Walking in Sunshine

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 23rd February 2020

Characters: K'ran, Saidrene
Description: K'ran takes Saidrene on an expedition.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr, Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 1, day 14 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Corran, J'ackt

K'ran

Saidrene

K'ran had promised Saidrene that on a restday he would take her out to
another place he found beautiful to visit, telling her to pack clothes
for a good walk and that he'd handle food. He picked up the baskets from
the kitchens and asked Rogueth to check on Saidrene.

Rogueth passed a message to Ashareth. }:Is your rider free now? Mine is
ready to go.:{

}:She is on her way.:{ Ashareth replied.

Saidrene appeared in boots more appropriate for hiking and walking, her
hair loosely plaited and swinging over her shoulder as she approached.
"Perfect weather for an outing today," she commented, gesturing to the
blue skies.

K'ran smiled at her. "You look nice today. It is. I hope you're excited
to go see somewhere new."

"I am," she said, squinting one eye against the sunlight, "especially
with you as tour guide."

"Well, I hope you like where we're going, then." He walked side by side
with her to the bowl, where Rogueth was preening for Ashareth. "Looks
like they're excited to go, too."

"Ashareth loves attention from a bronze dragon," Saidrene said with an
amused grin. When they reached their dragons, Saidrene leaped up and
hooked her feet into her riding stirrups, hands automatically moving to
fix riding straps, movements that were second nature by now.

"Well, they'll be on their own together, so there will be plenty of time
for her to get it." He strapped up Rogueth and mounted up. They leapt
aloft and he gave his dragon the visual to pass on to Ashareth - then it
was to /between/ for three long breaths.

They burst out high in the area above what looked like a scar from the
air as it carved through the forest. They could see both the northern
end where the ravine began, and the long trail of it down to the
southern end of it, where the bottom of the ravine was flat and broad
and the water was spreading out into a small lake. It was obvious that
the water had carved its way down from the high point to the low end,
and there were areas of churning water where there were waterfalls along
the path.

Rogueth spiraled in place as he asked Ashareth, }:My rider asks if yours
wants to hike down or just sit and picnic and fish?:{

}:She wants to hike.:{ Ashareth relayed before following Rogueth down to
a small ledge where they could deposit their rider's and let them walk.

"Another beautiful place," Saidrene said as she climbed down from
Ashareth's neckridge. "How do you find all of these places?"

}:Shall we go lie and sun?:{ Rogueth asked Ashareth. }:The bottom has a
nice sunning beach to relax while they labor.:{

"There's a neighboring Hold nearby. Used to be a major Hold but it's in
decline. Two of the minor holds that used to report to it dissolved
during the Plagues, they didn't have enough people to stay. So the hold
itself got boarded up and the land nearby went wild. I came out here
after reading about it in records, thinking, "I wonder what the
territory of an abandoned hold looks like". After all, we fly over these
lands looking for fires or Thread burrows or landslides, but how often
do we actually stop to _see_ these places?"

K'ran gestured at the trail in front of them as they were walking. "You
can see how this trail is worn smooth, and how it's a good carts-width
back from the water of the river? This was probably used to haul goods
from the main hold building, which is up past the very top of the
ravine, down to the lake at the end. That lake dead-ends, but there's
then an old wagon tail that traders used to transport it over to the
nearest river, a couple klicks away. From there it could be taken down
to the sea by boat."

Saidrene glanced at the trail, but mostly she studied K'ran's face as he
talked. He was so passionate and interested about the history of the
area. She liked seeing him this way, away from his title of 'Lord
Weyrholder'. "It's crazy to think that people stood where we are
standing now so many Turns ago." It made her think that someday someone
else would stand where she had been, perhaps in her weyr at Barrier
Lake, Turns down the road when she was long gone.

"The Plagues were my parents' generation. And I might have been the
first person to walk this path after all the people left. It's sobering,
but it's exciting, at the same time." He resumed walking, content to
listen to the insect sounds, the burbling and rushing of the water, the
way the tree leaves brushed together.

"Anything you want to know?"

When he said "my parents' generation," Saidrene couldn't help but
realize that would be her grandparents' generation. She did not normally
think anything of the age difference between herself and K'ran but that
was too striking not to notice. "I'm happy to listen. I don't remember
history being as engaging as this when I was in Harper classes," she said.

"I heard a lot about it from my family. My mother was a journeywoman
Weaver, you know. When the Plagues happened and the Ban hit, she was
going to lose her knots. So she married my father, who was a trading
caravan guard. While on the caravan she could do work and mix it in with
the men's items to sell. so there's rather a lot of political opinion
about the craftban my twin and I were raised with. And stories about
what the Plagues took."

Being raised in the Weyr, by a very independent goldrider, Saidrene had
never really fathomed as a child that she would ever be restricted from
something because she was a female. Learning about the Ban and fall out
from it in class had been disinteresting to her at the time because she
could not imagine and did not know anyone who had been effected by it.
"Was your mother ever able to go back to her craft?"

"No. You know, when Amethyst Cliff was destroyed in the earthquake, I
asked if my parents wanted to come to the Weyr. She could have done her
craft there. But she refused, they liked living in their settled
cothold. For her, it was enough to _make_ woven items to sell, she
didn't need the approval stamps or recognition."

