Everything You Say to Me (3/3)

Writers: Aaron, Avery, Curious, Heather
Date Posted: 1st March 2024
Series: The Disaster at Dragonsfall

Characters: Kadira, K'don, L'val, Naradis, Saibra
Description: Things between Naradis and Kadira come to a head in an explosive confrontation.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 25 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Cyradis, K'deren, N'vanik, K'sedel
Everything You Say To Me series

K'don

Saibra

Lâ€™val had been in his office working on a report when he felt a wash
of distress too strong to ignore pass through him. He dropped his
filter and briefly heard an amount of general draconic chatter, but
the words of an angry-and-distressed dragonet were very clear â€" a
weyrling mind, bright and high, screaming to have their pain
addressed. And he recognized the mind, young Ishath with the female
rider. **What is happening?** he asked the blue.

Kadira's sympathy for Naradis asking because it was personal to her
was rapidly waning. She'd started to feel sympathetic about not
knowing if she could Impress because of her sexuality. But now she got
angry again. Violently, furiously angry.

"You _are_ being colorist," she snapped at Naradis. "It will never be
good enough for you to be your personal best self, is it? No, everyone
has to see you being the best. See you being extraordinary. It sounds
like all you care about is becoming famous. And that being famous is
tied to dragon hide color for some sharding reason to you. If you
Impressed a green, you could do something extraordinary, because _you_
did it. You could be special for your actions, not for just having
gold hide or blue."

She spun and kicked the tray that she'd dropped violently and it
skidded loudly across the stone. The klah fell over and soaked the
ground. Then she wheeled back to Naradis, fury in her clenched fists.

Ishath reared up and mantled his wings, his eyes progressing from
yellow-orange into red and his foreclaws gauging at the stone. He
reached out to Maciath who was right there. }:Get her out of here! My
rider is not okay!:{ cried the tiny blue, unaware of how.

**Kyverth-** But his bronze knew his mind, and Kyverth was already
exerting all the pressure he could bring as a bronze to calm the blue.

Lâ€™val leapt to his feet and began running to the hatching ground,
knowing exactly where they were. He reached out directly to the
Weyrwomanâ€™s gold. Normally he had Kyverth speak to other dragons to be
polite â€" but what he was feeling from Ishath was too distressing to
ignore, and his bronze was fully occupied.

**Chioneth, there is _a situation_ at the Hatching Grounds and you
need to help hold Ishath here immediately and your rider needs to come
intervene.**

There was a spark of surprise passed to L'val from Chionth. Surprise
that he had spoken to her. No one ever directly spoke to her but her
rider. }:We come at once.:{

Unaware that leadership was on their way, Kadira clenched her fists
and snarled, "So I'm sorry if green isn't good enough for you, but
that's a *you* problem. Maybe that fecking attitude is why you haven't
Impressed yet. Because you are. Too. Fecking. Selfish. for a dragon!"
Her tone was contemptuous and incensed all at once.

}:We will take her away. Everything will be all right, little one:{

A nudge from Maciath broke K'don from the paralysis of his shock at
Kadira's escalation. He stepped in between the two young women and
faced his sister, switching into weyrlingmaster's assistant mode.

"Naradis, you have to stop, do not answer her againâ€" I am dead
serious." There was a confidence and authority to his voice that few
had ever heard before. "You're going to make Ishath panic. Drop it.
We're leaving. Now." He never should have brought her in the first
place. But if they did not leave before another adult dragon took
notice and ordered Maciath to stay, they were going to get into big
trouble.

K'don was going to be in deep trouble.

}:We are sorry, little one. We never meant for this to happen. We only
wanted to help,:{ said Maciath.

K'don's words went completely ignored. There was absolutely no chance
of anything else happening. From the second Kadira brought Naradis'
failure to impress into it, the deal was done. She stepped around her
brother to snarl at Kadira, fury wafting off of her in waves.

"You have no _fecking_ right to your words," she spat. "You don't know
what it's like in my shoes, you don't get to judge me when you've had
the world handed to you on a silver platter and are too much of an
_ignorant, cowardly brat_, to appreciate it. Maybe I haven't impressed
yet but you know what, Kadira?"

Naradis paused for an instant as she leaned in, eyes blazing with the
sort of anger that could only spawn from a deep, unspeakable hurt.
"You don't _deserve_ your dragon. Keep it up, and I'm sure that the
rest of Pern will realize it as well."

The roar of a bronze dragon echoed loudly around the weyrbowl as a
large bronze landed right next to Maciath and, eyes orange,
said}:Stop. You may not leave:{

Lâ€™val arrived at the scene, skidding to a halt. He had missed Kadiraâ€™s
last words but he heard Naradisâ€™ last words.

The world had been _forced onto her_ and sheâ€™d never asked for it.
With all her insecurities about herself laid bare, Kadiraâ€™s furious
anger at Naradis not seeing why she hated this was matched by a
horrible stab of pain as the raw pain of the self-doubt of what sheâ€™d
been fearing since the moment she Impressed. She didnâ€™t want this
specialness forced on her and maybe she didnâ€™t deserve it, maybe they
were freaks, maybe she shouldnâ€™t be here. Maybe they should justâ€¦ Her
vision greyed out at the edges with the strength of her feelings and
she swayed heavily on her feet, gasping for air. She needed to get
away. Her and Ishath.

