Getting Serious

Writers: Avery, Eimi
Date Posted: 9th October 2017

Characters: Erivana, Kaiafel
Description: Erivana is lost and gets Kaiafel to help her out.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 13, day 9 of Turn 8

Erivana was trying to find her way to the storage rooms, but she'd
gotten turned around. Twice. **Why isn't there a good printed map of
this place for new people?** she wondered as she rounded a corner to
find... a dead end. Great.

There was the sound of feet pattering behind her and she turned to see
a weyrbrat. "Excuse me?" she called at them.

"Yes, ma'am?" Kaiafel asked, a little startled to be suddenly addressed.

"I'm trying to find the storerooms with clothing, and I'm lost. Am I
anywhere even close?"

"Yeah, you're pretty close. I can take you, I'm heading there now to
check my traps." He waved her down a side corridor she had just
passed. "This way."

She fell into step with him. "Tunnelsnake traps?" she guessed.

"Yeah," he said with a bit of a swagger. "I used to look for flit
eggs down by the beach, but I never did find any. Now I only go with
my little brother sometimes 'cause he's a kid and he likes that sort
of thing. But I've caught a few tunnel snakes."

"I used to hunt for flit eggs too," she said. "Do many lay in this
area? I thought they liked the warm beaches of the sea."

"Not so much. But my Da told me there are some pretty stupid greens
sometimes, so there was always a chance." And after all, his Da was
the smartest man he knew, so his opinion on the subject could be
trusted.

Erivana laughed. "I found a few in my time but I sold them all for
money. It was dragon or nothing, for me."

"Oh, I'll get my dragon soon," he said with full confidence that was
the truth. "But I don't have to buy a flit egg. If I want one my
brother's mother has a gold. She'd probably give me one. But I have
a canine, and he's the best pet anyone could ever have, so I don't
need a flit."

"You think canines are better than flits? How come?" she asked.

Kaiafel stopped dead in his tracks, honestly shocked by the question.
"Because he's _Kal_. He's my canine, my buddy. Weyrwoman Traelyn
gave him to me for my birthingday and we've grown up together. I
would never want a flit over him."

"I've never had a pet and don't know much about canines. How old is Kal?"

"He's five. He's about this big." Kaiafel touched half way up his
thigh. "He used to be up to my waist, but I guess I grew. He stopped
growing a long time ago."

"I'm impressed. Can I meet him some time?"

"Sure! We're down at the beach a lot washing dragons." Kal was fond
of swimming and digging holes in the sand. He looked at the girl
curiously. "Are you from River Bluff?"

"Yes," she said. "It's just me and my mother. She's a master
dragonhealer in the transfer wing, and I'm hoping Chioneth's clutch
will finally be the right one."

"So, you were in the earthquake then?" Kaiafel was fascinated by
stories of what happened there.

"Yes, I was on top of the cliff," she confirmed.

His eyes sparkled with curiosity. "What was it like?"

How could he _ask_ that? It was such a personal question. A rude one,
given what all the survivors had been through. How dare he - He was
just a kid. He probably dind't know what he was asking or why it
bothered her. She stopped, and took a breath, and a second, and a
third, before she trusted herself to speak.

"Everything was shaking and rumbling. The ground moved. The walls
moved. It was like how dragon eggs crack, but it was the walls," she
said in a flat tone. She looked around the corridor and pointed at the
wall. "Imagine those caving in around you, on you. If they cracked
right now, and we were buried down here. Killed immediately if we were
lucky. Trapped to suffocate, if we weren't."

Kaiafel's eyes grew wide. He had heard of cave ins, and had been told
not to go to certain places while excavators made them safe, but the
idea that he could be trapped behind the stone that had surrounded him
all his life was more than a little frightening. That couldn't
happen, could it? Not here. Not at Dragonsfall. "Did that really
happen?"

"Yes. That's why the Weyr isn't livable anymore. That's how Lenala
died." Erivana hadn't liked either of the senior goldriders at River
Bluff, thinking them both unfit in different ways, but she couldn't
imagine anyone who would have deserved anything like that.

"Shells..." Kaiafel whispered, a chill running down his spine at the
thought of what would happen if those unbreakable stone walls suddenly
broke. "But... That won't happen here, though. Right?"

"We didn't think it was going to happen at River Bluff," Erivana said
softly. "But they said it was because of a volcano. So if there aren't
any volcanos here..."

"But my teacher said that Dragonfalls was a volcano once..." Suddenly
every crack was starting to look suspicious, a potential threat that
would someday bury them all alive when they weren't expecting it.
Kaiafel's hands were starting to feel clammy.

"We didn't know it would happen to River Bluff. But that volcano was
out at sea, and Dragonsfall isn't on the water, so we wouldn't get a
tsunami here," Erivana said, trying to sound really sure.

"But you said the shaking made the walls come down." So even if there
was no water, they were still in danger.

She nodded. "And that's why we're here now. And a bunch of people are
very sad, and wouldn't like to be asked about it."

That was ok with Kaiafel, he didn't want to hear any more! His heart was already pounding at the thought that at any moment the ground could shake and the walls could collapse around him. Thankfully just a few more steps and they were there. "This is it."

"Thanks for showing me the way, Kaiafel," Erivana said. She hadn't
meant to get so serious with the kid. He'd probably avoid her forever
now...

Last updated on the October 27th 2017

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Getting Serious