Better than Staying on Shore

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 21st July 2008

Characters: Rahona, Vidara
Description: Rahona meets one of the Moonflower crewmembers, Vidara.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 10, day 20 of Turn 4

Rahona found her firelizard sitting on the rail of the crew deck balcony, being admired by a young woman she didn't recognise. Crew, she decided, rather than a wandering passenger, so obviously one of the temporary crewmembers from the Moonflower.

"Hello. Talking to Sunbow?"

"Oh, is she yours?" Vidara had been about to attempt to scritch the lovely creature when the voice startled her. She turned a smile to the owner. "She's lovely."

"She's mine - if they can ever be considered owned like that. My friend, perhaps. My brother gave me the egg and neither of us expected it would hatch a gold." Rahona moved alongside the rail and greeted the firelizard who rose to her haunches and flapped surprisingly large wings that moved a lot of air before settling again to accept the praise that was sure to follow. "Yes, she is beautiful."

"Sunbow is a lovely name too. It suits her." Vidara tentatively reached out again and smiled as the gold firelizard allowed her to caress her eyeridges. "And sweet, too."

"She is quite amiable for a gold," Rahona agreed. "They can sometimes be - er - b-o-s-s-y. But Sunbow's not. Probably because the whole crew have helped feed her and care for her. I'm Rahona, by the way.
Are you from the Moonflower?"

"Yes, I am." Vidara continued to scratch the firelizard, but turned her face toward Rahona. "I'm Vidara, Glafir's wife - I don't know if you've met him yet."

Rahona tilted her head to one side and considered, unconscious of the fact that Sunbow was mimicking her gesture. "I don't think so. What are his duties?"

"He's an engineer." Vidara looked between the firelizard and Rahona and laughed. "She's copying you."

"She is?" Rahona looked at the firelizard who regarded her in turn with a quizzical look. "Maybe she is." She reached out a hand to rub the gold eyeridges and smiled at Vidara. "Do you find the Sungazer different from the Moonflower?"

"Oh yes." Vidara nodded. "But it's hard to say why. I mean, they look a lot alike but...the Moonflower just feels different, sounds different."

Rahona was intrigued. "I don't know if I'd know enough to notice.
This is the only riverboat I've ever been on, and I've not even been here a Turn."

"Really?" Vidara turned to lean against the railing on her side. "So you didn't grow up on the riverboat?"

"No, my husband did. I'm a 'marry-in'," she said with an amused expression for the term. "Me and the children were born at River Bluff Weyr."

"Oh, I've never been to a weyr!" The young woman leaned forward, interest sparkling in her eyes. "What is it like?"

"Big," Rahona said, realising in hind-sight something that she had never been aware of while she lived there. "And busy. Dragons everywhere, these days, and people. Hundreds and hundreds."

"I can't even imagine that many people!" Vidara shook her head. "I'm not sure I'd like the weyr. Maybe to visit but I much prefer the river."

"It's a pity there isn't one - a Weyr - on the Nettleweed, then you could visit any time you liked."

"Then I'd have to go ashore more often." Vidara shook her head.
"Maybe once in a while, but doing it a lot. I like the river too much.
I actually have trouble sleeping when I'm on land."

"You _do_?" It wasn't something Rahona had considered because she had worried about the motion of the riverboat before coming to live on the Sungazer and she had been relieved to find that the combination of river and boat was quite stable, especially at night when they were tied up.
There was _some_ movement but it was comforting, and not enough to make her feel unwell.

"Yes. I don't know why, I just do." Vidara shrugged. She had and her husband had decided to go aboard the Sungazer instead of staying ashore for four months and was partially glad for that very reason. "I guess I'm just too used to it."

"I wonder if my children will end up that way? Do you have children, Vidara?"

"No, not yet." Vidara smiled, her expression wistful. "I hope to eventually though."

Rahona nodded. "I had my first one late in life - by holder standards.
Not until I was in my late thirties, when I met Lineal."

"Really?" Vidara didn't think she wanted to wait that long. "Just didn't meet the right person before?"

"Exactly that. Then Lineal came along. And here I am. Hundreds and thousands of dragonlengths from home on a riverboat on the Nettleweed River."

"Do you ever regret?" Vidara queried softly.

Rahona didn't need to consider her answer. "No. Not ever. Lineal was a seacrafter before he came home and we only saw him every few months.
This is _much_ better."

"I didn't realise." Vidara was glad her husband hadn't chosen that craft. She didn't know if she could stand it. "Yes, I agree. Much better."

"Is it you or your husband who is Moonflower-born?" Rahona asked, always amused to remember how slow she had been to understand that one of any pair was always from somewhere else.

"I was born on the Moonflower." Vidara stated proudly. "I've never known anywhere else."

"And where does your husband come from?"

"He's from the seahold." Vidara smiled as the memory of their meeting washed over her. "We met when the riverboat stopped there once."

"More than once if you had time to convince him to join you on the riverboat," Rahona said with a grin.

"Well, you only meet for the first time once, but yes." Vidara giggled, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "He began waiting for me at the dock when he knew the boat was coming and...well, eventually he left to join me. So now we're here."

"Well I hope you enjoy your stay with us, Vidara. You and your husband."

"Thank you Rahona." Vidara beamed at the older woman. "I'm sure it will be fine. Certainly much better than staying on shore!"

And that, Rahona thought, was a typically riverboat-born sentiment.

Last updated on the July 21st 2008

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Better than Staying on Shore