Types of Bronzeriders

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 22nd July 2016

Characters: Kapera, Jeyme
Description: Kapera checks on Jeyme and has an interesting conversation.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 2 of Turn 8

Kapera

Jeyme

}:I should be able to drop in on Yumath,:{ the queen said with a
sniff. }:He mated with me and sired my eggs.:{

**Yes. But Yumath's rider has sired eggs with Quinneth's. So we should
not disturb them,** Kapera thought patiently to her dragon. **Besides,
she may be feeling bad because of the 'scoring.**

Riyanth huffed, but reached out to the green. }:Quinneth, is your
rider available to be seen?:{

The green peered through her rider's eyes and noticed that her rider
was in the midst of twirling up some of that stringy stuff that she
messed with and called "scarves."

}:She's available.:{ Quinneth said, before letting Jeyme know that
Kapera was coming to visit.

Jeyme had spent most of the day lying on her stomach in the bed,
giving the scoring on her back a chance to heal and get some fresh
air. Now she wore a loose, billowy tunic over the bandaged area that
didn't cling too much, and she sat on the ottoman by the couch to keep
herself from forgetting and sitting back when she shouldn't.

Kapera knocked on the door before entering. She had brought flasks of
wine and juice. "Jeyme? How are you feeling?"

"Kapera," she smiled as the goldrider came in, "I'm feeling...
Aggravated already and it's only been one day."

"How bad was it? The Healers didn't say you were the worst they saw,
and you're still here..." She settled into a chair.

"Well, it's bad enough that I can't sleep on it, or sit against, or do
anything much but lay on my stomach. Does that earn me some of that
wine?" Jeyme asked.

"Absolutely. I brought the juice in case the Healers had said you
couldn't have anything fun." Kapera tossed over the flask.

"So you're bored already?"

Jeyme raised an eyebrow at the goldrider, "You've ever had a real
injury, have you? I'm not bored, I'm exhausted from doing... nothing."
She laughed a little at that, "It's hard to explain until you've been
there. I've got two options, I can lay around, or sit on this ottoman.
I tried going out earlier but it was too warm, it made the 'score
itch."

"Lung fever. Not a score," Kapera said. The queens were usually too
well protected for that. And she'd been feverish and delirious for it,
so she didn't remember much.

"And you can't go /between/ anywhere cold either?" she guessed. "Is
there anything they do let you have? Those bad Harper novels?"

The greenrider tilted her head toward a built-in shelf which hosted a
plethora of said novels, "When D'hol is grumpy I like to read a cheesy
passage from one of them in my best sultry voice. It's always good for
a laugh."

"Does he laugh at them?"

"Have you ever seen D'hol laugh?" Jeyme asked, tilting her head a bit.

"No. But maybe you have the special weyrmate touch."

Jeyme smiled a little, "He does laugh, every couple of months, but
normally he just rolls his eyes when I dramatically read from one of
the harper novels."

"That must be worth it. J'nus is serious too, but I've still seen him
laugh." Though not in awhile...

"J'nus and I will have to get klah while you and D'hol are busy with
the clutch." There were many evenings where D'hol didn't get home
until late since Yumath had flown Riyanth.

"You should. He's probably lonely," Kapera said, trying to keep her
tone light. But there was that tiny prickle of irritation at the idea
that ran through her...

"Really? He strikes me as the type that likes his solitude." Not that
she had been around J'nus very much, she had only observed him from
afar.

"A little too much. He forgets that he needs people and can't be a
solitary island. I've found it's common among bronzeriders. There are
the stoic quiet ones who seem like solitary rocks, the rakishly
charming ones who can't keep it in their pants, the hot-headed ones
who dive into every challenge. It's fun to categorize." She liked to
gossip about men, after all.

"Don't forget the category for insane bronzeriders who try to kill
people, granted there's only one in that category at the moment."
Jeyme added, finally helping herself to the flask of wine since Kapera
hadn't offered.

"That's true. Do you know him well?" Kapera asked.

"Not exactly.... I ran into him when I still lived at the Hold and he
was a wanted Holdless." Jeyme said, feeling as if that had been
another lifetime completely.

That was fascinating and Kapera leaned forward to listen to this
information. "Were you afraid of him?"

"Well, I was out riding by myself and my runner picked up a rock.
J'ackt had a blade so of course I was terrified. He just got the rock
from my runner's hoof though so I figured maybe all the things I'd
heard about Holdless might not be true. What are the odds he and I
would both end up here?"

