Today's The Day

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 17th July 2015

Characters: Ikalis, L'pin
Description: Preparing for the Blooding is hard on one's emotions.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 14 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Panitath, Alina, J'ackt, Sh'del

Today was the day of Panitath's clutch's first Threadfall.

L'pin had only slept the night before because he'd asked the Healers
for a sleeping draught. But eventually morning had come and he'd had
to wake up, and now the thought of the Blooding was haunting him
again.

These weyrlings who he'd become emotionally invested in would be going
into the sky to fight against Pern's ancient enemy. To protect the
planet, they would risk being burned, scored, being eaten alive,
falling to the ground as a bloody sack, or lost /between/ forever.

They'd been training for months for this. The bluerider thought that
he'd given them everything he could, every scrap he'd learned from
being an active wingrider and a weyrlingstaff member for Turns and
Turns. But now was the day for them to put their skills to the test.

He'd protected them as much as he was able during training, but now
they'd be going out there without him and Chaneth. This time they were
delivering their firestone, and he couldn't exactly accompany all of
them on their runs. At least when they went up as an organized wing
he'd be there to do what he could for them.

**They're still so young. Too young,** L'pin fretted. He wanted to
wrap all of them up in a blanket so nothing could touch them, from the
naive ones like Alina and Satai to the ones who'd already been beaten
down by life, like J'ackt. They were all children to him, children he
wanted to protect.

}:Dragons cannot go back in the shell,:{ Chaneth interrupted with a
snort. }:We have shown them what they need to keep them safe. The rest
is for them.:{

He didn't know how he was supposed to go out there later and see them
off before they went. Maybe Sh'del could do it and he could be sick...

}:We will encourage them to do better if we see them off,:{ Chaneth
added. As a dragon he didn't have the understandings of time and loss
time as his rider did, but he could pick up that sometimes pairs went
away, and that his rider would want to have seen them before that
happened. }:And to do that you have to move.:{

L'pin sighed. Chaneth was right, he had to get up - he couldn't keep
wallowing in the bathing pool until Threadfall was over. He needed to
get dressed, to get breakfast, and then to check that the Candidates
had filled the firestone sacks...

~*~

Ikalis was sweating as she labored in the kitchens. It wasn't just the
heat from the ovens that caused it. It was the fear coiling in her gut
as she thought about Alina fighting Thread that day. She still hadn't
managed to tell the other girl how she felt about her.

First because she could claim it was because Alina was a weyrling and
nothing could happen that would endanger Imarith. But really, it was
because she didn't want to lose the friendship they'd built between
them by showing her own deviant ways to the holdbred girl. But now it
was time for Alina to face Thread for the first time. And if she never
came back...

Well, she'd regret having never said anything at all. Of letting the
feelings have lingered unspoken between them for months. Of never
having had the courage to say that Alina meant something to her.

Maybe not the kind of something that Alina would have expected if
she'd kept living her holdbred cloistered little life, maybe not the
something a man and a woman felt, but a powerful feeling between two
people regardless. If she'd told Alina that, maybe the greenrider
would see that there was more to life. Maybe she'd be happy about
being at the Weyr. Maybe it would make her fight all the harder -

And maybe she'd tell her, and then she couldn't focus and she dies.
Being distracted during Fall kills. Like any good weyrbred child, she
knew that. A surge of self-loathing rose up in her. What kind of
person would tell something so major to their friend before they were
about to face death for the first time? It was selfish of her to be
thinking like this.

**But Alina isn't going to die. She and Imarith are too smart for that.**

Ikalis couldn't stay in the hot kitchen with these thoughts that felt
like they were going to make her sick. She looked around for something
else to do. There were some plates ready for people who were coming in
to eat. Even though most of the dragonriders had eaten by now, there
were always some stragglers who didn't get their meal on time. She
grabbed one and headed out into the dining cavern to see who she could
give it to. Nobody caught her eye - it was as empty as she'd expected.
But then she had a thought about someone else who was probably _also_
having a terrible morning.

She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes, and summoned Wavecrest
to her. **Could you...** she began as she gave her flit a clear
picture.

~*~

L'pin had gotten his pants on before the door had a knock. "One
moment," he called, pulling a ratted tunic on before opening the door,
expecting a weyrling with a last minute bout of nerves. "Yes?"

Ikalis opened it and smiled at him. She was balancing a tray against
her hip. "I brought you breakfast. Juice and some light fruits. No
klah to make your stomach sick."

"I don't remembering ordering breakfast to be delivered," he said,
raising an eyebrow in surprise. It was a good set of choices for
nerves.

She slipped into the weyr and set it on his little table. "You didn't.
I decided to bring it for you."

"That's very considerate of you, Ikalis," he told the caverns worker.
He was touched by her thoughtfulness.

"I try. I knew you'd be worried about the weyrlings, so I wanted..."
she said, trailing off into an uncharacteristic quiet.

He nodded slowly. There was no reason to conceal it. Everyone was
worried. He saw that her quick smile hadn't quite reached her hazel
eyes, and suspected he knew the cause of it. "Because you worry about
them too."

"Yeah," she admitted. "It's Alina. I want her to come home safe."

Hearing her put words to his own fears should have made him worry
more. Instead it paradoxically comforted him - put him in the mindset
of a comforter, not of a worrier. "Do you trust Imarith to bring her
back? Chaneth does."

"She'd better. I have something special prepared." She was clearly
trying to put on a brave front, but her lip quivered and her voice was
husky.

Impulsively, he leaned forward and gave her a hug, as if she was one
of the weyrlings he longed to protect. "Well, with something special
to come back to, how can they not?"

She rested her head against his shoulder. "Thanks. I feel like a mess.
I came here to do something for _you_," she muttered, voice muffled
slightly.

"You did. You reminded me that I'm not the only one who cares about
them, and that someone worries about me as well," he told her.

"Oh, well." She pulled back and snuffled slightly. "I'm glad I helped
a little. Instead of scared you more."

"You've spared me from puking up heavy food while waiting for them to
come back," he joked.

"Oh well, never that. It'd look awful bad near the firestone." This
smile was a little stronger than the last one.

He gave her an answering one. "There you go. I'll see you after Fall?"

"After Fall. I'll have something for you, too," she added.

"The three of us can share it," he told her.

Last updated on the July 29th 2015

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Today's The Day