At the Back of the Class

Writers: Aaron, Miriah
Date Posted: 23rd March 2019

Characters: T'ner, Aviday
Description: Tener and Aviday bond over drawings and discussions about parents
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 10 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: N'vanik, K'sedel

Aviday

Aviday foot tapped nonstop as dragonrider at the head of the class
lectured. She'd lost track of exactly what they were supposed to be
learning in favor of doodling along the sides of the hide she had been
given. Little flowers popped up in the margins, then a dragon talon,
and then winding leaves and vines that spread about the hide in a
flourish. She occasionally glanced upwards to check and to see if the
rider was staring at her or had asked her a question, but being hidden
in the back, it didn't happen. Instead she hunkered down, tapped her
foot restlessly and began to doodle another figure at the bottom of
the hide, this one of a large breasted woman chasing a fleeing
dragonrider.

Tener was almost always in the front of the class. But today, Resser
had had a bit of a... blowout before class, and Tener had stayed to
help clean up until the fostermother had arrived to relieve Ayressa to
go to work in the lower caverns.

As such, he had been so late, class had nearly already begun when he
sat down, and this left him with a seat in the back of the class.

Next to a tippa-tapping foot. His eyes kept flitting to the Candidate
beside him. She was... drawing?

She was pretty good, actually. Tener tried to pay attention to the
lecture – this was all very important stuff! – but he could not help
watching from the corner of his eye the drawings emerge from her
pencil.

Tener held in a giggle at the last one.

She heard the muffled giggle and glanced up, shooting Tener a quick
grin. The drawn woman quickly had a tongue sticking out of an open
mouth with drips coming off of it and little lines around the chest to
make it seem as if the bosom was rapidly bouncing. The drawn rider, on
the other hand, had eyes that were nearly as large as his head and a
round mouth with a little bubble that declared, "Help me!"

Tener covered his mouth with his hand, glancing to the front of the
class to check to be sure the instructor did not notice him.

He smiled back at Aviday. It seemed absurd to him that a man would run
from a woman. Especially one who looked like that, rather than angry.

He tried briefly to refocus his attention once more, but he could not
manage to look away from the drawings. It was not his fault this class
was the single most boring thing in the world...

She couldn't help it, she snickered as Tener covered his mouth. The
instructor, a grizzled blue rider heard the quickly covered giggle and
looked back at Aviday. "What so funny about what I just said, Aviday?
Care to enlighten me?"

Aviday quickly put the charcoal stick down and sat straight up.
"Uhm...Uh... " Her foot fidgeted as she quickly glanced around at the
class, bright pink spots appearing on her cheeks. "I was about to
sneeze?"

The bluerider sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We were
talking about Candidate expectations in the Weyr, Aviday. I know
you're weyrbred but those around you are not. Pay attention, or I'll
double your laundry duty for a week."

Aviday shrank in her chair. "Yes, H'bur." She waited until he had
turned back around and stuck out her tongue.

Tener offered her an apologetic glance and mouthed, 'Sorry.' He felt
guilty both for drawing attention to her and for not paying attention
to the instructor. Especially when H'bur repeated the purpose of the
lesson – something he would be expected to know, something K'sedel had
seemed to worry he did not fully understand in his interview. He
needed to be listening.

Well, perhaps he could apologize better after class was over.

She gave him a little shrug and a smile to let him know that she was
fine. She'd gotten worse scoldings before. At least he hadn't called
her up in front of the group this time. She sighed, resting a pointed
chin on her hand and began tapping her foot again. This class was
dull; relationships, proper etiquette, blah blah blah...she knew all
of it already. Why did she have to be here too?

The moment the class was over, she wanted to cheer with relief and
gave an audible groan as H'bur dismissed the group. She sprang up out
of her chair and gathered her hides.

"Hey," said Tener to Aviday as he packed up his things. "Sorry for
getting you in trouble. I'm sure they'd say I should know better." It
began to dawn on Tener that this young girl was in the same boat he
was. They were going to expect her to fight Thread if she Impressed.

Assuming she was not one of the lucky few to get gold, anyway. The
thought of kids fighting or even undergoing the harsh training to
fight made Tener's stomach sink.

She shrugged again, stacking up her hides. "It's okay. You didn't,
really. I've heard it all before and H'bur coulda done worse.I just
don't see why I have to be in this class too." She held up her
drawing. "So, you like it?"

Tener actually blushed then as he realized that this same young girl
he worried about fighting Thread had drawn such a picture. Surely, she
was too young to be thinking about such things...

**Not that I wasn't thinking of them when I was her age,** he thought.
He decided to answer somewhat obliquely.

"You're quite the artist!" he said.

"Thanks! I like to draw. It keeps my hands busy and the
weyrlingmasters don't like it if I tap my fingers or move around too
much. It helps me concentrate." She looked down at the picture and
then thrust it at him. "You can have it." She pointed to the running
dragonrider. "That's N'vanik."

