Amber's Indomidable

Writers: Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 13th November 2008

Characters: Shadux, Mariss
Description: Mariss finds herself joined on another night walk - this time with pleasant company
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 6 of Turn 4

His eyes never left the young woman as she pulled her jacket tighter
around herself. Mariss blended into the shadows, a dark figure against
the rocks and slowly greening grass. He noticed as her eyes darted to
the shadows about as the wind rustled the newly leafed branches of the
trees to cast shifting moon shadows against the ground.

**She just never learns, does she,** the man thought, the corner of his
lips curling up into a smile. Just as she was about to pass him, he
stepped out from behind the hedge. "Well, hello there. Aren't you the
Steward's daughter?"

Mariss jumped about a foot into the air and squeaked in surprise.
"Shells, you ass Shadux! What's wrong with 'hello'?!" She stumbled a bit
as she tried to regain her balance, and flailed slightly as her heel
slipped on a bit of mud. Of all the things to do to a person...!

He decided not to point out the fact that he actually did say 'hello'.
"I was surprised to see you out here." Truthfully he was not. He had
watched her leave the Hold proper and had taken a shortcut to meet her
on the road, muttering under his breath the entire way. She was just so
stubborn! After the incident with Zelnu and his friend he would have
thought she would be a bit more cautious. But then again, this was
Mariss he was talk about. "Is everything all right?"

Mariss scowled down at the mud on the heel of her boot from where she'd
slipped. "Of
course! Why do you ask?"

His eyebrows raised slightly, wondering if she was trying to play dumb
on purpose. I certainly didn't become her. "Because you're walking
alone out here so late."

"I just needed some fresh air. What are you doing out so late?"

"I was..." Well, shards, he should have thought that she'd ask.
'Following you to make sure you don't get yourself into even more
trouble' would probably not be a welcome answer. "A similar reason, I
guess."

Mariss shrugged. "It's a nice night. Its so hard to stay cooped up
inside when it's so nice and the stars seem so much... softer."

Shadux's eyes were drawn skyward. He had been so busy trying to
stealthily intercept her that he hadn't even thought of looking up.
"That they do."

"One of these days I'm going to spring for one of those little
telescopes the Smiths sell at Gathers so I can see them properly." She
scuffed her toe in the mud of the path, and drew a redfruit blossom.

"The Hold has a big one. Well, bigger than one of those at least." He
squinted, trying to make out a faint constellation peeking out from
between the branches of the trees. "It's in the Lady's Tower."

"I've seen it." But she didn't want to use it. The ladies and
fosterlings always made her feel... uncomfortable. Uncouth. _Unnatural_
for wanting anything more from life than babies and jam. "It'd be nice
to have my own, though. One of those little ones you can stick in your
pocket... like seafarers have!"

"Why don't you ask Larstad if he would make you one?" That was the kind
of project that seemed to suit the eccentric Journeyman's interests.
"Of course, I have to warn you. If you do ask him, chances are he'll
insist on teaching you how to make one yourself."

Mariss rolled her eyes. "The last time I brought him lunch, he insisted
on explaining how clock gears worked. In _excruciating_ detail. And he'd
probably charge an arm and a leg for it."

"I thought you liked knowing about things in excruciating detail." His
tone was more amused than accusatory.

Mariss turned and started walking slowly back toward the lights of the
Hold. "Excruciating detail is what Crafters are for. Do I look like a
Crafter to you?"

"Perhaps one whose voice hasn't broken yet," he said, intending it to be
a gentle tease.

"Hardy har." Mariss kicked a stone as she walked, and they watched as it
bounced down the moonlit path before them. "If
you'd gone into Crafting instead, what would you have done?"

"If I had been a Crafter?" He hadn't given that much thought. Very few
boys had been allowed to craft at Amber Hills, and for him it had never
been an option. His path had been set the day his older brother had
died. "I don't know. A Farmer probably. Or Beastcrafter. Whatever
Amber Hills needed at the time, I guess."

"Just 'whatever Amber Hills need'?" She raised an eyebrow - it didn't
surprise her that Shadux had never thought beyond his Hold, but it
seemed to her to be a little sad. Dreaming big wasn't a betrayal. "What
about if Amber Hills had been stable and didn't _need_ you for anything.
What would _you_ want to do?"

"What _I_ would want to do? I..." He searched his brain, trying to
think back to his younger days. There were just so many choices to
choose from. If he had been free, how could he have picked one? "I
honestly don't know."

Mariss was silent, and for a while the only sound was their footsteps.
She was beginning to realize that in many ways,
Shadux's life had been much more narrow and confined than her's had ever
been. "You never got in trouble for daydreaming about... oh, prospecting
in volcanoes, or flying Thread, or fighting pirates with dolphins?"

