Learning About Each Other

Writers: Heather, Miriah
Date Posted: 29th March 2019

Characters: K'yne, J'ackt
Description: K'yne visits J'ackt again once he's out of the infirmary.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 16 of Turn 9

K'yne

J'ackt

******

}:Tell your rider that mine is here to see him,:{ Arinoth told Zith
after he had greeted the watch dragon on duty. The big brown circled
down and landed on the bronze's ledge so that his rider could
dismount.

K'yne pulled his flight goggles off and left them dangling from
Arinoth's riding straps. He'd heard that J'ackt had finally been
allowed to move out of the infirmary, and after making sure that
Erivana was comfortable, he'd left Dragonsfall to see his son.

}:Mine is within.:{ Zith replied from below, where he was resting with
not one, but three greens.

J'ackt was inside, but far from being idle as he was ordered, he was
carefully tapping at his hanging burlap bag with his wounded side to
just how hard he could strike it with his wrapped fist without
rupturing the freshly healed scar or further injuring himself. With
his shirt off, the new pink scars were bright against his skin, but
other older scars were also apparent, some obviously turns old, but a
few newer.

He looked up as K'yne entered and stopped the slightly swinging bag
with his good hand. "Oh, hey."

K'yne's brow furrowed a little as he looked from the bag, to J'ackt's
hand, and then to the fresh scar he'd received not long ago. "Risking
Urlene's wrath, are you?"

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." J'ackt snorted softly. "If she
thinks I'm just going to lay around for two blood sevendays, she's
crazier than a crawlie." Still, he stepped from the bag, only pausing
to give it a good side kick to start it swinging on its chain once
again. He ran his hand through his hair, grateful that his canine was
still with Alina and he didn't have to wrestle the beast away from
K'yne.

As the bag swung, he unwrapped his hand, tossing the weathered hide on
his table. He wasn't quite sure what else to say to K'yne; true,
he'd been in the infirmary with him, but he just didn't know the man
well.

The brownrider took in the older scars that flecked Jackt's skin.
"Where did those other ones come from?" he asked, not intimidated by
the silence between them. K'yne knew it would take time, and neither
one of them were the best at conversations.

J'ackt frowned, not quite understanding what K'yne was talking about
until he followed the man's gaze to his own body. He rarely thought
about his scars; he'd ceased noticing them a long time back. "Which
one?" He scratched his head. "The one on my stomach us from that guard
when I was a weyrling. Sliced me pretty good, but it wasn't deep. Got
a bad one on my thigh from and Emerald Falls guard when they were
chasing me." He frowned. Guess most of the others were from my da." He
glanced up "Jenasom." He corrected. "He didn't pull no blows when he
was teaching me the sword and knife or how to fight. Or how to dodge
him. Made sure I learned really quick."

K'yne couldn't believe how many scrapes and fights that J'ackt had
been in, and that half of them came from the man Ocktima had allowed
J'ackt to believe was his father was even more sickening. Why had she
let their son live like that? It was a question that would haunt K'yne
until he died. "I suppose it helped you out in the end, when it came
to defending yourself against that attack in the lower caverns?"

"Yeah, it did," he admitted. "I know how to fight. If I'd been more on
guard, this wouldn't have happened. I got too relaxed, I guess. Lesson
learned." He sat, sprawling out in his chair. He tilted his head up at
K'yne, studying his face and comparing it to the one he'd seen in his
own reflection. "I guess I do kind of look like you. Kind of." He
waved a hand at his face. "Cheeks and such."

"It comes from my dad, your real grandfather. Both of my parents are
still alive, living at Far Island, and you have an aunt there as well,
my sister. The cheeks and eyes carry through the whole family." K'yne
hadn't even really thought about the fact that J'ackt had more family
he hadn't met.

J'ackt held up a hand, shaking his head. "I'm still getting used to
you and Timassa. I can't deal with more than you two yet, if ever." He
peered at K'yne. "I have my mam's eyes." He stressed. Even he saw the
resemblance between himself and Timassa. "And her nose."

"You definitely have your mother in you," he agreed, there was no
denying it. "But I can also see my sister Emyai in you. I guess it's
just a good thing you and Saidrene don't share any physical
similarities," K'yne said with an accusatory raise of his eyebrows.

J'ackt met the look with a near identical expression on his own face.
There was absolutely no shame or regret in his eyes or in his next
words. "Saidrene means a lot to me; she's my best friend. And yes,
we've been together in the furs. I was the first..." He quickly cut
off those words; they weren't what K'yne really needed to hear.
"Well..it's changed now and I think it's stupid, but it has." Well,
he'd let K'yne and Saibra think that, for Saidrene's sake.

The corners of K'yne's mouth actually tilted into an amused grin. "I'm
not here to tell you how to live your life, I'm just ribbing you,"
which was what fathers and sons were supposed to do, he believed. At
least, that's how things had always been in his family. "I'm not here
to tell Saidrene how to live hers either. Faranth knows I tried that
with Saibra for the last twenty Turns and we see where that's gotten
me," he laughed.

