Family Bonding

Writers: Sia, Shawna, Heather
Date Posted: 16th July 2024

Characters: N'kayden, Aydhan, Aydhara, N'kevyn
Description: N’kevyn plans a family outing during Riyanth's Flight
Location: Elsewhere on Pern, Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 10, day 27 of Turn 11

N'kayden

Aydhan

Aydhara

N'kevyn

Even if it hadn’t been the gossip of the Weyr, N’kevyn had been a
bronzerider for long enough to recognize that particular tension in
the air that came with a proddy gold, and the senior gold at that.
Which meant it was time for Family Bonding Anywhere Else. He was up
earlier than usual for him, sending a message to the candidate
barracks and going down to the kitchens to get a large picnic basket
of food for the day.

Back in his weyr, he proceeded to stomp around gathering supplies and
double and triple checking his backpack while he waited for his family
to gather, grumbling out loud about how none of them had any sense of
urgency. The sulky bronze on the ledge, who knew exactly what his
rider was intent on keeping away from, was not helping his mood, his
mental presence a steady unhappy pressure.

“Aydhan, are you done playing dress up yet?” He was sure she’d pulled
out half her wardrobe this morning.

Half her wardrobe was indeed out and spread across their bed. "What
about this?" She asked, and did a slow spin in the very revealing
summer dress she'd bought at Sunstone Seahold's last gather. She
didn't want her weyrmate to be Weyrleader any more than he did
(especially not here, in a Weyr he'd only been living in for about a
month), but he so rarely got stressed that it was fun to push his
buttons a little. "I don't think the shoes go with this dress, though.
Maybe I should start over."

"Aydhan," N'kevyn growled, "if you aren't ready in ten minutes, I will
put you over my shoulder and drop you on Tym myself. And that will
look very undignified whether your shoes match or not."

A grin slowly spread across Aydhan's face. "Don't threaten me with a
good time, darling." She practically purred. "Do you think we need
good shoes, or will sandals be okay? The sand will be hot. And I think
Aydhara borrowed my hat."

"If this was the game you wanted to play, I wish you'd told me before
I planned a family picnic," N'kevyn's voice was clipped, and he could
feel a muscle twitching in his jaw as he moved past her towards their
closet. "Wear the sandals. I'll bring your shoes. There's supposedly
some nice grassy dunes." He bent and grabbed a pair of her shoes,
tucking them under an arm, "and I know you have another hat around
here somewhere. And if you don't, you can wear the one I got for
fishing." He brushed past her again to add her shoes to his
increasingly full backpack, adding, "Five minutes. Then I'm carrying
you out of there! We were supposed to leave already."

}:We could stay?:{ Avicath tried 'helpfully'. And somehow 'loudly'.

"For the last time, NO."

Nikhayden entered the weyr right as the last word was being said
emphatically. "Hello... the.. weyr?" He personally wasn't all that
thrilled that his father had planned a family outing on the day a gold
dragon was rising. Everyone knew that a gold flight was the best time
to get laid and yet, here he was, going on a _picnic_ with his
parents, and probably his semi-annoying sister.

"I am _not_ wearing your fishing hat!" Aydhan called back, though she
ran out of the room to pull the shoes out from under his arm and
replace them with a different pair. And then she was purposely
distracted by her favorite son. "Nik! Thank goodness." She pulled him
into a big hug, then looped her arm around his. "I'm so happy you
agreed to spend time with us old people. Goldflights should be _fun_."
She said with a sigh. "Can you entertain your father? I'm not ready
and Aydhara isn't here yet."

"Do you know what would entertain me?" N'kevyn asked grouchily, "If
you could get ready on time. At least our son understands the
importance of a schedule. Have you seen your sister this morning? She
didn't say she didn't want to come."

"Haven't seen her, haven't _looked_," Nikhayden responded honestly.

"She'll be here!" Aydhan called from the other room. "Riyanth is still
snoozing. We have at least another candlemark before she's ready to
fly. I'd bet you a mark on it. Did you pack sun cream? The sun is hot
down here."

"I don't care if she doesn't come," that was a lie, "but she could at
least send a note." N'kevyn shot another glare towards the ledge,
where Avicath was now crouched, nose poked through the curtains to
glare right back. "It's in the backpack. Along with everything else we
could possibly need." Abandoning his glaring match with his dragon,
N'kevyn looked at his son and said firmly, "Don't Impress bronze. They
have more ego than brains. That one's been here a month and thinks
it's time to take over."

"At least he's not out hunting firelizard eggs," Nikhayden said with a
pointed look for his father. He already knew his mother and sister
were a lost cause for leaving the Weyr in a timely manner.

"Hey, everyone needs a hobby. I could go back to knitting awful hats,"
he offered. "And with an attitude like that I won't share when I find
a nest." Whether he'd meant to or not, Nikhayden distracted his father
from the annoyance of his surly dragon.

"But you'll share with _me_, right?" Aydhara said as she appeared in
the doorway, looking more prepared than her mother but clearly dressed
to scour the beach for firelizard eggs. She was, indeed, wearing her
mother's large sunhat and a pair of sunglasses that definitely weren't
hers. "Gosh, Avicath looks so cute when he's cross. Has he been
gaining weight? He looks like a plump redfruit."

"That's rude, Aydhara." Aydhan chided as she came back out. "Well!
That's where my hat was. With that mystery solved, I guess I'm about
ready to go." She jammed a slightly-less-fashionable hat into her bag.
"Let's get Tymborikath out of here before she decides to be
unpleasant."

