Bad Dream

Writers: Suzee, AL
Date Posted: 18th May 2011

Characters: Briata, Y'gel
Description: Briata is tormented by dreams of her past.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 6

Briata

Y'gel

Briata jerked awake, her body tense, knees pulled up to her chest and
trembling. Tears immediately sprang to her eyes, making the jewel like
orbs glitter in the darkness. She sat up, arms crossing over her
chest as she shivered. She had seen it again. She had felt it. The
screams, the rush, the pain, then the sudden blankness. The
sudden...nothingness. Gone. They were gone. They were...no. No!

Briata bent over, clutching at her stomach which tightened along with
her heart. She gasped for breath and drew it in as deep as she could.
WIthout thinking, she searched for that mind that she knew so well.
The girl stood and grabbed her thin robe, pulling it around her.
Without thinking, her feet took her outside of the room. She was
dizzy. It was just a dream. Just a dream. He wasn't gone...was he?
But where? Where was he? His mind wasn't reachable. Perhaps they
had just gone somewhere, somewhere she couldn't here. Perhaps they
were visiting a friend. A family member...a....a...

The stillness of the predawn met her as she padded, barefoot first
through the halls, then hurried through them out to the bowl. She
turned around, the Weyr spinning. Gone...gone.

Black...blacker...blackest, only they would never returned from it.
Briata began to shake more, gasping for air. "No..." She whispered,
the only one awake to hear her voice tremble with her sorrow. Then
she fully awoken, the last daze of the dream and fog of sleep slipping
away, and her heart twisted, her arms drew across her once more and
she tried to hold herself together.

Eyes around the Weyrbowl whirled their mirrors of her distress but one
set of wings unfurled and rustled as the air passed over their
surfaces. He settled gently to the ground and trotted to the young
woman. Aughashyth crooned and nuzzled her carefully. }:Come back from
that place, it is not nice.:{

"Aughashyth." It wasn't the name of the dragon she had been searching
for, but he was warm. He was there. He was real. Briata unfolded
one arm to reach out and touch the warm skin, hand gliding over the
muzzle gently. Her face was as twisted as her heart felt and her
breath came in gasps as she tried to catch hold of reality without
completely falling apart. She drew closer to him, leaning into the
great head and pressing her cheek against him.

He settled down on the sand and continued his soft croon to try and
comfort her. His eyes whirled from green to yellow and back.
Tranquility flowed from him as best he could without the full link he
shared with his rider

Briata tried to hold herself together, but her grief was too great.
The dreams were becoming fewer, further between, but they still hit
her hard whenever she did have them. Her tears began to flow, then
great gasping sobs racked her body. She fell to her knees, still
desperately trying to embrace the dragon, body quaking with every gulp
of air and every great, heaving sobs, all the while, her firelizard
crooning pitfully as she settled near her mistress.

Y'gel had awakened feeling something and his mind reached sleepily for
Aug. **Whats going on?** he was feeling the backwash of what was going
on in the bowl below. "Briata?" Of course she couldn't hear him from
where he was. He got out of his bed and went to the weyr ledge passing
Aughashyth's empty couch and looked down. }:She is very very sad.:{
Y'gel turned back into the darkened room to find his clothes.

Briata did not hear the brief conversation between dragon and rider.
She curled up, drawing in on herself, bracing against the bronze's
side. He was her sanctuary, the touch of reality that helped soothe
the ache that still pounded in her breast. Her sobbing continued, but
a little slower than before, the initial breaking of the dam slowly
draining as fatigue began to drain it dry.

Y'gel pulled on pants and a shirt he didn't bother to button and ran
down the outside stairs to the Weyrbowl. He ran but slowed as he
rounded Aug's flank to see Briata cuddled against his head. "Briata,
honey what's wrong?"

