Looking for Gold

Writers: Heather, Yvonne
Date Posted: 13th February 2025

Characters: Tsaera, M'kall
Description: M'kall takes Tsaera on their first date
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 2 of Turn 12

M'kall

Tsaera sat at the Star Stones overlooking Dragonsfall Weyr, wrapped in a thick sweater as Tabanirth acted as a windbreak at her back. It was evening, after drills were over and her day was done, and she'd finally made the time to meet with M'kall.

}:He has been excited to see you,:{ Tabanirth said as she watched dragons circle the weyrbowl. }:Sanderveth has told me, but he will not tell me anything else.:{ There was a small pause. }:I could make him tell me.:{

A small smile crossed Tsaera's face. **No. Surprises are nice.** It had been a long time since she'd allowed herself to be surprised by a bronzerider. Or taken anywhere by a bronzerider, let alone on a date.

M'kall was dressed sharply in a knit sweater that hugged and accentuated his trim figure. There was nothing soft or middling about this aging bronzerider. He looked as if he could step right back into his role as a Wingleader at any moment.

He saluted Tsaera with a grin as Sanderveth landed beside Tabanirth. Suspiciously, there was a bag attached to the bronze's riding straps.

"All set?"

Tsaera eyed the bag but decided not to say anything. "Ready when you are," she said as Tabanirth knelt to help her mount. The gold dragon seemed taller each passing turn.

M'kall watched her mount, admiring the strength still present in her athletic physique. Before she could catch him gawking, Sanderveth launched upward, sharing his coordinates with Tabanirth and then pulling them /between/.

--

The air above the wooded valley was warmer than Dragonsfall, but their sweaters would still serve them well down by the river which ran through the luscious gorge. There was enough widening of the river to allow their dragons to land.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" M'kall said, boots crunching against the finely pebbled ground. In the distance the roar and crash of a waterfall could be heard.

"We're south of Opal Cove, aren't we?" Tsaera pulled her gaze from the striations in the rock on the riverbank to focus on the man beside her. The air smelled like water and pine, and the sunshine was warm against her back.

"Bingo." M'kall knew she would recognize the area. One of the things he'd admired about her from afar was her intelligence. Turning to the bag he'd strapped to Sanderveth, he pulled out all of the equipment they would need to do a little river panning. "I thought we might see what we can find in the river here, if that's not too boring of a first date."

Tsaera's delighted laugh rippled through the gorge and tangled with the stream. "You brought gold panners?! This-- actually M'kall, this is a perfect way to spend a few candlemarks," she said, placing a hand on his arm. She hadn't panned for gold since she was a journeyman Smith. Shells, would she even remember how? There was a technique to it, a way to swirl the water in the bowl to wash the grit away and leave the heavier gold dust behind.

The place where she touched his arm seemed impossibly warm. Her laughter was worth the days he'd spent agonizing over where he could take her. M'kall was sure Tsaera had been taken on plenty of dinners by the sea, picnics on mountains, or to harper shows.

"I'm glad you think so. I'm afraid you'll have to teach me." His grin looked like that of a student who was caught unprepared. "I'm a healer, after all."

"It's easy enough." Tsaera walked over to the stream and dipped her fingers in, pleased to find that it was relatively warm. She sat down on a rock and began pulling her boots off. "You're going to have to get your feet wet though."

M'kall stripped off his boots and set them aside. "Already removing some clothing. This date is going faster than I had anticipated," he teased, rolling up his pant legs a bit.

}:I believe there's a sunny spot at the top of the gorge. Would you care to join me?:{ Sanderveth asked Tabanirth

}:I would.:{ The gold dragon spread her wings and leapt from the riverbed in a swirl of wind and fallen leaves.

Tsaera brushed a few leaves off her shoulder and set her boots back upright. She picked up a handful of gravel, eyeing the pebbles and smiling a little when she saw nuggets of quartz and granite. That was a good sign. Then she turned to look at the creek. "There," she said, pointing a little ways downstream. "See how the beach flattens out there, because we're on an inside corner? The stream slows and will drop its silt. Gold is heavy so the stream will drop it there, if there is gold here."

M'kall followed her out and plunged his pan down into the water and silt. Bringing it up, he began shaking it from side to side to see what would be left behind. "You know, if we're successful, maybe this is what we'll do in retirement. Gold Panning Dragonriders."

