The Unknown Nephew

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 10th March 2007

Characters: R'haran
Description: R'haran starts to read the letters from his unknown nephew.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 20 of Turn 4

R'haran might have pushed the letters to the back of the press, but he had never managed to push them to the back of his mind. When he came in from the regular game of dragonpoker that evening he found he couldn't shut the door of the press. There, right behind the cards he had just placed on the jumbled shelf, was the bundle of letters. To him, apparently, from an unknown nephew.

Not that Rarwen was truly unknown. The man who had been a harper greenrider for the majority of his life had met the babe, once, just before he had been sent to the Harper Hall. His eldest sister Rarwey had bought her infant son along to show off at the gathering to celebrate R'haran's imminent departure into a craft so different from their own that most of the family were polite about his acceptance into the Hall, rather than genuinely congratulatory.

At twelve R'haran hadn't had much interest in the baby, though he'd said the right things to eighteen Turn old Rarwey. She was still capable of cuffing him around the ears over any misbehaviour, even if he had grown a little over the summer. That was Rarwen. He knew the name and for the next few Turns had had letters about the babe and ones who followed him. Not very interesting letters and he never bothered to keep such things because they all remained so firmly fixed in his memory. So that's all there had been of Rarwen; before.

Now there were a wealth of reminders of the boy. Five grandchildren for a start, and this, the bundle of letters tied with a string that was crinkled with use that he held in his hand.

All right.

He carried the letters to his desk and settled into the chair. Prepared to persevere with the knot he grumbled silently as it all but fell apart as his fingers touched it, giving him no reason not to spread the letters out in front of him. Five of them, but all thick wads of paper in sturdily pasted envelopes. Addressed to him. And dated, the first bearing a date almost four Turns ago.

R'haran reached out and carefully opened the paper covering, then pushed the sheets back against the folds they had held for those four Turns.

And he read.

~ ~ ~

The unknown nephew had only realised his uncle had survived the plague when the harpers had spread the word of the jump forward in time that proved Thread was returning.

The unknown nephew had never been sure whether such an important man would remember or care to know about a nephew who had been orphaned by the plague and who could barely remember his own family.

The unknown nephew had understood what it meant that his uncle's dragon was green ... and had understood it in a very personal way that had never been acknowledged.

The unknown nephew had married a lovely girl because it was expected, and they had had a daughter together; a daughter that had been a joy to her father every day of her life.

The unknown nephew had seen most of the SeaHold's fishing fleet lost at sea, and would have given anything to spare his daughter the pain of the loss of her husband.

The unknown nephew had struggled to find reasons to live when his daughter died giving birth to a babe who would never know his parents.

The unknown nephew had found those reasons in his grandchildren who had come to live with him.

The unknown nephew had listened to the visiting healer tell him that he didn't have long to live and worried for his grandchildren's future.

The unknown nephew had made his Will and written the last letter to his unknown uncle, asking that if R'haran couldn't care for the children himself, then find somebody who would allow them to stay together and who would treat them kindly.

R'haran finished the last letter with a sigh, his indistinct sense of loss sharpened by what he had read.

The unknown nephew was unknown no longer.

Last updated on the March 13th 2007

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The Unknown Nephew