An Invitation

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 23rd October 2017

Characters: Riveenata, C'rin
Description: C'rin brings up something he's noticed.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 5 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: R'kehr, N'vanik, K'ran

C'rin

For whatever reason, today's Threadfall had been particularly difficult.
The weather hadn't been worse than usual, but it seemed like while the
whole wing had been dealing with less Thread, that was because the wing
above was getting too close. Savith had had to fly much harder to stay in
position and was exhausted.

Whatever the reason, Savith was filthy and exhausted, and so was her
rider. Riveenata scrubbed all the firestone dust off, but the green didn't
even want oiling. She took them back to their ledge, but by the time she'd
gathered clothes to change into after bathing, the green was asleep. She
sighed and headed through the corridors, not looking forward to the long
walk to the bathing pool. But if she laid on her bed in her sweaty, smoke
and ash leathers, she would regret everything.

C'rin counted himself fortunate to catch Riveenata in the corridor leading
to the bathing pools. He thought they'd grown rather close when they were
at River Bluff, but ever since their arrival at Dolphin Cove, things had
been different... strained.

"Rough 'fall?" he asked, falling into step beside of the greenrider.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, startled when a voice spoke to her, not having
noticed he approached.

"Yes. The Queen's Wing seemed to fly extra hard. Savith is passed out on
the ledge and wouldn't even give me a ride down," she said with a sigh.
"How's Dasveth?"

"You should have called, we would have picked you up." C'rin said as they
passed through the entrance of the bathing pools. The air was warm and
moist with the steam from the heated pools. "Dasveth is good, he's got a
little ashburn on his flank, but nothing serious." C'rin himself had
enough ash and dirt on his face that a goggle imprint had been left
behind.

She hadn't even thought about burdening someone else. Fortunately they hit
the pools before she could blurt something like that out. "Glad it's not
serious. What about you?" she asked, noticing the marks on his face.

"Nothing a good wash won't fix." The pools were relatively full, not
uncommon after a Threadfall, although C'rin had noticed that a lot of
riders went straight to the ocean after 'fall and washed themselves and
their dragons there in one go.

"That's good," she said, summoning up a little smile. She quickly shed her
smelly riding outfit, and folded it neatly on one of the provided ledges
for clothes before wading into a pool that had some space for two.

"I haven't seen much of you lately." C'rin said, trying to keep his voice
casual as he peeled off his riding leathers and then settled into the pool
beside of Riveenata.

The greenrider realized he was right. She couldn't think of when she'd
seen him recently. She hadn't seen him at the party - she'd only been
there a candlemark and only because R'kehr had dragged her out and
insisted on two dances and a glass of wine before letting her go back to
her weyr. She hadn't had him over or been over to his place.

"We had lunch together last sevenday, didn't we?" she asked after a moment.

"That was over a fortnight ago." C'rin answered, glancing sideways at her
as he cupped water into his hands and then scrubbed at his face.

Riven was so surprised by that she dropped a bit of sweetsand in the
water. "Really?" Then she tried counting the dates in her mind. "I guess
that was before the party and Turnover wasn't it..."

To deflect for a moment, she asked, "Did you go to either of those?"

C'rin lathered up his hands and started scrubbing them through his hair.
"I went to both, I was invited by some people in my Wing. I had hoped to
see you there."

"I was with my family for Turnover, none of us went to any of the Weyr
celebrations," she said. "Did I miss anything good?"

"Yeah, the drinks at Turnover were amazing. Rumor says the Weyrwoman has
vintner ties, and I'm thinking because of the whole River Bluff thing,
that they really wanted us good and liquored up." C'rin hadn't minded, the
drinks and laughter had been a good catharsis.

"Oh, that does sound nice," she said. Vintner ties...that was an
interesting trait in a goldrider.

"I should cut this all off," she grumbled, still working sweetsand through
her hair. The braids kept it under the flying helmet and not singed, but
when her hair knotted up and she couldn't wash out all the smells, it was
so frustrating.

C'rin batted her hands away, "Not that you wouldn't look beautiful even if
you were bald, but it would be a shame to lose all of this pretty hair."
He began expertly working out the knots with his fingers, the way he had
for his little sisters growing up.

"I don't know how it got quite this bad," she apologized when he started
to work on her hair.

Actually, she did know. She had bathed every day like she had to, but with
hair in braids, sometimes you could just say 'it'll be washed tomorrow'
and let slide - and then it got into a mess like this.

"I wouldn't go completely bald, but sometimes I think about the short cuts
some women wear here and think it helps with the heat."

"They are more practical." C'rin agreed, it was the same reason he kept
his hair cut short,and because if it did grow out, it was a curly mess.
"There," he said as he finished with the knot in her hair.

The care he took brought a real smile to her face. "Thank you. You're
really good at that. I owe you one."

C'rin returned her smile, glad to see some of the glumness leave
Riveneeta's face, "I am good at some things too, if you recall."

"You have skilled hands, and many people appreciate them," she agreed,
recognizing what he was alluding to.

She couldn't remember if she'd spent the night with him since they'd come
to Dolphin Cove. She didn't think she had, the thought hadn't occurred to
her to reach out. Now that they were sitting close to each other in the
bathing pool, she couldn't remember why not.

"What are you doing in the evening?"

He almost exhaled in relief. That was the response he'd been wanting.
"Coming to your weyr, I hope."

"I'd be happy to trade you a massage for the help with the hair." It would
be a good use of the skills she took such pride in, and an easy lead in to
more, if they wanted.

C'rin remembered her massages very well. "I think that sounds like a
square deal."

"I'll make sure Savith is awake enough to give Dasveth some space. She's
been such an over-tired lump."

"It takes some getting use to, flying with new Wings in different
patterns." The brownrider agreed, resuming his bath. "Dasveth says he'll
just drop me off quickly, he doesn't want to inconvenience Savith."

"I just wish we were in a higher wing," Riven grumbled, because she was
used to saying it. But she wasn't sure if she actually would have been
able to handle it right now.

"Savith really likes the golds, though. She's been hanging closely around
Panitath. It's like she wishes she was a gold like her or something."

"I guess it's not a bad thing to like your Wingleaders." C'rin conceded,
ducking beneath the water to rinse out the rest of the soap. His belly was
letting him know that bath time was over, it was time to eat!

"Do you have much of an opinion on yours?" she asked. Her hair was clean,
her skin was finally clear of dust, and the warm water was making her
sleepy.

C'rin raised his shoulders in a small shrug, "N'vanik is fair, everyone
does what he says, not dissimilar to K'ran... Except, and I'm not the best
judge of it, he's better looking than our former Weyrleader."

The greenrider laughed at that one. "Neither of them's really my type. I'm
glad it's working out for you."

"You want to grab something to eat?" C'rin asked, sloshing some water out
onto the stone floor as he left the pool.

She was tempted to decline, to grab a sandwich and head back to her weyr
and rest her head against Savith. But it seemed rude. "All right. I hope
they have good desserts."

C'rin had been prepared for the greenrider to say no. "Me too, I could use
a puffy pastry right about now." He continued to watch Riveenata from the
corner of his eye as they slipped into clean clothing. Maybe she was
allright, perhaps it was just exhaustion from a new Wing, but all the
same, the brownrider determined that he would keep an eye on her.

Last updated on the November 2nd 2017

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An Invitation