"In circles, like this." Tsaera dunked her pan and swished it carefully to wash out the mud and let the rocks start to sort themselves into layers. "If you shake it too much you'll lose your gold. And I always thought I'd go back to surveying... I suppose that's unlikely with the Pass. Do you miss crafting full time?"

"I did at first," M'kall said while dipping his pan into the water again and swirling it just the way Tsaera had shown. "But then I became wrapped up in leading a Wing and everything that brought with it. I think I just enjoy helping others, whether it's in the air, or in the infirmary. Someday, when Sanderveth decides he's done fighting Thread, I'll return to the infirmary full-time. Right now I fill in when I have time."

"I wish my own Craft was as easy to practice part time." Tsaera dropped a few of the bigger chunks of granite from her pan back into the water. "I do miss..." She trailed off. Leading a Weyr, having her dragon rise, having Pern bow before her-- she missed the power that a goldrider in her prime had. It was why she'd left River Bluff when Tabanrith stopped rising: it was too easy to hold onto well past when one should, and the wellbeing of the Weyr was too important to suffer her ego. "Prospecting in my old age has its challenges as well."

"Old age?" M'kall snorted. "You're seventy-five, not a hundred and five. You still have at least another decade before you're allowed to call yourself old." The bronzerider wondered what else Tsaera missed. Tabanirth had quit rising at a rather young age for a gold dragon. They should have had many more years in their prime. Often he had wished Sanderveth had been able to catch her when she was senior queen.

The goldrider smiled. "Very smooth M'kall, but my back disagrees with you."

"You think that was smooth? Wait until I tell you that I give excellent back rubs." The bronzerider's silver hair glinted in the sunlight as he looked up at Tsaera and winked.

She narrowed her eyes. "What about foot rubs?"

"Pro at those as well," he bragged. "Oh! Oh, hey!" He sloshed over to her, holding his pan for her to see. "What's that?"

"Where?" Tsaera squinted down at the pan. There, amidst the dirt, was a tiny glimmer of yellow half buried in grains of sand. "I think you might have struck lucky, M'kall. Or it's pyrite!"

"Pyrite?" the healer asked.

"It's fool's gold." She plucked the tiny nugget from the pan and squinted at it, then grinned. "The edges are rounded so I think it's gold. Pyrite tends to have sharper corners and have a brassier colour. We can do a proper check for you back at the Weyr to be sure but congratulations bronzerider, I think you've struck gold!"

"What can I say? I'm a natural miner, it seems. Perhaps I'll be a bronzerider-healer-miner when I retire." He smiled as he dropped the bit in a tiny pouch and then returned to the stream again. "I brought lunch when we're ready for it," M'kall said to Tsaera over his shoulder.

"Better keep panning!" They sifted through pebbles and silt for another candlemark before retreating to the shade of a tree with drooping branches that dipped into the stream. Little fish darted in between the twigs, their sides flashing silver in the sunlight. Tsaera passed a hand pie wrapped in a greasy cloth to M'kall. "Thank goodness the kitchens didn't pack us a dragontail each. I can't say I care for those much," she said, taking a bite.

"Speak for yourself. I ate four of those things the last time they were served." M'kall grinned unrepentantly. "Sanderveth says to tell you that I paid for it by being up all night with indigestion."

"I believe it," Tsaera said, wrinkling her nose. "I have to say, I am impressed with the Kitchens at Dragonsfall. Given how cold it is here all the time, I thought that there'd be far less fresh food than there is. I was prepared to miss fruit."

M'kall nodded his agreement as he chewed on the hand pie. "Dragonsfall has been surprisingly pleasant. I thought I would hate it. And maybe I did at the beginning, if I'm honest. But I've gotten used to the cold. The heated systems in the weyrs make a difference and there's something about the rugged cliffs and the waterfall.... It's peaceful. After everything at River Bluff, peaceful has been nice."

Tsaera smiled a bit. "Pern is not a kind place, is it. Thread, volcanoes, earthquakes, waves that take out Holds... I will take peace wherever I can find it."

The bronzerider turned and looked at Tsaera. He lifted his cup, "To peace, wherever we can find it."

Last updated on the February 18th 2025

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Looking for Gold