Horribly?

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 2nd May 2007

Characters: Arateyka, Lhara
Description: Lhara suggests Arateyka won't go back to the Tavern – and is corrected.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 3, day 22 of Turn 4

"I said you wouldn't want to go again."

"Mmm?" Arateyka looked up from the meal of vegetables and rivergrains she was enjoying and peered across the table at Lhara. The fact that nobody else was responding was a clue that the comment was meant for her – and that her family were interested in her response. Normally there was enough noise from the lot of them to rival that from the whole rest of the cavern, so their sudden silence was out of character.

"I was telling ... people -" Lhara waved a hand and her family was in no doubt that she wasn't about to name names, "- about our visit to the Vinter –"

The family chorused: "VintNER," despite knowing it would do little good.

"- Hall tavern and how horribly you were treated and that you wouldn't be going back again."

"I _what?_" Arateyka's fork stopped moving as she stared at her youngest sister in disbelief.

"You won't be going again?" Lhara suggested, her tone a little more cautious and her statement turning itself into a question.

"The bit before that."

Tey and Teykara exchanged grins as they glanced from one speaker and the other. None of their family were particularly volatile people but each of them had something that could rile them.

"What bit? About telling people? You know I talk to people, Ara. It's not like out at the smithy with all those strong silent smithcrafters."

The journeywoman pushed her plate away and leaned her elbows on the table. This appeared likely to take some time. The one thing other than her looks that Lhara had in common with their dead sister Ykana was her ability to wander around subjects. With Ykana it was a calculated avoidance of the truth; with Lhara it was just the ramblings of a weyrbrat who thought she was in trouble. At fourteen, Lhara hadn't quite left behind one of the last vestiges of childhood – volunteering excuses before they were required.

"Let me give you a better clue. The bit about 'how horribly I was treated'."

Lhara hesitated, looking more than a little confused. "That's what I said. How horribly you were treated. At the tavern. At the –"

"VintNER!"

Without missing a beat Lhara nodded. "Yes, that Hall."

"And you told people I was treated horribly? _Horribly?_" It was a stupid word anyway - weak sounding – and Arateyka wasn't going to have it associated with herself. "They were _rude._ They had bad manners.
They showed themselves to be narrow-minded and petty." She glared at her sister and then around at the rest of her family. "Let's make it quite clear who was at fault. _They_ were. And it was _not_ horrible.
It was a stupid and pathetic display by craftsmen who ought to have known better."

Lhara nodded silently.

"And as for going back," Arateyka said, getting to her feet and gathering up her meal dishes, "I shall go back as often as I like.
Every sevenday if I want to. Whenever we're all going again, I will be going too, and no ill-mannered smith journeymen are going to stop me.
Is that clear?"

It was clear.

More than clear.

T'kanu stopped laughing eventually and patted his youngest daughter's hand. "Good work."

"Wasn't hard," Lhara admitted. "Does that mean we can go again soon? I had a great time."

T'kanu wasn't sure the Tavern was ready for another visit from Lhara, but Arateyka was apparently more than ready venture outside the confines of the Weyr with her journeywoman's knots around her shoulder.

"As soon as possible," he promised his daughters; the ones still at the table and the one who was walking away.

Last updated on the May 6th 2007

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Horribly?