The Importance of Discretion

Writers: Aaron, Francesca
Date Posted: 5th June 2022

Characters: Chalzie, Brennault
Description: Chalzie and Brennault meet and quickly get to know each other.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 2, day 13 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: J'ackt and Lorican (not by name)

Brennault

All of Chalzie's classes that day had actually been in the classroom,
rather than in the water. So, right after dropping her items off in
the dormitory and grabbing a towel, she headed to the water for a nice
swim before the evening meal. She walked a bit past the docks, towards
the Weyr, planning to either swim along the shore or, if one or more
of the dolphins were interested, going into deeper water.

She was soon past the bustle of the docks but, rather than seeing a
quiet place to leave her clothes, she saw someone unfamiliar. She
considered just walking a bit more, but then their eyes met and she
didn't want to be rude. Chalzie wondered if he was from the Weyr, but
his knots weren't visible. "Hi," she said, with a friendly wave. "It's
a nice afternoon to be out."

As close as it was to the Weyr, Brennault was surprised that he had
never yet found an excuse to run to the Dolphin Hall. But now that he
finally had completed a delivery there, he was glad he had. He flashed
his most charming smile to the woman who greeted him and lifted a hand
to wave back. No need to get back on the road right away.

"It most certainly is," he said. "Hi. I'm Brennault." He approached
and offered his hand.

"Chalzie, apprentice dolphineer" she replied, shaking his hand and
smiling. Suddenly, going for a swim was feeling less urgent. "You
aren't a visiting Northern dolphineer, are you?" He was certainly
well-built, but she immediately realized he couldn't be a swimmer.
"No.... you don't seem to be built like a dragonrider, either. And, it
looks like you spend a lot of time outdoors." She cocked her head to
the side, confused and intrigued. "What do you do?"

"I'm a runner," Brennault answered. "I came to deliver a package." He
was impressed with the eye for what different sorts of fitness looked
like and also somewhat tickled at the thought of being mysterious,
something to be figured out. "It's nice to meet you, Chalzie."

"Ohhhh. That makes a lot of sense." She should have thought of that,
but she hardly ever saw runners, either at the Hall or the Weyr.
Although maybe she just never noticed. "It's nice to meet you too. So,
are you done for the day? Are you staying at the Weyr?" She didn't
know how being a runner worked, and hoped he had time to chat.

"I am, and I am," Brennault confirmed cheerfully. "It's rare that
someone needs to send something here who can't just jaunt over from
the Weyr themselves, but I was happy to take the opportunity." The
package had come from further afield than the Weyr itself, but getting
into the specifics of where this and that came from was pushing the
boundaries of runnerly propriety when it came to privacy.

"Are you done for the day?" he asked.

"Done with classes. I have some free time, then evening meal,
mandatory study period, and some more free time," Chalzie explained.
"I'd love to hear more about life as a runner, if you have time. I'd
have thought with the Weyr here that your services wouldn't really be
needed." She assumed everyone at the Weyr either was a dragonrider or
knew one.

"I've got all the time in the world," said Brennault. It would take
him no time at all to get back to the Weyr, especially if he picked up
the pace, so he was free as long as she was if she had mandatory study
time to deal with.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a package coming here in the
incoming stack at the Weyr," he confirmed.

Chalzie took a seat in the sand, crossing her legs, and patted a spot
next to her in an invitation. It was exciting to meet someone new.
"So, do you mostly run near the Weyr? Have you been to exciting far
away places?"

Brennault happily joined her.

"Mostly," he said. "It's my home base, so I'm technically not required
to go any further than the next main station out in any direction. But
runners being runners, we like to go further out. Runners at the Weyr
have the distinct pleasure of making friends with dragons and their
riders, so sometimes I can even catch a ride with them."

"I ran all the way across the South once as soon as I was old enough,
but I haven't done anything _that_ crazy since then." He laughed. "I
ran up to Topaz and took a ship out to one of the islands not too long
ago when I was on a quest to find a sword for one of the bronzeriders.
I got all the materials and some nice perfume to trade to a master
smith I'm friends with, and he made it for me. He's giving me
swordfighting lessons in exchange. The bronzerider, that is. Not the
master smith."

"How about you? What kind of awesome adventures do dolphinfolk get up to?"

Chalzie listened in amazement as he spoke, then shook her head and
gave a little laugh at his questions to her. "How can I compete with a
quest and swordfighting?!" She touched his arm lightly for a moment to
indicate she wasn't actually put off. And, she was finding his
friendly, easy-going nature very attractive. "I won't have any
adventures of my own until I walk the tables. Right now, I do a lot of
swimming and classes. But hopefully in a few Turns I'll be able to go
visit other dolphin pods and learn from those dolphins. Maybe I'll
even be able to go on a quest to save someone after a hurricane or
something."

Brennault smiled brightly at the contact â€" he always loved it when new
friends were as comfortable with touch as he was.

