Competition

Writers: Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 5th November 2009

Characters: L'bar, F'naren, Jh'slaen
Description: F'naren and Jh'slaen ask Labarr how the new Candidate rules will affect him.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 25 of Turn 5

"Doesn't affect you, anyway, does it Labarr?" the young brownrider said as he and the greenrider like enough to be his twin approached the table and set their plates down on the polished wood surface. "You already being a Candidate."

"What doesn't affect me?" Labarr asked, his mouth full of steaming fish stew.

"Everybody of Impressionable age having to Stand," Jh'slaen said settling into a seat opposite the journeyman woodcrafter. "You were already a Candidate."

Labarr grunted and swallowed his bite before replying. "Of course it affects me. Now I have even _more_ people to compete with for a dragon."

"Do you think it's a competition?" F'naren asked curiously. There were nearly as many theories about why hatchlings Impressed who they did as there were hatchlings themselves - probably more - but the brownrider didn't have a particular favourite.

"In as much as it can be." the candidate replied. "I mean, I can't do much more than think happy loving thoughts, but my odds would have to be better with only half as many people thinking those loving thoughts beside me."

"I suppose so. You're not of the belief that there's only _one_ right person for each dragon?" Jh'slaen murmured, glancing around as he did so. Some of the people who believed that were passionate about it. Too passionate, in his opinion.

Labarr shrugged and grinned. "I don't know _how_ the dragons choose, but I like to think they search out minds that fit what they're looking for, and that maybe it doesn't need to be a _perfect_ match, just a close enough sort of thing."

"The best match on the Sands that day?" That was more what the young greenrider believed, and that could be affected by having a lot more Candidates, he supposed. "Most the extras were never Searched though - Were you?"

"No, but lots of riders weren't," he pointed out. "I've at least half weyrblood in me, so that puts me up on a lot of the others."

"What's the other half?" F'naren asked in surprise. "Your mother's a greenrider ..."

Labarr laughed, he forgot these two were holdborn sometimes. "And my father could either be a bluerider or a harper or a woodsmith. So really, there's a one out of three chance I could be a hundred percent weyrblood."

F'naren and Jh'slaen exchanged glances. "That doesn't seem very organised," Jh'slaen said at last. His own parentage wasn't a matter for guesswork in the way that Labarr's - and F'naren's - was.

"Well I know all their children so there's no worry about inappropriate relations or anything." He didn't understand what the big deal was. It wasn't like he had to be concerned about inheritance or anything of the like.

"I guess ..." Jh'slaen shrugged.

"He _knows_ who his father is," F'naren said with a nod for the greenrider. "So he's hampered in understanding how little it really means."

Labarr took that to mean that F'naren didn't know who his father was either. "Looks like you're in the minority Jh'slaen. But that's okay, we won't count it against you." he added with a wink.

The greenrider's smile lit his face. "You don't think I'll be scarred for life by _knowing_?" he asked.

"It depends on who your options are." Labarr said with a laugh.

"I don't have _options_ - that's the point. I have a father. I know exactly who he is. He raised me and my brothers. Always there." He winked. "It's the way things are _supposed_ to be done."

Labarr understood what he was saying. In the Hold, it was important to _know_, a stable family unit was necessary for succession and inheritance rights. "Well then, I'm glad you got things the normal boring way. Don't you think I'd _like_ to know for sure who my father is? I've got some very beautiful possible siblings out there and if I knew for sure that they _weren't_ related... well, we would have gotten to know each other a lot better. But unfortunately, between a woodcrafter who couldn't decide if he loved my mother, a drunken night with a harper, and a mating flight; well, I'm just not as lucky as you."

"Why am I not surprised," F'naren murmured. "Given it's _you_ of course that's your main concern about know who fathered you." He shrugged. "My mother knows perfectly well who my father is - she just won't say."

"Embarrassed maybe?" Labarr said with mock innocence.

"Doesn't want to ruin lives, she says," Jh'slaen answered. There were no divisions between his and F'naren's lives. They'd grown up roaming far and wide together and were equally at home in each other's cotholds. Belatedly - some Turns belatedly - Jh'slaen wondered if F'naren's presence in his home had caused friction they'd remained unaware of.

"Doesn't that just sort of give it away then? Whichever father would ruin lives is the one that you've got." It made sense to Labarr anyways.

"It's either his father or one of his elder brothers since we look so alike."

"And they're all married," the greenrider tagged on to the end of his brother or nephew's statement.

Labarr laughed. "Sounds like she's got Weyrblood in her."

"She's got a lot of stubbornness, that's what she's got," F'naren grumbled. "But, now we're here nobody cares."

The candidate nodded, "And that's the way it should be. People have more important things to worry about than who's father is who's."

Jh'slaen wasn't sure he agreed, but since he wasn't affected one way or the other he nodded. "More important - like all those extra Candidates," he teased, brining the conversation around full circle as he got to his feet, gathering up his plates. "Well, we'll be cheering for the 'volunteers' so good luck, Labarr."

"Thanks, I'll need it."

Last updated on the November 15th 2009

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