A "Chance" Meeting

Writers: Anaria, Suzee
Date Posted: 24th June 2011

Characters: K'hetah, Jylanya
Description: A chance meeting
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 2, day 23 of Turn 6

Jylanya

"I'm just taking Loeth down to visit the dolphins," K'hetah said to
himself. "That's it. It doesn't have anything to do with a certain
woman that may or not be working at the Hall now," he added. He'd been
poking around in the kitchens to try and find Jylanya, but had heard
that she was working at the Dolphin Hall now. Which was why he was
heading down there. Or rather, why he wasn't heading there. He was
heading there to have a picnic by himself while Loeth played with the
dolphins.

He'd just bought enough for two.

You know.... just in case.

Grabbing the basket while still arguing with himself, K'hetah mounted
up Loeth, and the pair flew down to the Dolphin Hall. Loeth bounded
off as soon as his rider had dismounted, in search of Jylanya.

Jylanya stood at the window in her quarters on the second floor of the
hold. They were good rooms adjoining her office. The wide window
looked out on the bay and the sea beyond. She could even throw them
open and watch the dolphins playing. In this case she spotted a bronze
dragon diving into the ocean with them and couldn't help but smile.
**That must be Loeth,** she thought and with that thought came another
about a certain bronze rider. She turned and without thinking further
on it grabbed her hat from the hook and headed out through the caverns
and up the land access tunnel.

The wide tunnel wove back and forth making for a gentle incline even
draftbeasts could descend easily with their supply wagons. While most
of the Halls supplies came from the ships in their protected harbor
There were occasional supply trains sent to bring various fresh
foodstuffs. She was seeing to it there were more of those to help them
become self sufficient and spend less effort acquiring supplies from
the Weyr.

When she finally emerged to walk along the top of the bluff
overlooking the harbor, she spotted a figure down the gentle slope
coming in her direction. A welcoming smile formed on her lips.

"Good afternoon, Jylanya," K'hetah said, keeping his voice carefully
neutral. "Loeth wanted to see the dolphins and I figured since it was
a rest day that I'd have a picnic and watch him. Would you care to
join me?" His heart thudded in his chest as he made the offer. He
didn't know why, but for some reason he was terribly afraid that she
might say no.

"K'hetah," she greeted him with a smile of welcome even though his
expression was unreadable. "Yes, I would very much like to watch him."
As she got closer she peeked up at him from under the brim of her hat.
"Nice to see you."

"Nice to see you as well. I heard that you'd gotten assigned here, I
was hoping to run into you today," He said, placing a sheet of linen
down for them to sit on. "I'd heard that the Headwoman had arranged to
find you work with the Hall, I was wondering how you liked it so far?"

She smiled and helped straighten the sheet. Then sat with her arms
around her knees looking out at the ocean and the frolicking dolphins
and dragon. "It's a lot of hard work," she said without looking at
him. "But we're making progress." She paused a moment then added, "How
are things going for you?"

"Pretty well, settling back in routine now that the excitement of the
Hatching is done. Wing drills have been pretty uneventful. I honestly
haven't been up to much," K'hetah said. His simple lifestyle never
much bothered him until others asked about it. Then it just seemed
underwhelming. "Did they get you a private bathing chamber over here?"

Her color heightened in memory of their meeting in the baths. "Yes,"
she said in a small voice. "I have very nice rooms. I'm Headwoman at
the Hall," she smiled. "For the moment anyway."

"That's great!" K'hetah exclaimed. He quickly withdrew two wine
glasses from the basket he'd brought with him. He poured a glass for
Jylanya, and handed it over, before getting one for himself. "That
calls for a drink to celebrate. I really hope you enjoy it, the
Dolphin Hall could use a talented Headwoman."

She looked up at him with a smile. She had no clue if he already knew
about it or not but it was certainly sweet of him to bring wine for
whatever reason. "Thank you," she said taking the glass. She took a
small sip. "Oh this is very nice!"

"The Vintner Hall at Amber Hills is quite good," K'hetah commented,
taking a sip of the wine. "They have a nice tavern attached as well. I
keep meaning to get over there, but I always seem to find myself busy
with other things. They have great ales as well, from what I hear."

"Oh, that sounds nice. But isn't Amber Hills quite far away?" She
stopped and then looked a little sheepish. "Yes well, I guess it isn't
that far for a dragonrider."

"It just takes a few moments," K'hetah said with a smile. "If you
want, I could take you there sometime," he added, trying to disguise
the hope from his voice. He wasn't the sort of man to want to sound
desperate.

She smiled to try and hide the little shiver of fear that ran up her
back. She hadn't dealt with /between/ very well the last time when she
came to the Weyr. The rider had been careful to prepare her as best he
could yet nothing could have communicated the dead blackness where she
couldn't even hear herself scream. "Um, sure, that would be nice
sometime." She lifted the glass to her lips again but couldn't quite
conceal the treamor.

K'hetah - misunderstanding her hesitation as being about him, and not
about /between/ - retreated a bit. "Well, you don't have to if you
don't want to," he said. "I would just like the pleasure of your
company."

"Oh, I'd like to," she said quickly. "It's just the getting there
that's a bit... daunting." This time the shiver really did show and
she gave a nervous little laugh. "I didn't deal too well with my one
and only dragon ride." She smiled a little wider. "I like your company
too K'hetah."

"Ahh, not a big fan of /between/?" He asked, his voice calm, his tone
carefully measured to avoid seeming mocking. "That's a pretty common
fear. Shards, most Weyrlings are terrified of it the first few times
they do it on their own. I promise you though, it does get better with
practice." He was glad that it was just a simple case of fear of
/between/, and not something more personal.

"Well not sure I can say that exactly, I've only done it the once."
She looked into his kind eyes. There were so many other things he
could have said to make her feel small and inconsequential like her
own family had always done. She took a big breath and spoke before she
could bite the words back. "Maybe another ride would help."

"Certainly. Next restday we can go someplace close - that way if you
don't want to go /between/ twice, we can just fly back straight,"
K'hetah said. "I know of a few places that would be nice. Would you
like that?"

She looked at him a moment longer. "Yes," she smiled. She wasn't the
old Jylanya her family remembered any more. She was going to try new
things. "Yes, I believe I would."

Last updated on the August 3rd 2011

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A "Chance" Meeting