"If you ask me, I think I should have got my knots already, but my dad
is the one in charge of making the call, and he doesn't want to give
anyone any reason to think he's playing favorites, so I'll probably be
the last one in my whole cohort who makes journeyman." Brennault
chuckled.

"I don't really care. I'd rather have the Weyr assignment than the
knots. You know, there was a hurricane while I was out on the islands!
I got there just in time to hunker down, and then after it passed, all
the little sluggy snail things in the lagoon were all stirred up, and
we went out diving for them. That's what they do there on the island
my dad sent me to. They harvest them and squish them for their pretty
purple goo and make dye out of it."

"I thought I had gotten so many!" he laughed. "And then the Holder
told me how many it takes to make the stuff, and it was just, _so_
many more. But it turned out my dad had already arranged for
everything, and he paid the balance for what I needed to get a bottle
of the dye out of this big shipment he had coordinated..."

"Anyway, point being, I traded the dye for some bolts of fabric this
Master Smith wanted in exchange for the steel I needed for the sword.
It worked out that I knew a rider who used to be a weaver, who told me
who I should talk to."

Brennault laughed and leaned over to press his shoulder against Chalzie's.

"And there I go rambling again... Let's talk about you for a while
instead. Do your dolphins have names like the dragons?"

As if on cue, a bronze firelizard popped out of _between_ with a fish
in his talons.

"Ugh, Marvel! Gross, that stinks â€" take it over there, and come back
after you washed off."

The firelizard did not grasp everything Brennault said, but he did
understand the disgust with the smell of the food and the desire for
him to take it away from him and his new friend.

He cheeped and tilted his head, sending his curiosity as to whether
Brennault wanted any of the fish.

"No, I'm not hungry, but thank you, sweet boy," he answered. The
firelizard cheeped again and took the fish a hundred yards away or so
to eat it.

"Sorry about that," he said to Chalzie. "Where were we?"

Chalzie laughed along with his story of the island trip and felt a
tingle when he brushed against her shoulder. It sounded like Brennault
wasn't weybred, but he spent plenty of time at the Weyr and seemed to
be giving promising signals that he was open to some fun. She hadn't
had a fling in a long time and was realizing how much she had missed
the exhilaration of seeing what a new acquaintance might be interested
in. But, even if they just had a nice conversation, it would be time
well spent.

"We were getting to one of my favorite topics; dolphins!" she said,
smiling at the eating firelizard. "They would have appreciated
Marvel's gift." She looked towards the water but didn't see any nearby
dolphins. "Yes, they do have names, and they'd be happy to share them
with you. It takes some time to be able to understand them well
though, when they talk. They're usually short names: Addie, Gar,
Cece." She named a few dolphins in the local pod. "And I know there's
a pod at Topaz Sea Hold, so maybe I'll make it over there at some
point and they can show me the snail things you mentioned."

She leaned closer to him, putting a hand on his arm and lowering her
voice conspiratorially. "Just be careful if you want to spend any time
near dolphins. They're big gossips. If they see you doing anything,
you know, exciting, they'll happily tell everyone about it."

"Oh, will they?" Brennault grinned, happy for the opportunity to
listen instead of talking â€" his mouth had gotten away from him there
for a moment, but he was always excited to talk about his long run
adventures. Most of them, anyway.

"What kind of exciting?" he asked, staying in close and matching
Chalzie's tone and volume.

The dolphineer relished the chance to tell a story she hadn't shared
in a while. "Well, a few Turns back, a couple snuck away during the
noon meal, supposedly for a swim. I guess things got heated, and she
lost the bottom part of her bathing suit. One of the young dolphins
excitedly found it, brought it back to her, and then proudly shared
what he'd done. I can't even remember the excuse they tried to give,
but no one believed them. Luckily, they were recently married, so
there weren't any major consequences." She rolled her eyes. "I'm
weyrbred," she shared, "so I think the whole scandal was a bit silly.
But, it did teach me that it's important to be discreet." There.
Hopefully that was direct enough, without putting herself at too much
risk if she was misreading his signals.

Brennault chuckled.

"That is absolutely adorable," he said. "Sweet, even. Runners don't
generally tend to do marriage, but my parents were handfasted for a
while until it was time for Mom to move on." It had been a while since
he had seen her. He decided he would have to track her down soon to
catch up.

"Discretion," he added, "on the other hand, is something runners
_always_ do. Whether it's guarding our patrons' privacy or the
confidence of folks we meet on the road."

With the Weyr nearby, Chalzie had never felt too constrained by the
more conservative morals of the Hall. However, she did feel a stab of
envy hearing about life as a runner. It sounded like she could fit
right into the kind of life Brennault was describing. Her mind was
pulled back to the present, and anticipation for the near future, at
the mention of discretion. A smile crossed her face and she turned her
legs towards him, bringing the hand that wasn't already touching him
to his right knee. "Well, if you're interested in doing something
exciting, there's a place nearby that's hidden away from any nosy
dolphins."

"I would love to." Brennault grinned and leaned a little closer. "By
all means, lead the way."

Last updated on the July 15th 2022

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The Importance of Discretion