"Trouble? No, you can't get into trouble for what you dream." After
all, dreams were a private matter. "But my life was set out before me
even before I entered Harper classes. Even if it hadn't been, it didn't
take more than a turn or two to figure out which few boys would be
allowed to craft, and which of the lads would be heading out into the
fields to plant and herd. Not much point in dreaming about crafting
really. But that's not to say we didn't have dreams. We had plenty of
dreams."

"Except for you!" she said lightly. "Personally, I always wanted to be a
Seacrafter and sail all the way around Pern."

"What do you mean, except me, huh?" he asked, giving her shoulder a
gentle bump. "I had dreams! Just not being a crafter is all."

"Instead you had _sensible_,_realistic_ dreams, hmm?"

Shadux smiled, shaking his head. She must really think he didn't have
an original thought in his head! "Now that is unfair, Mariss. You are
accusing me of having _no_ imagination at all! I will have you know I
had plenty of dreams that could not be categorised as sensible _or_
realistic."

"Such as?"

"Well, I suppose I had the same dream as all the other boys in my class.
To be on the back of the winning runner at the Summer Gather. Hearing
the crowd chant your name. Being inundated by all the visiting Lords and
breeders - 'Ride my runner next!'." A soft smile graced his lips as he
looked back into his childhood fantasies. They were still amazingly
clear, even now. "And I dreamed that I would find the perfect runner,
raise him from a foal, train him up. A runner so perfect it would never
be beaten. People would come from every corner of Pern just to stare at
it in awe. And when it beat all the other runners by a full length,
Lords would offer me all their Holdings just to have it. Of course I'd
refuse. And when his racing days were done, I'd breed him and people
would pay a fortune just for a piece of him. And they would build a
monument to me and my runner at the stables that would stand for all
time. I would be the hero of Amber Hills, and my name would be
remembered as long as the Hold's walls stood." Shadux chuckled softly,
shaking his head with amusement at his younger self. "Now if that's not
unrealistic, I don't know what is."

Mariss hid a smile. Trust a man to think that people would travel from
all over Pern just to stare at a _runner_. "So when are you going to buy
your first racing runner?"

He shook his head, laughing softly. "Probably about the same time you
become captain of a ship. That's... That's an old dream. I hadn't
thought of it in turns. Some Hold's boys dream of dragons. Here we
dream of runners. You eventually grow out of it."

"Really? Because the Hold is chock full of racers. If _everyone_ grew
out of it, there wouldn't be a race track, would there."

"True," he conceded as he glanced at her out of the corner of eye. She
was sharp as a blade. Sometimes when they were talking like this he
could take her for a normal girl, but sometimes she'd say something just
to remind him that there was something... different... about her. "But
if some of us at least didn't grow out of it there'd be no crops in the
fields either."

"And for _some_ folks, all they want to do is inherit the family farm.
That's how feuds get started and holders end up in the Lord's office.
_I_ think you should buy a runner." Mariss bumped his shoulder with her
own. "It's not like you wouldn't be allowed a stall in the Stables."

"Oh, well, fine then, I think _you_ should go out on a boat," he said,
bumping her back. "And not one of our little river boats either. A
_real_ boat."

Mariss shivered theatrically. "If it's anything like riding a dragon,
I'll be as green as... as a dragon! So what are you going to call your
racer?"

"Amber's Indomitable," Shadux answered without hesitation. He had spent
turns carefully crafting that dream, though saying it outloud now made
him feel a little childish and silly. It was the kind of indulgence
that darkness made easier. "I'd call him 'Dom' for short."

"Dom, hmm? Would you race him yourself or would you hire a jockey?"

"I'm too big to jockey now. That's more something you do when you're a
boy."

**Or a girl.** It was only a few turns ago that the late Leyandra's
female jockeys had won purses and shocked crowds at a Gather. "So just
training, then."

"I probably wouldn't trust myself to do most the training. You need an
expert if you want a runner with any sort of chance at winning the big
races." Besides, Shadux wouldn't have time to be a Steward _and_ a
trainer.

"So you'd just own it? A him or a her?"

"A stallion, hopefully. They can breed more times in a turn than a
mare." And therefore earn more marks. "I wouldn't _just_ own it,
though. I would have a great deal of input into his training."

Mariss hid a smile. "Well, if Amber's Indomitable, or 'Dom' for short,
ever runs in any races, I promise you I'll bet on him."

Shadux looked at her out of the corner of his eye once more. He liked
Mariss this way, when she wasn't looking down on everything and acting
all superior. Though he knew the chances were that tomorrow the old
Mariss would be back, he hoped she was finally learning to loosen up a
little. Maybe, just maybe, Mariss wasn't as big of a sharding pain as
he had once thought. "All right then. It's a deal."

The Steward's daughter grinned. "Just be sure that he wins."

Last updated on the November 14th 2008

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Amber's Indomidable