How I Met Your Uncle

Writers: Halyonix, Heather
Date Posted: 24th June 2026

Characters: K'thyr, Th'alin
Description: K'thyr and Th'alin recall how their friendship started.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 16 of Turn 13
Notes: More from the DFW Legacy riders

K'thyr

Th'alin

“Well, has E’rian met his future best friend for life, yet?” Th’alin asked, striding comfortably through K’thyr’s weyr as he set the dinner table. From the kitchen area, the smell of fresh baked bread was wafting through the portal.

K’thyr chuckled in answer. “I think he might have a frenemy, from what I hear. But you know how overwhelming those first few sevendays can be. Not every weyrling class bonds so quickly, or at all, like ours did.”

~*~Flashback~*~

He still couldn’t believe it. He was no longer “Thavalin,” the drudge who’d grown up in the kitchens, destined to be a cook. Now he was “Th’alin, Rider of Brown Keth.” It was a surreal feeling, even as he shoveled Keth’s dung the next morning, helped the brown eat breakfast, and then went for his first Weyrling class.

Many of the Weyrlings he knew, even though he’d been a Candidate only a few sevendays, but there was one face even newer than his own, so Th’alin chose to sit beside him. “Hey, I don’t think we’ve had a chance to meet. I’m Th’alin.”

It had been a whirlwind sevenday. Or maybe it was now the second one. Time existed in this surreality for Kytherian. No, it was K’thyr now. K’thyr! A new name, a new life. When he had left his gray life cothold for Healer Hall four Turns prior, he had looked forward to a new life. Growing up in the shadow of that plague…

Life was fleeting. That’s what Kythe--K’thyr had learned. He hadn’t _expected_ to be at the Weyr with eggs on the Sands, hadn’t thought just one chance was all it would take, but here he was, a _weyrling_! There was no missing the incredulous shine to his smile as he said, “Hey! I’m Kytheri…uh, K’thyr. I’m K’thyr. Sorry. Still getting used to the new name.”

“Same,” the other Weyrling admitted. “I grew up here at the Weyr, so everyone knows me as Thavalin. We’ll see how long it takes them to catch on to Th’alin.” Th’alin glanced up as more Weyrlings tromped in, some had clearly been friends already and had slid into the roles as dragonriders as if born to them. “I think I left the Sands before you Impressed. What color did you end up with?”

Elation somehow lightened those dark eyes. “A brown! His name is Eometh! And yours?”

“Also a brown,” Th’alin smiled at the coincidence. “Keth is his name. And thank Faranth it’s short and easy to spell. I don’t envy some of these people.”

“I know no one,” K’thyr admitted with a laugh. “I was just here with my journeyman mentor for the sevenday. We were here for a class or two. The Hallmaster thought it would be a good idea for me to see Thread wounds up close. I…” He let out another huff of disbelieving laughter. “I didn’t even have a Candidate robe made! I had to borrow an extra one!”

“Now that’s a story you’ll get to tell your children and their children. The day their patriarch Impressed in a hand-me-down robe.” Th’alin reached out experimentally through his bond with Keth but found the brown was still sleeping peacefully after being stuffed with breakfast. “I was a cook in the kitchens, but decided to Stand with this class, just in case. So even though I know a lot of these people by name, I don’t really _know_ them, and they don’t really know me.”

“Sounds like we’re all going to be making some new friends,” the other brown weyrling said with an optimistic grin. “So you’re a cook? Or I guess a former cook now? Do we get to go back to our jobs or are we just dragonriders now?”

“With no Thread right now, a lot of dragonriders work their crafts or other odd-jobs. I guess we’ll see what we have time to do, if… when?... it returns.” Th’alin knew he would continue cooking, even if it was just for himself. It had been more than a job to him.

K’thyr’s youthful face somehow became ancient for a moment there. “When. It’s definitely coming back.” Healer Hall believed it. That’s why he had come to the Weyr for that training, even if it was just in detailed pictures. It didn’t seem to occur to him just yet that he would be up there fighting it when that time came.

“You think so?” Th’alin asked with a tilt of his head. He wasn’t quite sure where he landed between the two groups of thought presently in the Weyr. The Thread-Believers who had no doubt it was returning, and the Thread-Deniers, who were convinced they were done fighting it forever.

“Isn’t that why this clutch was so big?” K’thyr countered. “That’s what the Records say happens. Queens lay monstrously big clutches in preparation. It’s like the dragons _know_.”

“That’s true,” Th’alin agreed. “That’s what the Records say. If so, we’d better enjoy what we can before it starts falling again.”

K’thyr’s grin was wide and indicated that they were going to do exactly that now that they had dragons.

~*~End Flashback~*~

Last updated on the July 1st 2026

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How I Met Your Uncle