DCW-DH: Lucky

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 5th June 2007

Characters: Swift
Description: Swift thinks about how lucky he is.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 4, day 5 of Turn 4

He'd been lucky all his life, except those few Turns when Belevi had
been ill. But he'd had Belevi before she was ill, and the memories
after she had gone. Nowdays, nearly fifty Turns after her death he
could appreciate their time together with only the faintest regrets that
they hadn't had longer.

But other than his wife's death he had enjoyed a charmed life. Good
parents who had understood that he wasn't ever going to make a
dolphineer. They'd accepted his interest in cooking and kitchen work,
too, never thinking that the work could be considered beneath a child of
two crafters. So, an easy childhood growing up in a craft Hall. In
reality he'd had dolphins without the study, he couldn't remember a time
when he couldn't swim, and loved living on the edge of the sea.

Then Belevi, lucky to have her, not lucky to lose her, but Race, their
son. And his parents had been happy to raise him. Swift had been both
father and friend to the boy. By the time Swift had left his home Hall
his son had been in this thirties, with Swift only seventeen Turns older
so their friendship was probably more important than their blood
relationship.

Then the move to the Southern Continent and the Dolphin Hall at Topaz
SeaHold.

All right. Perhaps the storm that had come fifteen Turns later and
razed the Hall and Hold hadn't been very lucky, but there had been a
decade and a half of good life before that.

Now he was settled in another Hall; next to a Weyr which was a pleasure
he had never imagined.

As he stood there, leaning on the waist-height wall of the heights above
the Hold he grinned at the thought of his draconic neighbours.
Wonderful creatures – mainly the stuff of legend when he was growing up
in the North. Amazing that he was living beside them now.

"And I have Red," he said aloud, looking out over the drop down to the
sea and seeing the little blue firelizard winging one way and then the
other on the thermal lift from the warm cliff.

Very lucky.

And on top of a life he knew had already been more blessed than many he
had two – three – new blessings. Kateena in his life, Yara on her way
to work in the Hall, and Race on his way to visit.

The kitchen hand laughed aloud.

Kateena and their relationship – both had appeared from nowhere. It was
nothing he'd been seeking but then there she was and the connection
between them had been immediate and mutual. She was a wonderful young
woman and if he worried about the thirty-two Turn difference in their
ages, she seemed oblivious to it. That alone was flattering.

Yara, his little letter writer. The granddaughter he'd remained closest
too. The one he felt most like a grandfather too because he'd lived
through all the stages in her life through the letters she'd sent.
Sometimes he thought she confided in him more than she did in her
parents, and that made him value the special place he had in her life.

That she was coming to join him at the Hall was unexpected and very
welcome. He wondered what she looked like now, admitting reluctantly
that she probably wasn't the impish six-Turn-old that still came to mind
when he thought of her. He would know in two sevendays time.

Which would be when the Dawn's Crest would dock at the Hall's pier - day
nineteen, with Yara _and_ Race aboard.

His son was coming to visit. More likely to make sure his daughter got
settled in properly and to report back to her mother about the journey
and Yara's new home. And fair enough. Swift thought that if he had had
daughters he might have been a little more protective of them than he
had been of sturdy, independent Race. But still, he would reap the
benefit of Race's protectiveness, seeing his son for the first time in
sixteen Turns.

And all his current blessings were coming together perfectly. Despite
Kateena's nervousness he was sure Race and Yara would like her, and be
pleased to hear their plans to marry. At any other time it would have
been nearly impossible for Swift to introduce his future wife to his son
but luck was with him.

With a flap of wings the part-grown firelizard appeared in front of him,
hovering desperately until he put up his forearm and winced as the
needle-sharp talons dug in to his sun-browned skin.

"I'm very lucky to have you, too," Swift told the firelizard. "But I'll
be luckier still when I teach you to keep those claws to yourself."

Last updated on the June 21st 2007

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

DCW-DH: Lucky