The Place She had Come to See

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 17th January 2007

Characters: Arateyka
Description: Arateyka uses the 'one flight there and back' she won for something unexpected.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 22 of Turn 4

Neither of Arateyka's sisters had Impressed from Tabanirth's clutch and so the smith journeywoman had won her bet with her sister and had a trip
- one flight there and back - to use any way she wanted.

"I know you won, but you don't think this is a waste?" Teykara asked her younger sister as she watched the smith journeywoman fasten a borrowed jacket, her fingers itching to help.

"It's my flight to use how I like," Arateyka said firmly, looking again at the tongue of leather and wondering where the associated buckle had gone.

"It needed to be threaded through before you -. Look," Teykara unfastened the bulky garment far enough to correct the problem, then finished dressing her sister much as she had done twenty Turns ago. "I know it's your choice, but we're not even going to land – according to you."

"We are definitely _not_ landing." Arateyka said firmly. Then more uncertainly she added, "Promise me we won't."

"Not unless there's some danger to life or wing that necessitates it."
Teykara did a visual check of the jacket, trousers and boots her sister was wearing. "You seem ready. Now, I know you've flown on Ailinth, but have you ever been on a green before?"

"No. I don't think so." The last time she had been adragonback had been when she was going to and from the Technicians Hall – and 'to' had been on her father's brown, Ailinth, and 'from' had been on young blue dragon with a very young rider on errand duty. Before that were only Gathers over twelve Turns ago and she couldn't recall what colour of dragons had shared the task of moving her family around with Ailinth.
It was even possible that she had always travelled on Ailinth. Her mother's comments the previous sevenday had been true enough – she was a favourite with T'kanu.

"All right, then. It's like being on any other dragon except as a passenger you're very much more in amongst everything. With Yeulanth's overall size being smaller than a brown dragon's and your backside not being any different in size you'll find yourself further back on her body, more or less by her wings. Nothing to worry about but you'll surely know she's flying."

"Sounds like fun."

"Well, I think so." Teykara turned and mounted the ever-patient Yeulanth, adjusted the straps and then turned to give her sister a hand up. "Ready … up! There. Settled?"

Arateyka nodded, then wriggled a bit and nodded again. "Yes, now I am.
Two of us aren't too heavy for her, are we?"

"Not even close. Straps, buckle them tight. You're familiar with /between/ but if we're going to spend any amount of time just flying around they'll make you feel more secure with her manoeuvring."

"Right." The smith journeywoman had never developed much interest in 'just flying', or going anywhere on a dragon at all and hoped she wouldn't start feeling nervous before she'd got what she wanted out of the bet she had won.

"All secure?"

"All secure," Arateyka confirmed, hauling the strap a little tighter.

"And off we go!"

Yeulanth's launch into the air might have been as graceful as a dragon could manage but Arateyka discovered quickly that she had braced herself for movement from an entirely different direction. Her body slammed into her sister's before she corrected and brought herself upright and into balance. Despite the wind noise she thought she could hear her sister's laughter and planned a suitably scathing complaint to be delivered once her life didn't depend on Teykara and her lifemate.

"Level, then /between/," Teykara called over her shoulder.

The journeywoman nodded as the green wings flapped about her and they straightened up. Teykara's slap on her leg was the signal, and a moment later they were /between/.

"Phooossshhh." She couldn't help the noise – something between surprise and relief and the letting out of the breath she always felt it necessary to take before everything disappeared into the nothingness of /between/.

They were there, exactly where Teykara had promised they would be.

Below them was the Hold set into the mountain-side cliff, showing little of itself to those appearing in the air above it but a scattering of cots and the six guard towers around the great entrance hall. Arateyka grinned and then huffed in surprise as Yeulanth banked to one side to allow her passengers to see what interested them.

And there it was. Two hundred dragonlengths from the Hold itself another structure nestled on the face of the mountain, this with large glassed windows protected by distinctive slatted metal grates.

Yeulanth levelled out and flew high above the face of the mountain. As the green banked away, obviously preparing to do a circuit to make another pass Arateyka tapped her sister's shoulder twice.

In response Yeulanth's wings flapped hard, bringing them level again and when Teykara's hand slapped on Arateyka's thigh in warning the smith journeywoman was looking over her shoulder, taking one last look at the place she had come to see.

Last updated on the January 17th 2007

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The Place She had Come to See