Moving Day

Writers: Sia, Curious
Date Posted: 21st April 2024

Characters: E'kirim, K'aur, Kemira
Description: K'aur moves his family to the Weyr
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 4, day 1 of Turn 11

K'aur had sent a forewarning of his return to Amber Hills Hold. He had told his mother that it was time to pack the family up and prepare for the move to Dragonsfall Weyr. However, it was one thing to hear about it and another one to see a cherry-breasted brown appear in the skies. Remiath landed with a soft bugle - K'aur descended, grinning with such pride that you'd think he was riding the biggest, grandest bronze on all of Pern - not a surly brown who immediately turned to give his rider's brother the stink eye.

K'aur, for his part, ignored Ekirim outright. All of his siblings went ignored for the time being. His eyes were all for Kemira as he stopped forward to embrace her with a warm, "I told you I could do it, mom."

Kemira pulled him into a tight hug, "I knew you could." She told him. Then, with her hands on his shoulders, held him at arm's length to look at him. "You've grown. They're taking care of you and Mirima up at that Weyr?"

Ekirim, on the other hand, regarded Remiath with a similarly uneasy expression.

"I don't need to be taken care of, mom," K'aur groaned. Then, after a moment of hesitation, "They are, though. Miri's still standing even though there hasn't been a gold egg. I've tried to talk her out of it, but..."

Meanwhile, Remiath snaked his head forward to snuffle at the top of Ekirim's head.

"It's not what you _need_." Kemira said gently, "You might be a dragonrider now, but you're still my little boy." Then, as she looked over at Remiath, "The greens like girls, don't they? There was a woman greenrider here just the other sevenday. Miri would do great on a green, if that's what she wants."

"Hey, Kes. Not to sound too alarmed, but what the heck is your dragon doing?" Ekirim stood stock-still, letting the brown muss at his hair.

"They do," K'aur reluctantly grumbled. "But that doesn't mean it's _proper_. With how often greens fly..." He shook his head. "She's better off waiting for a gold instead."

And there was his brother, causing havoc with his dragon. "He's going to eat you," K'aur snarked.

As if to prove his point, Remiath flicked his tongue out and gave Ekirim's hair a gentle blep.

Kemira tilted her head slightly. There was something knowing her in her smile as she regarded her eldest son. "She'll do what's best for her. Is the color more important than the dragon?"

Ekirim remained stock-still, scrunching his eyes tight. If this was how he was going to go, so be it. He opened them again when the end didn't immediately come, looking up at the big brown head. Mostly certain that this would be no different than any other animal in the Hold, Ekirim tried to slowly and cautiously take a few steps back.

"It isn't," K'aur reluctantly admitted. "I just wish she'd stop acting like it doesn't matter _at all_."

Meanwhile, Remiath lowered his head down to Ekirim's level. When the boy stepped back, he inched forward, letting out a whuff of dragon breath in his face before leaning down to headbutt his stomach.

Ekirim flinched as the hot air hit his face and only let out a quiet _oof!_ when the brown connected with his stomach. The force of it sent him back another step. "Kes!" He called again, this time a little more panic wavering on his voice.

With a dramatic groan, K'aur pulled his attention away from his mother to face the much less impressive boy who also happened to share his blood. "I would just messing with you, can't hurt you," he said. "Dragons can't hurt humans." K'aur paused, then lifted his hand to make a wobbly gesture. "On purpose, anyway. I guess accidents could happen sometimes."

"That makes me feel _so_ much better." Ekirim said, and looked as if it did the opposite. Runnerbeasts usually didn't hurt humans either, but that didn't mean they couldn't. "Is this guy able to take all of us, or do you have to make multiple trips?"

"Of course he can take us all at once. What do you take us for?" K'aur huffed.

"Uh, human? Look at the size of him." Ekirim held out a tentative hand for Remiath to sniff. Or maybe eat. He wasn't entirely sure. "There's five of us, plus our stuff."

K'aur scowled. "Are you calling my dragon small? Remiath's practically bronze sized!" Crossing his arms over his chest, he huffed and muttered, "_Five_. Rem could carry ten people, no problem."

He could not, but Ekirim didn't need to know that.

"You could have fooled me." Ekirim said brightly. Partially because it would tick K'aur off, partially because he had no frame of reference. Remiath could very well be bronze sized. He could also be green sized. Ekirim only knew them as _big_.

