A Tribute

Writers: Jane, Jelena
Date Posted: 24th July 2014

Characters: Naevyn, R'haran
Description: Naevyn is upset and R'haran stops and talks to her.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 18 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Z'an
Notes: Mentor approved.

Naevyn sat at her usual table in the dining hall, chewing in her food endlessly
without even tasting it, deep in thought. It wasn't as if she and Z'an had been
particularly close and he wasn't the first wingmate who'd died, but his death
had left a deep mark on her still. After all, he'd been part of the reason she
had finally started socialising, opened up a little. She owed him so much and
she had never gotten the chance to actually tell him that, or thank him for it.
A tear trickled down her cheek and into her stew.

"Can I help, Naevyn?" R'haran asked simply, pausing beside the young greenrider
who was nursing a bowl of stew it seemed she would never finish. He had seen the
glint of the tear on her cheek and it wasn't in his nature to walk on by and
ignore such a thing.

"Huh?" Naevyn looked up, disturbed from her deep thoughts. "Oh, uh, I don't
think so." She took a deep breath and sat back a bit, gesturing at the empty
seat beside her. "But some company would be nice."

The tall greenrider settled into the seat she indicated. "Would you like to talk
about what's upset you?" he asked. He suspected it might be the loss of the
brownrider from her wing but it was up to her to open the subject if she cared to.

Naevyn shrugged slightly, but then nodded. "A wingmate died. Z'an was his name.
We weren't particularly close, but he meant a lot to me still. He.." she paused
for a moment. "He made me a better person, I guess."

"What a wonderful tribute. I'm sure anybody would be proud to be remembered that
way."

"I'm sure he would be," Naevyn nodded, a tear trickling down her cheek again.
"Doesn't change that he's gone, though."

"No. Nothing will. It's part of what makes us - dragonriders - very conscious of
living our utmost every day. Some of us will have no days to waste." It wasn't
how things were when he Impressed, but since Thread returned he had seen the
changes in dragonriders and was astute enough to guess at the reasons behind them.

No days to waste. Naevyn fell silent for a moment, thinking that over. That was
true, she shouldn't waste a day of her life either. "Thank you, R'haran, that
actually helped," she said, her voice still a little choked up.

"You're welcome. Do you have time to tell me about fighting Thread? You have the
advantage over me in that - Evie and I have been scored but we never got to
fight Thread as you do, as part of a fighting Wing. Do you ever find it
exciting? It looks very exciting from the ground."

"You never fought thread?" Naevyn was a little surprised. For her fighting
thread was the most natural thing in a dragonrider's life. That it had only been
so for 7 turns wasn't something very upfront in her mind. She quickly recovered
though. "It can be exciting. When everything is going just right, when you get
to make a big save. Or that tired, accomplished feeling when you fall asleep at
the end of a Fall day. That's quite something."

R'haran nodded. "A sense of accomplishment," he agreed. "I know the wings work
as teams but it that very obvious when you're in the air? Or does it turn into a
bit of a free-for-all?"

"Oh no, you have to keep in formation as much as possible and keep track of
everyone around you at all times," Naevyn said immediately. "You don't want to
unintentionally singe your wingmates!"

"I can see that wouldn't make one popular," R'haran agreed with a smile. "Is it
difficult to keep track of flying in formation and flaming Thread? Before Thread
came back I read all the old records about such things - and we always had the
games - but bits of stained rope aren't much of a threat."

"It depends, some Falls follow an easily predictable pattern and it's all much
easier. But then there's Falls with bad winds and suddenly nothing goes to plan.
We train those formations over and over again, though, they get pretty well
engrained in your mind."

R'haran nodded. While his memory was exceptional he knew the difference between
remembering and _knowing_ in that automatic way Naevyn was talking about. "Like
learning a musical instrument - practising until the movements come
automatically when your eyes read a note or chord."

"Exactly!" Naevyn said enthusiastically. Sitting back in her seat after a
moment, she smiled a little. "Thank you R'haran, you really did cheer me up." A
little distraction went a long way some time.

"I'm glad I was able to help, Naevyn." He got to his feet and picked up his
empty plate and glass. "And thank you for sharing your experience at fighting
Thread."

Last updated on the July 28th 2014

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