An Unexpected Delivery

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 15th February 2007

Characters: R'haran
Description: R'haran receives half of an unexpected delivery.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 4

R'haran!" A brownrider jogged up and stopped beside the greenrider who had paused at the call. "Glad I caught you. Didn't want to have to hunt around all afternoon." The man glanced up at the sun in that unconscious checking dragonriders were always doing to confirm their timeliness. Moving between time zones and needing to know them for visualisations made them preternaturally aware of _when_ in the day they were.

"I'm often out here," R'haran said mildly, indicating the weyrlings who were drilling on the ground below the cliffs.

Again the brownrider's eyes darted away in a very common curiosity about another Weyr's weyrlings. "Right. Of course. I have something for you. Half of a delivery. The other half's coming on a green that couldn't bring them all. I wasn't coming this way -" the man shrugged, dismissing the extra task he had undertaken to help out another rider.
"At least I was going to be able to recognise you."

"I'm not expecting anything."

"Are you sure? Perhaps the greenrider has something … How odd.
Anyway, come and get them and then I can get going."

R'haran fell into step with the other rider as they headed along under the towering cliffs to where the man's dragon waited. As they got closer R'haran's unease increased. "Were you ferrying them somewhere?"
he asked, nodding toward the children standing beside the foreleg of the brown. Even to do a favour for another rider it would be unusual for a dragonrider to take an extra trip /between/ when transporting children.

"Them? No." The man clapped him on the shoulder. "They're yours."

The brown and his rider were gone – he had clearly been amused by R'haran's surprise but still refused to stay - and R'haran stood facing the three children each holding a small, drawstring bag. "Rarwen's grandchildren?"

"I said that already," the sandy-haired boy said, his expression varying between sullen and worried. "And Granda said you remembered everything you ever heard."

"Everything I ever read," R'haran corrected, still a little bemused at being delivered three children as if they were no more than parcels.
"And a lot of what I hear."

One thing he remembered with awful accuracy was going home when he was able, after his slow recovery from the plague, and being told his family were all gone. He had been prepared for some losses, but not _everybody._ He had asked, more than once, what the new seaholder knew about the others of his family, those who had married into nearby holds.
All gone was still the answer. Yes, his elder sister Rarwey and her family at the seahold along the coast.

But here were Rarwey's three great-grandchildren, if what they said was true. He could see no reason to lie and certainly the youngest carried part of Rarwey's name. Dark-haired Arwey, the five-Turn-old, was all eyes and worry as she peered up at him and he could hardly keep them standing out in the open while he tried to discover why they were being delivered to him in this way.

Rarwen, their grandfather, was dead now, Iselen had told him. And 'Granda' had wanted them to come to the Weyr and to their uncle.

Great-great-uncle, R'haran mused, but that wasn't immediately important.
"Let's get inside where we can sit down and have a talk about this."

Iselen's expression became mutinous. "We're not going anywhere." He dropped his bag at his feet and the other two copied his action in what would have been an admirable show of unity under other circumstances.

"Just inside, into the dining cavern?" R'haran winced inwardly at his wheedling tone. How long was it since he had been a harper-teacher dealing with children the ages of these ones? Apparently it had been too long.

"Not until the other dragon arrives."

"Not wifout Sahna and Tibby," Arwey added, speaking for the first time.

The green dragon – the greenrider who had really been tasked with the delivery but hadn't been able to bring them all. Them _all?_ R'haran looked at the sky with a rising sense of doom. "Sahna and Tibby?" he repeated.

"The rest of us," Iselen said. "Our big sister and our little brother."

Last updated on the February 17th 2007

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An Unexpected Delivery