K'aur looked at Ekirim flatly for a moment before turning to his mother. "Let's leave him behind. He doesn't deserve dragons."

"Hey!"

Kemira laughed. "No one's getting left behind. Let's get dear Remiath packed up. There's a lot of us, after all."

"Fine," K'aur grumbled. "I guess you could use someone to carry luggage." He shot Ekirim, newly-assigned luggage boy, a slight smirk before turning back to his mother. "Do you need me to do anything? Besides lifting."

"Yes, show us how to secure our bags." Kemira said, though she meant 'show Ekirim' if either boy had anything to do with it. "Don't want anything flying away before we get to the Weyr."

"Done," K'aur said. He obdentiently got to work on the luggage securing tutorial, all the while shooting Ekirim looks that roughly translated into 'neener neener, you can't secure luggage as good as I can'.

Ekirm paid his brother no mind, knowing well enough that K'aur hated getting anything less than A Reaction. He listened and took to figuring it out well enough, and between the two of them everything was packed and secured quickly. "That's not too heavy for you, is it?" He pointedly asked Remiath instead.

"Of course it's not too heavy for him," K'aur said with a huff and roll of his eyes. "Faranth, _look at him_. He could carry at least twenty of your scrawny self." Ekirim was in no way scrawny but that was not the point. K'aur was well within his rights to reject reality and substitute his own. Or at least, he was until his eyes went glassy and, with a sigh, he focuses back in and grumbled, "I'll tell you if it gets too heavy."

Ekirim looked down at himself, amused, and considered grabbing K'aur and slinging him over one shoulder. He could probably do that now- he was taller and wider, certainly, but that might have to wait until they were all safely at Dragonsfall and K'aur couldn't threaten to leave him behind. "I'm seeing him!" He protested. "But it's still a lot of stuff! The twins didn't declutter at all."

"That's fine. We can drop their stuff between, they can live under our beds. I'll take Irrim, you get Reima," K'aur easily said, ignoring the protests that sprang up behind him. Well, not //quite// ignoring. His grin got significantly, shamelessly wider.

"All right, but Irrim snores the loudest." ('No I don't!'). Ekirim considered the big brown dragon and all the accouterments tied to his straps. "All right, hero of Pern. How exactly do you get aboard?"

"You think real hard and levitate up."

Ekirim scrunched his face in an exaggeration of thinking hard, one hand coming up to stoke the patchy stubble of a half-baked beard. His little sisters erupted into giggles as he shot them an amused look and a wink.

"I knew it," K'aur said with a shake of his head. "You do not possess The Magic. In that case..."

K'aur snapped his fingers and Remiath crouched down, one massive forearm extended up to the side.

"Climb up his arm," the brownrider said. "You can use the straps to steady yourself. Get in the saddle on his neck - I'll make sure you're all strapped in once you're on."

"You heard him, kids." Ekirim said, amidst protests that the girls were not kids anymore and that they were, in fact, grown adults. Still, he helped get them situated before he slowly clambered up himself. "Here's hoping K'aur actually straps you in." He told them, "Though I think he'd only forget mine on purpose."

"Well, I can't now that you've _said it_," K'aur groused as he climbed Remiath to strap his family in. "Now I need to find some other way to off you. Faranth, Ekirim, think of someone else for once, won't you?"

"That's me, the fun ruiner." Ekirim intoned. "C'mon, let's go. I'm starting to believe that you don't actually live at a Weyr."

"Well, you're right," K'aur said, climbing into his seat on Remiath's neck. "I'm actually taking you to Zugman's freakshow. You're going to be our new head clown." He paused briefly to strap himself in, then twisted around to call, "Hold on. You aren't gonna fall off, but takeoff can be scary. Once we're high enough, Remiath will jump /between/, you'll feel like you're dying for a bit, and we'll be there."

"I always knew I had a face for show business." Ekirim managed to say right as Remiath gathered himself onto his hindquarters and sprang into the air. As promised, Ekirim's stomach lurched as the brown's wings beat down that first time and resettled as they gained altitude…until Remiath started to turn and it felt like he was actually going to fall right off.

But the straps held, and at K'aur's hollered warning, they blinked /between/, and reappeared again over Dragonsfall Weyr.

Last updated on the April 26th 2024

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