People Can Learn?!
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Heather, Yvonne
Date Posted: 30th July 2026
Characters: Ketlyn, Kemmin, N'kayden
Description: Varinth rises and makes a surprising choice.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 12, day 5 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Aydhara
"Kemmin, this really isn't a good time." Ketlyn stood with her hand clutching her weyr door and willed her stupid brother to leave with all her might.
Her stupid brother didn't get the hint. "You promised me that we'd go," he said mournfully. "I rearranged my dockside schedule for our trip. Do you know how hard it is to change shifts with someone? I'm still new so I get all the worst ones. They're unloading fresh fish down there today."
"I know, but--"
On her ledge, Varinth stirred and awoke. She stretched her wings and contemplated the rumble in her belly and the blue dome of the sky. She shivered, then leaped from her ledge with her wings angled toward the herdbeast pens. She hadn't eaten in days.
**Blood only!** Ketlyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Kemmin was saying something that didn't matter. "I have to go."
"I can't believe you're ditching me like this!" Kemmin's voice was bright with anger as she pushed past him. "Hey!"
Ketlyn started running and whatever else he said was lost in the pounding of her footsteps. She 'd deal with him later and dreaded having to break the news that her green dragon was rising to her _brother_. **Ugh.**
At the herdbeast pens Varinth landed heavily on an ovine and sank her white teeth into its bleating neck. Blood spurted, hot against her throat, and she swallowed greedily. The ovine was still twitching as she leaped into the sky and roared her intentions to the dragons that watched her. }:Come fly with me!:{
A small crowd had already gathered by the time Ketlyn made it to the flight cots. She pushed through the men with irritation, not meeting any of their eyes. She didn't want them here. She didn't want _any_ of them. She didn't want to be touched, or looked at, or--
--but Varinth was flying, and Ketlyn let herself submerge beneath her dragon's blood-hot desire. She watched through Varinth's eyes as sun glinted off hide - blue, brown, and was that bronze? She laughed, delighted by the attention, and human thoughts of her brother left far, far on the ground below.
~*~
Ketlyn drowsed, her body sated, sore and warm and tucked firmly against someone's side. She couldn't remember who'd won Varinth's flight, what dragon had dared snatch her from the skies. Probably a stranger or an old man, someone she didn't want to have to smile and make nice with. She sighed and kept her eyes closed, content to let the afternoon drift by.
Only... the person lying beside Ketlyn was _not_ content to let anything drift idly by. A hand with fingerpads lightly calloused from work skated across her hip. Lips found their way to the curve of her neck. "I know you're awake," a familiar voice murmured against her skin.
"N'kayden?" Ketlyn sighed in relief, melting into his touch in spite of herself. "Oh thank Faranth. I was worried you were a stranger. I couldn't remember who won."
"Just me," he said, reveling in how soft and warm she felt, how perfectly she fit against him. This was how it was _supposed_ to have been the first time.
"And I'm glad of that." She sighed. Her body felt languorous and she felt safe with someone she knew, even if it was N'kayden. "Ugh, I don't want to go back to drills. Wanna skiv off and go hang out in the bathing caverns for the afternoon?"
"I don't know if the bathing caverns will be quite private enough." His teeth found the juncture of her neck. "Do you?"
She inhaled sharply as her skin pricked in response. Shells, when had he learned _that_?! "W- what do you mean?"
"I think there would be too many eyes watching, don't you?" His tongue skated along the shell of her ear as he spoke.
**Oh shells!** He wanted sex. Of _course_ he wanted sex. But it was so bad last time, and Aydhara would judge her for sleeping with her brother, _again_. If their roles were reversed and somehow Aydhara ended up between the furs with Kemmin--
She pushed that disgusting thought away quickly like the aberration it was. Aberath had caught Varinth fair and square. Mating flights were a routine part of being a greenrider. There were certain... things... that a body felt, _needed_, after a mating flight. The effect of a mating flight didn't end the moment Varinth tumbled from the sky, and the smug contentedness radiating from her dragon was irritating because, shells and shards, she wanted to feel like that too. She wanted hands on her breasts and a body between her legs and hadn't she overheard some drudges at a Hatching Feast talking about how N'kayden was somehow actually _good_ in the sack?
It was such a terrible idea. Nothing good would come of sleeping with N'kayden. If she were smart, she'd put on her clothes and walk right out that door.
Instead, heart pounding, Ketlyn realized with a sinking certainty that she wasn't going anywhere. "What did you have in mind?"
"I'll show you," he said as he began kissing a path down her torso...
~*~
**Redemption,** N'kayden thought as he collapsed beside Ketlyn, his heart thrumming a wild beat against his chest. There seemed to be no bones left in his body as he stared up at the ceiling of the flight room.
Ketlyn tremored and pressed her knees together, not seeing much of anything. Whoever was in bed beside her, it was _not_ N'kayden. After a few long moments she croaked, "Is there any water in here?"
"You're in luck," N'kayden said as he turned his head and spotted a pitcher on the table tucked into the corner of the flight weyr. Slipping from the bed, he returned with a cup of water from them both. He felt sure Ketlyn had enjoyed herself this time, unlike that disaster from their past, but there was still a little knot of nerves forming in the pit of his stomach.
"Thanks." She accepted the cup with shaking hands and sipped, partially because she was thirsty and partially because then she didn't have to look at him. Her feelings were doing flip-flops in time with her heart. The things she knew to be true were suddenly... not. N'kayden was bad in bed. He was a dork and her best friend's brother, and he was also, at this particular moment, _very_ attractive. She glanced up from the cup and caught him staring at her. "What?"
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask for her assurances that she had enjoyed himself, but that was the _old_ N'kayden's instincts, and Lynavia had taught him better. "Nothing," he said with a shake of his head and a little smile, which showcased a solitary dimple in one cheek. "I'm just glad Aberath caught Varinth."
"Why?" The question popped out before she could help herself.
"Because it's you, of course." He said it as if the matter was as simple as that.
She blinked. "Me?!"
N'kayden tilted his head. "Why not you?"
Ketlyn choked on her water and hastily set it aside. "Um. Well. I, ah, I'm _very_ glad that Aberath caught Varinth too." She heard herself speaking before she could register what she was saying. After everything that had happened, that he'd _done_ to her, her thoughts were slow as molasses and for the first time today Ketlyn felt stripped bare.
That was the validation he'd been hoping for; he smiled. "We should do this again sometime," N'kayden decided. "Without the dragons, I don't think we need them."
"Um, sure." It was the hormones and flight lust talking, surely. Aydhara was _definitely_ going to kill her.
Last updated on the September 2nd 2026