All the Resources at His Disposal

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 27th January 2006

Characters: Lenala, M'galec
Description: Lenala tells M'galec that she's been demoted, and naturally he offers manly and protective comfort.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 10, day 6 of Turn 3

Lenala

M'galec paced back and forth outside the Weyrwoman's office. Lenala's face had pleaded with him as she had walked in to face the Weyrleaders, like a beast who knew they were being lead to the slaughter. It was all that sharding bronzerider, Ar'lis' fault! He shouldn't have let this happen! If Dwarkanath had caught Vilarth this never would have happened. M'galec could have protected her. Well, next time, it _would_ be his bronze who caught hers. He was determined to protect herself from repeating the same mistakes.

The door to the Weyrwoman's office finally opened, and then Lenala was standing in front of him, her face tired and miserable. "We need to go back to our weyr," she said quietly before he could speak, one hand finding his and clinging to it with surprising strength. "Please..."

"Of course," he murmured gently as he slipped an arm protectively around her. "Are you all right?"

Sympathy was supposed to help, but instead Lenala found tears threatening again. She shook her head and dug her teeth into her bottom lip, hoping to keep herself from making a scene in the hallway. There would be enough gossip about her in the Weyr by nightfall without adding a public breakdown to the mess.

"Just a little further," he whispered as his arm tightened around her.
M'galec quickened their pace a bit, knowing that she was about to lose it.
He no more wanted to be embroiled in a public scene than she, for _both_
their sakes. They had hardly made it through the door to her weyr when the tears burst forth, leaving Lenala collapsed against M'galec's chest. "She... she took away m-my knots..."

"What?" M'galec asked, shock registering with a flash of anger! "Why of all the..." His arms wrapped around her and he held her close. He was of a mind to march right down to that Weyrwoman's office and give her a piece of his mind, if he didn't already know that to do so would ruin is career as well. "Why on Pern would she do such a thing?"

Lenala sniffled again, shaking her head. "I don't know! And Vilarth keeps asking what's wrong... over and over and I can't tell her that there's something wrong with her clutch because she is just as proud of it as she's ever been of any clutch..." "And she should be proud, my love," he said as he pulled back a bit to look down into her face. "She should be proud and so should you. True it wasn't... as large as we would hope," **Not by half...** "but _every_ dragon is valuable to Pern. You have a difficult job, you and Vilarth and you both are doing the best you know how." Besides, it was that sharding bronzerider, Ar'lis' fault. _He_ certainly should have been able to hold it together, if he were any kind of man!

It was what she'd needed to hear, and Lenala wiped at her cheeks with one sleeve. "Losing my knots is only part of it, though... The Weyrleader says that Ar'lis and I have to talk to the weyrlings about flights..." She shuddered rather dramatically. "As if I want to think about it again..." "Now that, I will not stand for," M'galec said with an emphatic shake of his head. "No, you will not stand in front of the Weyrlings if you are not ready to do so. I will talk to the Weyrleader myself."

Lenala looked up at him, hope in her eyes for the first time. "Do you think you can change his mind? I can't do it, M'galec... I can't tell them what it was like..."

"Yes. I will fight him with all the resources at my disposal," he promised before leaning down to kiss her forehead softly. "And we will find a way for you to get your knots back."

Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him long and hard, and into her mind came Vilarth's sleepy approval that her rider was _finally_ celebrating their clutching the way she should.

Last updated on the January 27th 2006

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All the Resources at His Disposal