"Oh, well, if Tym might get upset, by all means, let's leave. What was
I thinking?" N'kevyn asked crossly, stomping over to Avicath.

The bronze side stepped.

"Avicath. Don't make me have Tym sit on you."

Nikhayden glanced between Tymborikath and Avicath. "I'm riding with
Mom," he announced, heading toward Tym.

"It's for the best." Aydhan said with a laugh. "You don't want to be
aboard Avicath if Tym has to sit on him. Though she would _never_."
She would, and had almost done it when they were squabbling over space
during that Reaches snowstorm.

"Wow, Dad, why are you so cranky?" Aydhara asked with fake innocence.
"Poor Avicath is blameless." She gave the bronze a pat-pat in
solidarity as she climbed on with practiced ease. She squinted a
little at the straps in front of her, checking out that there was less
_extra_ space in them than there used to be.

"Because my family is impossible. Aydhan, no more children." As if
that wasn't a very long-settled decision. He grabbed a strap and
hauled himself up after Aydhara and before Avicath could resume
dancing away. "Are we re-" Avicath didn't wait for him to finish- if
he had to go, he was going under his own terms, and the bronze took to
the air with no attempt at making it an easy or smooth ride.
Thankfully, he'd shared the visual with Tymborikath during the
planning stages, so N'kevyn just let the bronze blink them away. The
area he'd chosen was more grassy dune than true beach, and N'kevyn
thought very pretty. More importantly, he felt Avicath perk up at the
sight of the open water, and he immediately started pulling off the
dragon's straps, fearing he'd head for the salt water with them still
on. "See? Not so bad," He turned to Aydhara, "He's not looking that
plump, is he?"

}:I do like to swim,:{ the bronze said slowly, considering. He seemed
oblivious to any critique of his physique.

Nikhayden heard his father's question as he was hopping down from
Tymborikath's golden neckridge. "He looks fine, Dad," he insisted.
Bronzes were supposed to be big, right?

"Look at his belly swaying." Aydhara said helpfully as she handed her
father the half of Avicath's straps she was holding. "Threadfall must
be easier down here. You think he'd want to fly around more since it's
not so cold."

Tymborikath waited patiently until the straps were off before she
hopped away to find a warm bit of sand to dig a wallow.

Avicath was, indeed, looking a little plumper than usual as he headed
off towards the water, but N'kevyn couldn't be too annoyed- as soon as
the bronze's toes hit the waves, he felt the tension that had been
bothering him all morning lifting as Avicath's mood rather abruptly
shifted back to his much more easy going and pleasant normal. "The
local bronzes keep bringing Tym food. I don't think Avicath has gotten
his own meal once since we got here. He just naps and eats when he's
not working." N'kevyn folded the straps away and watched as the bronze
happily padded out into the waves. He WAS bobbing more than usual.
"Hopefully everyone gets bored of Tymborikath soon." He rolled his
shoulders, as if stretching muscles after some kind of workout. In a
much less grouchy tone than he'd been using all morning, he said,
"See? Isn't this nice? The water is nice and deep, apparently. Not as
much sand for firelizards but," he shrugged. "'Hara, Nik, can you put
out the blanket I brought? It can be a proper picnic!"

Nikhayden snatched the blanket up before Aydhara could reach it. "Too
slow!" he said in a sing-song voice.

"Rude!" Aydhara cried, reaching out to grab it after him. It just
managed to slip past her fingers.

"If anything, Riyanth going up is going to _extend_ the interest in
Tymborikath." Aydhan said cheerily. "All those bronzes looking to make
up for their losses and hoping an extra herdbeast might bring Tym's
favour." It wouldn't work, of course, but it was amusing to watch the
gold with her new suitors. "I don't mind the attention, either."

Nikhayden mimicked gagging on his finger to Aydhara behind their
parents back as the conversation from their parents weyr was
apparently going to continue. **They're so insufferable sometimes.**

Aydhara mimicked a 'ew, gross' face back at her brother. Their parents
were cute most of the time, but they escalated into too cute more
often than not.

"The blanket's out," he said, hoping to interject and change the topic.

"Your ego knows no bounds, love," N'kevyn said, but he put an arm
around Aydhan's waist to pull her in and kiss the top of her head, "in
such a small package, too." As Avicath's mood improved, so did his,
and he headed over to sit on the blanket, bringing the basket of food
over.

"Are you two excited? You'll have a chance at Impressing a nice
southern dragon soon."

"I hope it's more than one southern blue that wants girls." Aydhara
said as she rifled through the basket and pulled out a sandwich. She
ignored Aydhan's cautious glance as she always did. "Dragonsfall is
further south though, isn't it? I don't want more cold, but I want a
blue."

N'kayden wasn't sure what the difference between a "southern dragon"
and a "northern dragon" was but he _did_ want to Impress, either way.
"Maybe you should just see what happens here at Barrier Lake first.
Who knows, maybe you'll be the first woman on a bronze."

Aydhara perked up at that. "Do you think? The best boy, just like Avicath." She'd heard their Impression story enough times to know why the bronze had chosen her father, even if it was usually an eye roll worthy story.

Tymborikath huffed, and Aydhan patted her gently on the snout. This was the only place where a weyrwoman and a queen dragon was chopped liver.

Last updated on the August 13th 2024

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