Planning Ahead
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Avery, Yvonne
Date Posted: 11th April 2015
Characters: Alina, L'pin
Description: Alina puts Ikalis' party plan into motion, and has a second request for L'pin as well.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 6 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Ikalis
Alina played the last few notes of the little tune L'pin had set her, then lay her pipes in her lap. "How was that?" she asked, a little breathlessly. Their lessons had continued as she'd graduated to Senior Weyrling, but they were so slow... she only really had time on rest days, and L'pin was busy with two full classes of Weyrlings.
"Sounded very good. You've progressed quite a bit. Are you practicing more with the privacy of your own weyr?" And now that the lessons were easing up some.
She looked down at the pipes a little sheepishly. "A little," she admitted after a moment. "I know I should practice more, but..."
"Busy with Imarith and classes?" he asked.
She shrugged, a little sheepishly. "I should still practice more. Actually..." Alina glanced up at L'pin as an idea struck. "I was hoping to do something else this coming restday, but maybe the one after... are you free in the evening? I think I might be ready to-- to play something together. If you bring your gitar. I mean, only if you're free..."
Given what month it was, he wasn't always inclined to be social - but well, he hadn't had any definite plans yet. And when his student finally felt ready to take another step with music? That warmed the part of his heart that loved teaching.
}:You should,:{ Chaneth thought gently.
"I can be free," he said.
"That would be marvellous! I'm so excited now!" Alina beamed. Ikalis would be so pleased! "But I have one more favour to ask..."
"Go ahead," he said, curious now.
Her smile slipped. "Umm... I... want to go home. But... I don't... I don't know what home looks like, and I don't trust Imarith and I to get there. I was... wondering..."
"We can find a way to do that for you," he reassured. "There's a few ways we can handle that. Building on your recollections is one - you know more about your home than you think you do. We could also talk to sweepriders or Searchriders familiar with the area, who can give pictures. Do you remember who Searched you?"
She shook her head. The day she'd been Searched was a blur. Between one breath and the next everything had changed and she'd been cast adrift in a strange new place. She'd hoped that L'pin would just _know_ where Nadol Cothold was and what it looked like from the sky. Admitting that her memory was getting fuzzy was as shameful as not remembering who Searched her. "I don't trust my memory enough to chance getting lost /between/."
"We can work on that whenever you'd like. When do you want to go back?"
"It would be nice to go back before we--" --have their Blooding. Alina stopped before she said it. That was probably the last thing L'pin wanted to hear, even if it was at the top of her mind. "--before we celebrate Turn Over."
"Hoping to see your family then, rather than join in the Weyr celebrations? Or would you rather bring them here?"
"I don't know?" She hadn't thought about it at all. "Maybe it's something I should ask them?" Although as soon as she said it, she realized the folly of it. Her mother might want to go, but her father would forbid it. There was no way that he'd allow his two remaining children anywhere near the corruption of the Weyr.
"They might enjoy it here, with the feasting and the music. Though without the Harper Hall, it'll be less good," he admitted.
"They wouldn't know the difference." And neither would she. Having never heard a full orchestra of trained Harpers play, she could only imagine.
"Well there's no prohibition on guests, so ask them. Which brings me back to your question. What do you remember about Nadol, and how it looks?"
"Umm..." Alina closed her eyes, the way they'd been taught. Conjuring Nadol Cothold was easy, but how much of her memory was true and how much had she manufactured herself? They'd talked about it in class-- the fallacy of memory, and how important it was to be accurate. Otherwise, you'd be lost. "It's... shaped like a rectangle, with the new wing off to the north. The roof is slate, and peaked a little to shed the rain. Grey or black, I don't know. The yard is paved with the same stones as the walls and I think it's grey. There are three storehouses to the east, and a little beyond that is the river where we do the laundry. And then all around us are the wheat fields."
L'pin closed his eyes, but nodded to indicate he was following along. Many cotholds looked alike, so he tried to jog his memory. Had he seen hers in a sweep?
"What does the river look like? Do you know if it has a very sharp bend near the cothold?"
"A little downstream from the cothold it does. And the river is about... a dragonlength and a half wide. It's usually blue and pretty shallow, but it can get a little muddy in the spring and early summer."
The description of the watercourse sounded familiar. Those were useful points of reference for /betweening/, when you had to know a place's look from the air. Slate roofs, a river with a sharp bend, the endless fields... He formed a picture, then asked Chaneth to send it to Imarith.
}:My rider wants to know if this looks familiar to your rider,:{ the blue relayed to the green.
}:Is this your home?:{ Imarith passed the image along to Alina, who still had her eyes closed.
The view was... strange. But not. By now she'd seen the Weyrbowl from the air numerous times and was used to the flatted, expansive map view seen only from dragonback. The image Imarith was achingly familiar -- there were the three storage sheds, the curve in the river with the trees along the bank, the long, low block that was the cothold where all the families lived and the paths that led to the livestock pens and the fields beyond. "I think so..." She opened her eyes with a sigh. It was home, but was it a perfect picture of home? Perfect enough to /between/ with? "But I'm not _sure_. Maybe... if you have the time, that is... could you take me there? You don't need to meet anyone or speak with anyone, but I would feel better if I got the image from a real dragonrider, at least for the first time."
"That would be more than fine. Anything we can do to help our weyrlings," he assured her. And just to be careful, he'd check with one of the sweepriders assigned to that area, get an up to date visualization for himself.
Last updated on the April 29th 2015