What Came After

Writers: Estelle, Leigh M-F.
Date Posted: 8th July 2018

Characters: R'fal, L'exan, Ashuli
Description: R'fal has a chance to update L'exan
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 5, day 3 of Turn 9

It hadn't been a great day. A storm predicted by weyr folk
knowledgeable in such things had struck earlier than anticipated,
drenching L'exan and his wingmates in the middle of a drill, despite
the fact it had been started fairly early as well to avoid such a
problem. Everyone had needed to jump between to a different location
in order to regroup, check fighting straps, and then finish. Even
though no real damage had been done, L'exan and several others had
needed to spend plenty of time looking over and treating their gear to
make sure everything was still in top shape.

Thus, with those aggravations having shaped the day, L'exan was more
than ready to have a reasonable amount of drinks with dinner while his
daughter joined him. He scanned the dining cavern for her while he
headed for the serving line.

There was a burst of chatter from the entrance as the junior weyrlings
arrived, fresh from drills. Although they'd also been out in the rain,
they were in high spirits, shaking out wet hair and laughing and
joking with each other as they queued up for dinner.

When he saw who was ahead of him, R'fal asked the boy behind to keep
his place and stepped out of the line to approach him. He'd been
meaning to speak to L'exan for a few sevendays, but since most of his
time was occupied with weyrling training, classes and Marlath, he'd
not had a chance until now.

"Bluerider L'exan - sir? I'm sorry to bother you at dinner...but I
really wanted to talk, if you've got time?"

The older man turned around, eyebrows lifting. "Oh, hey. I got some
time, aye. Actually, care to join me? My daughter's joining me too,
but we can chat while we get our food if it's pressing. Roast fowl
tonight, did you hear? That's a real treat."

"Oh, good!" The weyrling's eyes lit up. He'd certainly never eaten
better or in such variety as he had since coming to the Weyr, and as
always after drills, he was very hungry. "It's not urgent or anything,
so I'd be glad to join you as long as I'm not intruding on your family
time. I just wanted to let you know how I got on with telling my
classmates...um, the truth."

"Aahhh," L'exan said knowingly, and motioned R'fal up beside him. "So
how did it go?" The weyrling didn't seem miserable, so that was a good
indicator of how it had gone. The bluerider still wanted to hear it
from R'fal, though.

"It wasn't so bad," R'fal said, still sounding as if he couldn't quite
believe how trouble-free his confession had been. "I thought it would
be much worse, that they wouldn't want anything to do with me once
they knew what I'd done, but it didn't turn out that way. One of them
even apologised to me."

"I had a feeling you didn't need to worry," L'exan said with a smile,
clapping R'fal on the shoulder. "But it's great to hear all the same.
So you feeling better now about everything?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely. Training is going great," R'fal said, his eyes
lighting up. He didn't find classes half so bad now that he had the
extra practice, and he'd always liked the outdoor drills. "I think
we're going to fly any day now. Marlath is beside himself with
excitement."

"As well he should be," L'exan said as they reached the end of the
serving line where trays, bowls, plates, cutlery, mugs, and the like
were stacked. "Once he's up there, you might have a hard time
convincing him to come down."

"I don't know if I'll want to come down either," R'fal sighed, picking
up a tray. He had only ever flown on a dragon once, on his way to the
Weyr after being Searched, but the experience was burned into his
memory and he'd been longing to be back in the air ever since. "I just
hope he doesn't try too hard and hurt himself. Were you ever worried
about that, with Larzeth?"

The older man shook his head as he placed the items he needed on his
own tray. "When it came to our weyrling training, he often had more
sense than I did," he admitted. "Not that I didn't work hard, mind,
but I still made mistakes."

"Marlath's pretty level-headed most of the time," R'fal said as they
moved down the line, following the inviting scent of roast meat and
gravy. "But sometimes he wants to rush into things. Especially flying.
On the bright side, I don't have any trouble getting him up from his
couch in the morning," he added. "Every day he's awake early and
hurrying me out of bed so we can get to drills."

L'exan snorted. "That's a lot better than what Larzeth would do. He'd
threaten to sit on me if I didn't move my tail. And before you ask,
yes, he actually did once, and only once." He would never forget the
near-hysterical laughter of his classmates that morning.

The weyrling's eyes widened. "Um...I guess he must have been smaller
then than he is now?" He hoped Marlath wasn't listening to this.

