The Best Present

Writers: Avery, Devin
Date Posted: 14th August 2019

Characters: V'rel, A'kades, T'lin, Linntys, Lennor, Elinnora, Peletys, Ellys
Description: V'rel has a surprise for T'lin's birthingday.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 7 of Turn 9
Notes: The flashback part is dated m3d28

T'lin

V'rel and T'lin had plans to go visit his family again soon for a
birthingday. The bluerider was working on his crafting, he'd made a
lovely accessory scarf for one of T'lin's sisters, and he wanted to
get the final embellishments done perfectly before it was time to
deliver it. He wanted things for the family he was kind of becoming a
part of now to be perfect before he handed them over.

As he worked on it, he was thinking about how he'd been able to bring
T'lin's family to surprise him...

~*~ (Flashback) ~*~

The weyrling restday and T'lin's birthday coincided, and so it was the
perfect timing for what he had planned. V'rel had been antsy the
evening before, tired out from all of their classes and drills. He'd
been so busy keeping up a conversation with his father via their
dragons that he'd been distractable and a bit
irritated. But the next morning, he was back to his usual self.
Actually, he was downright gleeful as he and T'lin sat down, eating
breakfast.

"So, outside of what we have to do today, what do you want to do? Got
any classwork to catch up on, or just want to spend it with Calaroth?"

"I was hoping to spend it with Calaroth _and_ you." T'lin smiled at
his friend. "And Rymeth of course."

"Feeling old yet?" he teased.

"Pfft, old! I plan on staying young forever." T'lin took a bite of
fruit, rolling the juice around in his mouth. He usually had a party
for his birthing day, but he'd been too busy with weyrlinghood to plan
anything this time. Maybe he could whip something up for tonight.

"Well, you're older than me," V'rel reminded him. "Fortunately, I make
up for my youth by being handsome and well-organized. And by getting
you a present," he added.

T'lin's eyes widened, shining with delight. "Ooh, a present?"

"Yeah. It's gonna be here closer to lunch, though. Sorry." V'rel
looked mischevious.

"A special order? Or does that mean you forgot and had to get
something last minute?" T'lin poked him with a smile.

"I didn't _forget_," he huffed.

"So it's a special order. Is it..." T'lin tapped a finger against his
chin. "A group of harpers to play for me? A trader wagon full of new
clothes?"

"A whole trader wagon? Not just one or two pieces?" V'rel laughed. "I
know my sister is in good with the Headwoman but not _that_ good. It
does involve people, though..."

"A party? Is it at lunchtime because you're worried we'll all fall
asleep if it's later?" T'lin had been at the Weyr for turns and had
plenty of friends who'd Impressed so he'd been somewhat prepared for
the exhaustion of weyrlinghood, but it was still a struggle to be
living the reality of it.

"Yeah, asleep right after dinner, huh? That's the rest-day dream, not
looking over lessons but three meals and a lot of sleep."

"So are you gonna tell me, or do I have to keep guessing?" T'lin
rested his chin in his hand and mock-pouted.

"I'm gonna make you keep guessing," V'rel said. Then he relented, a
little. "It's gonna be a family celebration, okay? A'kades promised to
do lunch with us." He'd mention _his_ part of the family, but not
T'lin's.

T'lin's face lit up again. "Yes! That's great." He liked A'kades, and
he liked being included with V'rel's family, but he was more happy
that V'rel would get to spend time with his father.

"I'm glad you never mind being included in my family. I've always
thought that's the best thing about the Weyr, there's just so many
ways to be a family."

T'lin nodded. "Even if I'm lucky enough to love my blood family and
have their support, there's always room for more." While sprawling
weyr families could get complicated, they'd always felt natural to
him.

~*~

V'rel got them to doing a little bit of light studying, and had
managed to keep a lid on his delight for candlemarks, but Rymeth knew,
and that meant that Calaroth knew. It was bubbling over when he headed
out of the weyrling barracks with T'lin. "C'mon, there's Volaith!" he
said encouragingly, bounding over.

A'kades was standing in front of his bronze in the weyrbowl, along
with a group of other figures.

T'lin let out a gasp of pure delight. "You brought my family!" He gave
V'rel a quick hug before racing to greet his parents and siblings.
T'lin was passed around to be embraced by each of them in turn.

He called his dragon over and the blue excitedly hop-skipped to join
them. "Look at how big Calaroth's gotten!" he was almost triple the
size he'd been at hatching a little over a month ago.

Linntys started to reach out before she remembered her manners. "May I
pet him?"

"Of course! Calaroth _loves_ people, especially 'my' people." It was
common for dragons to show little interest in humans besides their
riders, but Calaroth seemed to be an exception.

V'rel was beaming. "I asked my father if he could get your family,
since you can't leave the Weyr, and he said he would be able to."

