Goldrider Checks In (1/2)

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 29th May 2017

Characters: Kapera, A'vel
Description: Kapera checks on A'vel.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 23 of Turn 8

Kapera

Kapera had hovered by the flight cots and watched the flight play out.
Tsogath streaked into the sky with males chasing her, a good number of
blues as well as a few browns and bronzes. Riyanth kept her eye on the
dragons participating in the flight while Kapera kept her eyes on the
flight cots. The men crowded closer in around A'vel, and then she saw
him flinch backwards and make a pained noise.
**What happened?** Kapera queried.

}:She strains her wing, but Zith will support her down,;{ Riyanth
reported to her rider.

Right after that, J'ackt stepped forward and put hands on A'vel, pulling
him into the cot. The losing riders began to step away, some into the
arms of the other women who'd been waiting around the cot to console
losing riders, other staggering away from their grasp.
Since Riyanth seemed unconcerned about the possibility of disaster
striking now that Tsogath had been caught, Kapera went back to her
duties for the Queen's Wing. She decided she'd check in on A'vel that
evening, after the flight was over and he'd had some time to recover.

- - -

Several candlemarks later, when she'd finished her work, she thought of
A'vel again and had Riyanth check on Tsogath. }:Asleep,:{ the gold reported.

Kapera got the location of his weyr. Above the Lower Caverns and midway
up - not so far from her own, she noticed. It was easy to go from her
office to the kitchens, take a plate of tiny sandwiches, and then head
for the weyr via the inside corridor. When she arrived, she rapped on
the door. "A'vel?"

A'vel had been lying in bed. He'd slunk up after - after everything - to
embed himself in a bathing pool and then scrub himself until he was
bright pink. Then he'd crept up to his weyr and laid on the bed, trying
to go to sleep, or to forget about it, but his mind just wouldn't let
him let it go. Despite the heat, he was wearing long shirt, long pants,
and wrapped up in a warm blanket, as though all of the clothes would
keep him away from earlier.

The knock on the door inspired dread and was a welcome relief at the
same time. He called, "come in."

Kapera let herself in and looked around the small weyr. "A'vel. How are
you?"

He sat bolt upright and looked startled. "Weyrwoman! I'm sorry, I didn't
expect - "

"Please, I've told you to call me Kapera," she said. "I just wanted to
check in on you."

"Thank you for thinking of us," A'vel said to her, falling into the
rhythms of polite conversation. "We're fine."

"Are you? Riyanth said Tsogath strained something." Kapera wasn't going
to let him lie to her.

"She did, but it didn't seem severe when she landed on the ledge," A'vel
said, rattled by the way that golds could casually get that information.

"Sometimes there's strains after a vigorous flight. See how she's doing
tomorrow and then see a dragonhealer if you need to," she said. "If she
has injured herself, then you don't want to let it linger untended."

"I will. I don't want her to be too hurt," A'vel said, meaning that
wholeheartedly. If he was sincere enough, maybe she'd go away...?

No such luck. Kapera had spied his endtable and set the plate down onto
it. "And how are _you_ feeling? I'm blasted sorry it was who it was who
caught her," she said, dropping into one of his seats as she spoke. "I
was hoping it'd be a bluerider for you. Or Loseth, if it had to be a
bronze."

A'vel was shocked, his mouth moving silently like a landed fish. The
idea of anyone wanting Loseth or any other bronze dragon to win the
flight of a male-ridden green was also shocking - he didn't want to
know the Weyrleader like _that_....

"I - why?" he finally managed.

"Because they would have been gentle with you. An older bronzerider has
been a dragonrider long enough to know that catching a male green
happens, and mature enough to not take any disgust they might have at
the image out on you," Kapera said.
"And of course, a bluerider would be into it and you and there's no
worry there. But young bronzeriders, especially ones so defensive of
their masculinity, that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish."

A'vel didn't say anything, but he thought the description of J'ackt as a
young hothead defensive of his masculinity seemed reasonable. "He didn't
hit me after, or anything," A'vel muttered quietly, wanting to defend
J'ackt. He hadn't done anything dishonorable.

"Did you feel unsafe with him at all?" Kapera asked

"No," A'vel said. He'd been scared that J'ackt would be violent - he did
have such a reputation from both before he came to the Weyr and after
that one incident with the guard - but the bronzerider hadn't been.

If she'd had to, she would have hauled A'vel and J'ackt up in front of
Cyradis and gotten the Weyrwoman to do something. Disgust over your
flight partner's sex was no excuse for violence or abuse. The fact that
she didn't have to start anything like that was a good outcome.
"And are you in any pain?" she asked.

He didn't answer her, and she couldn't visually check for bruising with
him all swaddled up like that.

Last updated on the June 8th 2017

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Goldrider Checks In (1/2)