Welcome to the Family (2/2)

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 3rd June 2022

Characters: Alyena, R'ayl, Evalya
Description: Alyena and R'ayl share their stories
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 9, day 18 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: J'ackt

R'ayl ran, dodging past a startled greenrider and threw himself into his
mother's arms, felt her enfold him with his sister in a tight hug. For a
moment, everything around them, the Weyr, faded away and the three of
them were together again. "Mama! Evalya!"

"Furayl..." Alyena's eyes stung with tears. She corrected herself.
"R'ayl. Oh, you've grown!" He was almost up to her shoulders now, and
there was a lightness in his step that hadn't been there before. "You
look so well."

"The Weyrhealer said I had to eat meat! And vegetables, and then I'll be
strong, like the others..." R'ayl stopped. "Mama, I'm sorry. I know I
promised not to come here. But I was Searched, and Master Shuvan said I
should go, that I could help bring change and clear Grevan's name. And
then the greenrider said there could be a dragon for me..."

"It doesn't matter. It's all right." Alyena stroked his hair, wondering.
Master Shuvan? "You're safe and free, that's all that matters."

She was interrupted by a warbling sound, that ended in something like a
hiccup. Alyena looked over her son's shoulder and her eyes went wide. A
blue hatchling was seated there on his hind legs, his head tilted to one
side and his tail twitching as he regarded them with an inquisitive gaze.

Evalya gave a squeak of surprise and half-retreated behind her mother,
staring at the dragonet's gleaming claws. R'ayl hastened to reassure them.

"It's okay! He's friendly. Hatchlings are only dangerous when they're
trying to get to their Candidate on the Sands," he said, repeating what
he'd learned in class. "His name is Delorth." The boy stepped back,
resting a hand lightly on the blue's head. He looked thoroughly guilty
and defiant and proud all at once, suddenly looking very like Grevan at
that age, when he'd been caught after some foolish escapade and knowing
the scolding was worth the achievement.

Somehow, even seeing the sleeping dragonet hadn't prepared her for the
reality of the two of them together. Her son was a dragonrider.

Alyena stepped forward and slowly, held out a hand. The little blue
dragonet trilled and raised his head, bumping his snout against her
palm. His hide was soft and sun-warmed, and she felt the tickle of his
breath as he snuffled like a young canine or runner. One day, this
little creature would be a fully-grown dragon like the ones who watched
from the heights, and her son would be his rider.

"Welcome to our family, Delorth," she said, and brushed her fingers over
the delicate hide between his glowing eyes.

"Can I touch him?" Evalya hobbled forward, her fears forgotten in her
excitement.

"Yes! He likes to be scratched, right here." R'ayl guided her hand to
Delorth's eye-ridge. He wondered how she'd hurt her ankle, and now,
looking up at his mother, he saw that the whole left side of her face
was darkened, black and purple with bruising, and there were marks on
her throat as well. "Mama? What happened?"

Alyena raised a hand to her cheek. "Nothing, it's just..." she began,
then thought again. Her son was a young man now, and he'd been chosen
for a new life as a dragonrider. He needed to know. "The farm, our home.
It was burned down."

"Burned?" His eyes went wide.

"Men came, who - they think - " She watched as Evalya knelt beside
Delorth, happily scratching at his eye-ridge while he hummed in
pleasure. "I heard that something was going to happen at the Hatching,
and I warned the bronzerider, the one who was bringing us the food."

"A bronzerider? That food really did come from the Weyr?" R'ayl felt as
though the world had reversed itself and he hardly knew up from down.
Nothing had been as he'd thought it was.

"Yes. His name is J'ackt, rider of Zith. He and his weyrmate came to
help us. The cothold was set on fire by men who - I suppose they were
involved in the plan, and they thought I'd betrayed them."

"But he was the one who Grevan..."

"I know. I don't altogether understand it myself." Alyena reached out,
touched his back. "He didn't want us to starve, after Grevan was gone.
He felt responsible. He wasn't what we thought."

Delorth looked up at them, with another of his inquiring trills.

"Sorry, Delorth. I just heard something surprising, that's all. It's not
bad, I don't think." His voice sounded uncertain, and he focused on
their link. ** Someone I was afraid of is - I don't know any more. ** He
was still afraid, truthfully. He needed time to think. "Then what you
warned him about, at the Hatching, was it what happened to us?"

Piece by piece, the story came out - the Search, the poisoning of
Delorth and how the Master Dragonhealer had saved his life. Enali being
at the Weyr, and how he'd defended her and talked back to the
Weyrleader, which he still couldn't quite believe he'd done. There
wasn't time for much more than the bare details before a ripple ran
through the group of weyrlings, and they began to escort their sleepy
dragonets back towards the barracks, to settle them before class.

}: We must go, :{ Delorth said reluctantly, nudging his head against
Evalya's hand. }: Will they come back? I like them. :{

** Yes, they will. ** R'ayl looked up at his mother. "I have to go." He
didn't know how he'd ever manage to concentrate in class now, not with
so much to think about. "Will you be all right?"

"Yes, they said we could stay a few days at least, until Evalya's ankle
is better." She didn't mention that she'd no idea what would happen
then. R'ayl didn't need to worry about that now. "Go. Don't keep the
Weyrlingmaster waiting. I'll see you later, perhaps."

R'ayl smiled at her, that warm, guileless smile that was not Grevan's
but all his own, and then he hurried off in the wake of his classmates,
the little blue at his heels with his clumsy gait.

Alyena watched him go, then she and her daughter started back towards
the Lower Caverns, to see if they could find their way back to that
guest room. Evalya needed to rest her ankle, and she needed to think, to
decide what they would do. Now she knew that the burning of her cothold
had been the least of those men's crimes. They had dared to strike at
the heart of the Weyr, to taint the hatchlings' first meal. They were
more dangerous than she could ever have imagined. If they'd do that,
nowhere in Emerald Falls would be safe for her and her daughter.

But they didn't have nothing. She had the marks, hidden in the pocket of
her old coat, and perhaps more than that - she had information, if she
used it cautiously. The dragonriders had saved her and taken care of her
son, but the memory of Grevan in the dark, that had come at waking,
remained in her mind. She couldn't trust everyone here.

Last updated on the July 15th 2022

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Welcome to the Family (2/2)