T'lin turned to the bronzerider. "Thank you A'kades. This means so
much to me." Then he turned to V'rel. "And thank _you_ for planning
this. This is the best gift you could have given me." There were two
parts to his family, his Hold family and his Weyr family. Being able
to have them together on his birthingday filled him with joy.

}:I like the way your people make you feel.:{ Calaroth's eyes whirled
as the humans stroked his hide. }:They are the ones from the Hatching?
The ones who write you letters?:{

**Yes.** As distractable as Calaroth was, he had a good memory for a
dragon. Well, where it came to humans, relationships, and random facts
about the world at least. Not so much with things he didn't find
interesting.

A'kades smiled back at T'lin. "Weyrlinghood is a long time to be away
from your family. I'm glad I could help."

"Good thing you have a bronze, it's the only dragon big enough to
bring all of them!" T'lin laughed. "Well, a gold is even bigger but we
couldn't ask one of _them_." The only goldrider could even consider
asking for a favor was Dessa, but of course she was a weyrling too.

"Can we see Rymeth too?" Lennor, T'lin's teenage sister, asked V'rel.

"Sure, if you want. He's napping, so it might be a moment." V'rel
half-closed his eyes to summon his blue out.

Rymeth toddled along and whirled his eyes at the newcomers. }:Who are
they?:{ he asked his rider.

"This is T'lin's family. There's a lot of them. Like my family. We
both come from big clutches."

"He's beautiful." T'lin's mother Elinnora said, laying a hand on
V'rel's arm as she admired Rymeth.

"Hello Rymeth." Lennor curtsied to the blue. She'd met him at the
Hatching, but she knew dragons had short memories. "May I pet you?"

T'lin's youngest sister still had eyes only for Calaroth, smiling as
she rubbed his head knobs. T'lin's father and older sister were asking
T'lin questions about weyrlinghood.

"Yes. His headknobs are a little sensative but he's curious about
you," V'rel said, smiling at Lennor. "Was it fun riding a dragon to
get here?"

Rymeth extended his head obediantly for scratching.

Lennor reached up to scratch the blue, carefully avoiding Rymeth's
headknobs. "It's _always_ fun to ride a dragon. I can't wait to ride
Rymeth and Calaroth." Sometimes she found herself wishing she'd been
Searched like her brother, but then she remembered dragonriding
involved fighting Thread.

"I can't wait to visit you whenever I want." T'lin smiled at his
sister. He'd visited his family when he could, asking rider friends to
take him or paying for a ride. And on Hatching days they came to cheer
him on and spent time together at the celebration afterwards, dulling
the disappointment T'lin had for not Impressing. Until Calaroth found
him.

"When Rymeth can take passengers, it will happen," V'rel promised.
"Where would you want to go? Just into the sky, or /between/ anywhere?"

"It would be fun to just fly for a while." The first few times she'd
ridden a dragon it had been frightening to watch the ground drop away,
things growing smaller and smaller. Exciting, yes, but scary too.
She'd soon grown confident that a dragon would never let her fall, so
now there was only the thrill of flying.

"I'd like to see the North sometime," T'lin's father Peletys said.

"I'll take you anywhere. Everywhere!" T'lin paused, head slightly
tilted as he listened to his dragon. "I mean _we_ will." He laughed.

"With two dragons, we can do a lot of carrying," V'rel agreed.

"Calaroth thinks he can carry _all_ of you." T'lin laughed. "He's
getting ahead of himself. He can't even carry _me_ yet!"

"One day, soon, he'll carry as much as you need him to," A'kades said
reassuringly.

"Though for the sake of me not making overly complicated riding
straps, I think it's better if we split up the passengers." T'lin
patted Calaroth.

"You don't want to design the latest and greatest rigging system for
five passengers for a blue?" A'kades teased.

V'rel said, "He's not a Tannercrafter like you, be nice." His eyes
sparkled as he spoke. It was good to be able to tease his father.

"Oh _designing_ it would be fun, I just don't want to take the time to
make it." T'lin laughed.

"Would you like your presents now?" Ellys asked.

"You brought me presents? You didn't have to."

"We always give you presents on your birthingday," Peletys said.
"That's not going to stop just because you Impressed."

T'lin didn't point out that he didn't need anything else because V'rel
had already given him the best present.

"What did you get him? I'm curious," said V'rel, leaning over to see.

"You'll find out when he opens them." Ellys smiled as she opened the carrisack.

~*~ (End Flashback) ~*~

}:Calaroth's is looking for us.:{ Rymeth said, interrupting V'rel's
train of thought.

V'rel looked at the decorative fringe he'd added to the two short ends
of the scarf and decided it was good. He slung it over his shoulder so
he could bring it on over, see what T'lin thought.

**Tell him we'll be right there,** he told the blue, and got ready to leave.

Last updated on the August 19th 2019

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The Best Present