Briata didn't speak, curling up and pressing further into the side of
the dragon. The only verbal response witha choked sob as she
desperately tried to regain control of herself. She pressed her nails
into the palms of her hands and shut her eyes tight, then took several
deep breaths. It had been some time since her last dream, but this hit
her just as hard as the others and the pain of her loss was only
renewed every time. But she had never shared with others. Had never
shown the absolute despair that threatened to consume her, not with
other people. To have Y'gel see her like this was not her intent and
while she desperately wanted to cringe away from reality, she could
not allow herself to fall apart, not in front of someone, she did not
wish to make such powerful grief public.

"Just a dream." She managed, her voice trembling as she started to
unfurl from the dragon. Using him as a brace, she pushed herself to
her feet, rising straight and lifting her chin. But tears had already
made their mark upon her beautiful face, their tracks staining her
cheeks. "Just a bad dream."

Wetness sparkled on her cheeks and glittered in her eyes in the
moonlight of the Weyrbowl. He shook his head. "You probably shouldn't
stay out here in the sand and dirt." He didn't quite know what to do
but even her flit seemed despondent. Concern flooded him as he
squatted next to her. He didn't want to call a mind healer it wasn't
that bad. "How about you mount up and Aug will take us to his weyr.
You can snuggle with him for the rest of the night if you think that
would help."

"I....should probably..." She was suddenly so uncertain. Briata
didn't want to be alone, but the man she wanted was no longer there.
Nor was the dragon. But here was a man and a dragon, offering
comfort. It wasn't the same, him a more fatherly figure, but the
scent of the dragon, his closeness. It was almost the same. Almost.
not quite. But..."I should..." What should she do? Her voice
trembled and the mask she had put into place began to break down, face
twisting as she struggled not to fall back into her tears

He stood decisively, he made decisions every day or dragons died. But
this one was hard he still hesitated. "No," he said softly and scooped
her up. He wasn't waiting for her to make decisions in her state. The
need to protect overrode other considerations. Aug knew what he wanted
and lifted a leg to assist him to climb aboard. It wasn't easy
carrying a woman onto a bronze without riding straps but they made it.
Y'gel was strong.

Aughashyth took off about as gently as it was possible. Y'gel cradled
her in his lap and grasped the neckridge in front of him as they rose
to his weyr. He could hear the big bronze invite the tiny gold
firelizard to come along.

Jewel didn't need an invitation, she stayed near her mistress,
crooning softly, half in sorrow, half in an attempt to comfort.
Briata might have managed to pull herself together, to keep things
from crumbling, except that Y'gel had pushed past the wall she had
been trying to build. As soon as he touched her, she tumbled into his
embrace and the sobs began to shake her again. She trembled in his
arms, hands clutching at fabric as her tears stained his tunic. She
didn't even realise he'd managed to haul her onto his dragon, or that
he had taken him to his weyr. His embrace was warm, warm enough to
melt the chill that had settled around her, to break the dam and let
those tears continue to spill forth.

His heart went out to the young woman in his arms as if his own
daughter were turning to him for comfort. When they landed he threw
his leg over and just slid down Aug's side to the floor. He sank right
there cradling her still in his lap and murmuring comfort while the
big bronze added his own rumbles and encircled them both with his
neck.

Briata didn't know how long she sobbed there in his arms, the warmth
of him and his dragon. It seeped through her body and sang a silent
lullabye. She cried. She sobbed. Her eyes poured forth her sorrow,
but eventually the warmth surrounded her fully, eventually its
lullabye could not be resisted. Exhaustion settled thruogh her,
drawing her into slumber, so within his arms, her body finally
relaxed, finally released and she finally slipped into the shadows of
sleep.

Once the storm of sobs finally subsided he stopped rocking and gently
rose to his feet. He couldn't exactly take her back to her own room so
he carried her into his own and put her in the bed. He pulled the
covers up gently while Jewel settled next to her. He stroked a golden
eye ridge gently before crossing the weyr to climb back into the
bronze dragon's couch with him. He snuggled into the curve of the
bronze neck **its been a long time since I've slept on your couch**
}:You're always welcome and so is she.:{

Last updated on the May 23rd 2011

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Bad Dream