"Not very high," the goldrider said. "And Zith wouldn't have chosen
him if he's a monster. So I suppose that makes four kinds. Or five if
you count the boringly practical kind who seem like brownriders."

Jeyme wasn't sure about that, she called nearly killing a man a
"monster" but there was no point in pressing the matter.

"I like the stoic kinds myself so maybe I will befriend J'nus... Does
he dance? I'll need a dance partner while you and D'hol are shaking
hands at the hatching feast?" She grinned.

"That is the most boring part. He dances very well, including the toss
dance. Not that everyone enjoys that one. I know I can't picture some
people doing it." She thought of Meledei and how straitlaced she
seemed.

"Good to know." Jeyme twitched her shoulders at an itchy place right
in the middle of her bandaged back. "So how was your flight with D'hol
compared to your other ones? I won't tell." She winked.

"Better than either Dragonsfall one," she said. "You're a lucky woman."

"You've had other flights here at Dolphin Cove haven't you?" Jeyme
asked, because she already knew she was a lucky woman. D'hol knew his
way around the bedroom.

"Just one, and J'nus won. I already knew what he was like. This time I
was trying not to play favorites, let Riyanth make the best choice.
She liked Mnoranth so I thought she might pick him. But with R'enh's
other entanglements..."

Jeyme arched an eyebrow, "Other entanglements?"

"He has a greenrider, doesn't he? And always seems to be gone from the
Weyr. I assume he has relationships elsewhere, so why pursue?" Therre
was a time she might have.

"That's true, but, why pursue when you have J'nus. Right?" Jeyme had
learned to accept what mating flights at a Weyr could bring to a
relationship, but she still liked the stability of knowing that
D'hol's boots were under her bed every night. When you had something
great, why shop around for the mediocre? **Maybe she doesn't think
J'nus is that great.** She couldn't tell, Kapera was a hard woman to
read or understand.

"We're not officially weyrmated," Kapera said. "I'm not sure if I'm
the kind of person who could do that."

"Why not?" she asked.

"I never understood the impulse to just move in with someone and be
with just them. Either I haven't met the right person, or I'm not
wired for it. What made you decide D'hol was the one for you?"

No one had ever asked her that before, and it made Jeyme pause for a
moment to figure out how to word what she wanted to say. "I was born
and bred to be some man's bride when I was a holder. I had accepted
that I would probably be married to someone older, someone who rarely
spoke to me other than to engage in activities to breed an heir, or
possibly someone with a mean streak who came home drunk. When I came
to the Weyr all of that was thrown out of the window, there was a
whole world of possibilities for me here, especially after I Impressed
Quinneth. I met D'hol when I was just a junior Weyrling, he was the
first man who ever _talked_ to me. No man had ever done that without
the idea that he might be getting a dowry from my father."

She took a sip from the flask of wine as she thought back to those
beginning days with D'hol. "After Weyrlinghood when our relationship
took a different turn.... When I look at other men I can appreciate
their good looks, or that they have a great personality, or admire the
way they treat their children, but when I measure them in my mind
beside of D'hol they always come up lacking. When we weren't together
I would think about him, and the time I left him for the night... That
was the most horrible night of my life, not something I would ever
want to go through again. If you can cut a man loose and not shed a
tear, then he's probably not weyrmate material."

Kapera listened quietly, fascinated by the greenrider's words. She too
had grown up Holdbred but the idea had been intolerable. She
understood that concept of freedom from the old ways.

Her words about always thinking about D'hol made her wonder. Did she
feel that way for J'nus? Was he embedded that deeply in her heart? The
idea of caring for someone that much sounded frightening, as well as
exhilarating.

"It sounds like you two have a solid relationship. So you'd want no
one but D'hol outside of flights?"

"That's right. I mean, why settle for some stranger when I can be
intimate with the person I love?" Perhaps it was the way she'd been
raised, but that was her view of it.

"It sounds nice to feel that strongly about someone," Kapera said, a
little wistfulness in her tone. "I've never felt that strongly for
anyone, so I just take pleasure where I find it and it's offered."

Jeyme wondered if J'nus felt more strongly for Kapera or if they were
in the same page. "Thanks for coming by to visit, it's been a nice
distraction."

"Not a problem. I'll be around if you want any more company. Just have
Quinneth ask Riyanth," Kapera said, rising up to leave.

Last updated on the July 22nd 2016

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Types of Bronzeriders