Shifts in the Sands [Solo]

The stone ball glistened with oil, slippery and hard for R'ana to hold as she used it to massage at the joint where wing met the body.  Berruth rumbled as the cramp began to ease, his relief from the pain obvious and mentally, R'ana thanked Talian for the tip on what to use for a cramped muscle.  She doubted he had meant for it to be used on dragons, but she had truly asked for herself...mostly. 

His rider inhaled softly and R'ana spoke quietly.  "I'm glad this gunk works on him."  The mixture smelled pungently of the spiceroot and cottonwood bark she had used to make it.  She kept working, saying, "What on earth was important enough for you to fly him over here?  You know how much a long flight hurts Berruth." 

K'trel looked around, then spoke.  "The notice on the board.  S'kef is weyrleader." 

R'ana snorted.  "You, sir, are way behind the times."  She felt the muscles spasm and relax under her fingers, keeping the massage up, unconsciously echoing the croon her own bonded was giving to Berruth to soothe him into staying in one spot and quiet. 

T'rel shook his head, though R'ana couldn't see it, focused as she was on the scarred patch of hide where the large bronze had been mauled by a feline during the exile.  They had been able to repair the wing itself, but not the muscles under it.  She felt a twinge of regret as she traced the worst of the scars.  "No, he's no longer acting weyrleader but the weyrleader.  For real." 

R'ana jolted.  "You're joking."  Her hands stilled a moment as she thought, then moved from her precarious perch on Berruth to slide to the ground.  She used a cloth with soap sand to clean the gunk off her hands and kerplopped on the ground.  Berruth stayed a moment, long enough to receive a scritch, then padded over to Shanith and curled up around her.  The green quietly tucked herself close to her favourite bronze and R'ana relaxed a bit, the contentment easing her usual reserve.

Beads were dug out from a pocket and a soft set of quiet clicks heralded R'ana's moment of thoughtfulness.  It took 90 clicks for her to come to an opinion.  "Who else seeks leadership?  Not all the bronzes will follow a brown.  Even if Tyrrisath really was born the wrong color." 

"M'bal.  Perhaps a few of the other bronzes, but he's the strongest contender."  R'ana considered her companion's words. 

"That pretty boy?"  R'ana words were quietly derisive.  "So it's S'kef or him?"  She folded her arms over her chest.  "What do the rest of the outcasts think?"

T'rel snagged her beads, and made a face as she instantly pulled out another set, counting them off as he spoke.  "Divided." 

R'ana counted off her beads, then spoke.  "Personally...I don't like M'bal.  Better the evil you know that the one you don't and I don't even trust him to be himself.  S'kef at least will mostly act like S'kef, so he's somewhat predictable."
 
Once she knew the rules to surviving S'kef at the weyr's helm, she could play by them and be more or less okay.  She was not at all sure of that regarding M'bal.  "But...We can test S'kef a bit."  There was silence.  Shocked silence, but R'ana elaborated on her idea.  "I can contrive a reason to see him in an official capacity.  He's smart.  He'll see through it.  If that mind reader he calls dragon doesn't tell him.  But..."  She trailed off. 

"I want to support S'kef's bid for power.  I would be happier to see him with a sane weyr woman, but...As much fear as there is in the air with him leading...I see blueriders with real hope for rank.  Maybe that'll trickle down to us green riders.  Female greenriders around here are treated like vermin.  What if S'kef could change that, just by being a brown rider in control of the weyr?"  She leaned forward the beads snapping as movements of her figners echoed her irritation.  "And if people start going back north...I don't think dragonriders will be welcome once word of over 40 kidnappings gets out.  To say nothing of the chaos some of the holds will have been left in with their heir disappearing.  We'll need someone ruthless in control...someone who will act to protect dragonkind, decisively if needed." 

T'rel looked to her.  "You've been thinking.  Not sure the outcasts will support S'kef.  He's pissed off a lot of them." 

She pointed out, "We're stuck no matter what.  I don't think M'bal is going to be any better than S'kef.  I don't think he can buck Tsuen and Nirinath if it come to it."  She leaned back.  "For now, I'd rather be stuck with S'kef than with the Pretty Boy."  She laid it out and came to a decision.  She supported S'kef.  Obviously her cheese had slid off her cracker, because that was insanity.  "Faranth help me, I think my last flight partner popped me a little too hard in the head."

The greenrider looked to T'rel.  "First, Tyrrisath has to fly Nirinath so he can stay in power."  His words were considering, and R'ana knew that if she did this it wasn't just her lot she would be throwing in with S'kef, but likely T'rel's and the other outcasts.  She had to be sure.  Completely sure.

R'ana's words were thoughtful, each point articulated by the click of a bead hitting its mates.  "He has the power, and the cunning.  The stamina will be the issue...Nirinath has many turns of experience outflying dragons...But...I do know how to help build a dragon's stamina.  I can help a bit, leave some information anonymously on his office desk or something.  But first, I want to talk to him, see if my thoughts are right."

T'rel spoke.  "Tell me what happens?"  He looked to his bronze and R'ana knew he was wishing Berruth could still fly a queen.  She agreed and headed with him to wake their dragons, both riders unaware of a solitary brown dragon winking between, just low enough to have heard every word.