What A Day

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 17th December 2017

Characters: R'fal, Gienah
Description: Renfal and Gienah talk about their new lives as candidates.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 6 of Turn 9

Renfal had hardly had a moment to think since he'd got to Dolphin Cove Weyr. It certainly felt like he hadn't stopped moving. He'd been told about the Candidates' schedule and a list of rules, which he'd forgotten almost immediately since his thoughts had been in too much of a whirl to take
anything in. Then, he'd been marched through a series of storerooms with one of the headwoman's assistants, each larger than the last and overflowing with an astonishing variety of goods, in search of clothing and other essentials
since he'd arrived with nothing but the worn and dusty shirt and trousers he'd been wearing to tend to the ovines. The woman had not asked why his parents hadn't sent so much as a change of clothes with him, but she'd given him a speculative look that made him want to protest that he was neither too poor for decent clothes, nor from a family that didn't respect the Weyr.

He hadn't said anything, though. He wasn't quite sure how to explain when he didn't really understand it himself.

Then there had been dinner, in another huge cavern that was nevertheless crammed with people and noisier than Holder Galveden's Turn's End celebration party after the wine barrel had been tapped, even though as far as he could tell, it was just an ordinary evening in the Weyr. There had been dragonriders everywhere, confident in their wingrider's knots, some bearing signs of Threadscore on their faces and arms. He'd had to remind himself not to
stare. At least the food was good, and there was plenty of it.

Now they had a short time to themselves before lights out in the barracks. Some of the other boys were talking with friends or playing games, while others were writing or doing what looked like craft work. Renfal wasn't usually shy but he'd never had to face so many strangers at once before, especially after such a momentous day, and he decided instead to find a quiet place to sit and collect his thoughts.

After a while, he saw the other Candidate from his home emerging from the barracks, looking about as lost as he did. He didn't know Gienah that well - she was a few Turns younger than him, the daughter of one of the herders who'd come to work with them for a season, and he had a vague idea that she was studious and knew a lot on account of having once lived in a hold that was prosperous enough to have a harper all Turn round. Still, he was so glad to see a familiar face that he waved and called over to her.

Gienah's freckled face broke into a relieved smile and she joined him where he sat on a sun-warmed bench, looking out across the Weyr bowl towards the beach. For a moment, they looked at each other in mutual amazement at where they'd both ended up.

"What a day!" Renfal said eventually, and laughed at his own understatement.

"Yes! Isn't it strange to think that this time yesterday we had no idea what was coming?"

"We were in the hold, doing chores - "

"I was scrubbing pots in the kitchen - "

"And I was feeding the canines. Now look where we are." He gestured towards the cliffs. As they looked up, a blue dragon emerged from one of the cliff weyrs, spread his wings and glided down towards the pens across the bowl, his shadow falling across them as he passed overhead.

"It's wonderful." Gienah sighed. "Though from what I've heard, I don't think we're going to get out of scrubbing and feeding while we're here."

"I never thought there'd be chores in the Weyr. But with so many people - and dragons - well, I guess someone has to do them, and that someone is us."

"Even if we do Impress, they say it doesn't stop. A dragonet's a lot of work..." Her eyes brightened - as if that would put anyone off! "Imagine if we do - Impress, I mean."

"Imagine if you Impress the gold," Renfal said, more in the spirit of the games of "what if" he'd played with his younger siblings than in any anticipation of reality. What if we find a hidden chest of marks in the woods, left there by bandits? What if you turned out to be the long-lost son of a Lord? What if our new foal grows up to win all the races at the Gather?

Gienah, though, didn't seem to think it was all that fantastical an idea. After all, they had been Searched - there was a chance. "Maybe you'll Impress a bronze, like Tonuth!"

"Maybe!" He grinned. "Though it could be any of the colours, except the gold, of course. Most likely it'll be green - they're the most numerous." He blinked, puzzled, as the girl stifled a giggle. "What?"

