Better Left Buried
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: 29th July 2014
Characters: J'nus
Description: J'nus has a nightmare
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 20 of Turn 7
Notes: Notes: Another response to Miriah's nightmare challenge! Good challenge.
The tavern was loud, and voices and music swirled with the smoke from the fire and the herbs some of the men rolled and stuck, burning, between their lips. A string of numbers peeked out at him from beneath his hand, all arranged in a pretty little row. J'nus squinted through the gloom at the other two players and schooled his face into an easy smile. Give away nothing. Take it all.
"River's down." The last card flipped from Jafet's hand. Weyrwoman next to the pot: a dull eating knife, four uncut agates, three short strings of glass beads, a battered bit of wood that might have been a thirty-second mark.
Still sitting high on a straight, J'nus gave a minute shake of his head, then tossed in another few beads. "In." To his left, B'ror did the same.
Jafet hesitated, then added a fishing hook to the pile. His face, craggy with wrinkles in the half-light, kept shifting. "Well lads, it looks like it's show time."
B'ror laughed. "Eat it." The brownrider threw down his cards to reveal three of a kind. He looked young, his face unscarred. But scarred; J'nus blinked and saw the damage Thread had done in the first Fall. B'ror was alive, but the scars looked fresh and weeping in the firelight.
J'nus looked away, back at his own cards. He took a swig of his beer first, enjoying the slightly warm and slightly stale taste of it. Unconsciously he finished the mug, then revealed his hand. "A straight," he said, at the same time Jafet said the same thing. J'nus looked down at his hand but the cards had changed into a mess, a random pile of yellow-faced bits of paper. Meaningless.
**They cheated.** Rage flared; he looked up at Jafet, who was laughing. "You changed the cards!"
"You're drunk!" Jafet roared. He reached forward and began drawing the spoils of their game toward him. One of the agates tumbled to the reed-covered floor.
The sight was inexplicably infuriating. The slow tumble of rock into reeds; he was on his feet, shoving the table into Jafet's chest as B'ror laughed and laughed and laughed. The sound goaded him on; it always had. The bronzerider leapt the table and was on Jafet before the other man could react. His fist connected with Jafet's face again and again; the idiot lost a tooth, his face went red with blood. It didn't even hurt, to hit him again and again. Then J'nus lost his grip and Jafet tumbled to the floor.
"Shit, you killed him!" B'ror was pulling at his arms. "We've got to get out of here--"
And J'nus was staring down at his hands, now holding his belt knife. His eating knife. And Jafet continued to grin as his blood stained the agates red and someone began to scream. J'nus felt rooted to the floor, felt sick as a still-grinning Jafet laced his fingers across his blood-stained belly as if he was going to sleep. But his eyes were wide, wild, and helpless.
~*~
J'nus woke with a start, eyes wide in the dark. Strange shapes loomed out of the shadows that eventually resolved themselves into his work table, a wardrobe, a chair with a blanket over the back. He rubbed his face with his hands, then threw off the tangle of sheets to pad barefoot through the dark to his bathing pool. He was already nude, so he didn't hesitate before slipping in, closing his eyes in pleasure at the feel of cool water against overheated skin.
B'ror. He hadn't thought of the brownrider in a very long time. Absently he rubbed the triangular brand on his wrist with his thumb. B'ror should have died in the first Fall, but hadn't. It would have been better for Pern if the man had been eaten by Thread. Going to visit him after that first, terrible day was one of J'nus' biggest regrets. As was Jafet... Jafet had worked at one of the seaside Holdings. A fisherman by day, a cardsman by night. And a dirty cheat. Last J'nus has heard, Jafet was on his fourth wife. But that had been turns ago.
He closed his eyes and slipped beneath the water, holding his breath until his lungs felt like bursting. It was too hot at this Weyr, too much like Riverbluff. No wonder he was dreaming of a youth better left buried.
Last updated on the August 1st 2014