A Whole New World

Writers: Aaron, Heather
Date Posted: 2nd September 2019

Characters: T'ner, Reven, Ayressa
Description: T'ner recalls his Impression to Lehystrath and the reactions of Ayressa and Reven.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 1 of Turn 9

Reven

T'ner watched the sleeping blue beside him as his breath made his side rise and fall. He should be sleeping, but he could not help but watch him just for a little while. Things were so different now. And it seemed they had only just gotten used to how things would be in the weyr.

T'ner had not expected this to happen so soon. Or perhaps even at all. But Lehystrath seemed so... It was hard to describe him. T'ner knew him, but he did not know the words to say just what he was like. Most importantly, he was patient. T'ner did not think he could be doing this with a more... demanding, high-strung? sort of dragon to call his own.

Lehystrath was, of course, still just a baby. But unlike Resser, Lehystrath could tell him what he needed, and he understood the idea of only needing to wait just a little while before he got what he needed. It was easier in that way. But harder in others. He never had to scrub and oil Resser the way he did Lehystrath.

T'ner tried to think of something else. Lehystrath was patient, too, when it came to T'ner thinking of his wife and son. (T'ner still insisted that to him, she was still his wife no matter what the law said.) But his patience was not unlimited. And if T'ner's thoughts stayed on them too long, the blue was liable to wake up and start to demand his attention back.

Something else. T'ner thought back to the day he and Lehystrath had found one another.

On that day, Tener was significantly more... what? What was this feeling? Nervous? Anxious? Excited? Worried? Thrilled? Yes to all? He could not pin down whatever it was, but it was the most he had ever felt it. The Sands were hot. Hotter than he remembered from the egg touching. But that was either the nerves or the horrid, heavy, itchy robe he wore.

Or both.

How was this going to go? He almost felt that he could not remember a word they had taught him in the classes. He swallowed. His throat was parched.

}:What are you looking at?:{ said the little voice.

"Oh, it's just... There's so much happening, you know. It's a lot more overwhelming than I thought it would be. I am watching, though," he assured the little voice.

}:Oh, I see.:{

Tener's stomach growled audibly. And then something leaned against his leg. He returned his attention to the eggs and absentmindedly touched the...

Oh.

"O-oh! You're. I mean, I'm. We're."

}:Of course. I don't mean to distract you – I can tell this is very important. But when you have a moment, I'm terribly hungry, and I think you must know where we could get something to eat.:{

T'ner could hardly believe that this little dragon had managed to sneak up on him that way. He knelt down and pressed his forehead against the blue's.

"Ow."

}:The Sand is hot,:{ said Lehystrath.

T'ner smiled. Everything was easy for that one little moment. And then Lehystrath had gone to sleep, and T'ner had gone to talk to his family. More or less to say goodbye. Goodbye for now, but not forever.

And, of course, there had been more to it than a simple goodbye. T'ner was still avoiding thoughts of what Lehystrath's blue hide implied about him. He had not been the one to notice first.

**Flashback**

Ayressa tried to maintain a smile on her face as she waited for T'ner to show up at the Hatching Feast. She had been so excited for the Hatching, hoping that her husband would end up with a dragon, only, she had not been prepared for the color. Why blue? Not that the dragon wasn't lovely, he had been a positively beautiful shade of blue, that she could appreciate. But she'd heard the rumors, she knew what it meant to be a man who rode a green or blue dragon. Ayressa had forced herself to come to terms with the fact that T'ner might sometimes be with another woman in a mating flight, but she had never imagined the possibility of him being with another man. Bile rose in the back of her throat.

**Think about something else,** she told herself. She wanted to be happy and positive for him.

"There you are," she said when he finally entered, a smile now on her face. "My dragonrider!"

T'ner was already beaming as he saw his beautiful wife standing there. There was a tinge of worry, of course, as he thought he saw something off in her expression. Probably just thinking of the time they would soon have to spend apart.

But at her greeting, T'ner's smile widened. Her dragonrider. It filled him with such pride to hear it. To be named it.

"And there you are, my beautiful wife," he said. No one was going to take that away from him. No one.

"I can't believe it really happened," he said, still a bit overwhelmed. "He's... oh, you'll love him. He's so sweet."

T'ner pulled Ayressa into as long of a hug as he thought he could get away with. It would be too long before they could have more again.

"What is his name?" she asked. She had not been able to hear it over the crowd gathered at the Hatching Sands.

"Lehystrath," said T'ner, the breadth of his smile new again as he said it. He had not yet had many occasions to say it out loud, but he found he simply enjoyed saying it. It reminded him of the joy he had felt in saying, 'This is my wife,' and, 'This is my son.'

"It's a good name, isn't it?" he asked hopefully.

"It is perfect," Ayressa agreed.

"There he is," another voice said, interrupting the husband and wife reunion. Reven appeared over Ayressa's shoulder. The minor holder did not make it to Hatchings very often, but knowing that his baby brother was going to be Standing had prompted him to request a transport so that he could watch Tener on the Hatching Sands. The Impression to a blue dragon had certainly been eyebrow raising and Reven knew that tongues back at Green Valley would wag for months about it.

"Reven!" T'ner greeted his brother cheerfully. He was happy, he supposed as he considered it, that Lehystrath had hatched when his brother was there to watch. He supposed that if it had taken too many tries, Reven might have stopped coming.

"Did you see him?" he asked, still blissfully unaware of what about Lehystrath was preoccupying his wife and brother.

"I saw," Reven confirmed, clapping a hand on his brother's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "He is a fine looking dragon. I can't wait to see him when he's full grown." Who was he to dash his brother's euphoria? Nothing that T'ner ever did, or did not do, could ever change their relationship. They were family, and in Reven's family, that was an unbreakable bond.

"The four of us will be coming to visit as soon as he's big enough to carry three!" said Tener. He chuckled. "Two and a child. I'm not sure whether blues can carry three full grown people..." he said, trailing off as he pondered the possibility. "But Resser won't be full grown for a few years yet, and who knows. Maybe he'll have a dragon of his own to take a load off of Leh."

"I'll expect a few letters until then," Reven reminded his brother. The holder looked around the room. "I have to go, my ride is ready to take me back to Green Valley." He turned and hugged Ayressa, wishing that he had more time as he would love to know how she felt about T'ner's Impression. "Good luck," he murmured into her ear. "Take care of yourself," Reven said to T'ner as he pulled him in for a quick hug.

"I'll write as often as I can," Tener promised as he squeezed his brother. "I love you," he said. "Safe journey." It was a journey of a few heartbeats in the dark, but that was danger enough for anyone.

Ayressa tried not to let her brother-in-law's parting words bother her as she turned a bright smile back on to T'ner. "Well, bluerider, shall we dance?"

"Yes, let's," said T'ner. He felt a bit of guilt that Ayressa had had to ask him and not the other way around. He smiled and held out a hand to her. Bluerider had a nice ring to it, did it not? Bluerider T'ner. Perhaps not as good a ring as Journeyman Tener, but he had a feeling the one would have grown on him by the time he had enough free hours in the day to work on the forge again.

But enough of thinking of that. For that moment, he was going to think only of his wife while he still had that luxury. He pulled her close and began to move to the beat of the music.

Last updated on the September 3rd 2019

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A Whole New World