Being a Dragonrider

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 9th October 2007

Characters: Arateyka, Tey
Description: Arateyka talks to Tey at the Hatching Feast.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 6, day 3 of Turn 4

The smith journeywoman in the leaf-green dress caught sight of her sister while they were both dancing. Tey, with the same ordinary freckled features they all bore made beautiful by an incredulous delight that marked her for what she was: A newly Impressed dragonrider.

They had all seen it happen, and Arateyka still found it unbelievable.
One moment they had been watching, the family perhaps not concentrating quite as much as they ought to have been on Tey and Lhara, and then Teykara had caught her breath.

Afraid she was missing something, Arateyka had scanned the milling figures on the Sands below. Lhara was there - No dragon near enough to be a lifemate. And Tey – Tey was inclining her head, as if considering something, or perhaps listening to a voice nobody but her could hear. And at her feet was a small green hatchling, looking for all the world like she was mimicking Tey. Head tilted, the same expression of abstractedness.

"Isleth," R'harne had said into the pool of silence that had settled on the family. The brownrider cleared his throat and said it again. "Her name is Isleth."

It was ridiculous for them to all have been so surprised. Tey was the daughter of a dragonrider; the sister of two other women who had Impressed. There was nothing unlikely about her Impressing. Nothing at all, except perhaps all those Hatchings when she hadn't.

But Teykara had Stood for Turns, though Hatchings were fewer then.
Surely they ought not to have sat there almost unable to believe their eyes?

The harper's music finished and Arateyka excused herself from her partner saying she had to congratulate her sister. And her intentions were good until she reached Tey's side.

Dark-haired, dark-eyed; brown-skinned, freckle-faced Tey. Ordinary Tey, as they were all ordinary looking, but now radiant.

Arateyka tried to remember if Teykara had been like that. Ykana certainly hadn't been. Somehow that seemed like it should be significant, if that was the reason Ykana had died and Teykara was still with them.

"Congratulations," Tey prompted, her smile wide and her eyes amused.

The smith journeywoman smiled and hugged her sister. "Congratulations, indeed. Isleth, R'harne tells us."

"It's a lovely name, isn't it?"

The comment was dopey, bemused, and Arateyka couldn't find it in her heart to tease her sister. Not about that. But – "You've cost me a lot, you know."

Tey's abstract expression faded. "Oh? Marks, you mean? You were betting I wouldn't Impress?"

"I _always_ bet you won't Impress," Arateyka admitted without a qualm.
"But not for marks. I don't chance my marks on something as unpredictable as Impression. And a good thing too. All the same –"

"I can't be held responsible for your debts," Tey said firmly. "Nor can Isleth."

"And you'll be too busy to pay them, anyway. You're a weyrling now."

Tey blushed, finding it a strange thought. Through all the Turns of Standing because T'kanu's family knew it was their duty to do so, she had never really considered what her life would be if she Impressed.
She had been amused by the embarrassingly enthusiastic newcomers to the Weyr about their visions of life as a dragonrider, feeling she knew too well what that life was all about - and it wasn't all glory and honour.
"That might take some getting used to."

"I don't think it will." Becoming an apprentice, being prompted to journeywoman; those sorts of things were adjustments. Impressing and starting weyrling training was like stepping into a whole new life.
Perhaps, Arateyka thought, if she gone away from the Weyr to a Hall for her apprenticeship it might have been similar, but the change Tey was experiencing was always going to be more life-changing than almost anything else at the Weyr. "But the time you _have_ time to notice you're a weyrling, you'll have been one for so long that it will be hard to remember what it was like before."

"You're not exactly making it sound attractive," Tey complained though the smile she couldn't suppress belied her words. "But you can't stuff the hatchling back in the egg so I'm stuck with it."

"Stuck with - Being a weyrling?"

"Being a dragonrider," Tey said, describing herself so for the very first time and feeling a pride in the words - and the fact.

Last updated on the October 9th 2007

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Being a Dragonrider