Time Enough To Daydream (3/3)

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 15th June 2018

Characters: R'fal, Falevin, Elwena
Description: R'fal remembers the first time a Thread burrow was found on his family's farm
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 5, day 10 of Turn 9

** 9 Turns ago ***

Nothing happened. The soil felt warm and oddly crunchy through the soles
of his shoes, but otherwise no different than walking on ground where
there'd been a bonfire. No writhing tendrils of Thread burst out of the
hole to eat him alive.

"If it gets you, you can jump in the stream. I heard water drowns
Thread." Falevin raised an eyebrow at the exasperated look Elwena was
giving him. "What?"

"Just shut up. Keep going, Renfal."

Renfal took another tentative step forward. He could see a little way
into the hole now. There was no sign of anything moving, but the same
chemical scent he'd noticed before when the ground crew had returned was
in the air, and made his throat itch.

"I can't see anything. I think they got it all." The earth at the sides
of the hole was cracked and lifeless, speckled with fine grey ash. He
edged closer still. What had it been like when the ground crew got here?
Had they seen the alien thing inside it, consuming everything in its
reach...

Then, in the depths of the hole, just visible now, he saw something pale
and worm-like, wriggling. Renfal yelled in instinctive horror and leapt
back. Behind him, Elwena and Falevin both rushed forward, his cousin
grabbing his arm to drag him back.

"What is it?"

"Get back!"

"No, wait..." The boy gulped in a deep breath, trying to calm his racing
heart. He shook his arm free and edged closer. "It was small. I think it
was just a grub."

Falevin made a choking sound, like he was suppressing laughter, and
Renfal's cheeks went hot. It wasn't fair - he'd been the first to go
close, and now he was the one who looked like an idiot.

"That's a good sign...I think," Elwena said uncertainly.

"Why?"

She shook her head, exasperated. "Do you ever listen to a single thing
the harpers say? Grubs eat Thread! If they're here, it should definitely
be safe."

"Or they're still feeding on something..." Falevin backed up a step.

Hoping to regain some of his lost credibility, Renfal went back to the
edge of the hole and crouched down, reaching inside for a handful of
soil to examine. The wriggling things were definitely grubs; he'd seen
them before, though never so many in one place.

"It's fine. There's nothing here." There really wasn't any trace left;
just grubs, and a burned-out hole in the ground. Until he was old enough
to go out with the ground crew, he wouldn't see any more. Renfal
supposed he ought to be grateful for that - he hadn't really wanted to
see the mindless silver masses devouring his father's land - but he
couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, too.

"I thought it would be more...dramatic, somehow." Elwena sighed, echoing
his thoughts. "I'd better get back, before Ma notices I'm gone."

"Me, too," Renfal said, thinking of dinner, and whether he could
persuade his father to tell what he'd seen at the burrow. "We can go
back together, though, can't we? As far as the crossing place."

"Of course." The girl smiled, and Renfal felt that warm sensation from
before, filling him from his belly to the tips of his fingers. Falevin
rolled his eyes - why, Renfal wasn't sure - and fell into step beside them.

"I wish I could be a dragonrider." He tilted his head back, looking up
into the clear sky. There was no sign of wings at the moment, but they
might fly over later. One of the compensations of living in a Pass was
that dragons were sighted far more often than before. "Don't you?"

"Don't get your hopes up," Falevin said. "Even if they are Searching in
the Holds, they aren't likely to come all the way out to this backwater."

Elwena considered the question. "Auntie says Weyrfolk lead dissolute lives."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure. It didn't sound good, though. She said we shouldn't ever
talk to one if they come to the hold. It's not what decent girls do."

"Oh. I'm sorry - I didn't mean to insult you," Renfal said, his heart
sinking. "I just meant it must be marvellous to fight Thread, like in
the stories." He thought it over. "I'm sure the Weyrwoman isn't...what
you said."

"No. And according to Auntie, I don't always behave like a decent girl,
either." Her eyes glinted with mischief. "But they do say it's different
at the Weyr."

"I wouldn't care." Renfal thought he could put up with just about
anything to fly with the Fighting Wings, like the heroes of his
favourite ballads. He imagined himself on the back of one of the great
dragons - which colour, he wasn't yet sure - soaring far above the
cothold. Would Elwena smile at him if he was a dragonrider, like she had
at the burrow? Or would she obey her aunt and refuse to talk to him?

*** Present day ***

R'fal sighed, realising he still didn't know the answer to that
question. The sevendays until Marlath was old enough to take him home
seemed to stretch out ahead of him like an eternity. And then, not long
after, he'd find out the answer to another question. Would he and his
brown be brave and skilled enough to join the Wings and fight Thread?

He'd never really found out what 'dissolute' meant, either. Later that
afternoon, he had asked his mother, but she had frowned and said it was
a word ignorant folk used about people whose way of life was different
to theirs. Which was true enough, but not very enlightening.

He wondered what Elwena was doing right now. Most likely, she was
waiting in her father's cot for Threadfall to end. Was she thinking
about what he was doing, far away in the Weyr? Or had she forgotten him
entirely?

"Hey, R'fal!" Another weyrling was calling him. "Is that sack full?"

"Oh - yes. Sorry!" He hastily closed the firestone sack and tossed it to
the other boy, hoping he'd not been distracted for long. He'd certainly
never make it to the Wings if he couldn't concentrate on sacking firestone.

There would be time enough to daydream about fighting Thread - and
Holder Lewin's daughter - when Threadfall was over...

Last updated on the August 21st 2018

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Time Enough To Daydream (3/3)