Sons and Daughters

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 4th March 2016

Characters: Alina, Elana, Palbran, Palinon
Description: Alina's little brother has a special birthingday request
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 4, day 21 of Turn 8

Alina

For once, Alina instructed Imarith to land right in tiny Nadol cothold's courtyard. The green's wings sent dust up in clouds across the flagstones and set the canines to barking as she did her best to keep her skirts from flying up. She pushed up her goggles and scanned the yard in search of her family.

"Alina!" Palbran ran across the courtyard, his face alight as he waved his hands. "You're here!" Her father and twin sister followed at a more sedate pace.

Alina laughed as she slid from Imarith's back. Her riding boots hit the flagstones and she took a moment to untuck the hem of her skirts from the tops of her boots before sweeping her little brother into a hug. Not so little as before-- he came up to her chin now. He'd been growing. "Happy birthingday, dimglow."

"Did you get Da's letter?" Palbran asked breathlessly.

Her gaze slid to her father. "Yes..."

"Then I get to go to the Weyr?!" Palbran jumped up and down, pumping his fists in the air with glee. "I'm going to the Weyr for my birthingday!"

"I said that we could discuss it," Palinon said gravely. "Gentlemen don't jump like caprines when they're excited."

Palbran immediately stopped, but continued to vibrate in place.

Her father turned back to Alina and took a moment to look her up and down. His expression softened and he held his arms out for a hug, and despite her lingering anger at how he'd sent her away, Alina stepped eagerly into his embrace. He wrapped his arms around his daughter and for a moment Alina felt as if the past Turn had never happened.

But only for a moment. Alina stepped away, then turned to her sister. Elana's expression was a bit pinched as she took her turn to hug her sister. "Do you have to go right away? You just got here."

"Yes! I want to go to the Weyr! I mean--" Palbran paused and looked at their father. "I mean, I would like to go to the Weyr, if you will allow it, sir."

Palinon sighed. "Let me discuss it with your sister first. She did just arrive. Did you want some water, or something to drink, Alina?" He raised an eyebrow, but the question seemed more like an order than an inquiry.

"Water, I suppose."

"I'll get it!" Palbran raced off toward the well.

"Go with him," Palinon told Elana. She sighed and did as she was told, but not before sending Alina a significant look. Palinon waited until they were out of sight before turning to Alina. "If you take him to the Weyr, you must not land."

Alina looked at him in surprise. "He'd be perfectly safe with me. I wouldn't take him anywhere-- inappropriate." Like the baths or the beach, where there were far too many greenriders eager to bare their bodies when there were children around. "I'd take good care of him. And I'd love to introduce him to Ikalis, my friend who works in the kitchens. She's promised to bake him a birthingday bubblie."

Her father shook his head. "I know you mean well, but it's too risky."

"I don't understand..."

Palinon sighed and gestured for his daughter to follow. He began to walk toward the low stone wall that delineated the edge of the courtyard and they sat together under a tree planted just past the safe zone. "You and Elana... I know that you two would leave us someday. But I expected to lose you to marriage or a fostering, not the Weyr..."

"And yet you sent me anyway," Alina said, a little bitterly.

The farmer shrugged. "I do my duty to Pern. That you were Searched was a surprise to me, but when the Weyr asks, who am I to refuse? Besides, it was for the best. It was time that you and Elana went your separate ways."

The greenrider frowned at that. Being separated from her twin was the hardest thing that had ever happened, up to and including the first time Imarith rose, or the first time she flew to meet Thread. But as Palinon spoke she realized that she hadn't forgiven her father for it. She kicked a pebble on the flagstone with her toe and sent it skittering across the courtyard. "The day I was Searched was the worst day of my life." Hopefully that would hurt him.

But her father only sighed. "We do what must be done. But I have given my child to the Weyr and done my duty. I will not give them another."

Alina sat up a little straighter. "Wait... you think Palbran will be Searched too?"

"They say dragonriding runs in families," Palinon said simply. "He is my only son. I need him here, on the farm."

"But if he's Searched, he gets to choose whether or not he wants to Stand. Not you." She narrowed her eyes. "Unlike when you sent me. You made that decision without even asking what I wanted."

"I'm your father. I know best for my family. What's best for you isn't what is best for Palbran." Her father's voice took on a steely edge. "He'll be twelve Turns tomorrow. He's already talking about dragonriding because of you, but that's no future. He's better off here with us on the farm or learning a Craft. I already worry every time Thread falls, and I will not worry for two of you."

