Man to Man

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 20th October 2017

Characters: K'lvin, K'ran
Description: K'ran checks in on K'lvin.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 6 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lanniya, Bahji, Lenala

K'ran

Weyrs spread gossip at faster than the speed of dragonflight and so it
wasn't long before K'ran had heard about K'lvin's troubles with his
heart.

**Rogueth, where is he?** K'ran asked his dragon, who was trying to
soak up the sun from his ground floor ledge.

Rogueth sent a message to Xmrenth. }:My rider wants to know if yours
is still in the Infirmary or if he are back in your weyr.:{

}:We are in our weyr now.:{ Xmrenth replied to his former Weyrleader.
After spending a night and a day at the infirmary being monitored,
K'lvin had been sent home to continue resting.

K'ran made his way up to K'lvin's weyr and knocked on the door with
the good hand. "Visitor," he called politely.

"Come in," K'lvin called. He was reclined on his couch, a piece of
wood in one hand and a whittling knife in the other.

"How are you feeling?" K'ran asked him. "We heard about it last night,
but I didn't want to interrupt the Healers."

"I'll live, I suppose." K'lvin said, rubbing some shavings from the
piece of wood with his thumb. "I've been shoved out of the fighting
Wings, though," and then he said a word that he'd never imagined
saying, "retired." After all that he'd just been through at River
Bluff, after those days of working and flying here and there for
K'ran, now he was being pushed onto a shelf.

"Did they say you'd recover if you took some months off?" K'ran asked
him. Perhaps it was to prevent damaging his heart further for now.

The bronzerider raised his hands, "There's not much they can do for
the heart. I have to watch my diet and exercise to prevent another
attack. I've been battling numbness in my left hand, it comes and
goes. The healers are worried stress and over exertion could trigger
more problems, even down the road."

And K'lvin wasn't even that old, K'ran thought with a pang. "So no
more interesting food and no stress? Sounds like they want to bore
you."

"After River Bluff...." K'lvin stopped before his voice became
emotional. "I just really want to be working, doing things, to keep my
mind off of everything, and yet here I am," he gestured to his empty
weyr, "stuck. They said after a couple sevendays if I pass an
examination I can at least start on some retired duties, watches,
transports and the like." But not fighting Thread, not doing what he
was _born_ to do.

The former Weyrleader knew he was going to be in a similar situation
for a bit. At first he could help River Bluff riders settle in, but
then he'd be stuck on light duties since Rogueth was grounded. At
least K'ran had a timetable for going back to duty, though.

"Did any Healers you know well come over?"

"No, I was subject to the Weyrhealer, an aging man. I suppose I can't
complain though, I am still alive." K'lvin didn't _feel_ alive though,
he felt like a shell of his former self, as if he was just barely
existing.

"IS there anything I can do besides continuing to drop in?" K'ran asked.

**Resurrect River Bluff, bring Bahji back... Turn back time.** It came
to K'lvin then, what Lanniya had done, going back /between/ times to
save her family. Why couldn't he go back and save Bahji? Pull her from
their weyr before the earthquake? For that matter, if she could do
that, why couldn't they save all of River Bluff? Lenala too.

/Timing it/ was of course a knowledge saved for bronze and goldriders,
but surely if someone has young and inexperienced as Lanniya could go
back and bring her family forward, they could too?

"What's the point of knowing how to /time it/, K'ran, if we can't go
back and change what happened?"

"I wish we could change it," K'ran said. What if he'd gone back to
that morning and told everyone to leave? Could they have saved
everyone? But surely there was nothing they could have done to prevent
the disaster itself...

**We can.** K'lvin thought savagely. What was the point of having such
a skill if not to use it?

}:The leaders would not all us to go back, you know this.:{ Xmrenth
said, catching wind of his rider's thoughts.

**That didn't stop Anaeryth.**

}:Anaeryth was young and foolish, we are not.:{ The seasoned bronze replied.

K'lvin cut a little deeper than he intended into the piece of wood he
was whittling. **Suppose you're right.** He finally conceded.

}:Of course I am.:{

"How is Rogueth?" K'lvin finally asked.

"Healing slowly. The dragonhealers cleared him to start exercising
gently. With the aid of other dragons he can get into the sea."

"Swimming will strengthen him up quickly." K'lvin said from
experiencing with dragonhealing.

K'ran didn't want to speak about his own eagerness to go back to
flight given K'lvin's condition.

"How familiar were you with this region before?" K'ran asked.

"Marginally," K'lvin said, "I grew up at Dragonsfall, was there most
of my life before moving to River Bluff. I've transported to this
region several times and, of course, attended several hatchings here
over the Turns."

"You didn't want to go back to Dragonsfall?" K'ran asked curiously.
He'd considered both Dragonsfall and Dolphin Cove once the move notice
happened.

K'lvin shook his head, "I've gotten spoiled by warm weather. I don't
think my joints could handle the cold like that again."

"I can understand that. There's some really lovely places in this
territory that I'm looking forward to getting to know again."

K'lvin didn't know what he had to look forward to... Messenger duty? Helping out with candidate classes and Weyrling lessons?

}:You have life to look forward to,:{ Xmrenth scolded.

**A half-life.** K'lvin responded morosely.

"Thank you for coming to visit, K'ran."

"No problem. Any time," K'ran said. He knew he should probably be making his way back to his weyr to rest and get ready for the next day.

Last updated on the November 2nd 2017

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