"Much," L'exan chuckled. "It's the only reason I was able to even
breathe." He nodded to R'fal. "Anyway, I'm hoping you'll find it
easier to tell the truth from now on." He didn't say it to wound, just
as a matter of fact.

"As long as I remember how much trouble it almost got me into, I
shouldn't think I'll be tempted to lie." R'fal heaped his plate with
slices of roast, tubers and greens and turned his brightest, most
charming smile on a woman from the kitchen staff who was bringing out
another tray. It never hurt to flatter the cooks... "This looks
delicious. Just the thing after a hard day's training."

"Good," L'exan said with satisfaction, and looked over his shoulder to
scan the cavern. A tanned hand popped up and waved, signaling where
his daughter was, and he waved back, gesturing that he would join her
in a few moments. "Right, so where's the gravy- ah, there we go."

Realising that he simply couldn't fit any more food on a single plate,
R'fal reached out to take the gravy jug once L'exan had finished with
it and poured a generous helping over his dinner. "Are you sure it's
all right for me to join you? I won't get in the way of your evening
with your daughter?" He had to admit, he was curious about the girl
who'd convinced L'exan to turn his life around.

"Nah, of course not. Ashuli loves meeting new people. Besides, I get
nearly every evening with her," L'exan said fondly. "C'mon, she's over
there."

Ashuli waved again as the bluerider got closer. "Hey, Papa! Who's the
other guy?" she inquired curiously.

"He's R'fal, brown weyrling. For some reason we've taken a liking to
each other," L'exan said, setting his tray down so he could hug his
daughter. Ancients, had she gotten taller again? Where was the time
going? "I invited him to join us, if that's all right."

"Of course it is. If he's good by you, he's good by me."

"Thanks!" R'fal set down his tray on the table opposite them. It felt
good to be sharing dinner with a family; sometimes he missed his own,
although he got on well with the other weyrlings. "I only came to the
Weyr a few months ago, and your father has been really helping me out
with his advice."

"What, that dimwit?" Ashuli joked while pointing at her dad.

"Hey, I got plenty of good advice," L'exan said with mock indignation.
"I advised you to join the scribes, right?"

"Well, yes," Ashuli giggled. "So, R'fal, how's the training going?"
she asked with the air of someone who was genuinely interested.

"Good! It was hard at first and...well, actually, it's still hard, but
I have Marlath to encourage me when it gets tough." A slightly dreamy
look came over the weyrling's face as he spoke about his brown dragon.
"He's getting so big! Nearly ready to fly. Of course, he thinks he's
been ready to fly practically since he fell out of his shell at the
Hatching."

"Of course he thinks that. He's a dragon, they have wings," Ashuli
chuckled, and had a portion of greens.

"And when it is time to fly, remember to be careful with those
landings," L'exan put in. "Claws can get broken, or muscles pulled.
But the worst that usually happens is a dragon taking a faceplant,
nothing super serious. I ever tell you that happened to the brownrider
with the worst attitude in my class?"

"No!" Ashuli exclaimed, delightfully scandalized. "How did it happen?"

"Oh, H'tun just wasn't paying as much attention as Gruth was, and
their signals got crossed," L'exan said. "No one was hurt, but boy was
H'tun mortified when Gruth landed, slammed his face into the ground,
and wound up sneezing a giant wad of dirt all over him when he ran to
see if he was okay."

R'fal winced at the thought. "I'll be sure to concentrate as hard as I
can when it's my turn. I know Marlath will! He watches the bigger
dragons taking off and landing all the time, so he can see how to do
it."

He turned to Ashuli. "So...you're a scribe?" He spoke a bit shyly,
since he still found it a bit intimidating that everyone in the Weyr
seemed so much better educated than he was. "Are you an apprentice?"

Ashuli nodded, mouth full. "I'd like to work with the records when I'm
old enough. Right now I'm just copying stuff like poems and letters
and songs to make my handwriting perfect," she said.

L'exan let Ashuli take some of the conversation from there, focusing
on his own food and feeling quite pleased with how things were turning
out.

"Songs?" R'fal perked up. He might not be much use at writing, but he
did like listening to a stirring, heroic ballad. "Have you found any
good ones you hadn't heard before?" Before long, he had forgotten to
be nervous, and the two of them were busy chatting and somehow
managing to demolish their plates of food at the same time.

Last updated on the August 26th 2018

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

What Came After