Saidrene wondered if she would ever meet K'ran's family. She had not
really thought of it before, but maybe she wasn't the type of girl you
took to meet your parents, especially not holdbred parents. "You said
you have a twin?" she asked with a little gleam in her eyes.

"Yes, at Amber Hills. He was able to stay with me for a short bit right
after the events of the Flight." It was a capital incident in his head now.

"Are you identical?" The idea of two K'ran's running around was suddenly
quite enticing.

He narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at her in mock outrage. "Oh no
you don't, I know what you're thinking."

"Oh do you?" She waggled her eyebrows. "Then tell me what I'm thinking."

"You're thinking something lacivious, and now I don't want you to meet
him because he's always had more success than me with women," he said,
semi seriously. Then he paused, and he said, "Okay, that's not entirely
fair."

Saidrene closed the distance between them, her hand sliding into his.
"Oh, I think you do rather well for yourself, bronzerider."

"I think you're biased," he told her, leaning a little closer. "Or
perhaps you bring out the best in me."

"Or maybe it's both," she grinned, closing the gap to kiss him.

"Maybe it's both." He stepped back slightly off the trail and held her
against him, one hand tangkling in her hair as he kissed her with
passion and fervency he never showed a the Weyr, feeling free here.

She didn't know what it was about the outdoors that made K'ran so much
more spontaneous, but she loved it. His sudden passion sent a hot spike
of desire through her. Thoughts of the hike were forgotten as her
fingers twisted into the front of his tunic, her tongue finding his in
the steamy kiss.

His fingers clenched in her hair and then scraped lightly down the back
of her neck, and he felt himself stir against her warm body. When he
broke the kiss he was panting, heavily. It felt almost panful to drag
his eyes from her face to look around. "Maybe on the middle of a trail
by the river isn't good for this. The beach down at the end is
lovely...we could finish the hike down and then become distracted."

Her hazel eyes looked like warm amber as she seemed to weigh her
options. "There is some appeal to this trailside, I won't lie." Truth
was, she'd probably take K'ran just about anywhere. "But I suppose we
did come to hike."

"We could ask one of the dragons to express us down."

She considered that, her fingers still twisted in the front of his
shirt. "We could always hike back up on the way out...."

"Exactly. But, the hike could be some anticipation."

Anticipation, huh? "Hike it is, then," Saidrene said, stepping away from
him and starting down the path with a sultry swing to her hips.

He had the feeling he was going to regret giving Saidrene that idea...

---

A candlemark brought them down to the last stretch of slope down to the
end. It was broad here, enough for two carts to go side by side, and
offered a brilliant view of the ravine bottom. There were two good
sitting areas. The gravely beach had the best view of the sun sparkling
over the lake and the mountains farther away, as well as letting them
have some time in the sun. Or, if one stayed nearer the walls, there was
grass to sit on and shade from the trees that hung their branches out
over the ravine walls. That area had a good view of
the dragonlengths-high cliff walls, and the path of the water that was
coming down from where they'd just walked.

Rogueth was sunning on the beach part, with his head at the edge of the
water so he could stick it in if he wanted. }:I fished while we
waited,:{ he told his rider. He'd been showing off.

Ashareth was in the water, her light green hide sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight. She was redirecting the flow of the water slightly by swishing her long tail back and forth slowly. }:Rogueth is a good fisher.:{ The green said, clearly impressed.

**So much for anticipation,** Saidrene thought, her thighs were burning from the hike down and her calves felt like jelly. "Ashareth likes it down here," she said as she found a fallen tree to take a seat on, its bark white washed by the sun.

"I hope you do, too. This place is one I've been coming since we could freely /between/," he said, choosing to sit next to he and wrap an arm around her.

Saidrene leaned into his solid presence, thinking it was so nice and peaceful out there, away from the Weyr, away from everyone else. It was no wonder it was a place K'ran liked to go. "You bring others out here?" she asked with a sneaky sideways glance.

"Would you be jealous?" he asked. "As it turns out, I've brought a few people here. My family, mostly, to spend time together."

"No," the greenrider chuckled. "I don't get jealous easy." She'd watched her two best friends fall in love with each other over the course of the last two Turns, she'd long sense learned that even if she felt jealous, there was nothing she could do about it but bury it somewhere deep inside.

"If you're wondering if I've brought women here before...only one." He wasn't going to lie to her.

"What happened with her?" she asked.

He was silent a long time, wondering what he should say about Genna to her, before shaking his head. "Maybe another time I'll tell you. I'd rather make bright memories with you now."

"The past doesn't take away from today," Saidrene said, after all, she didn't see how K'ran's feelings for a woman in the past could be any more messy than what went on between her and J'ackt.

"Maybe you're right. But I don't think I'm ready to talk about it yet, if that's all right. All I want to think about is you." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, then her cheek.

**He must have cared very deeply for her,** she surmised. It was the first topic he had not been willing to discuss. "Yes, well, I believe I was promised certain things when we arrived here from the hike," she said, fighting a smile as he kissed her cheek.

"I would be happy to show you all the consideration you desire," he assured her. Pleased that she allowed him this moment of privacy, K'ran kissed her lips and turned it passionate.

Last updated on the May 31st 2020

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Walking in Sunshine