Ishath felt his rider retreating into some horrible place and his eyes
were now full red. He wanted to strike out at the one hurting his
rider, but his rider was falling away and wanted to go away. He knew
how to take them away â€" if he could just get his rider to grab him -

Kyverth and Lâ€™val felt the blueâ€™s half-formed intent and Kyverth
increased his mental pressure as Lâ€™val spun around just as the
weyrling swayed, catching her before she could fall to the ground.
Holding her limp form in his arms, he spun to Naradis. â€œCandidate!â€ he
snapped shortly. â€œYou shouldnâ€™t even be at this Weyr. You are not
allowed to speak to a Dragonsfall _dragonrider_ this way. Shut up
immediately before you literally kill her.â€

A shadow washed over the unlikely group before the thud of Chioneth's
hulking form landing at top speed sent a tremor through the ground.
The queen's eyes whirled crimson as a startling snarl rumbled from her
chest through her clenched jaws. The audacity that someone would
disturb one of _her_ dragons? In _her_ Weyr?

}:Ishath,:{ Chioneth's voice was wrapped in authority, }:you will
remain where you are. Calm yourself.:{ She didn't speak to Maciath but
snarled in the brown's direction.

Maciath prostrated himself beside Chioneth as much as he could and
closed his eyes. He had failed. He did not deserve to be spoken to.

Saibra came from around Chioneth at a run, still in her flight
leathers from practice drills. As she approached the odd group of
people, her brow furrowed, eyes zeroing in on a familiar face.
**Naradis?** she recognized Cyradis' daughter easily.

"L'val," she spoke to the Wingleader first, who was cradling Kadira.
Her eyes then snapped to the young Dolphin Cove rider, K'deren's son.
"Someone had better start explaining. Right now."

At the pressure of the senior gold added to that of the bronze,
Ishath's eyes went down to a wary yellow color, and he dropped
himself to the ground to lie flat. He turned his head to his rider.

L'val walked over towards Ishath and leaned Kadira against her
dragon's hide. Kneeling next to them and keeping his hand pressed
against the weyrling, who had started shaking and didn't seem aware of
the people around her, he looked up and answered the Weyrwoman's
question.

"This pair came over from Dolphin Cove to speak to Kadira about how
unusual her Impression was. Kadira began feeling overwhelmed by her
emotions and it bled over to her dragonet. I heard Ishath's distress
and realized it was getting severe enough I needed to ask Kyverth to
hold and called Chioneth. By the time I got here, the girl said some
truly horrific things about her in my hearing, and without Chioneth I
don't know if we could have held Ishath here."

K'don knew it was true already, but hearing those words set tears to
falling silently down his cheeks.

"Why wouldn't you listen to me?" If she had listened, this never would
have happened.

If K'don had thought this through, this never would have happened.

**This is all my fault.**

Saibra's brow furrowed even further as she cut her eyes at Naradis.
"What were you thinking?! You're _weyrbred_, you know how fragile
young dragonets are. No! Don't even answer that," she seethed, one
finger held up, her voice biting and sharp. "If Ishath had gone
/between/...." Saibra left the words dangling in her anger as she
considered the possibilities of what could have happened. "In all my
Turns, I have never heard of something so reckless, dimwitted, or
self-absorbed."

"Brownrider," she snapped at K'don. "You and your dragon will leave
Dragonsfall _immediately_. For the foreseeable future, consider
yourself banned from this Weyr. When I am less angry, and let me
assure you, I'll hold this grudge for a while, I'll notify your
Wingleader that you're permitted back."

K'don's eyes widened, and his heart sank into his boots. He really had
no reason to come back, but the fact that someone had seen fit to ban
him from a weyr was devastating. Nevertheless, he forced himself to
remain composed â€" apart from the wet cheeks â€" and he saluted.

"Yes, ma'am." He could apologize, but there was no way it would seem
anything other than useless and hollow. If he was going to find a way
to make up for this, he would have to do it through proper channels.
Just as he should have consulted someone with a bit more maturity
before he flew his sister across the world to do... whatever all this
was.

}:I am glad that I don't have to bear her back,:{ said Maciath. }:I
am... WROTH that she did this to you.:{

**We'll talk about it later, Mash.** He mounted up and went to admit
to his grandfather what he had done before anyone could tattle on him.

Saibra took a breath. "Wingleader, see to Kadira. When she's cleared
by a mindhealer, she may return to her Weyr. Stay with her until I
send someone else to keep her company."

Then she turned her eyes back on Naradis. "And you. I'll personally
escort you back to Dolphin Cove."

Again, K'don went ignored. Kadira's distress went ignored. Naradis'
world was eclipsed into a supernova of rage, for all that it was all
she could hold onto to keep from falling into a pit of her own
insecurities and fears, a fall from which she may never recover.

"I don't _care_ that she's a rider, I'm not going to roll over and let
her say whatever she wants," Naradis spat at L'val. "Your precious
little bluerider said that I don't deserve to impress _first_, along
with a bunch of other stuff that I would have _punched_ her for if not
for her dragon. If she can't handle someone biting back, she should
have kept her sharding mouth _shut_."

With that, she turned to Saibra, tilting her head up and looking the
Weyrwoman head on. "I'm not apologizing. Call my mother, pull me out
of candidacy, stake me out for Thread - I don't sharding care. It
doesn't fecking _matter_ anymore. But that bitran deserved every word
I said."

Saibra's face showed no emotion, but her eyes blazed. "I didn't ask
for an apology." Nor did Saibra care for Naradis' theatrics. **Cyradis
and N'vanik can have fun with this one.** "Now, get on the dragon."

Chioneth lowered herself, extending a leg to allow a guest to ride.

"Whatever you say," Naradis sneered as she mounted Chioneth. "Anything
to give you more time to fuss over your perfect, blameless little
bluerider."

Because Kadira was the one with a dragon, so Faranth knew she was the
only one anyone would care about.

Including her own family.

Last updated on the March 5th 2024

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Everything You Say to Me (3/3)