Motherly Touch

Writers: Eimi, Suzee
Date Posted: 9th October 2017
Series: It takes Time to Love

Characters: Kaiafel, Tavia
Description: Kaiafel needs some reassurance after his conversation with Erivana
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 13, day 9 of Turn 8
Notes: Follows DFW: Getting Serious

Tavia

Kaiafel wiped his hands on his trousers before reaching up to knock on
Tavia's door. Down the corridor, another door slammed, causing the
boy to jump involuntarily. He knocked again, harder.

Tavia opened the door expecting a healer summoning her to the
infirmary so the sight of Kaiafel obviously a little rattled caused
her to switch gears. "Hey, you alright?"

He jumped again when the door suddenly opened, but tried to compose
himself once more. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just... Ma's not home..." Why
was his mouth so dry suddenly. "Can I stay here with you for a bit?"

"Of course," she said and swung the door wider. "Kaiavin isn't here
tonight," she didn't know if this had anything to do with his brother.
"But you can stay as long as you want."

"Yeah, I know..." His eyes started scanning the room. Had those
cracks always been on the walls? "Um... So... I have a question...
Is Dragonfalls a volcano?"

Tavia's brow twitched and her head tilted. **Whatever brought this
on?** "I'm not certain," she half smiled. "I know Dolphin Cove was
once, but it hasn't been active in human memory. What's wrong
Kaiafel?"

"Well... I was talking to this lady from River Bluff, and she said the
Weyr was destroyed because of a volcano." His words started to come
out a bit more rushed as his agitation began to show through once
more. "And I heard that Weyrs were once volcanoes, and so this was a
volcano, or maybe is a volcano, or there are volcanoes around, and if
there are, Dragonfalls might be destroyed, and I don't the walls to
fall down on us, too!"

She pulled him to her, "Shhh," she said and sat. "The volcano was way
out in the water. They didn't know about it because it was under all
that water." She tried to look into his eyes. "There are no active
volcanoes near here."

"She said people were trapped because the walls of the Weyr fell in.
Is that true?" Kaiafel was no stranger to death. Dragonriders
inevitably were lost in a variety of ways. And he had seen people
like Jaela who fell sick and just died. But he had never imagined
that danger could come even from the stone walls he had known all his
young life!

"Do you remember in Harper school, when they taught you about rocks
and how they were formed? Well look at this wall. It's limestone
Kaiafel. Not made by volcanos. The volcano that caused the problem at
Riverbluff caused an earthquake, that is what made the walls crumble."

"So there are no volcanoes and no earthquakes here?"

"Nope," she shook her head. "Dragonsfall has been here in the same
place since before the end of the last Pass. More than a thousand
years. Did you ever find any collapsed walls in all your exploring?"

None that had collapsed. Still, the very thought scared him.
"Sometimes the excavators will close an old corridor for a while. My
Da told me there were a few that were sealed up a long time ago. But
I don't know why."

"Well," she smiled at him more brightly. "He would know, he worked in
the archives and he loves to read. I'm sure he found the information
about it and you can ask him next time we see him." She didn't let her
hopeful smile slip even though she didn't know when that 'next time'
would be. If there was anything she resented about their separation it
was how U'kaiah was missing so much with his boys, Ravyan included.
She put a hand on his head and ran her fingers through his hair so
like his bronzrider da's. "You know he used to read to me when we had
a really bad thunderstorm?"

Kaiafel was feeling better, both at the thought that his Da would know
if it were dangerous, and would never have let him be put in harms
way. But also, her gentle, motherly touch soothed him. "Why would he
read to you when there was a thunderstorm?"

"Because," she half smiled. "I get really scared during bad
thunderstorms. I usually hide under the covers and put my hands over
my ears. But your da found that when he read me a story, I'd forget
about the storm and relax. I've missed that."

"I miss a lot of things. I miss looking for flit eggs together, even
though we never find any." In fact, Kaiafel was starting to doubt
that there were any to be found, despite his Da's assurance that a
really stupid green might lay a Clutch in the Weyrlake's sands. But
he would never tell his Da that he didn't believe. "What else do you
miss?"

"Oh so many things," she smiled. Then her sense of humor bit her and
she couldn't help it. "He's a very good kisser."

"Eeeeewww!" While Kaiafel was starting to discover that there was
something appealing about girls he hadn't really noticed before, the
thought of Tavia and U'kaiah kissing, and her rating his father's
performance, made his nose wrinkle. He didn't need to know that. Of
course, his Da seemed to be good at everything, but still! "I meant
what nice things to you miss."

"Well," she chuckled. "He would sometimes just show up with dinner and
a really good bottle of wine. He'd just...take care of things." She
hadn't realized how much he'd done that and she'd had to start taking
care of things herself. "And he could give a really good shoulder rub.
That's very important after 'fall."

"Once, a couple Turns ago, I got a note while I was in my classes that
said I had to go to his office because there was a family emergency.
But there was no emergency. He just wanted to take me to a beach to
go swimming and play water ball. But he said that since I was missing
class, I needed to learn something, so he taught me about riptides and
how to see them, and what to do if I get caught in one." Kaiafel had
felt pretty special that day. His father, a Wingleader, had
asked his Second to lead the drill that day just so he could go
swimming with his son. That was a day Kaiafel would never forget.
But it also was a day that would never happen again. Soon he would be
out of Harper classes, and his father was far away. The young boy
leaned his face into Tavia's arm as he felt the tears start to fill
his eyes.

"Your da loves you Kaiafel. So do I," she said. "Let me ask you a
question," she added softly. "Do you want a flit?"

He sniffed once, regaining his composure. "Ma says I'm too young for
a flit. Besides, Kal will get jealous." He and his pup had grown up together,
after all. "But if I could borrow Glory to send Da a letter, that
would be enough."

"Of course," she said. "She knows just where to find him."

Last updated on the October 27th 2017

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