By Dragonlengths

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 24th November 2006

Characters: Jh'slaen, F'naren
Description: Jh'slaen and F'naren relax after a hot day working.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 2 of Turn 4

"Don't say it," Jh'slaen warned as the brownrider approached.

F'naren shut his mouth then opened it again, drawing breath to speak.

"I shall have to ask Saradath to flame you."

"That Saradath over there, basking in a hand-span of water? That one?"

Jh'slaen tilted his head and eyed the green, admitting to himself that she didn't look as if she was interested in flaming anything. She was stretched out as far as a dragon of her stature could, green muzzle on the hard, forked tail bobbing in the deeper water. The slow twirling of her eyes and the occasional sigh were the only signs of life.

"Yes. Her."

F'naren chuckled and eased himself down into the low slung chair beside the one occupied by his cousin. His backside was almost on the ground, but the back was nicely reclined and he sighed with as much pleasure as Saradath. He let his eyes drift closed and when silence settled about the three of them he said: "Hot enough for you?"

"I'll flame you myself," Jh'slaen grumbled. "Why does everybody ask that? Is there no other greeting left on Pern?"

"Not here, not today." F'naren chuckled.

"This is one of the two hottest months of the Turn," the greenrider continued, ignoring the other man's response. "And people behave as if there's never been another hot day in the history of the Weyr. 'Hot enough for you'," he mimicked. "Sharding wherries."

"Ahh. Drills, was it, today? Something low level in full wherhide making you sweat a little?" F'naren stretched his long legs out in front of him and then worked one shoe off, then the other. "Don't you remember when we had to _work_ in this weather? In all weathers?"

"Drills are work."

"So's riding sweeps, but not like working at the cothold. Come on, this is better than that – by dragonlengths."

Jh'slaen did remember working in the fields in summer. All too well.
And he didn't suppose for a moment that F'naren's time at the same sort of work had been any easier just because their cothold was larger with a larger family to work it. Often enough the two cotholds had worked together since they had a huge shared boundary.

It has been hard, physical work. Unremitting. Dragonriding was certainly different. There was hard work and the exhilaration and terror of flying against Thread. The candlemarks of drills and sweeps in between times; then in their own time, dragoncare. But when it was all done, their time was their own. No domestic chores, no youngsters to mind or grandparents to entertain.

As much as Jh'slaen didn't think he'd changed much since Impression, he knew that he had adjusted completely to the status he had gained with Saradath's choice. With the status had come an amount of free time he would never have experienced had he not been Searched.

Time off to enjoy doing whatever he chose. Sitting at the lake's edge with his dragon and F'naren, relaxing completely as the evening cooled, winding down after a hard day made harder by being hotter than usual.

"It's pretty good, all right," he agreed finally.

Who would have thought that they would have been Searched, that dragonriders would ever again be important in the future of Pern, or that Thread would return after so long? In his childhood nothing of his life now would have ever seemed likely. So many changes for the world, for himself and F'naren. The fourth Turn of the Pass. Of the _Pass._

Sometimes it still seemed incredible.

And here they were, enjoying themselves. Having a lazy evening.

"Ask me again," he prompted.

F'naren thought for a moment, trying to guess where Jh'slaen's thoughts might have wandered. At one time he would have always known but their lives had moved apart a little now; even more so than when they were both told it was time they stopped straying from home like boys and start working like men. Impressing Saradath had not only put Jh'slaen ahead of him in weyrling classes, but the difference in their futures as green and brownriders was already starting to be felt.

Not that some things were too hard to guess.

"Hey, Jh'slaen," the brownrider said without opening his eyes. "Hot enough for you?"

Jh'slaen's grin was lazy. "Yeah, just about."

Last updated on the December 1st 2006

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