By Your Leave.

Writers: Leigh M-F., Suzee
Date Posted: 7th November 2017

Characters: D'ale, A'kua
Description: Requesting time off.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: Eionen (ONPC), Bellarria (NPC).
Takes place immediately after "Goodbye."

D'ale

}:You said the day's not over yet,:{ Zeiranth said after they had safely arrived home and he was gliding in for a landing. }:What comes next?:{

**Call the Wingsecond's dragon an' ask if his rider's 'round,** A'kua directed.

The bronze bobbed his head and mentally reached out. }:Torerath, it's Zeiranth; is your rider available?:{ he asked respectfully. }:My rider really needs to speak with him.:{

The big brown acknowledged and relayed the acceptance back }:Mine will see yours in his office:{

Zeiranth performed a slight change of direction and soon touched down. A'kua dismounted and strode inside, unfastening his jacket and removing the helmet and goggles. His new sash brushed against his knee with each step, but he ignored it in favor of knocking on D'ale's office door.

"Come in," D'ale responded, knowing who would be there. He picked up his mug for a sip even though the klah inside was tepid at best.

A'kua entered the room and gave D'ale a quick salute. "Need a c'ple-" He paused, realizing he was being too abrupt and slurring his words pretty badly. He coughed lightly and started over. "Thank you for seein' me, Wingsecond. I want to request two, maybe three days from my duties." Not that he had many, but whatever. "My- My si…." His throat tightened. "My f-father died last month. I only just found out today, so I need a li'l time to put my head back right before the next Threadfall." He hoped he was doing this correctly. He'd never needed to ask for time off once he'd officially graduated. He hadn't even been sick for quite a while now.

"Of course," D'ale sat up straighter. "Have a seat," he nodded toward the chair across from him. "Are you sure a few days will be enough?"

A'kua sat and let out a breath. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I'm not even sure how to cope with this. I was just startin' to try to make things right with him, and then this happened. It's not that I don't know death; my ma and grandsire are both gone. But this- I didn't see it comin'. He was perfectly fine when I left after my last visit."

"I understand," D'ale nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

The bronzerider shrugged. "I don't know. When my ma passed, there was only one person I really _could_ talk to, and when my grandsire died, I stopped carin' after a couple days." He shook his head. "I knew my grandsire would go sooner than later. I was more relieved when Ma passed 'cause it meant I could leave the hold. This time.... I just feel robbed."

"I can understand that. It isn't easy losing a parent."

A'kua shook his head another time. "I'm nineteen; I don't need a parent." It would have been nice to acknowledge Bellarria as a stepparent, perhaps, but by her own admission, she was worried about being smothering, and he still didn't need one, in his mind. "I just needed to stop hatin' him. We were goin' to work on it. We should've had _time_, and-" He stopped. There was no reason to rehash this, was there? "Three days, Wingsecond. I can still fly, I swear."

Well that wasn't the best response he could have made. That told D'ale the young man still had issues he needed to resolve. "And I'm over fifty and still need my parents," he smiled. "We all need our parents as long as we can have them around," he said gently. "Losing them so soon is unfair especially when you have unfinished business. But setting that aside. In three days I'll allow you to fly drills and we'll see how you do. If your concentration slips we'll extend as long as need be. Does that sound fair?"

Having flown under D'ale for a good stretch of time by now, A'kua couldn't make himself believe that the older man needed his parents at all. He didn't have the reserves of sarcasm to comment on that at the moment, however. He just nodded. "That's more than fair. Thank you."

D'ale could see he hadn't really touched the young man's self assurance but this wasn't his son and he was at the time of life when most young people believed older people didn't know or understand them. Give him another five turns of experience and he'd come to some hard realizations like all young people eventually did. "Very well then. You're free to take the time as you wish. I'll see you back at drills in three days."

"Yes Sir." A'kua rose and saluted again. "I'll come speak with you after breakfast the third day, if that's all right."

"That will be fine," D'ale said and refocused his attention on the hidework in front of him. He added the note about A'kua for his later reference.

Last updated on the November 27th 2017

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By Your Leave.