Alternate Lives (2/2)

Writers: Cali, Eimi
Date Posted: 5th December 2008

Characters: Karri, L'rew
Description: Karri tries again with L'rew and has surprising success.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 17 of Turn 4

"Do you..." L'rew stopped, not sure if he really wanted to ask the
question. It sounded a little to whiny. But at the same time, shards,
it was just so nice to have someone to talk to besides Chairoth.
Someone _human_... "Do you _like_ the Weyr?"

She turned back to him and studied him for a moment, did his brows ever
unfurrow, or were they perpetually stuck there after so many turns of
unhappiness. "I like it better than my old home, my old life.
Sometimes I wish it could be like it used to be though. Back before
Thread came again when a dragonrider could go wherever they wanted and
could do whatever they wanted."

"Yeah," L'rew snorted. "Shards, I wish it was like that. I swear the
Weyr has more rules than my father. People are telling you what to do
all the time. Especially those sharding bronzeriders. They think they
know everything."

"They're just a little uptight because they hardly ever catch the
greens." Karri waved it off with a laugh.

"They always seem to be catching greenriders though," L'rew muttered,
remembering how embarrassing it was sometimes walking in on couples
making out, sometimes quite heavily.

Karri sighed, she didn't want to start talking about how things were
different in the Weyr, he'd been in the classes, he knew the line.
"Everybody needs somebody I guess. At least here you have a _choice_.
Were you betrothed yet?"

"Shards no. I would have had to have traveled outside my Hold to find
someone either my age or unrelated to me." And his father seemed rather
reluctant to move further than the boundaries of their own pit of
monotony.

"My parents arraigned a marriage for me." she explained, thinking that
this conversation was probably the longest she'd ever had with him.
"They'd originally planned on something more profitable, but had to
settle for far less after my fall. I'm not sure what happened to the
contract after I left."

"What fall?" he asked, wondering if he had missed something.

Karri looked at him oddly, wondering if he was making fun of her.
Usually word of how the assistant got her large ragged scar made it's
way around the candidate and weyrling barracks, but she supposed without
alot of friends to gossip with he might have not heard. "The fall that
caused this." She pulled back the dirty blond hair that usually fell
across the scarred side of her face for him to take a good look at how
it hooked around her cheek up the side to her eyebrow. "I was climbing
up a creek embankment and fell, slicing it open on some rocks. That's
what I get for being adventurous and unladylike."

L'rew could see why it might have been hard to find a husband if her
family didn't have something more to offer. Men with marks to spare
could find perfect looking brides. But there were very few of those
where he had come from. "I would have taken you like that."

"Well that's sweet," Karri replied with a little grin, "But it sounds
like it would have been been either me or the ovine so..."

"What do you mean? I wasn't one of those," he replied with a look of
disgust, thinking she had meant he might have done more than just herd
the beasts.

That elicited a giggle out of Karri, "I was making a joke. You just
said that there wasn't anyone you weren't related to at your hold."

"Yeah, but I would never do that. It's just... gross..." Made all the
more repulsive by the fact that he had heard rumors that some of herders
he knew might have actually tried it... A stereotype that was both
offending and yet hard to defend against, making it all the more
aggravating now.

Karri raised her eyebrows and nodded her head, a smile playing at her
lips, "Well, that's good to know, not that I actually ever thought you
would."

"Good, 'cause I wouldn't," he said with a slight frown, turning back to
watch Chairoth and hoping they would never even mention the topic again.

She turned and watched his brown too, thinking what an odd boy he was.
When he didn't restart the conversation she turned back and gave him a
sly smile. "So how much would you have paid for me?"

"What?" he asked, startled by the silence broken as much as by the
question.

"Well, you said you'd take me as a wife." she explained, "I don't know
all the details of my previous contract, but I know my family was to get
a discount on blackrock from the mine, and a winter's bonus if I bore a
son within three turns."

"I dunno," he shrugged, not sure if he would have had anything to
compare. "Bales of wool for sure, probably already spun into fabric by
our weaver. It was pretty high quality stuff. And probably a portion
of the spring lambs the following couple turns."

Karri pondered the offer, looking up at the sky and scratching her chin.
"Hmmm, that's a pretty nice offer. I think I would have accepted."

"Yeah, well, I think having to live near my father would have been a
deal-breaker," he muttered, leaning back on his hands as his eyes
wandered up to the clouds above.

She smiled, it was fun to daydream about alternate lives sometimes, she
just never thought she'd be doing it with L'rew. "Well then maybe we
could have left. Started someplace fresh, just the two of us."

"My father would never have allowed that. This is the only way I could
have left."

Karri had thought life at her hold was near unbearable, but she had a
sneaking suspicion that L'rew's life actually _had_ been for him. No
wonder he'd turned out the way he had. "I'm glad you did L'rew. I like
having you here."

He looked over at her with a slight shrug as if he wasn't quite sure he
believed her. But as he looked away he couldn't help that the corners
of his lips were curling into a slight smile. She might be only trying
to flatter him, but it did feel nice to feel wanted for once.

Last updated on the December 13th 2008

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Alternate Lives (2/2)