Good Wine and Best Friends

Writers: Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 14th June 2007

Characters: U'kaiah, Traelyn
Description: U'kaiah invites Traelyn over for an evening of much-needed fun and relaxation
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 3, day 24 of Turn 4

Wine... two bottles of red, two bottles of white, a dry and a sweet of
each color. Eight empty wine glasses. Two glasses next to a pitcher of
nice, cool water. Bread and an assortment of cheese. Candles, not quite
the bright light recommended for a proper event, but it seemed to set a
more relaxing mood. At least he did get the white table cloth. One last
check in the mirror... She had liked his Cyan and Harper Blue tunic. A
little formal, but he wanted to make it special. Now all he needed was
the lady.

**All right, Kalamath. It's time to send a message to Nyith.**

~~~

Nyith had not expressed any displeasure as she'd passed the message on to
Traelyn to meet U'kaiah in his weyr. In fact, she had even encouraged her
rider to leave the Sands. }:Kalamath's rider is good for you. It will be
very good for you to be with him tonight. Go on, Trae,:{ Nyith told her
with a croon, rustling her bright wings as she settled herself down for
the night.

And so Traelyn went. It felt good to get up and stretch her legs, but
shards, did they feel heavy! Maybe that was just because she was so
tired. She had to admit--for more reasons than just one--that the idea of
curling up with U'kaiah on his sofa sounded so tempting...

With a soft smile touching her lips, she lifted her hand and knocked on
his weyr door.

U'kaiah checked the room once more. No stray socks peeking out, not a
scrap of hidework on the desk. Just candles, wine, and... shards, he
should have
gotten some flowers to decorate. Oh well, too late now. "Good evening,
Weyrwoman," the bronzerider smiled as he opened the door.

"'Weyrwoman' is it?" she grinned, looking up at him. Then she blinked,
and really _looked_ at him, her next question of 'Why so formal?' dying
before it reached her lips. "Shards, U'kaiah. You look great." And
sexy, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. Her eyes spoke it for
her instead. "What's the occasion?"

"You, my dear," he said, holding out an arm for her to take. "I'm afraid
your lifemate and I have been conspiring against you, with a little help
from Kalamath."

"Conspiring? Against me?" She slipped her hand through the crook of his
arm, completely taken aback by the dramatic change his weyr had gone
through as they stepped back inside. When they paused in front of the
table, and saw the full wine bottles, glasses, and baskets filled with
rolls of bread and fresh cheeses, she turned her wide, dark eyes to his.
"Really?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he said, just as quietly. "We decided you needed to relax more.
You've been through a lot. I want you to just enjoy yourself tonight.
Nyith agrees."

"Wine certainly does help one relax and have fun, doesn't it?" she asked
with a knowing smile, turning to wrap her arms around him in a brief but
meaningful hug. "Thank you, U'kaiah," she murmured in his ear before
pulling back. And she couldn't help it as her fingers caressingly fell
from his sides. "What kind of wine did you choose?"

"I'm glad you asked," he grinned, reaching into his pocket for a scrap of
hide. "Sorry, I've never done this before." U'kaiah opened it and
cleared his throat dramatically. "'To insure the taster is unbiased
towards such considerations as vintage or region, the labels of the
bottles should be removed along with any identifying mark which might give
it's identity away to the trained or experienced eye. Only after the
tasting is complete should their identity be revealed.' So in other
words, I can't tell you."

Laughing, Traelyn flopped down onto the sofa. "All right, all right.
Maybe, after I've tried one, I can guess!" She wrinkled her nose. "I'll
probably get it wrong though... I'm not the world's best wine-guesser."

The bronzerider filled both of their water glasses. "That's not the
object here. The object is to taste and enjoy, not to guess how cheap my
wine is."

She nearly choked on her water, and actually managed to swallow most of
it before she grinned up at him. "Shards, love. Wine is wine. Who cares
about price?"

"Well, apparently the vintner who wrote the text I got all this from. But
he could probably afford to be a snob." He beckoned her back over to the
table as he poured a glass of the white. "All right, now, there is a
system to all this."

"All right." She leaned her elbows on her knees, watching him intently.
"Explain it to me."

"I will, but you really do need to come over here." He carefully wiped
the lip of the bottle. "You need the white table cloth to look at the
color of the wine properly. Oh, and the spit bucket! We can't forget the
spit bucket."

Grinning, she pushed herself up and went over to him. "Spit bucket? I
thought we were drinking the wine, U'kaiah."

"My dear Weyrwoman, I didn't get all dressed up just to get you drunk.
This is serious business," the bronzerider said with dramatic gravity.

"Of course," she replied with airy dignity. Then she poked him gently, an
impish look in her eyes. "But eventually we're going to get drunk,
right?"

"We prefer the term 'exceedingly intoxicated'" he sniffed as he handed her
a glass.

"Snob," she sniffed back, trailing the tip of her finger against the edge
of the glass.

"We prefer the term 'exceedingly handsome and witty', actually. Now," he
pulled out the scrap of hide once more. "The first thing we do is hold
the wine and look at the color. We are looking for impurities, color
nuances, and... opacity, whatever that is. The white table cloth should
help us see it more clearly."

"Impurities?" She studied the bottle thoughtfully. "You mean like darker
splotches or something?"

"Yeah, something like that." U'kaiah thought it was a silly step, but it
was listed as number one, so by Faranth they would look at the color. "It
looks... kind of yellow to me." Of course that could be the candle light.

"Well, maybe if you moved it away from the candle..." Traelyn poked at
the base, inching it away from the yellow light. "How is the white
tablecloth supposed to help again?"

"I think its supposed to give her a better background to view it against.
If the cloth was red and you're looking at a red wine, for example, how
much is the real color and how much is the tablecloth effecting your
perception of it." At least that much he got. "But anyway, enough about
color. Now we smell it. So swirl it around in the glass and then breathe
in the smell. The swirling is supposed to help the aroma waft better."

"Waft..." Carefully holding the stem between her fingers, she swirled the
wine. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled. Shards! She could almost
taste it the aroma was so pungent. "Mmmmmm. It smells good. Can I taste
it yet?"

"Yes, but the tasting part is kind of complicated." He set his glass down
and devoted his full attention to the hide. "Ok, so first you sip it, but
you breathe in a little as you sip so you make a slurping sound. That's
so the air will mix with the wine taste and that's supposed to make it
taste better or something. Then, you hold it in your mouth and swish it
around a little, breathing through your nose. You then hold it and see
how long the flavor lasts and if it changes. Then you spit it out in the
spit bowl and give your impression. After that you rinse your mouth out
with the water and you're ready for the next one."

Traelyn stared at him. "This is more intricate than drills!" Laughing,
she picked up the glass and swirled it again. "Don't you laugh when I
slurp," she warned, shaking a finger at him. "I'll snort wine through my
nose or something embarrassing like that."

"Well, I'm going to do it too, so if I laugh there's a chance I could
drown. Ready?" he held up his glass and clinking it lightly against hers.
"To good wine and best friends."

"Hear, hear!"

Last updated on the June 19th 2007

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Good Wine and Best Friends