"No, not really. I have no clue." He blinked at the ribbing comment,
then shrugged. "Just don't tease Saidrene about it. It bothers her. "

"I won't," K'yne assured him. "The last time I visited she had other
issues, of the Wingleader kind." He shook his head in a long suffering
manner. "Just like her mother, I swear."

That brought a slow smile onto J'ackt's face. "No, she's not. They're
very, very different. I could tell you how, but I don't think that's
something you really want to hear."

K'ynce winced and held up his hand. "You're right. There's just some
things I don't want to know."

With a perfectly straight face, J'ackt kept his gaze on K'yne. "Saibra
taught me etiquette and how to stop my bloody, fecking mouth from
cursing. "

"The hilarious part of that is that she had zero etiquette as a
teenager, and a mouth like a sailor." K'yne shook his head.

"Well, you can see how well her lessons stuck." Some of them had stuck
rather well, but he wasn't about to give details. He drummed his
fingers against the arm of his chair. "What about my mam? What was she
like?"

K'yne's eyes took on a faraway look as a fond smile covered his face.
"She could be sassy and stubborn, but she knew her manners real well
and could act like a lady when she wanted to, too." He'd loved that
mix of lady and independent weyrwoman in her.

J'ackt looked down at his hands, his mind flipping over his own
memories. There had been nothing sassy that he could ever recall about
her, just a gentle sadness. "She wasn't like that as far as I can
remember," he admitted. "She was quiet and the only time I ever heard
her speak up was when my da tried to hit me or make me steal things.
She'd never let him hit me, just her."

**Why didn't she just send me a message to come and get her?** K'yne
wondered again but then he supposed that being holdless didn't exactly
make it easy to send messages. "That just tells me how much she loved
you. She would have ripped a man a new one when I knew her, if they'd
laid a finger on her."

J'ackt looked up at him and slowly shook his head. "No, I don't
remember her like that. I remember that she tried to physically fight
him. Once. I was just a little kid, but I remember it. He beat her
bloody and she couldn't walk for days. He said that he'd take away
everything that was important to her if she did it again. He didn't
know I'd heard him and I didn't know what it meant until later. She
got really good at calming him down though, until the last time that
he started in on me. He'd stolen some strong wine, but I didn't get
what I was supposed to. I fumbled it and he was about to hit me in the
head with some kind of branch. She got in the way." He raised a hand.
"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty about it. But I don't remember
her like you do. She was gentle, really quiet, and I know she loved
me. But she was always sad and I didn't know why and she didn't tell
me."

A thought struck K'yne. He knew a way that J'ackt could see his mother
when she'd been in her prime... but it was also forbidden except for
extenuating circumstances. They could go /between/ times, to one of
K'yne's memories, as long as they remained unseen. "Well," he exhaled
a little, "we could go back sometime, after you're healed up, and see
her."

J'ackt went utterly still and his eyes shot to K'yne. "You know about
that?" He swallowed hard, then slowly shook his head. "I can't do
that. I don't think I could stop myself from..." His face tightened.
"I can't."

"Okay," K'yne nodded. "Should you ever change your mind let me know."
He pushed up from the wall he'd been leaning on. "I'd better get back,
I left a sick, pukey pregnant lady behind."

"Wait, what?" That sent J'ackt into another instance of confusion.
"You got a kid on the way? Shards, aren't you too old for that? "

"That's not even the kicker, the best part, happened in a flight."
K'yne raised his hands as if to say that he couldn't even make that
up. "And I'm still young enough to kick your butt," the brownrider
grinned, "and don't forget it." K'yne's own father said those exact
words to him every time they saw each other.

"I really doubt that. Not when I'm uninjured." J'ackt's voice was dry,
but matter or fact. But then he shook his head, taking in that if
K'yne had another child... He frowned. "Wait..."

K'yne, who had been making steps toward the weyrledge, stopped and
turned. "Yeah?"

J'ackt's brow was deeply furrowed; he wasn't stupid by any stretch,
but potentially having a sibling was something he was having
difficulty wrapping his mind around. "You're having a kid. So...you
sure it's yours?"

"I'm sure," this greenrider'd had the decency to tell him, but he
didn't want to insult Ocktima's memory by saying that.

"Well, feck me. So I'm going to have a brother or sister." He shook his
head. "Okay then."

"Yeah, so keep cleaning up that mouth," K'yne chuckled, "I'd like for
you to know your brother or sister. When you're ready."

"I'll clean my mouth when /between/ gets warm." J'ackt frowned. "Yeah,
sure. Maybe." He didn't like babies, didn't feel comfortable around
them and didn't see the appeal of them.

K'yne nodded. "I'll see you later, and don't rip that scar open." He
pointed at J'ackt before turning and walking out to Arinoth, who was
eager to get back to his green mate at Dragonsfall.

Last updated on the April 4th 2019

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Learning About Each Other