So Unexpected

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 15th July 2007

Characters: Swift, Kateena
Description: Swift informs Kateena of Race and Yara's arrivals at the Hall and learns something new about his wife-to-be
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 4, day 25 of Turn 4

"She's here!" Swift said, sitting beside Kateena when he finished his shift and could join her in the dining room. "They both are. Would you like to meet them?"

"I..I've already met Yara. Earlier today, down on the beach - well, in the water actually." She knew immediately to whom he was referring. "It was - surprisingly easy. You seem to have passed down that easy-to-get-along-with feeling to your granddaughter."

"Oh." Swift was almost disappointed not to get to make the introductions. "Did you like her?" He couldn't imagine Yara being unfriendly for the very reason Kateena mentioned - Yara got along with most people.

"Yes, I did." she smiled at the memory of the young woman, "I was so shocked when the woman I was talking to turned out to be your grand-daughter, and then nervous, but she is lovely Swift, and someone you should be proud of."

"Oh, I _am_" he agreed. "Though I have precious little reason to be proud of her. I've been in the South here for most of her life. Will you miss your family, Kateena?"

"My fostermother died a few turns ago, and my fosterfather, well he's always been a vague image to me, being a seacrafter he was rarely at home." She gave a shrug. "I've seen my mother a few times in the past turn, and she's bound to visit here, now that I've informed her of my transfer."

"It's a long way to come for a visit," he commented, thinking that Race wouldn't have made the journey if had hadn't been settling one of his daughters into a new home.

"Oh shards! I never told you - did I?" she turned and smiled, "We really do have a lot to learn about each other."

"I don't think you have anything to learn about me. My life is fairly simple." Sometimes that seemed like a poor reflection on any life, but mostly he liked that his past was as open as his present.

"Mine...isn't." she gave a small slightly guilty smile. "I'm a flight baby." She watched his face awaiting a reaction.

"A what sort of baby?" he asked, not sure he had heard the term before.

"A flight baby." She smiled across at him, realising this was something new for him to deal with, "Maybe it's just a term I've grown used to.
I was the result of a mating flight. My birth parents are both dragonriders."

"Oh. Oh." Swift thought for a moment more. "Does that mean they weren't ..." He knew married wasn't the right term but wasn't sure he knew what the right term was. "Together? During your childhood."

"I don't really know..." she stopped for a moment to consider his question. Her parents had never actually visited her at the same time, and she couldn't ever remember them discussing each other, not in her presence anyway. "Umm, no, I don't think so. I wasn't brought up at the Weyr, I was fostered out to the small fishing community one or the other first came from." she shrugged her shoulders. "Does it matter?"

"Matter? To me? Not at all. I was wondering if it mattered to you."
His own parents had been a big influence on his life and a huge support when Belevi had died. Wanting his sort of childhood for his son he had been happy that they had wanted to raise Race after Belevi's death.

"My fostermother meant the world to me," she answered, "but it's only been in the last ten turns or so that my birth mother has become more than a passing visitor in my life, or my birth father for that matter.
You will get to meet them, one day." She gave a wry grin.

"Of course ... That's the advantage of being dragonriders. If Race hadn't been coming down here with Yara you might never have met any of my family, but it's so easy for dragonriders. There has to be some sort of reward, I suppose, for the risks they take."

"I'm not sure my mother or father look at it that way. And I never even thought to ask my parents if they could help with transportation, it just never occurred to me - until now."

"I asked my parents to raise my son," Swift said thoughtfully. "I could ask them for anything."

"I've just never needed to ask them, I suppose. My fostermother provided me with everything I ever needed, emotionally as well as materially." She sat in silence for a few moments, then looked up at him again, "Would you like to meet my parents?" she asked.

"Well, it sounds more like I should meet your foster-mother. Is that possible?"

"No..it's not possible anymore." she said quietly. "Gilliya died, a few turns ago now. She had a growth..."

Swift put his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"It's..it's okay. It doesn't hurt as much anymore." she admitted.
"Only pleasant memories now." She looked ahead, watching the drudge mopping the dining room floor. "But mother, my birth mother, Aneya -
well she'll come to the wedding, but I think she may like to meet you before - if you'd like?"

"Of course I would," he assured her.

"And my father? Though it's been quite a few turns since I saw him last. He was scored a few Turns ago and rarely leaves the Weyr anymore, feeling too self-conscious, even around me."

"Why? What sort of injury was it?"

"Facial scarring from being Scored mid-fall, not the first fall, but close to it. He feels he is more an object of curiosity and pity, so he chooses to stay within the Weyr were no-one looks twice at him any more, and really, the scarring isn't as bad as he fears."

"Hmm. We'll, of course I would like to meet him, but not if it's going to make him feel uncomfortable." If the man wanted to stay among people more used to the scarring from Thread, then to force him to do otherwise seemed cruel.

"I doubt he'll attend the wedding, but maybe mother could organise a visit to the Weyr for us? I have other siblings, but don't know many of them now."

"What Weyr? You mean we could go ... fly ... on a dragon?"

"Umm, yes." Kateena looked up at him and the dumbfounded look on his face. "You've never flown one before, I take it?" she asked, a slow, loving smile crossing her face.

"I never had anything to do with dragons before we moved here ..." He laughed. "Oh Kateena, you're so unexpected!"

"I am?" she was pleased he thought so, but to her, nothing was out of the ordinary for a Weyrborn crafter. "Well, you're marrying into a dragon family, even if I'm not really as familiar with the Weyr as I should be."

"Marrying into - Well, so I am. And I'm looking forward to it."

Last updated on the July 17th 2007

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So Unexpected