Across the courtyard Imarith was settling herself into a bright green lump and spreading her wings to catch the sun. "If you truly worried, you wouldn't have sent me away." Alina felt a stab of guilt as she watched her. If she hadn't gone, then who knew what would have happened to Imarith... but it wasn't enough to gentle her resentment toward her father. "Your worry doesn't change the fact that it's highly likely that I won't come back some day."

"I know. And I'm sorry for that." He put a hand on her shoulder, but Alina flinched away. He sighed, hiding the flash of hurt her actions caused. "I wanted a proper life for you, but we have a duty to Pern... and sometimes that duty requires that I sacrifice my daughter."

"But not your son," she said bitterly.

"But not my son," Palinon said heavily. "The Weyr asks too much in tithe if they take him too. I need him here. The entire Cothold needs him here. We lost so many young men to the Searchriders when they came..."

**He thinks that I'm expendable.** It wasn't a new thought, but it stung to have Palinon confirm it. Alina stared at her hands, neatly folded in her lap, as her skirts pooled around her ankles. The tips of her riding boots peeped out from beneath the edge of the plain blue fabric. She took a deep breath. "You don't know if Palbran might be Searched or not. The dragons decide and we comply. It's the law."

"That may be the case, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that he isn't Searched. As will you," Palinon told her. "You will not land. He can go to the Weyr but he will see it from the air. Fly past the golden queen dragons and show him the Star Stones. Take him up the coast to look at the sea. He will be happy."

Alina grit her jaw and wondered if she could land anyway. Was Palbran old enough to keep a secret...? Defying her father would serve him right. It would serve him right if Palbran was Searched. "What about Elana?" she asked after a moment.

"What about her?"

"Is that why you won't send her to foster at Emerald Falls Hold? Because you want to keep her here at the Cothold?"

Palinon shook his head. "That's an entirely different matter."

"You should send her. There's nothing for her here." Alina pursed her lips and stared across the courtyard at the dozing Imarith. "Who would she marry here? You know as well as I do that there's no one who could give her a happy life. You already ruined my future. Don't do the same to her."

Palinon was silent for a long moment. "We have a duty to Pern. Sometimes that means giving up our own happiness for a greater good."

The greenrider pursed her lips angrily. "Will you send Elana to foster?"

"That is a decision that your mother and I will make together, not you."

"Send Elana to foster." She turned to glare at her father. "You owe her. You owe _me_."

"It has nothing to do with that--"

"Then why won't you?!"

Palinon shook his head. "Because Elana is too immature and wouldn't represent this family well to the Holders at the main Hold. She can be petty and spoiled--"

"And whose fault is that?" Alina interjected. She saw the way that Palinon winced and felt a little surge of victory. "Elana will be fine. She's smart and pretty, and she's wasted here. No wonder she isn't always sweetness and flowers for you, and shame on you for holding her back and expecting her to be sweet tempered about it."

"I am still your father--" There was a warning in his voice.

Alina ignored it as she stood. "Then maybe you should start acting like a father," she told him. Just then Palbran appeared around the corner of the wall with a cup in his hand, trailed by an exasperated looking Elana. A good thing too-- Alina wasn't sure that she could hold her own if her father was truly angry. She was shocked that she'd stood up to him at all. Her time at the Weyr had changed her... but the thought of his anger was still frightening, and she turned back to Palinon with a contrite expression. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I won't land. I promise I won't. But... think about what's best for Elana. Please."

Palinon was tight-lipped as he nodded.

Palbran raced up and held up the glass. "Fresh and cold from the well! Drink it fast so that we can go."

"Mother said that she'll have a cake waiting for when you get back," Elana said. "It's a restday-- you can stay for cake?"

Alina winked at Elana over the edge of her water glass. "I can stay for cake." Her smile slipped. If she'd done her duty well, then perhaps this would be the last time her whole family would be together. Elana would go to Emerald Falls and there would never be another afternoon quite like this one, with Imarith dozing in the courtyard and a homemade cake to share with her entire family. She glanced at Palinon, but her father's expression was unreadable, any sign of his earlier displeasure with her hidden.

"Hurry up!" Palinon took her hand and tugged her toward where Imarith lay. "It's my birthingday!"

Last updated on the March 4th 2016

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