Lihona's Friend

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 20th May 2007

Characters: Lihona, Linli
Description: Linli and Lihona explore the Sungazer.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 4, day 10 of Turn 4

"This is where Tahna and Neke and me sleep." Linli held the other girl's had in hers and pulled her into the stateroom she and her sister shared with their aunt.

Lihona looked around. Her mother had told her often enough that their room would be very small but she hadn't said that nearly all the room would be taken up with beds. "It's all wood," she said, commenting on the most notable difference after the incredible smallness of it. "The walls and the floor -" She glanced up. "Even the roof!"

"What would they be made out of?" Linli looked puzzled as she took in the room, she never thought there was anything strange about it, but Lihona seemed to think so.

"Rock," the Weyrbred girl said, surprised that anybody wouldn't know that.

"If the boat was made of rock, it'd sink." Linli said baldly.

"Oh. I suppose so." Lihona looked at the beds again. "Which one do you sleep in?" she asked, thinking that they all looked interesting.
The big bed was up high, though not as high as the topmost of the two small beds.

"I sleep down here." Linli answered, rolling onto the lower bunk.
"Tahna's up there, and aunty Neke is over on the big bed." she pointed to each in turn, "You will probably get the lower bunk as well, they put us in the bottom ones so we don't get hurt if we fall out."

"I wouldn't fall out," the weyr-girl said though she peered uncertainly up at the top bunk. "Will we really sleep in the same room as Rahona and Lineal?" she asked, putting a hand to the wooden ladder up to the highest bed.

"Well, we sleep with aunty Neke." Linli shrugged, "Isn't that what you did at the Weyr?"

"No. We had our own room, Nalin and I." Lihona got a funny feeling in her tummy when she mentioned their room. "And another room to play in,"
she added, but that only made her feel worse.

"Well, we share rooms here." Linli shrugged, it was commonplace on the riverboat. "But we have lots of places to play, and we make new friends all the time."

"I had friends at home. Lots of friends."

"You'll have friends here, too. Me and Jezz and Tahna for a start."
Linli nodded knowingly. "But Tahna is bossy at times," she warned, screwing up her face.

Her reassurance came too late for Lihona whose face had fallen and was struggling not to cry. "I want -"

"What?" Linli was shocked by the look on her new friends face. "What do you want?" Linli was beginning to get worried, the new cousin had only been on board less than a candlemark and she would be found crying in Linli's room.

"I want my mother," Lihona wailed, losing the battle against tears and sobs. She held onto the ladder to the upper bunk and cried.

"Oh, please don't cry, please?" Linli moved forward and hugged her cousin. "I don't like meeting new people either, but I will be your friend here." She hadn't meant for that admission to slip out, but her concern for the other girl had prompted it. "Shall I go get your mam?"

Lihona nodded, still crying. She was happy that Linli wanted to be her friend but she really wanted to be at home - with rock around her and her friends just down the corridor.

Linli ran from the room, scared she would be blamed if anyone found Lihona in there crying. She headed for the upper level, knowing the family would be gathered in one of the large staterooms, eating and catching up.

Slipping in quietly, she made her way across to her new cousin, and gently tugged at her jacket.

"Hello," Rahona said when she glanced down, surprised to find that the tug on her clothing wasn't caused by one of her own two, but by one of the little girls she had met earlier. It wasn't Lineal's niece, Jezz, but she couldn't remember which one she was. "Which one are you?"

"I'm Linli." she whispered, "And ... Lihona is crying, I didn't make her though!" she was quick to point out.

"Is she hurt?" She hasn't fallen in the river, is she?" It was a silly question, she realised as soon as she asked it, but for the moment the relentless flow of the river past the side of the boat was foremost in her mind when it came to the children.

"No." Linli shook her head, "She's in my room, and she doesn't like it, I don't think." She wasn't exactly sure why Lihona was crying, but, she needed her mother to come and see her, so took hold of her hand. "Come on," she insisted.

Rahona excused herself from the group as she was led away, following the little girl - Linli - along the open balcony that ran either side of the middle deck. The crew deck? What that what she was supposed to call it? "Thank you for coming to get me, Linli."

"I did right?" she glanced back over her shoulder to Lihona's mother.
"She started crying and I didn't know what else to do."

"You did exactly right." Rahona heard the crying as they approached the door and hurried into the small room to find her daughter clinging to the ladder to the top bed, sobbing noisily. "Oh dear." She lifted Lihona up to sit on her hip and cuddle her. "What's wrong?"

Linli crept into the room, unsure if she would be welcome, but her concern for her new cousin, overrode her normally good manners.

"I m-m-miss th-the W-w-eyr," Lihona sobbed, clinging to her mother.

"Already?" Rahona had expected to be a little homesick herself, but hadn't expected either of the children to suffer. They had been far more enthusiastic about going to a new place than she had - and about spending so much time with their father. She glanced down at the big-eyed girl who was watching them. "She's homesick. It might take a few days to get over."

"She doesn't like it here?" Linli crept further into the room and sat down on Neke's bed.

"Nothing like that. It's just not what she's used to." Rahona found her handkerchief to her daughter. "She might be miserable for a little while, but I'm sure she'll be happy here."

"You will stay though?" Linli asked, her little face creasing into a frown. "It is fun, here. Living on the river."

"Of course we'll stay, and in a sevenday or so Lihona will be enjoying the river just as much as you do. I think I'll take her to our room now
- if you'd like to show me just where that is."

"Sure." Linli brightened considerably at Rahona's words, and pushed herself off the bed. "You're not far from here, Lihona, so you can find your way _really_ easily." she smiled warmly.

"Th-that's g-good," Lihona said, staying snuggled up against her mother as she was walked along to her new home. Only she didn't want a new home. She wanted to be back in her own bed at the Weyr.

"This is where aunt Neke said you'll be." Linli stopped outside another of the staterooms, "Just come and find me when you want to play, okay Lihona?"

"Okay."

Rahona rubbed the back of her miserable-sounding child and smiled at Linli. "Thank you for being a good friend, Linli."

"That's okay." She smiled warmly, "I'd like to be Lihona's friend, when she's ready. Me and Jezz will _both_ be her friends, and Tahna, but ...Tahna can be bossy." she leaned in and confided.

"Can she?" Rahona wasn't sure she remembered meeting Tahna. "I don't think Lihona will be very easy to boss." When she wasn't feeling miserable the little girl was an expert at slipping out of the reach of authority.

"Tahna is good at it." Linli pulled a face, "I should go find her and tell her about Lihona too. She'll be happy, it'll means she won't have to play with me as much. See you later, Lihona?"

"B-bye, L-linl-li," Lihona said unhappily as her mother pushed the door open.

"And thank you again," Rahona added, stepping into the room that would be their new home.

Last updated on the May 25th 2007

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Lihona's Friend