic man’s name? – had said, explaining there was no way home now, that Katila was now home. Valerian would be the judge of that. Once he saw more than a tiny island and one building.
If nothing else, he could no doubt partake in a little enjoyment at the expense of his fellow beach mate who looked put out and frustrated. Yes, there was something sweet in adding to another’s foul mood to hide his own. “Sorry, did my kidnapping and being left here disturb your solitary brooding and star-gazing?”