Affectionately! Fondly! (1)

Writers: AJ Kraier, Jane
Date Posted: 11th April 2007

Characters: D'val, Jh'slaen
Description: D'val comes up with a theory about F'naren's jealousy and gets an unexpected reaction.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 3, day 9 of Turn 4

The storm two days before had left plenty of interesting things to pick over on the long beach below the cliff weyrs of River Bluff.
Jh'slaen bent down and picked up another unusual shell.

"I thought you didn't like clutter," F'naren commented, having his evening stroll halted every few steps by his companions' discoveries.

"I'm going to do something with them," Jh'slaen insisted.

"What, exactly?" F'naren glanced at Jh'slaen's thoughtful expression and nodded. "Clutter."

"He could make a shell bracelet or necklace," D'val suggested. "Or if he finds a large enough one, he could do some fancy carving on it. I met a rider once at a Gather who was selling shells, soft stones, and pieces of bone that he'd carved -- scrimshaw, I think he called it."

F'naren looked thoughtful at that. Perhaps he could try carving shells? He had certainly had plenty of practise with wood. Then he shook his head. "I don't know that Jh'slaen would. He's never had an artistic impulse in his life."

When he glanced around to see how the other greenrider had taken that taunt he found that Jh'slaen was still fossicking around in the sand.
There didn't seem to be any need for them to stop and keep him company, so he shrugged and kept walking.

"It's as if his mind has wandered off /between/ without the rest of him," D'val jested, as he continued on with F'naren.

"Must remember to pick him up on our way home. He probably won't have realised we're gone until then." F'naren shrugged. "The beach was a novelty for us when we got here, but _I_ got over it."

"Mind if I ask what your home is like?"

"Mind? Of course not. It's just a cot hold growing grain. Nice spot, though, creek alongside, river only a couple of cotholds away.
Temperate climate. No snow, not much humidity." F'naren glanced at the greenrider. "You'd probably think us very insular. Just doing what we've been doing for generations. Conservative. Not as conservative as Jh'slaen's family, perhaps."

"No, I don't think that. I've lived my whole life in Weyrs -- here and at Far Island -- with weyrfolk going back on both sides for... for what seems like for ever. To me, life outside of a Weyr is an..."
D'val shrugged a shoulder. "An abstract concept."

"And one you'll never know now," F'naren pointed out. "It might not have suited you, anyway."

"Perhaps not," said D'val. He briefly furrowed his brow, and then shook his head. "Definitely not. My place in the world was meant to be here, waiting for Ayleth -- but if she'd given me a little advanced warning, it might have been fun to see some of what it is that we are pledging our lives to protect."

F'naren had never thought of that as an advantage to being holdbred.
"Yeah. I guess. I'm just glad the Searchrider found us. The tiniest cothold in the middle of nowhere. How's that for luck?"

"Very. I don't know about other riders, but I'm occasionally puzzled and surprised by the places Ayleth has discovered candidates."

"I didn't know you were - she was. Is. A Searchrider. That must be
-," F'naren searched for the right word, "-rewarding."

"It is. There's a sort of... warm, fuzzy feeling that goes through you when someone you Searched Impresses. It's hard to describe." Absently, D'val glanced back toward Jh'slaen, as he smiled warmly at the memory of the first time someone he and Ayleth had Searched Impressed.

"You didn't Search us," F'naren said sharply, a frown settling in on his face as his glance followed D'val's.

"Uh?" His thoughts still distant, D'val turned his face toward the brownrider, the smile fading as he furrowed his brow. "Search who?"

"You didn't Search Jh'slaen and I so no need for warm fuzzy feelings."

"No, I didn't Search... Warm fuzzy feel... huh?" The furrows on D'val's forehead deepened. "What are you talking about?"

"The way you're looking at Jh'slaen." F'naren stopped walking and waved a hand to indicate the greenrider, now far behind them, still studying something in the sand.

D'val regarded F'naren for a very long moment before replying. "I don't understand. How am I looking at Jh'slaen?"

F'naren waved his hands in exasperation. "Affectionately! Fondly!
Something!"

"Affectionately? Fondly?" Folding his arms over his chest, D'val looked thoughtfully from F'naren to Jh'slaen and back again. "Well...
I like him, but I didn't think I was..." He looked at Jh'slaen, considered him for a moment, and hmm'ed to himself.

"He's not interested in you," the brownrider growled.

D'val arched his brows at F'naren. "He's not? Then why are getting all... O---h... Oh, so that's how it is..." The greenrider smirked.

"What? _What's_ how it is? And now you're smirking!"

D'val snickered. "Of course I'm smirking, and I am smirking because it's quite obvious what's going on here -- and you know very well what _it_ is." He gave the brownrider a meaningful (at least to D'val) look of all-knowing.

"There's nothing going on here. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
What do you think's going on?" F'naren asked, his voice getting louder as his frustration with the greenrider's hints escalated.

Last updated on the April 11th 2007

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Affectionately! Fondly! (1)