A Lucky Chance

Writers: Heather, Jane
Date Posted: 11th July 2014

Characters: F'aen, R'haran, Iselen, Tellen, Arwey, Tibby
Description: R'haran and his children meet F'aen while he is painting.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 21 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Sahna

Generally when they walked about as a family there was no particular order. When
they walked on the beach there always was.

Tibby ran ahead as fast as his five-Turn-old legs would carry him, and that was
surprisingly fast as R'haran found out during the various scrapes the boy got
himself into. Arwey, next in age and height danced and skipped along after
Tibby, responsible for keeping him from drowning long enough for her brothers to
get to them.

Tellen, at nine-Turns-old and only a Turn older than Arwey was generally too
distracted by everything and anything to concentrate on either Tibby or his
sister and so twelve-Turn-old Iselen trailed along to keep his middle brother
moving in the right direction and prevent him from being left behind.

R'haran wandered along behind the children, missing the eldest, Sahna, who often
chatted to him as they walked, but mostly happy to watch the children enjoy
themselves.

With Sahna now at the Harper Hall and Iselen now a candidate R'haran's
unexpected family was starting to break up and restdays like this one would soon
be a thing of the past.

A moment after that thought had occurred the greenrider realised Tibby was not
splashing in the shallows where he loved to be and the dragonrider's blue eyes
started scanning the area for the boy. The sea - no sign, and none of the others
who would undoubtedly be rescuing Tibby if he had ventured too far that way. The
beach - no, no, no. Unless that was Iselen? Yes.

R'haran broke into a jog and followed Iselen as the last of his family clambered
up over the edge of a small cliff and disappeared from view.

"Hello," Tibby said when he reached the man sitting near the edge of the cliff.
Looking from below the man was almost invisible and Tibby might have missed
seeing him completely if he hadn't climbed onto the rocks below and looked back
toward the Weyr. "Are you painting?"

F'aen smiled at the question, "I am, or at least, trying." It had been too long
since he had sat down and practiced his craft. Although there had been plenty of
time for him to do so during the month that he had been grounded following his
threadfall injury, he had been physically unable to sit for any length of time.
When R'haran came into view, F'aen nodded to his fellow greenrider.

"Hello F'aen. Do you mind if they look?" R'haran asked, glaring at the four
children who had already ranged themselves behind the dragonrider so they could
see what he was painting.

"Way too late to _ask_," Arwey muttered under her breath.

The young greenrider smiled and shook his head, "No, I don't mind." In fact,
people often wanted to look and see what he was doing when he had his sketch pad
or canvas out. Today he was painting a simple landscape.

"Are you really a _harper_?" Tellen asked suddenly, frowning as he looked
between the painting and the scene. "Can you play music and sing and stuff?"

It was a common question that a lot of youngsters had, especially those who
eventually became interested in joining the harpercraft, "I know the basics of
music and singing, but mostly I learned about drawing and painting. Harpers can
do a lot of things, like transcribe old hides, archive information, create
stories and plays.... Or play music and sing and stuff." He grinned.

"R'haran can sing," Arwey informed the younger greenrider. "We can't."

R'haran sighed, though he couldn't help his own grin. "But we're working on it,
aren't we?" Especially with the younger two who could now match pitch without
too much trouble. "The question is - how many harpers can paint like F'aen?"

"How many?" Tibby asked, always ready to oblige.

F'aen couldn't help but smile whenever he looked at the young child, "There are
many painters in the Weyr. You might catch some more of them hanging around the
Weyr some time."

"We can hunt them all down," Tellen suggested. "Let Tibby loose on all of them."

"Did somebody _teach_ you to paint?" Arwey asked thoughtfully. She drew things
and made pictures with the watery colours they sometimes had in their harper
classes but nothing she did looked like what the young greenrider was creating.

"Yes, when I decided I wanted to be a painter I started working with other
experienced journeymen who painted. They showed me techniques and different
tricks to use when painting." F'aen set down his brush as he looked at the
children, "And what do all of you want to do when you are of age?"

"I want to marry a handsome young Lord Holder and live happily ever after,"
Arwey said instantly as if reciting an oft-repeated thought.

R'haran shrugged. "I told her she should read more ... perhaps I should have
specified what she should read more _of_."

F'aen chuckled, silently agreeing as he looked at Tellen, "Well? What do you
want to do?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe be a dragonrider, maybe a fisherman."

R'haran's dark eyebrows rose in surprise. It was the first he'd heard that
Tellen had any interest in going back to the life he had known before he came to
the Weyr. **Please pass my thanks to Scarleth's rider,** he asked Evie.

Iselen tugged at his candidate's knots and grinned at the younger dragonrider.
"No prizes for guessing with me."

F'aen met R'haran's eyes with a nod before smiling at Iselen, raising his
eyebrows with approval, "A future dragonrider then. And what color do you think
you will receive?"

"I don't know." Iselen glanced between the two greenriders and shrugged. "I
don't think it would matter."

"You know, you are right, it doesn't matter," F'aen began packing away his
supplies, "because every dragon is important. Although," he glanced back at
Iselen with a teasing gleam in his eyes, "I am a little partial to green dragons
in particular." Up on a higher ridge, where she had been lounging out of sight,
Scarleth gave a lazy warble of approval.

"We like Evie a _lot_," Tibby said, looking up at the other green. "She lets us
play with her and even look in her mouth. She has teeth that can grind up _rock_."

"And then they breathe fire," F'aen smiled, "that has always been my favorite
part." He picked up what he had been working on as he slung his tool bag over
his shoulder, "Well, Tibby, Iselen, Tellen, Arwey, it was very nice meeting you.
Hopefully we will see one another again soon." He looked up to R'haran, "And you
as well, R'haran."

The elder greenrider added his thanks to the chorus of farewells from his
children. A couple of things had come up in their talk with F'aen that R'haran
had been unaware of and he was glad that he had heard the children speak of
them. Sometimes being a parent seemed to be about luck more than management -
and meeting F'aen had been a lucky chance.

Last updated on the July 15th 2014

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A Lucky Chance