Going Home

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 4th May 2015

Characters: Alina, Elana
Description: Alina makes a trip home to visit her family
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 12, day 14 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: J'ackt, X'dris, N'vanik (not by name)

Alina

It was the longest /betweening/ of her life. Three heartbeats seemed to last an eternity, but then they were in bright sunlight and Nadol Cothold was spread out far below them. Alina gasped, her heart lurching in her chest. She was home! And they'd made it-- their first time /betweening/ somewhere that wasn't around the Weyr.

The fields were a delicious dark green with growing wheat, and the vegetable gardens lush and full. Alina could see people far below, working in the fields, tending to the beasts, and scurrying between the buildings. Suddenly she wasn't sure if she wanted to be. The urge to send Imarith back to the Weyr was almost overwhelming. Turn tail and run.

}:We will land!:{ Imarith angled her wings and began their descent.

**No, wait! Not right next to the cothold!!** Alina scrambled to think of where would be best. Too many people traveled the paths to the storehouses. Not next to the river where it came close to the cothold, either, or the fields where Imairth would crush the young wheat. **Uhh-- there!** Alina pointed, and Imarith, seeing through her eyes, turned her wings toward the bend in the river.

The green landed as daintily as she could, but they still sent up great gouts of dust and bits of grass. Alina scrambled off Imarith and straightened her skirts. She glanced around, then ducked behind Imarith long enough to pull off the hateful trousers and tuck them into a satchel hung on Imarith's straps. And not a moment too soon -- several of the cothold's children were already cluttered at the edge of the field, eyeing the green dragonet warily.

}:Why are they doing that?:{ Imarith asked. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, her claws leaving gouges in the turf.

Alina's stomach roiled at the sight of them, but she waved anyway. **I think they think we're on Search.**

}:But I am no good at Searching.:{

**They don't know that.** Alina took a deep breath. **Stay here, love.** Apparently it was impossible to make a discrete visit on dragonback. Like it or not, the cothold knew she was here-- or rather, that a dragonrider was here. Hopefully once they knew it was her, things would be more normal. "Hello?"

"Alina?" One of the girls stepped forward, squinting. "Is that you?"

"Hello Marlia." Alina closed the gap between them, even though some of the other kids shrank away. Two of the boys sneered at her as they left to return to the fields, probably disappointed that it wasn't a Searchrider in the field. Well, too bad for them. "How are you?"

Marlia shrugged. She was a turn or two younger than Alina and Elana, with light brown hair and too many freckles across her plain face. Marlia had grown since the last time Alina had seen her, but she probably wasn't any smarter. Elana and Alina had never held a very high opinion of the girl. "You shouldn't be here," Marlia said.

"I can visit my family if I want to," Alina replied sharply. Dragonriders were allowed to go anywhere. "Where are they working today?'

"How should I know?" Marlia shot back, then she smiled. "Or, go see for yourself. It's not like you can shame them any worse."

The barb stung, but Alina rolled her eyes and pretended it didn't. "How's the hunt for a suitor going, Marlia? Anyone willing to kiss that porcine face yet?"

Marlia's expression hardened. "At least I _will_ marry. You're not welcome here."

The barb hit its target but there was no way Alina would show weakness. "Do run and tell my family that I'm here," she said sweetly, breezing past the other girl and heading toward the cothold proper. Marlia had always been a brat, and an ugly one at that. She could feel the other girl glaring daggers into her back until the path curled out of sight, and she stepped from dirt onto the slate flagstones that protected the cothold from errant Thread. Alina hurried across it to the cothold's main doors and slipped inside before anyone else could waylay her. The best thing to do would be to wait in her family's quarters until they came to her.

The cothold was nearly empty. It was the end of the day, and a nice one at that, so most of the women would be either in the kitchens preparing for dinner and their men finishing up evening chores. It meant she could navigate the halls unchallenged. She hurried through.

The moment the door to her family's apartment closed behind her, Alina was almost overcome with a wave of homesicknesses. Their little living room was exactly the same as always; her father's chair in the corner, her mother's chair next to it with her knitting basket at her feet. The rag rug on the ground to keep the chill from your toes was the same, and the table in the corner where she used to spend evenings with Elana a little smaller. She slowly went over to the bench and assumed her rightful place in her family's home.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps in the hall and the door was pushed open. Alina leaped to her feet as her twin entered the tiny room. Both girls froze, wide-eyed as they looked at each other. Then Elana's expression hardened and she shut the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you'd be happy to see me." Alina held her head a little higher, unconsciously mimicking her sister's haughty body language. "Or that you'd at least bother to fake it."

There was a pause as Elana narrowed her eyes. "Mother is picking greens in the forest and won't be back for a while."

"I can wait." Alina sat and primly spread her skirts out over her knees. She'd noticed the lavender hue of her sister's bodice; Elana had used the ugly pants she'd sent her as a joke as fabric for something better, just as she'd hoped. She hid a smile.

After a moment Elana moved to the little kitchen and plucked an iron kettle from its hanger. She filled it with water from a bucket, then hung the kettle on a hook in the stone fireplace and bent to blow the banked fire back to life. Standing, she moved around the other side of the table and brought out a sewing basket, which she lay on the floor at her feet when she sat back down opposite Alina. "You shouldn't be here," Elana said finally.

"I have every right to visit my family," Alina shot back. "What of father, and Palbran? Are they around?"

Elana shook her head. "They're tending the far fields. But... you really shouldn't be here."

The acid had left Elana's voice, and she sounded sincere to Alina's ears. Which meant she probably was... neither of the girls were any good at lying to each other. "I can't help that Imarith chose me," Alina said quietly.

