Mad Angry or Mad Crazy?

Writers: Cali
Date Posted: 2nd February 2010

Characters: Trellyn, Leisenn, Swift
Description: Trellyn gives her report to the Hallmaster about the overuse of the dolphins by the women of the Weyr
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 7, day 15 of Turn 5

"She's sick," Swift said, when he found the journeywoman in the Hallmaster's office. Didn't anybody say?" He was carrying a tray with an uneaten breakfast on it, though all the drinks had gone. "It's a very ordinary cold and she's taken to her bed to spare us, she tells me, but she's pretty bored. If you want to report to her just use the chair beside the door and speak up. You shouldn't catch anything."

And then he was gone.

Trellyn didn't know how an ordinary cold merited an entire room as a barrier, but she just smiled, the old Hallmaster was odd sometimes like that. "Leisenn, how are you doing?"

"I'm _sick_," Leisenn said blowing her nose as an unlikely punctuation mark to her statement, "- and that makes me feel old and grumpy."

"Do you want me to come back in a couple days to give my report then?" Trellyn didn't really have anything pressing to tell. One of the things she liked about the Weyr position was that it was fairly boring and it gave her time to be alone.

"And leave me here to _die_ of boredom? I know why I don't ever get sick, you know, because it's so boring and horrible doing the right thing and staying away from others." A weathered hand indicated the chair beside the door. "So you _sit_down_ and keep me from going mad."

"Well, I don't know if I can help with that." Trellyn replied half joking. "The only real thing I had to talk to you about was something that's making me pretty mad."

"Oh? Mad-angry? That's better than mad-crazy," Leisenn said, as she wriggled around in her bed to bring herself more upright. It increased the rate her nose ran at, but she felt more alert when she was (almost) upright. "What is it?"

"I think the dragonriders are taking advantage of the dolphins." Trellyn began. "With all of us rotating through that position before, I don't think we noticed, but since I've been there a few months, I can tell. The greenriders come down once, twice a month and ask to be checked for pregnancy. The other Weyr women come down too to get checked, though not as much. It's getting to be that I can almost count on one a day, sometimes three or four in a day."

"It's not your job," Leisenn said, frowning. "We have healers and dolphins here - they should come down here if they need their pregnancies assessed."

"I'm sure they think I'm closer." Trellyn said. "And I don't mind helping out the healers, you know my job isn't that taxing. I just think it's going too far."

"Or not far enough," Leisenn mused, thinking of the walk down to the Dolphin Hall. "Why are they so interested? Surely it will prove itself one way or the other?"

Trellyn darkened, a personal sadness edging her words. "Most probably want to abort. When you're in your early sevendays, you can abort if you stay in /between/ a few seconds longer than normal. Of course, a few want to know so they can _stop_ going /between/ so they don't risk the pregnancy. Some I think are just curious. Instead of waiting a few months, they can find out right away."

"Abort their babies?" The old Hallmaster's eyes narrowed. "Our dolphins celebrate the life they find inside women and are pleased to see a new generation growing. Their skills aren't to be used to get rid of the babes."

Her own guilt for the unnecessary abortion of her child still ate at her, but now was not the time to go down those dark roads. "At the Weyr, it's neither frowned upon or encouraged as far as I can tell. It's somewhat of a necessity on one hand though. When a female greenrider gets pregnant, she must leave her wing and stop going /between/. It generates a gap that Dolphin Cove in particular is having a hard time filling at the moment. Some though, check to see if they are pregnant in order to protect a wanted child from miscarriage."

"And if they're not dragonriders?"

"Then it's a different reason." Trellyn regretted her trip /between/. Sometimes she could tell the meeting with the dolphins is an unhappy one, but often times, it's just a chore.

Leisenn might have said something blunt and grumpy then, but a huge sneeze overtook her. She managed to confine it in her handkerchief but with her eyes watering and her nose running again she was quite distracted. "You keep a tally of them, or something, until I can look into it."

Trellyn nodded, she could do that. She probably should have been doing it before, but she'd been trying not to think about it as it always reminded her of her own poor choice. "Why don't I let you get some rest. I'll come back next sevenday and we can discuss this some more."

"All right. Probably safer for you to be away from this. Thank you for coming." At least it had given her something to think about other than her isolation and boredom - and her illness.

Last updated on the February 15th 2010

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Mad Angry or Mad Crazy?