A Wild Ride

Writers: Heather, Yvonne
Date Posted: 23rd November 2015

Characters: Alina, S'avn
Description: S'avn and Alina have a very eventful day on sweep duty.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 1 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: D'hol, N'vanik

Alina

**Oh no.** Alina's heart fell as she saw whose name was written next to
hers for the next sweep ride. S'avn - the bluerider whose dragon had caught
Imarith at her first flight, and the last person she wanted to see.

Unfortunately, she also had no say in who she was partnered with for a
sweep ride. Maybe it was D'hol's idea of a joke. She sighed, then went to
collect her dragon since according to the sheet she was due to meet her
partner at the Star Stones in half a candlemark.

Her dragon was considerably happier with the match. }:I like Mayfeth. I
like to fly with him. Where will we fly to?:{ Imairth asked curiously as
they caught a thermal to Dolphin Cove's peak.

**Just along the edge of the Weyr's territory, nothing too far.** Alina
sighed when she saw Mayfeth's midnight blue hide. The blue dragon and his
rider were already waiting for them. Imarith flew in for a neat landing
beside Mayfeth and Alina pushed her flight goggles up onto her helmet.
"Hello."

S'avn had experienced a similar reaction to Alina when he'd looked at the
list to see he'd been paired with the greenrider for sweep duties. It
wasn't that he minded being paired with Alina normally but ever since the
flight things had been considerably more awkward between them. S'avn still
wasn't entirely sure why, he'd thought he'd been a gentlemen during the
experience, much more than some stories he'd heard.

"Hey. Ready to get started?"

She nodded. "I'll follow your visualization /between/. Come out at the
crossroads at the eastern edge of the territory, then follow the treeline
until we hit Lookout Hill. Is that right?"

S'avn confirmed her question with a nod of his head. "That's right.
Alright, see you up there." He pulled his goggles back down into place and
hooked his feet into the stirrups of his riding gear. Mayfeth passed on the
visual he was given by S'avn to Imarith before he leapt into the air.

Imarith and Alina followed, Imarith eagerly and Alina trying her best not
to look at S'avn. Every time she did, she kept picturing him naked, and the
humiliation from the aftermath of her flight flooded back. The shock of
/between/ helped clear her mind a little, and then they were soaring over
the edge of the Weyr's territory. Fields of green hay and wheat rolled out
beneath them like a quilt, interspersed with stands of ancient trees.

}:Do you think Mayfeth will sit with me later?:{ Imarith asked. Her
attention had definitely been on the blue dragon they were flying with
instead of the surrounding territory. }:I hope he will sit with me. I think
that would be nice.:{

**Ask him _after_ we're done, or he'll think you're just another silly
green.** Alina adjusted her grip on her riding straps, her attention
focused entirely on the ground below. **And pay attention!**

Over on his blue, S'avn was having his own problems.

}:Imarith is very beautiful is she not?:{

S'avn made a non-committal noise in his throat as he scanned the ground and
sky while they flew.

}:You should try twining necks with her rider again. That always feels so
nice.:{ Mayfeth encouraged.

**Don't push it, buddy. She couldn't wait to get rid of me after that
flight so I doubt she'd agree to willingly 'twine necks' again.** S'avn
wouldn't even mind trying to get to know Alina; sure, she was a little
prickly, like most hardcore Hold girls, but she was pretty and smart.

Half way through the sweep, Alina spotted the flag. Her heart sped up a
little as she squinted at the bit of fabric flying above the tiny cothold.
**Are they really flying a flag for us?**

}:I think so!:{ Imarith said excitedly. }:Mayfeth, do you see it? Should we
land?:{

Mayfeth zeroed in on the flag, }:Yes, let's land and see what they want.:{

It wasn't the first time that S'avn had been flagged while on sweeps. For
more remote holdings putting a flag out was the fastest way to get a
dragonrider's attention to pass along news, information or arrange
transport.

Mayfeth led the way down, landing with a fancy flourish of his midnight
wings.

**Show off.** S'avn accused as he took off his helmet and goggles and set
them aside.

"Oh thank the Egg!" The door to the cothold burst open and an old man with
a grey beard strode out. There were dark circles under his eyes and he had
the nervous energy of someone who hadn't slept in a while. "I thought a
sweep would be over sooner-- I need you to take passengers to the Weyr
immediately!"

Alina glanced at S'avn, unsure of what to do.

Being the senior rider between him and Alina, S'avn answered the man with a
question, "Who is it? And why? What is going on?" There was no denying the
desperate edge to the man's voice, but S'avn was also weary of just taking
anyone on Mayfeth, and he didn't want to saddle Alina with anyone who might
be unsavory.

"My grandson got bit by a tunnelsnake two days ago and is poisoned-- take
him and his ma to the healers!" The old man's face suddenly clouded over.
"I told the Weyr about this a month ago, and they sent no help. There's an
infestation of tunnelsnakes in the fields and they've killed most of my
felines, they're going after my ovines, and now my own kin!"

S'avn raised an eyebrow. He had a hard time believing the man's story about
telling the Weyr a month ago. He couldn't a imagine a rider not informing
N'vanik about this. "Bring the boy and his mother. We'll take them to the
Weyr."

