A Letter Home

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 30th June 2014

Characters: Alina
Description: Alina writes a letter to her sister
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 16 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Ikalis, Chaysea

Alina

Dear Elana,

There are thirty seven dragon eggs on the Sands. There are easily twenty girls in the Candidate barracks, and there will be more arriving as the Eggs harden. Only some of them will Impress - maybe a third of the Eggs will be greens, and some of them will Impress boys. I wonder what will happen to the rest of us? Some will go home, obviously. But some will stay here like me, and I sometimes wonder how the Weyr fits them all in.

I still want to come home, but I'm not sure that I want to stay there anymore. You should come here. There's so much more opportunity, and life, and things to do, and people to talk to! If you're not a Candidate you get more free time. It's all schedules and a candlemark here and a candlemark there for me, but you know that, I sent you my schedule already.

I miss you. Why did you only write once last time? I want more letters. I want you to come live with me here. I wrote to Father to see if he'd let you foster here, but I haven't heard back from him. What did he say? Did he mention it?

~*~

Alina leaned back against the tree, nibbling the top of her pen as she thought. The hide she was writing on was blotched with ink and thin with reuse, and she still missed the expensive paper that her mother had used. Hides just didn't compare. Then, nothing at the Weyr was the same.

She missed her sister, but it was more of a dull ache than the sharp pain seperation had been when she'd first arrived. Making friends helped. Ikalis, especially. What would Elana think of her? **She'd hate her,** Alina thought with a smile. **They're too alike.** And she'd hate the bathing pools and the way Weyrfolk were always _touching_ each other, and they could laugh about it together.

That was still the hardest part. You were expected to just... change, and leave everything you thought and believed behind the moment you arrived. The Weyr forced its beliefs down your throat and if you didn't like them, you could choke for all they cared. Nudity, casual sex, children with multiple parents, adults with multiple partners, men with men and women with women - it was all so foreign, but if you dared say you were uncomfortable, there was something wrong with _you_. Alina was coming to realize that being Holdbred was an insult.

And she was Holdbred. It was another way that she'd never fit in here.

But because she was at the Weyr, she'd never really fit in at home, either. Living in a Weyr was like a stain on your skin -- it never really came off.

And she still wanted her sister to come. It was so selfish, to want Elana to be as tainted as she was. But she couldn't help it. Having Elana so far away was like losing a limb. And it wasn't _all_ bad here. The dragonriders were a breed apart, but the workers and Crafters in the Lower Caverns weren't so bad. She could envision finding someone to marry, still. A Crafter maybe, who could eventually take her away from the Weyr to a Hall. A Hall would be more understanding of her situation than a Hold, she thought.

She stretched, wriggling her bare toes in her new sandals and luxuriating in the way her new dress didn't feel like it was going to choke her. She'd grown. Had Elana? Did they still look the same?

~*~

I got a new dress. Just a work dress, but it's this really nice pale orange, like the inside of peaches. The Headwoman made me take breeches too, as if I'd ever wear those! But I did get sandals. Don't tell mother! It's entirely improper, but I love them. And seeing bare toes is the _least_ of the bare skin that's wandering around here.

Write back to me. I hate that you barely write. I miss you.

Alina

Last updated on the July 1st 2014

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A Letter Home