"That's not what I meant." Except that it was. Elana sighed and rested her chin in her hands. It was a very unlady-like pose, and a habit that their mother had tried to break the twins of in vain. "That's all father's fault. He shouldn't have sent you away. It's not fair."

"No." But he had. And as much as she hated being a dragonrider, losing Imarith would be like cutting off a limb with a rusty saw: impossible, and not worth the hurt. "So what did you mean?"

"It's that stupid business with that stupid Holdless boy."

Alina blinked. J'ackt? Her stomach gave a little lurch at the though of him. Of course news of what he'd done had traveled quickly... "What about him?"

"He nearly _murdered_ someone and the stupid Weyr isn't doing anything because the Weyrleader's just as murdering awful as he is." Elana leaned forward, eyes gleaming as she lowered her voice. "Just drew his sword and attacked a guard from the main Hold. How can you not know? He's in your class-- heck, his stupid bronze ran you over at the Hatching. Did you see it?"

Alina shook her head. "But I know people who did. The guard drew first."

"Probably because he needed to protect himself," Elana said with a sniff. "I still can't believe that they let someone Holdless Impress. It's shameful."

"It doesn't work like that. The dragon chooses, not the people."

"Yes, but they invited him onto the Sands. I was there, remember?" Elana leaned forward on the table. "Do you ever have to talk to him? What's he like?"

"He's..." Her mind flew, unbidden, to that brief kiss by the lake. There was no way she was going to tell Elana about the kiss, and it felt odd to keep a secret. She and Elana had never kept secrets from each other, especially not ones that she desperately wanted to talk about. "He's kind of rude. And he's not very social. But he's not-- he's going to be a good dragonrider, and a good bronzerider. He's smarter than people think. And," she paused, deciding whether or not to challenge the fragile peace that she and her sister were forging. "He's not some dangerous animal, whatever you've heard. He's never started a fight."

Elana wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, right. Don't defend him. He's Holdless for a reason-- clearly because he's too dangerous to be in society."

Alina rolled her eyes, mostly out of defeat. "I don't want to talk about him. What's happening here?"

"He's a thief and a murderer, and I hate that you know him." Elana sighed, then gave her twin a dirty look. "It's hard on _me_. Everyone knows I have a greenrider for a sister, and they know you know _him_ and now they get this _look_ when I'm around."

"How do you think _I_ feel?" Alina shot back. "Just because I'm a greenrider doesn't mean that I want to get treated like one."

"You know Honnic from Erby Hold, from down the road?" Elana leaned forward on her elbows and lowered her voice. "He actually said that since you're a greenrider I'm just the same, and he tried to lift my skirts."

Alina's eyes went wide with horror. "No!" It made her think of Ervine and what he'd expected from her, just because she was a Candidate - because any female Candidate would want to sleep with any man who asked. Being a Junior Weyrling had protected her from unwanted male attention since then, but it sickened her to know it was coming. And Imarith would rise. But it was wrong for Elana to have to deal with that sort of attention as well. "I can't believe he dared-- but he's always been a jerk. What did you do?"

"Nearly clawed his eyes out," Elana said with satisfaction. "He could barely see well enough to ride home the next day. His father sent a complaint but our father told him to get lost."

"I'm glad."

"Me too."

They were silent for a little while, listening to the pop and hiss of the fire in the grate. It felt good to just sit with Elana. They'd been together constantly ever since the day they were born, right up until the day that Alina had been Searched and Elana had not. It had all gone horribly wrong from there. They were exactly the same and shared the same birthday, and for turns Alina had thought it meant that they would also share the same lives. Now... she sighed. "You know I'd change things if I could."

Elana was staring hard at the scarred wood of the table top. "I know. But I still hate it. It was bad before but after that stupid Holdless boy tried to kill the guard from Emerald Falls Hold, it's just gotten worse. People are talking about the Weyr and it's not nice. They say that the Weyr is accepting anybody-- not just all the perverts, but now the criminals too. And then they come on Search and take all the boys from the fields and still expect us to make tithe."

"You know it's not like that," Alina said. "The Weyr doesn't open its doors criminals. Nobody does."

"Then why is that Holdless boy there?" Elana shook her head. "There's even a new song about it. Maybe you can learn to play it on your stupid pipes."

Alina rolled her eyes again. "It's just a _song_. Songs aren't all truthful." But she wanted to know what the lyrics were anyway.

"I know that. But it's _so_ embarrassing having my twin sister at the Weyr." And there was the crux of the problem. Elana sighed again. "I don't know why father sent you when Xandris, Dayf and stupid Flita were already going. Flita's so _suited_ to being there. I bet she's so happy she can sleep with anything that moves and not have to sneak around anymore."

The greenrider wrinkled her nose. "Actually, the best part is that I never see her. She might have been _so_ important here - especially when she was engaged to Dolan - but at the Weyr? She's nobody and nobody cares."

Her sister giggled, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "Good. Finally! At least there's that. I would have _died_ if I'd ever had to call her Lady Flita."

"Me too."

They were silent for a while, sitting and listening to fire. It felt... normal, and it was something that Alina had missed. She'd felt so adrift, and sitting her was like coming home. "You know... once I graduate, we can go to Gathers together," she said quietly. "Real ones, like at Emerald Falls Hold."

"Really?" Elana perked up at that. She swung her red braid over her shoulder and began playing with the end as she thought. "Maybe I could meet someone there, like mother did. Someone important."

"Maybe." Elana could still dream. It wasn't fair... her sister would marry, have children and be loved. She would live the life that Alina so desperately wanted and couldn't have. **At least one of us will,** she thought, but even as she thought it she felt Imairth stir in the back of her mind. "We will. Next Gather." Even if she couldn't have the future she wanted, she could do her best to make sure that her twin did.

Last updated on the May 14th 2015

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