Even as he said it, a fragile-looking young woman hurried out the door,
bowed under the weight of the young boy in her arms. The boy looked to be
around nine or ten turns, his cheeks were splotched with fever spots, and
one arm was swaddled in tight bandages from his fingertips to his armpit.
His eyes were glassy as he looked up at the two dragonriders."You'll take
us to the Weyr?" she said breathlessly.

"Give me the boy. You can ride with my partner." He told the woman,
extending his arms for the child. The waifish look of the woman left him
doubting her ability to hang on to the sick child during flight, much less
through a trip /between/.

She glanced nervously at Alina, then at the man by the door of the cothold.
"Just-- just don't drop him," she said, and did her best to lift the boy up
to S'avn. When the bluerider took him from her arms, she hurried over to
Imarith and Alina extended her hand to help the woman climb up her dragon's
elbow and settle onto her dragon's neck in front of her.

"I'm going to buckle you in," Alina told her, reaching for the spare strap
coiled nicely behind one her knees. "Just as a precaution."

"Just hurry," the woman replied miserably.

Alina did the best she could, fumbling only slightly as she drew the strap
around the woman's waist and buckled it closed. It was a quick matter then
to buckle the belt to Imairth's straps, and then a line to her own, just in
case. By the time she'd looked up, S'avn was already ready to go. She
nodded at him and the two dragons took off.

}:I have told Mayfeth that I will follow him to the Star Stones,:{ Imarith
said once they'd risen high enough to go /between/.

**Thank you.** Alina's hands were already on the woman's waist to steady
her. She leaned forward to speak in her ear. "We're going to go /between/
now!"

Mayfeth blinked out of sight, and Imarith followed. Black, blacker,
blackest...

..And they were back in the bright sun above the Weyr. And Alina's
passenger was screaming. The greenrider let go of her. "We're out--" --the
woman's arms flailed and her elbow connected with Alina's nose. The
greenrider's head rocked back and she saw stars.

}:What is going on!?:{ Imarith rocked sideways as she twisted her neck to
look at her rider, throwing both Alina and her passenger hard against their
straps as the horizon spun dizzily against the sky. The woman screamed
again but this time she grabbed at the straps in front of her. }:What is
happening!?:{

The stars cleared, leaving behind an intense pain. **Just land!** Alina
told Imarith. She grabbed at her passenger and wrapped her arms around the
woman's frail shoulders. It had the intended effect of pinning her arms to
her sides. "We're fine, everything's fine! We'll just land-- S'avn has your
son."

}:I have told Chiffon to fetch some healers.:{ Mayfeth assured S'avn as the
bluerider began unbuckling the straps from the sickly child's body.

**You told who?** S'avn asked in confusion as he looked up to see a trio of
healer's approaching, one of them with flaming red hair. He noticed on her
shoulder there sat a gold firelizard, who was looking extremely proud of
herself. **Ah, I see.**

"What happened?" one of the healers asked, reaching up to take the boy as
S'avn lowered him down.

"Family says he was bit by a tunnelsnake a couple of days ago. His mother
came along too." He jerked his head over toward Alina and Imarith.

Pulling off his helmet and goggles in one motion, S'avn left them attached
to his riding straps as he hopped down from Mayfeth's neckridge and looked
over toward his wingmate, who already had her passenger on the ground. As
he drew nearer his eyebrows furrowed a little, "What happened to you? Your
nose is bleeding."

Alina slapped her hands over her face, then winced. "It is!? Does it look
bad?" she asked quietly.

S'avn's voice was tight as he tried to control his voice to keep from
laughing, "It looks like you got busted pretty good. I take it the mom was
a wild flyer."

"She did _not_ like /between/," Alina muttered, glaring at the woman's
retreating back. "But she did apologize after we were on the ground again."
The greenrider gingerly removed her hands just far enough to see the blood
on her palms, then covered her face again. "Do we have to finish the sweep,
or can I not?"

"I'll go back out, you should probably have your nose looked at to make
sure it's not broken." S'avn pointed out. You never knew how people were
going to react their first time flying, he'd taken a panicked elbow to the
gut more than once.

She sighed in relief, not liking the idea of taking her throbbing head to
altitude. Weyrling classes were full of dire warnings about flying with
swollen sinuses. But then she hesitated as an unpleasant thought hit her.
"D'hol... will he be mad at me if I don't complete the sweep?"

"He would be mad if you tried to fly injured, I am sure." S'avn replied
dryly. He had a little history with D'hol because of his former friendship
with Jeyme. "Don't worry about it."

"You're sure?" she asked worriedly.

"Positive. I'll check in with you when I get back." S'avn said over his
shoulder as he turned and walked back to where Mayfeth waited.

Alina watched him go, feeling grateful for the reprieve-- and to S'avn, for
being kind. Despite the awkwardness that had occurred between them after
Imarith's mating flight, he really wasn't a bad guy. Then she turned and
headed toward the Infirmary to track down a healer and get cleaned up. She
might not have to ride the rest of the sweep, but that didn't mean her day
was over.

Last updated on the November 27th 2015

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A Wild Ride