Other Dragons in the Sky

Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 12th March 2025

Characters: Teigan, K'lvin
Description: The two brothers catch up after Turns apart.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 5, day 1 of Turn 12

Teigan

"My little brother, living at a Weyr once again. I never thought I'd see the day." K'lvin stood at the door of the Master Healer's office, shaking his head.

Teigan didn't look up, not at first, as he was busy making notations in a patient's chart. The voice was one he hadn't heard in Turns, but he knew it was K'lvin immediately. He had grown up idolizing his brother when they were kids. The dip and slow sway of K'lvin's voice was something that Teigan had imitated enough growing up that his own voice now sounded identical.

Putting his writing utensil down, Teigan rocked back in his chair with a grin that matched K'lvin's.

"The prodigal has returned. Well, sort of," he said, his eyes dropping to K'lvin's shoulder. "_You're_ the Weyrlingmaster?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised," K'lvin answered as he sauntered in and dropped into a chair in front of Teigan's desk.

"I just vividly remember stories of your own time as a weyrling at Dragonsfall. You were in trouble constantly."

"Ah, yes, apparently, I am paying for that now. This weyrling group has been," his eyebrows lifted, "a challenge.

Teigan hadn't been at Barrier Lake long enough yet to know much about the current weyrlings.

"So being a Wingleader was too strenuous on the old ticker but being a Weyrlingmaster? That's okay?"

K'lvin made a face. "Trust me. I've now had the same thought. There's no possible way I'm less stressed now than I was before... However, I guess if I drop dead of a heart attack with the Weyrlings that's less risky than me dropping while leading a Wing during Threadfall."

Teigan's facial expression changed from that of a younger brother to that of a Master Healer. "Speaking of your heart, had a check-up recently? When's the last time you went to let the dolphins assess you?"

"It's been fine," K'lvin said with a lift of his hand to stay his brother's concern. "I've graduated to annual physicals and I've not had any further episodes since leaving Dolphin Cove."

The healer's eyebrow lifted. "You think you could go back into a fighting Wing?"

"I've changed my diet and exercise. I don't think I would be a risk to a Wing any more. Especially if a healer," here he looked pointedly at Teigan, "cleared me."

"Would you _want_ to go back to a Wing?"

K'lvin thought about that. "Maybe. I do miss it. Leading a Wing, that is. I would at least like it to be an option for my future, should a Weyrleader ask it of me."

Teigan nodded. "Well, if you go have a dolphin give you a once over, I'll clear you."

The bronzerider sighed. "Fine. I'll go down there. Even though dolphins kind of freak me out."

Teigan barked out a laugh. "They _what_?!"

"Their slippery melon heads give me the heebie-jeebies."

His big brother, the bronzerider, afraid of dolphins! Even though they had only kept up with one another with a letter here and there over the Turns, Teigan was glad that fate had brought them back together once again.

"I'd like to introduce you to my weyrmate sometime," Teigan said.

"Ah, yes, Thiseta? How did you manage that? I didn't think you'd settle down again after Emrina." K'lvin remembered the entire sordid affair with Teigan's first wife from the letter Teigan had written.

"I had no plans on another relationship. I just happened to meet Thiseta in the infirmary and -"

"Wait, wait," K'lvin interrupted. "Are you about to tell me you fell for a _patient_? That sounds like one of those stories from those smutty harper novels." The kind that he sometimes read.

Teigan laughed, but his cheeks reddened a bit. "It wasn't quite like _that_. We knew each other for a couple turns after meeting before things turned serious."

"Wow. My baby brother, who left the Weyr and found life at the Hold _so much better_, follows a goldrider to a new Weyr. I'm amazed."

"Life has a way of making you do things you swore you never would," Teigan mused, but a hint of his smile remained. He regretted nothing in his choices with Thiseta. If she broke his heart, as Emrina had, then it was a chance he was willing to take.

"What about you and... what was her name? Riveenata?"

K'lvin's smile dimmed a little and his eyes lost some of their amusement. "It didn't work out, sadly."

Teigan's laughter faded as well. "I'm sorry to hear that... Was the split amicable?"

"Yes. I want only the best for her.... And if that's with someone else, or someplace else, then she should pursue that. I would never want to hold her back. The last thing I would want to be in a relationship is dead weight."

The sadness in the Weyrlingmaster's tone surprised Teigan. He remembered that earlier in K'lvin's life he had been quite a bedhopper. "Ah, well, there's more fish in the sea? Or dragons in the sky? Whatever you lot say."

K'lvin's laughter returned. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that, but you're right." A mental image of his newest staff member, Viseya, flashed briefly before his mind's eye. There certainly were other 'dragons in the sky,' he thought.

Last updated on the March 20th 2025

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