Snowcraft Apprentices

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 29th September 2007

Characters: R'haran, Sahna
Description: R'haran and Sahna talk as they head off for the evening meal.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 6, day 13 of Turn 4

"Can we just poke our noses outside?" Sahna asked skipping along beside her uncle as they walked from his office toward the dining cavern. A sevenday ago – the day of the blizzard, her first blizzard ever – R'haran had asked her foster-mother if she could have one night a sevenday when she ate with him instead of with the others. Because she was the eldest. For the first time she felt that there was some advantage in being the first born in her family, instead of just the need to be responsible for everything. "Just for a moment," she added, hoping to convince her companion.

The greenrider shook his head in mock despair. "You and snow!" he teased. "All right. Just for a moment though, and certainly not long enough for our noses to get frost-bitten."

Sahna nodded. "I know. You explained all that."

She turned down to the right at the next junction, heading unerringly toward the cliff face and the snowy outdoors. He wondered how long it had been before he had developed such a clear sense of direction in the inner corridors of Dragonsfall Weyr. Longer than it had taken Sahna and the other children, he suspected. He had been older, certainly, but he rather thought that it wasn't just age. He was more used to being conscious of his own natural gifts of memory that he probably overlooked other kinds of gifts – like that of direction. All five of the children had it – even two Turn old Tibby.

At the door outside Sahna turned back as if to check that his permission still stood. He nodded and she disappeared out into the snow. When he arrived at the opening he leaned against the rocky wall of the corridor, slightly sheltered from the cold and damp and watched her in the early dusk, running and jumping and – Playing.

He had singled her out to make sure she realised that her care and supervision of her siblings was appreciated, to give her a chance to get something of the reward to which her level of responsibility ought to entitle her.

Instead, his far-too-grown-up ten Turn old adopted daughter was playing in the snow, and the sight warmed his heart as much as standing in the doorway chilled his body.

"See! No frost-bite," she said, patting her nose as she returned to his side. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks vividly painted with excited colour. "Ugh. Have you got a handkerchief?"

He supplied a rather well used item but she took it without comment and blew heartily, grinning up at him at the noise.

"Do you want it back now?"

"Perhaps you could get it laundered."

"I'll stick it in with our stuff. Are we going to eat now?"

His new family still hadn't lost their interest in food, he thought, and wondered if they would grow large in the relative plenty of the Weyr.
Perhaps not as children, because they were very active children, but in adulthood? He consoled himself that he had plenty of time to deal with that since he was thinking Turns ahead.

Sahna's thoughts were in the future, too. "I won't be old enough for these eggs that are coming soon, but maybe the ones after that?"

"Or a couple of clutches after that," he suggested, knowing he was being tested. "And then _only_ if you are Searched."

"But I'm your daughter now. You said so."

There was no malice in her argument, though the glance she gave him was sly, as if she wanted to check that his response would still be the same.

"You are my daughter. All of you are my children." The formal adoption of the orphans had been no more than a matter of hidework sent to their home SeaHold and then filed with the Headwoman, and a change in his Will. "But that doesn't make you weyrbred." He tugged on the thin little tail of hair that was always braided severely against her head and then hung limply down her back. "But you're blood related to me and _I_ was Searched, Turns ago, so it might happen for you."

"Or I can be a crafter."

He nodded. He said it to them often enough. "Anything you want." Even seacrafting wasn't impossible. He could always take Sahna and her sister North if that was what they wanted to do.

"Is there a snow craft?"

R'haran laughed at Sahna's far too innocent tone. "If there was I'd be asking if they'd take you as an early apprentice," he assured her as they reached the dining cavern. "But even snowcraft apprentices have to eat."

Last updated on the October 1st 2007

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Snowcraft Apprentices