Lost in the Tunnels

Writers: Yvonne, Sia, Heather
Date Posted: 15th June 2024

Characters: Ketlyn, Aydhara, N'kayden
Description: N'kdayden and Aydhara get lost in the Lower Caverns. Thankfully, Ketlyn is here to help.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 9, day 21 of Turn 11

Aydhara

N'kayden

The two newest Candidates arrived in a swirl of gossip that sucked up all the attention in any room they happened to breeze past. They were the new goldrider's children, and it was a bit disconcerting for Ketlyn to see that they were about her own age, if a bit older. And they were still Candidates.

Honestly, it made Ketlyn feel a bit better about herself and her own Turns of unsuccessful Standing. If a goldrider's children couldn't Impress, it couldn't be that shocking that a nobody from the back-and-beyond hadn't either. Although maybe having them there meant that she'd be sent home sooner as a failure, to ensure that they had more room on the Sands.

Still, Ketlyn found herself changing her course when she saw the new girl, Aydhara, looking a bit lost in one of the hallways. "Hi! Need directions?"

Relief washed over Aydhara's face as she spotted the other girl and her candidate knots. "Yes! You came at just the right time. I told Nik that it was the other left back there, but he didn't believe me. I'm not even sure where we ended up at this point."

**Nik? ...right, the brother.** Ketlyn looked around but didn't see him. "Where are you trying to go?"

"I told you this wasn't the right way," Nikhayden said as he came trotting up on Aydhara and Ketlyn. When his eyes settled on Ketlyn a charming smile immediately slid onto his face. Ketlyn was hot in that I-might-beat-you-up-if-you-cross-me kinda way, and he liked that. "Why Ketlyn, hello."

Ketlyn blinked at him like a suspicious wherry. How did he know who she was?! She tried to remember if they'd ever exchanged words before and came up with nothing. "Hi?"

"Hi," he repeated confidently.

Aydhara took Ketlyn's arm, smiling brightly, "So I'm right, yes? My brother has no idea where he's going?"

"Well, you're headed in the right direction if you wanted to go to the Crafter's Village, but if you're going to the Candidate's barracks then you'll want to go this way. I mean, you _can_ eventually get there from the other route but it takes ages," Ketlyn said, starting the way she'd come. "Lots of people get lost because the Weyr started out as a mine, and the passages follow where the gems were instead of taking the logical route. It takes a while to learn your way. I got lost a lot too the first few sevendays here."

**Beauty _and_ brains,** Nikhayden thought as he fell into step behind Ketlyn and Aydhara. "This place was a mine, huh?" Interesting that they would have then decided to turn it into a Weyr.

Ketlyn nodded. "After what happened at River Bluff, they needed somewhere for all the dragons to go and since this was half carved out already..." She trailed off and shrugged.

Aydhara looked thoughtful. "I guess it's like how you can tell what parts of High Reaches were done with the ancient stonecutters and what was done by, y'know, Journeyman Jaffrey. A gem mine is a much nicer story, though."

"Sometimes, if the light is right, some of the walls sparkle. And I think all of us hope that we'll find a gem here someday." Ketlyn smiled. "I'm not that lucky, though. But maybe one of you will be?"

Nikhayden still felt that turning a dusty old _mine_ into a Weyrhold seemed... so anti-climatic. "Oh, if someone finds it, it'll be Aydhara, no doubt about it."

"I would. Gems and firelizard eggs. Everything good happens at Barrier Lake." Aydhara laughed. "I'll have to get lost down here more often."

Ketlyn paused, unsure if Aydhara was joking or not. Nobody was lucky enough to find firelizard eggs _and_ gems so soon after arriving... were they?! "Well... I don't know about that," she said after a moment. "There's also rumors that if you get behind some of the walls, there's tunnels that go on _forever_ deep into the cliff, and that there are the bodies of dead miners down there."

"Wow, it just keeps getting better," Nikhayden said dryly. First, someone had picked the completely _unsavory_ location of a mine and then possibly built the Weyrhold over a bunch of graves?

"Are you scared of some dusty old bones?" Ketlyn knew she was baiting him and couldn't help herself.

"It just seems like a rather dull beginning to a Weyr," he said.

**I can't wait until you say that to someone from River Bluff Weyr.** But Ketlyn bit her tongue and didn't say it. He could learn on his own.

"There's stories at High Reaches of finding bones in the rocks when they were digging out new weyrs." Aydhara said. "Riders that failed to picture the right image before going /between/. Probably was a worse death for the miners, though."

"That's awful," the other girl said with a shiver.

"The dangers of being a dragonrider." Aydhara said with a shrug. "They were probably Weyrlings just learning how to go /between/, or riders panicked in Threadfall. I doubt they felt anything after they went /between/."

Nikhayden looked at his sister over Ketlyn's head. "You're dark and twisted, did you know that?"

Aydhara looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him. "You gotta know the risks if you want to Impress a dragon, Nikky."

**Nikky?** Oh, they were _definitely_ siblings. Ketlyn hid a smile. "Well, hopefully since Barrier Lake isn't a mountain there won't be any weyrlings entombed in secret passages. Or us, if we Impress."

Nikhayden shot a glare at Aydhara behind Ketlyns' back for using his childhood nickname. "And on that depressing note, we've arrived at our location."

"Just don't think about the mining tunnels when you practice /betweening/, that's all." Aydhara said brightly. She squeezed Ketlyn's arm and leaned just a little closer. "Any other notable places around here with a dark history? Or should we just resign ourselves to the outdoors and the candidate barracks."

"Have you seen the shipwreck in the lake?" Ketlyn's eyes sparkled. "Apparently on clear days you can see the shadow of it in the middle. It went down in a storm and apparently all hands drowned..."

Last updated on the June 21st 2024

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Lost in the Tunnels