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Writers: Devin, Estelle
Date Posted: 13th June 2020

Characters: R'fal, T'lin
Description: R'fal talks to T'lin about his latest troubles
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 17 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Y'gel, N'vanik

Sorry it's late!

T'lin

R'fal had been avoiding the dining cavern as much as possible since his
father's trial. Tired out after an afternoon in the dragon infirmary, he
wanted nothing more than to return to his weyr. But he had night watch
starting soon, and if he fell asleep on duty, he'd only earn more
punishments. Keeping his head down, he poured himself a mug of strong
klah and found a table in a quiet corner to wait.

T'lin spotted his clutchmate and waved. "Hey R'fal. Haven't seen you
for a while."

Lost in his thoughts, it was a moment before R'fal realised the
bluerider was speaking to him. "Oh - hey, T'lin." He tried to remember
the last time they'd spoken. It felt like Turns since they'd been
weyrlings together. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog in his
mind. "Sorry. Long day. Looks like I needed this klah more than I thought."

T'lin slid into a seat. "What have you been up to... Oh, wait. Did you
want to be alone?"

"Oh - no. Sorry. I'm just..." R'fal grimaced. "Punishment duties. That's
what I've been doing. I got into trouble, and I've been in the dragon
infirmary most of the time."

T'lin grimaced in sympathy. "That's rough. Kinda hard to imagine you
getting in trouble though. You did pretty good in weyrling training."
It was a way to ask without actually asking.

"Well, besides that party," R'fal said, with a wince. It was true,
though, he'd not been in any other trouble besides that. And as bad as
that had been at the time, at least the Weyrleader hadn't been involved.
"I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to. I knew I shouldn't have, but I
couldn't stay here, doing nothing. I thought I could just take a look,
that it wouldn't do any harm."

T'lin wasn't a huge gossip, but some of his friends were and it wasn't
hard to make some connections and guess what R'fal was talking about,
especially with that comment about "doing nothing". Had he actually
_gone_ to a prison mine to look for his father? "Looking usually isn't
a problem, but that depends on _what_ you're looking at."

"I should have just kept quiet about it. But what I saw...I couldn't
stop thinking about it. I had to tell someone. And Master Y'gel was
there, and he knew something was wrong." The brownrider stared down at
his klah. "He said I should tell the Weyrleader what I'd done. That was
a big mistake."

"Oof, the Weyrleader? Good thing you still have your hide."

"Actually, it was worse than that. I'm confined to the Weyr for two
months. So I can't see my Ma, or my brother and sister..." R'fal sighed
heavily. "It doesn't seem fair. He wouldn't stop a weyrbred rider from
seeing their family."

"Oh that's rough. I'd hate it if I couldn't see my family for that
long." Even during junior Weyrlinghood T'lin had been able to have his
family visit a few times thanks to having lots of dragonrider friends.
"Hey, did he say you can't see your family at all, or just that _you_
can't leave the Weyr?"

"He said I had to stay in the Weyr. I didn't mention my family, I didn't
want to make it worse by complaining. But it's the same thing, isn't it?"

"No it's not." T'lin smiled. "That means your family can still come _here_."

R'fal blinked, forgetting his misery for a moment. That hadn't occurred
to him. "But my family - they're not rich or important or anything. They
couldn't ask for a dragonrider to bring them here."

The bluerider rubbed his chin. "Ah, that's true. And of course _you_
don't know any dragonriders, do you? Such a shame."

"Well...yes, but if I asked someone..." He looked embarrassed. With all
that had happened over the last few months, R'fal hadn't really got
close to any of his wingmates, and he was still very aware of being the
youngest and least useful rider in his Wing. Besides, they likely all
knew he had a father in prison. Who would want to go into a den of
thieves? "Maybe they wouldn't want to."

T'lin laughed. "Oh shards... okay. I'm going to spare you the torment
and offer. I could bring your family. Well... a few of them, Calaroth
can only carry so many."

"Really? You wouldn't mind?" For the first time, life returned to
R'fal's eyes and he sat up a bit straighter. "Thank you, T'lin. This
means a lot."

"No problem. Just don't forget you have friends, okay?" T'lin reached
over to pat his arm.

The brownrider smiled, a little embarrassed. He'd hardly seen any of his
friends from their weyrling days since his graduation, even though
Marlath had mentioned they were asking about him. "I won't." He drained
the rest of his klah and sighed. "I'd better get to my night watch.
Don't want to end up getting more of it."

"Let's get together when you have a little more free time, okay?"
T'lin was worried that R'fal was isolating himself, maybe had been for
a while.

"All right." R'fal wondered if his clutchmate knew about his father.
Would he even want to spend time together, if he did? Perhaps he should
say something, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it and risk
losing T'lin's friendship. He managed a wan smile. "That might not be
for a while, though. You know the Weyrleader. He's made sure that free
time is the last thing I have, for the time being."

T'lin made a face. "Well, I'll be waiting for you on the other side."

"Thanks, T'lin." He waved, then turned and made his way out of the
dining cavern to join Marlath on the heights. Despite the prospect of a
long and lonely night's watch, he thought of seeing his family, and felt
a little more hopeful that he'd been before.

Last updated on the August 17th 2020

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