And Tear Us Apart (2/2)

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 29th January 2019

Characters: K'lvin, Riveenata
Description: Fate and dragons bring them together and tear them apart.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 12 of Turn 9

"No stories from a misspent youth of fun as a bronzerider, before
Thread, when everything was quieter?" she asked, half-teasing, half-serious.

"Please, no one wants to hear those stories, that just makes me sound
even more ancient than they already think I am, as a retired rider."
K'lvin's voice was dry.

"Oh, you're not *ancient*," she said, quickly. "Why, you're in your
prime, as is Xmrenth as I'm sure you know as a dragonhealer. Ancient
would be the riders whose dragons are all grey and they're in their,
like, nineties."

It was true, he wasn't ancient, he wasn't even fifty yet, and still very
much in his prime. It was the forced retirement that had put the chip on
his shoulder.

"You're right, I'm just being dramatic," K'lvin agreed, arms moving out
by his side as they tread water. "Let's see, stories of a misspent
youth.... You know, this is going to sound crazy but I think things
actually were kind of boring before Thread." He was a worker, always had
been, and while he had enjoyed his craft, it hadn't had the same purpose
that it did now. Nor had dragonriding had the same purpose as it did
now. K'lvin was a worker, he liked working.

She tilted her head in genuine surprise, looking like a dragonet cocking
its head to study something making an interesting motion. "Even though
it was more peaceful, less risky, you knew you could just live out a
good life and not risk it?"

"Yeah," K'lvin found it hard to explain. "If dragons aren't fighting
Thread then we're just... farmers with over grown lizards." He shrugged
his shoulders, sending a ripple out from his body. "Peaceful is nice,
but it can get monotonous after a while."

Riveenata sensed something in his words, maybe something he didn't mean
to put there. K'lvin talked about it being boring, a farmer with an
overgrown lizard - like riders without Thread didn't have a purpose. And
it would be one thing to hear that from an active rider, one who shook
his head at the idea of waxing nostalgic for the good old days
pre-Thread. (Which was something she'd heard before, as well as the
opposites, who lamented how Threadfall might be their dragon's purpose
but was so dangerous and wouldn't they rather be without it?)

But it was another to hear it from a man who had known the peace from
before Threadfall, and then had been thrown into 8 Turns of fighting it,
and now was at peace again - not because the foe was defeated but
because he could no longer fight. And no longer fight not because he'd
lost parts of himself to the war against the enemy of Thread, or that
he'd succumbed to the effects of time as all had to do eventually. He'd
lost a battle to his own body, prematurely betraying him before his
time, but without the consolation of knowing he'd outlasted it as long
as he could.

Did he think dragonriders at peace were somewhat useless,
in general, or did he mean himself, right now?

Maybe it was her training of being a Healer and knowing that patients
didn't just need to be treated for physical injuries but for emotional
ones, and that training suspecting that K'lvin was talking about himself
right now even if he didn't know it. Maybe it was her growing emotional
awareness of him as someone who she cared about not just in the way she
practiced a general compassion for others but for him in a very specific
and shifting sense. Maybe it was something as simple as a friend
recognizing another friend was in pain. Regardless, something in her was
compelled to drift closer in the water to him, to say,

"Xmrenth isn't an over-grown firelizard, and you're not past the hill
yet, bronzerider."

In a tone that was surprisingly fierce, for someone as gentle as the
healer greenrider was known to be.

She extended two fingers to touch his shoulder. She meant to touch the
side of his bicep in a casual gesture, but the water made things appear
differently close than they were, so her fingers instead wound up
touching his collarbone close to the hollow of his throat and it was
more intimate than she had intended it to be. For a long moment,
Riveenata looked at his face, blue eyes soft and understanding, as her
words hung between them.

There it was again, that electric charge that had passed between them
during Savith's flight, and afterwards. And then he was kissing
Riveenata, tasting her silken lips again. She made him feel different,
she made him feel strong again.

Riveenata wasn't sure what she was expecting K'lvin to say to her in
response to her words. Maybe he'd make another flippant comment about
himself. Maybe he'd dismiss her words as being those of a naive young
woman. She certainly wasn't expecting a kiss to happen between them.
Not without the external cause of Savith's flight, and then the
residual after-effects from that. They hadn't had this awareness of
each other before...

But then K'lvin kissed her, and she parted her lips in response,
feeling the brush of his lips soft and soothing. But it wasn't just a
pleasant kiss like you might exchange between close friends - there
was that spark between them, that sense of rightness and need. It
didn't feel like the usual kiss.

}:Muvreth rises!:{ Xmrenth was suddenly shouting in his mind.

K'lvin broke away from Riveenata just in time to see his dragon
darting out of the water, leaving a small shower of droplets trailing
from his bronze hide as he went to join the other males in waiting for
the rising green.

**Now?!** was all K'lvin could think. He turned back to Riveenata,
unsure of what he should say, since the reality of what he'd started
suddenly slammed into his brain.

"I'm sorry... I've... I've got to go," he finished lamely, not sure of
what else to say. His body felt torn between two places, wanting to
stay with her, but having to follow the needs of his lifemate. In the
end, as always, the dragon's will won out as K'lvin hurried out of the
water, and up the beach.

Her eyes had closed during the kiss, and now they snapped back open as
he drew away from her. Her fingertips dropped from his shoulder and
back into the sea, the feeling of the water a shock against them.
"Okay..." she said as he began to swim back to shore, voice trailing
off.

In the sea, Savith watched Xmrenth fly up and whuffed in
disappointment. Greens didn't have the jealousy problems that golds
did that led to actual fighting, but they still could form attachments
to other dragons, and Savith noticed where he was going and why.

What else could she have said? He couldn't just - not go with his
dragon when he was chasing. She knew that. But it still felt like a
loss that he was leaving her to go chase this other green, when she
was -

A wave hit her then, and she spat out some water, the sea salt
stinging her lips. She blinked and licked her lips, trying to
recapture the feeling of the kiss and the way her body had hummed in
response, and only succeeded in getting salt on her tongue.

**When I am what?** she wondered, trying to recapture her train of
thought. Where had that come from? They were just friends, right? So
there was no reason for her to feel so tangled up about this. It must
be Savith's disappointment affecting hers. That's what Riveenata told
herself as she swam back to shore to pick up her sundress and go home.
Suddenly swimming alone didn't seem so appealing anymore...

Last updated on the February 3rd 2019

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And Tear Us Apart (2/2)