Only One
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 6th February 2014
Characters: Alina
Description: Alina's got insomnia and a bad case of homesickness
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 5, day 3 of Turn 7
Notes: A big thanks to Nicole for letting me adopt Alina! I think I'm going to like her.
The lights in the girl's candidate barracks went out and the whispers were slowly replaced with the softness of sleep. Alina lay on her back, staring up at a ceiling shrouded in darkness. She was wide awake. Impossibly awake. Unfairly awake.
Night time made her homesickness worse. Everyone said that homesickness would ease the longer you spent at the Weyr, but for Alina that wasn't true. She'd left home missing her sister, but had just been a little ache beneath her breastbone that was made easier by the novelty of somewhere new. But the ache had grown into a void that pulled at her heart and stole the air from her lungs.
It was supposed to be the two of them. They were twins, born on the exact same day. Every time they'd talked about the future it was always a paired future; neither could imagine a time without the other. Then her stupid father had sent her off and kept Elana behind, and for the first time in her life Alina was alone.
She rolled onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut. There was no way she'd cry, not when anybody could hear her. Crying was for weak people, and Alina knew she wasn't weak. She was plenty of other things-- plain, with big feet and ugly freckles. Not as smart as she wished she was. Unlikely to Impress. But she wasn't _weak_. Just... alone.
She took a deep breath, then another, but the ache beneath her ribs just kept getting bigger. Finally she gave up and threw the covers aside, padding barefoot and blind through the bunks to the door with a sweater in one hand and the other held out in front of her so she wouldn't run into the wall. She left the candidate's barracks quietly and hurried down the steps toward the doors to the outside. If anyone caught her, she'd just say she had to visit the necessity.
But nobody did. She escaped unseen into the Weyrbowl and crept along the sand until she found a rock she could put her back against. Beilor hung low in a velvety-dark sky speckled with stars. Alina took a deep breath and wrapped her sweater a little tighter around her shoulders. The undyed wool was comfortingly itchy against her bare shoulders, the knitting knobbly and familiar. Maybe her sister was looking at the stars too, back at home.
Whenever they'd talked of leaving--and they talked of leaving often--it had always been together. Their mother would arrange for them to foster at one of the big Holds, maybe even Emerald Falls Hold. Elana would immediately fall in love and marry the handsomest of the Lord Holder's cousins. Something dreadful would happen to Lord Corowal and since he hadn't declared a heir the Hold would fall to Elana and her new husband, who would sadly take up the mantle of their responsibilities. Alina herself would attract the attention of a Crafter, a Harper maybe, or Smith who could make her jewelry. She'd initially hate him, but after persistent courting he would win her heart.
But they were a girl's dreams, and Alina didn't feel very girlish just then. She just felt lonely. If only there was a way they could talk... but Elana's letters had become shorter and less frequent the longer they were apart. Dragonriders could talk to their dragons silently, so it couldn't be impossible for people to talk to each other the same way... right? Maybe not everybody could, but they were twins. If anyone could talk to each other mind to mind, it had to be them.
Alina stared as hard as she could at a pinprick of a star hanging low over the edge of the cliff. **Elana, can you hear me?** she thought. **Elana. ELANA!**
Of course she didn't hear a reply. After a moment she sighed, feeling foolish and starting to get a little cold. She undoubtedly had sand on her nightdress now, and she'd have to sleep in a dirty bed. She looked down at her feet in the sand and wriggled her toes. **Elana would laugh at you,** she told herself. And her mother would be horrified, barefoot and wandering around in nothing but a cotton nightdress like a savage. No wonder she'd never fostered them anywhere, if this was how she behaved. Slowly she stood and brushed herself off as best she could, and headed back to the candidate's barracks.
But she paused at the door to look over her shoulder at the starry sky, listening for a voice that would never come.
Last updated on the February 28th 2014