"Oh - nothing. Only I was talking to this other Candidate at dinner, and she said that male greenriders..." She hesitated, then lowered her voice to a confidential whisper. "They love other men."

"They what?"

"They sleep together!"

Renfal felt his cheeks growing hot, and was very grateful that the fading evening light hid his blushes. He'd never heard of such a thing. "But that's...are you sure she wasn't having you on? Making up a story to tell the gullible holder?"

"Maybe, but it makes sense, when you think about it. What else do you suppose happens when a blue or a brown wins a green's mating flight?"

"Er...I hadn't thought about it, as a matter of fact."

"The other Candidates didn't tell you about any of this?"

"Well, I asked them about classes and weyrling training and what the Hatching's like. Sensible things, not men and mating flights!" He was grateful, though, that he'd heard that particular bit of information from a fellow holder rather than making an idiot of himself in front of the Weyrbred boys. What if he _did_ Impress green? Would he have to...? His imagination failed him at that point, unused to fantasising about anyone other than hold girls in general and Holder Lewin's daughter in particular.

"Oh, and also, they don't have to get married here," Gienah went on, undeterred. "I mean, some people do - but not dragonriders. Some of them have weyrmates, but if they change their minds, they just move out and that's the end of it. And, anyone who does get married chooses their own partner, rather than their parents doing it. Isn't that strange?"

"I guess. But it's not as though they have to pass a holding on to their children. I'm the heir, so when I go back, whoever I marry will have to help run the hold one day. Can't blame my parents for wanting a say in that." If he still
was heir. His father had objected very strongly to the Search and he still hadn't the faintest idea why.

"Um, Renfal...you do know that if you Impress, you won't be going back, don't you?" Gienah smiled, but there was a serious undercurrent in her voice. "You can't take a dragonet back to the farm."

"Oh - yes, of course..." He contemplated that idea for a moment. Not going back - ever! It was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying, much like all of the other experiences he'd had today. "Lots of the other boys have dragonriders in their family, or they're crafters, so they must be really smart. People like that are bound to Impress before someone like me. Not that there's any shame in
being a herder," he added hastily. "If it wasn't for us, there'd be a lot of hungry dragons around here."

"You know what? If I don't Impress, I think maybe I'd like to stay. I could even apprentice to a craft, if they'd take me. Haven't you ever thought that there must be something more than spending the rest of your life on the farm?"

"Well...no. I mean, I wanted to travel, but I always thought I'd go back in the end. Grandda always used to say we were like links in a chain. I'd grow up, and help my Da, and then one day I'd have my own farm and pass it on to my children and grandchildren. There's something to be proud of in that." Sensing he was sounding a little too serious - if not pompous - he pulled a wry face. "Anyway, can you see me as a dragonrider, like in the ballads?"

"Not really," she teased. "But Degrorth did. You don't want to disrespect her opinion, do you?"

"Oh, no! Definitely not." They both laughed. "Well, all we can do is wait and see."

They subsided into companionable silence for a while, both wondering what the Hatching might bring, until Renfal noticed the other Candidates were beginning to wander back towards the barracks. "Better go back in. We don't want to get yelled at by the Weyrlingmaster on our first day."

"We certainly don't." Gienah scrambled to her feet. "See you at breakfast?"

"See you." At least, if it didn't all turn out to be a dream and he woke up back in his bed at the hold, which didn't seem all that unlikely at this point.

Back in the barracks, lying in an unfamiliar bed and wearing a borrowed nightshirt, sleep seemed a long way off. What would happen tomorrow? What if he _did_ Impress? And why had his Da been so angry about him going to the Weyr? No - he thought - not just angry. Scared? Was he afraid his son would die fighting Thread?

As he closed his eyes, the thought suddenly came to him that he'd never investigated what his father had been hiding, out at the edge of Holder Galveden's woods. It had poured with rain the next day and the daily round of chores hadn't given him the time to spare - and then the dragons had come. Too late now. He hoped whatever it was, it would still be there when - if? - he returned.

Last updated on the December 23rd 2017

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What A Day