Fond Memories of Home (1/3)
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Duskdog
Date Posted: 10th December 2025
Characters: H'taysh
Description: On a whim, H’taysh decides to visit the birthplace that he hasn’t seen up close in many turns.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 11, day 24 of Turn 12
The greatest part of being a dragonrider was the food.
No, no. The food was great -- the best quality he’d ever had, no doubt, and as much as he wanted (for the most part) -- but it wasn’t quite as good as the _girls_.
No, no. The girls were amazing -- and the boys, though he didn’t want to think about that too hard -- but that didn’t quite seem right, either.
The best part of being a dragonrider was the _freedom_. It was the same sort of freedom that he had enjoyed when he’d first joined the crew headed to work at Barrier Lake -- the call of the open road, and realizing he had nothing to hold him back from following it in order to see something new and different. Only, as a dragonrider, it was even _better_, because he didn’t just have to follow a construction crew, or even a _road_ -- he could just go whenever and wherever he pleased. Just a blink /between/, and there they were, and they could be back by dinnertime!
That was what made it better than the food and the girls, actually. Being able to travel meant that he could try _more_ food from different places, and meet _more_ girls from far-off Holds that were way more impressed by his wingrider knots than people who knew him better were. The fact that they were greenrider knots was a little bit of an obstacle sometimes, but he was learning how to work the right angle. Selkirth was a _cute_ dragon, and more social than most, and he’d discovered that young ladies who were curious about dragons seemed more at-ease in her presence, and more willing to approach her than to approach some of the males.
Whenever the whim struck him during his free time, he went. There were still a lot of places he’d never been, and would have to fly straight someday to get the visualizations, but he had all the time in the world! Well. Sort of. There was always Thread to be fought and prepared for, but compared to the life he’d come from? There was always time sooner or later.
That was what got him thinking of home.
He didn’t really think of Tin Hollow Minehold as _home_ most of the time, exactly. His sisters still meant it when they said the word -- “home” -- but then, they had been older when they’d all been sent off to Garnet Valley to be fostered by someone better able to care for them. His own memories were crystal clear in specific, singular moments -- the time he’d broken his wrist tumbling down a hill, his mother’s drawn, pale, sweaty face as she laid on her deathbed holding his small hand cradled to her chest, the tears shining in his uncle’s eyes when he’d sat down at their rickety table and called the children close to tell them that papa wouldn’t be coming home -- but fuzzy and indistinct when it came to almost anything else.
Still. It was a place that lived in his heart -- a place where his parents had been, forever compared to Garnet Valley, a fine hold that had taken good care of him, but still a place where his parents had _not_ been. At Tin Hollow, he had known everyone and been related to most of them. At Garnet Valley, there had been far too many faces for him to ever know even a fraction of them, and none of them had shared his blood except for his sisters, who now had families of their own to worry about.
He didn’t think about it much, because he had no reason to. He had been happy at Garnet Valley, and he was happy here now at Barrier Lake. But in these rare moments when he did, there was a curious, distant pang of longing for something that he couldn’t quite name.
}:The place where you came from?:{ Selkirth asked, turning her head to regard him, eyes whirling a little faster in her curiosity. }:Like the Hatching Sands?:{
“Something like that, yeah.” He laughed a little. “It’s a little different for us human people. Most of us only ever live in the one place, and don’t ever really get to go anywhere. But I had to leave when my pa died, because both my parents were gone, and nobody else there really had room for three more kids. So we went to live somewhere else.”
}:Here?:{
“No, not here. Somewhere else -- we’ve been there when we went to see my sisters, remember?”
}:Yes, I remember,:{ said Selkirth, in that way that told him she did not, in fact, remember.
“Well, I haven’t been back to the place where I was born since the day I left it. We flew over it once or twice to get a good look when we were memorizing coordinates for the territory and stuff, but I haven’t really… y’know… been _back_. It looked sort of run-down, you know? Not like I remembered it. I thought it might make me sad, but I dunno, I was just thinking maybe one of these days I oughtta go back anyways.”
The green blinked. }:Well, why not now?:{
“Now?”
}:Yes. If it matters to you, we will go. That’s what wings are for, aren’t they?:{ She stretched her wings, flapping lightly. }:And I have very good ones. Very good wings. For going.:{
The idea caught him like a gust of wind under a kite. Maybe it was silly, and spur of the moment, but then, so was everything else he did. And he had nothing else demanding his time at the moment. So why not?
“Alright,” he said, grin spreading quick and bright. “Let’s do it. To Tin Hollow, then.”
As soon as he was seated, Selkirth launched, wings snapping wide, and the Weyr dropped away beneath them. H’taysh leaned into the rush of air, laughing, until the image of the hold from above -- familiar and yet unfamiliar, the view from the air different but similar to the one he remembered from the top of the hill at the old mill where he’d once been able to look down at nearly the entirety of the small hold -- rose sharp in his mind.
“And here we go,” he said cheerily. The world vanished into darkness.
Last updated on the December 21st 2025