Tener smiled and took the drawing.

"Thanks!" He was not sure what Ayressa would think, but he would show
it to her to find out. "Who's that chasing him?" he asked.

"Oh, that? That's my Mama. She's been trying to moth N'vanik during
mating flights since she got here. She likes bronze and brownriders."
Aviday shrugged. "I think she's trying to get with child by him or
something to keep his attention, but I guess he always grabs someone
else." She shoved the rest of her hides in a sack that she slung over
her shoulder. "Impress a bronze or a brown and you'll meet her."

Tener coughed, a bit shocked by the girl's forwardness. Surely, not
all weyrfolk were this way, speaking of... such things from such an
early age.

"Is that right," he said, though the thought filled him with some
amount of dread. He had been expecting so far that if his dragon lost
a flight, he would be spending the aftermath with Ayressa.

He picked up his things and shouldered them as well.

"Is your dad a bronzerider?" he wondered.

"Yeah. She moths every flight she can. She thinks it's exciting."
Aviday spoke blandly about that matter, she was used to it. "I don't
know if he is. He could be any rider, really. "

"You... don't know who your father is?" Tener asked, a note of sadness
in his voice. The stereotype was there, Holders talked. About riders
who were so promiscuous that no one knew who belonged to whom. But he
had not considered that he might actually meet one of the poor
fatherless souls.

"Nope." Aviday frowned up at him, begging the sadness in his voice.
"It's okay, though. I mean some of the creche workers are men, so
it's not like I didn't have anyone. And it's not his fault. My mama
is a flight moth; it wasn't like he meant for it to happen. "

Tener nodded, though that hardly seemed like an adequate explanation to him.

"Have you tried to find him? Someone who looks a lot like you, maybe?
Or... has it just not been something you've worried about?" It was
possible that whoever it was might not have even wanted to play the
part of her father, even if she did find him. The thought made Tener
shudder, though he tried to conceal it.

She sighed softly. "Trying to find a single dragonrider that my mama
mothed at Riverbluff nearly 15 turns ago is pretty impossible. Sure
I've thought about it. My mama only kept me because she thought I was
someone's and I ended up not looking anything like him. And he could have died at Riverbluff during the earthquake. I guess I just don't think about
it anymore. "

Tener's eyes misted, but he kept himself under control. A thousand
thoughts went through his head about how someday, he might be a father
to a child who could never find him even if she wanted to. He would
have to do everything he could to make sure that did not happen.

"Sorry," said Tener, clearing his throat. "I guess I have a longer way
to go than I thought to get used to living here." He thought there was
no way things could be that different.

"How long have you been a Candidate?" he tried to change the subject.
That was another surprise – that she might be nearly 15. If Tener had
guessed, once he had really looked, it would have been no older than
13, and that only because she was a Candidate.

"Why are you sorry? It's not your fault. It's not anybody's really.
It happens. You don't have to be sorry." She patted him on the arm.
"You'll get used to it. I mean most girl greenriders are on the teas,
but flight babies happen. "

She began walking out, talking all the while. "Um, about a turn. I
could have been one at Riverbluff, but I just never asked. "

"I just meant sorry for bringing it up, if it's a sore topic," Tener
explained as he followed Aviday out. He had never trusted the teas
fully since his little miracle baby had been born. But he supposed
they must help a lot at the weyr, even if they only worked some of the
time.

"So, what's the most important thing a Hold man like me should know
coming to the weyr, then?" he asked. One more solid try to change the
subject seemed prudent.

"It's not." And it really wasn't. She was curious, sure, and yeah, she
was sometimes jealous of the Candidates or weyrbrats who knew their
fathers, but it was a passing thing. It was just something she
accepted. She looked up at him as they walked and scratched her head.
"I really don't know. I've never been to a Hold," she admitted. "I
guess the usual thing that I see is that most get all offended in the
bathing chambers or when people go swimming in the lake. It's like
they aren't supposed to know what a body looks like." She peered up at
him. "But everyone's different and the riders aren't the most
important people. I mean, they need the lower caverns people just as
much as we need them."

"Of course," said Tener with a smile. "Just as the weyrfolk need the
holders as much as we... er, well, as much as they need us." He
supposed he was weyrfolk now, too.

"As for all of the... nakedness, I guess that's just something I'll
have to get used to." He chuckled. He had already become quite
practiced at keeping his gaze at just the right level in the baths to
avoid looking at anything while not tripping over anything else.

She grinned. "You should. Cause I guarantee you, they're gonna be
looking at you too. Men and women. "

"Oh, you think so?" Tener asked. He forced a grin. He did not like the
idea of risking making Ayressa jealous. Or, honestly, of others ogling
her. Not if she did not want to be ogled, especially.

Tener flexed. "I must say, I can't blame them." He grinned and then laughed.

She snorted, but laughter followed quickly after. "Yeah, I think
you'll do good."

Last updated on the April 4th 2019

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At the Back of the Class