[G] [P] 735.02.02 | A Terrible Burden

Those are becoming more frequent, the young blue dragon’s gentle, feminine voice brushed lightly against T’bia’s foggy mind as the boy came awake, drenched in a thin film of now-cold sweat; his stomach coiled unhappily with guilt and shame as he turned just enough to bury his face in his pillow. Jycenth soothed the youngster gently, wrapping him in the warm embrace of his love and affection as T’bia cried silently for a few minutes. The young bluerider’s shame was thick and heavy, and Jycenth could feel it weighing down on the boy, despite his best reassurances.

Come, Bibi; let us go down to the pools. He pushed gently, firmly encouraging his upset rider to struggle out of his tangled sheets, kicking them to the end of the bed and to drag on the clothes he had worn the day before; fresh clothing was gathered up for wearing after his bath. Jycenth crooned gently when T’bia appeared, nuzzling the boy’s cheek with his blue snout and breathing warmth and love on him, quite literally. T’bia clung to his dragon for a few moments, before scrambling aboard his eager companion and allowing the naturally cheerful dragon to lumber off towards the open pools that remained, mostly hidden within the out skirting trees of the new Weyr.

A soul shaking yawn stretched T’bia’s jaws as Jycenth made it to his pool of choice; it was a large one, though not large enough for the now grown dragon, it was one that was favoured by the youngsters that were still growing. Warm baths were preferred on growing hides than cold, though T’bia had never asked if that was because the dragonets were small enough to benefit from them, or if there were a true health reason behind it. He figured it was just kinder to the riders; Jycenth was as happy to bathe in the centre of the lake in the heat of summer as he was in the depth of winter.

Sliding ungracefully from Jycenth, T’bia set his fresh clothing to one side, and stripped off without bothering to see if anyone were around; while hardly as confident in his appearance as he could be, T’bia was not ashamed of it either. His ability to shove his foot down his throat had caused most bullies in his youth to bypass his physical appearance in order to target his hazardous speech patterns; as a result, he was far more worried about what might come out of his mouth, than he was worried about what others might think of his body.

After kicking his pants at Jycenth’s nose with a fleeting smile, T’bia slide with the same gracelessness into the pool that he had displayed dismounting his dragon. The action sent water lapping over the edges and stubbed his toe; the sudden sting brought tears to the boy’s eyes, and he bit his lip to keep from crying out as he hopped a little on the spot. Are you alright, Bibi? Jycenth’s gentle voice held the softest inflection of amusement, just the right amount to push the poor young man over the edge and he burst into tears.

Jycenth gave a squeaking cry of distress and inched as close to the pool as he could, scrambling so his chest was right to the edge, and his forearms reached out to encircle the boy carefully, crooning apologetically as T’bia clung to him and cried. His thoughts were a muddled mess, but Jycenth could clearly see that his amusement had not been the cause, simply a trigger, and he nuzzled the top of T’bia’s head gently and did his best to sooth the boy.