R'harne to the Rescue

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 8th March 2007

Characters: Arateyka
Description: Arateyka asks her sister about a problem Lhara is having.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 3, day 1 of Turn 4

A hot, sunny evening and Arateyka was out of the smithy early enough to catch the family at the evening meal. When asked if she was going back to her smithy she informed them that she was, in fact, going to walk down to the beach for a swim.

"I'll come too," Lhara said. "Since I'm not supposed to go swimming without a grown-up."

"Was somebody having a go at you about your age?" Arateyka asked when the pair of them finally set out along the path around the cliff.

"Perhaps." Lhara tilted her wide sun hat to peer under the rim at her sister. "Nothing I can't handle. 'Nobody' I can't, I mean."

"Not anything like Teykara and R'harne?"

Lhara laughed, thinking of the battle their sister's weyrmate had put up to discourage Teykara when they had first known each other. Age had been one of the major issues – on his part, at least. "I wish!"

"Something ..."

"You don't have to guess and guess and guess until I get sick of that and give in and tell you, you know." Lhara took off her hat and swatted her sister around the shoulders before returning her hat firmly to her head. "You could just _ask._"

"I don't think that did the hat any good," Arateyka observed, distracted for a moment at the sight of the fraying brim. "But consider yourself asked."

"Pretty ordinary. One of the bakers thinks I'm more than old enough to have the honour of sharing his bed."

"You disagreed." It wasn't a guess. Lhara's tone made it clear that she was less than enamoured of the man.

Lhara's face lightened with a grin. "With the fact that he thought it an honour. And since I wasn't interested, then my age wasn't an issue.
He, of course, decided to tease me out of my – perfectly understandable if you'd ever worked with him – reluctance by making me embarrassed about my age. He thinks he can make me want to 'prove' I'm an adult by teasing me about being a child." She rolled her eyes and skipped along a couple of steps.

"I'll deal with him, if you like."

"I can do it," the fourteen Turn old said firmly, the words a holdover from their childhood when Lhara, as the baby of the family had to battle to stop her older siblings 'helping' her with anything and everything.

The words might be the same but the tone was not a child's petulance and Arateyka grinned. The whole family had their father's stubbornness, making them resistant to pressure. People were fooled by their easy-going natures into thinking T'kanu's children could be swayed by charming talk or ridicule. T'kanu's children, their mother had observed more than once, must have been born with extra toes especially for digging in.

"I know you can. But if he makes a pest of himself, you just tell us.
All of us. We'll sort him out."

Lhara tilted her head, appearing to be considering something. "Hmm. I could tell R'harne. It would be quite nice having him deal with things on my behalf."

"Oh yeah. R'harne to the rescue." It was an appealing thought but after a moment both women laughed. "We _have_ to stop drooling over Teykara's man."

"You sound like Delhara," Lhara pointed out, dropping her towel on the sand and peering out at the water. "We're grown women. We don't _have_
to stop drooling if we don't want to."

"You want to?" Arateyka asked, working to get her boots off.

"Nope. You?"

"Not in this lifetime."

Last updated on the March 10th 2007

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R'harne to the Rescue