A Better Way (1/3)
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Corrin, Duskdog
Date Posted: 10th September 2025
Characters: Sybana, Zaphare
Description: Sybana asks for help
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 8, day 5 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: T’lonas, Saibra, Nosarre, Sanvi, Alengar
Sybana had been putting it off for as long as she dared, always finding another reason -- an errand, a lesson, a sudden fatigue -- but the days had swiftly winnowed away and now the healers were saying that the greens of the class would be rising soon. Golds were typically slower to reach reproductive maturity, but with Galgaith growing so fast, so large, the healers could only guess as to how long she had left. And what then?
She could not face her first time in the heat and madness of a mating flight.
All this time, she’d _thought_ she was prepared to lay with a man she barely knew. It was what she’d been raised all her life to expect-- but there was more at stake now. There was her duty to Galgaith, to the Weyr. She would never forgive herself if her inexperience hurt her dragon in some way. Nor would she be able to face the weyr.
As T’lonas and Saibra kept gently reminding her, she really had to _get it done_.
But who could she ask? Honestly, she didn’t know any of the men of the weyr very well. There was L’kayric or perhaps A’ris, but could she count on them to know much more than she did? Sybana prided herself in not being terribly romantic in these matters and she was willing to endure almost anything for the sake of Duty, but she remembered the warnings of her female classmates. She didn’t want their mutual inexperience to make it a painful or blundering mess of a thing. If she wanted experience, there was always K’mai, but he seemed both too keen and too casual. It didn’t feel Right. In the end, it was looking more and more like Nosarre and Zaphare had a point. As horribly _wrong_ as it first seemed, who knew a woman better than another woman?
That’s why she was in the bluerider’s weyr now, baring her soul.
“I know you best,” she confessed into the silence that followed the long ramble about her predicament. Seated carefully on the small couch, her hands folded tightly in her lap, she met Zaphare’s eyes. “And you said there are… ways. I need more than Sanvi’s book and a talk with my aunt. Will you show me?”
Zaphare was surprised. For all her talk, she hadn’t really expected Sybana to go for it -- and, if she had, hadn’t been quite arrogant enough to expect the girl to choose _her_. A highborn lady like that? No, never.
But here Sybana was, and she seemed so earnestly troubled. Maybe, if Zaphare had been asked by someone else what she thought of this, she might have been flippant, or dismissive. Ha ha, noble ladies and their silly problems, ha ha. She felt more than a little guilty for the thought now. No matter how worldly she herself might try to act -- try to _feel_ -- the truth was, it wasn’t so long ago that she had been new to sex, too, and a little fearful and -- eventually -- regretful. She didn’t like looking back at that younger version of herself. She only had uncharitable thoughts about her. _Weak_ and _dumb_ and _naive_. A girl who had let herself be hurt.
_Ugh_, she sounded like her own mother: being cruel to young Zaphare for her choices. _That_ realization alone was enough to make her _vaguely_ consider being a little bit kinder to the girl she once was.
It was easier, actually, to be kinder to Sybana, instead.
“Yeah,” she said, sliding a little closer. It wasn’t meant to be _sexually_ intimate, more just _reassuringly_ intimate, but it was what it was. “There’s ways, and I can show you. I can’t make boys be better at it, but I can make sure you have a standard to hold ‘em to.” She grinned sharply. The thought of spiting men only made it more exciting, really.
Sybana released a shaky breath. “_Thank you_.” Relieved to have crossed the first hurdle, she gave Zaphare’s hand a grateful squeeze. “...How do we start?”
“Well… how much do you know? How far have you gotten? Have you ever kissed anyone before? And if you did… was it any good?” Did Sybana want her to be romantic, she wondered? She wasn’t sure if she could rightly say that much of her own experience was romantic… but she had ideas. Things she might have wanted for herself along the way, if only she had fallen in with the right partners.
“I’ve kissed someone before! I’m not entirely hopeless,” Sybana protested with a laugh, half indignant, half proud. “Several someones, in fact. There is _some_ mischief to be had in the halls of a great hold.” Especially when they foster a pack of unrelated young people together, as Opal Cove did.
Yes, the kisses had mostly been limited, furtive affairs, but Sybana wasn’t going to admit that. She already felt horribly unsophisticated and overexposed, so she tossed her hair and blustered. “I never heard any complaints.”
“Okay,” acknowledged Zaphare, mischief in her tone and twinkling in her eyes, “but did _you_ have any complaints about _them_? Because most men are _terrible_ kissers. They think it’s a race. That’s why they don’t see anything wrong with being first to the finish line.”
Sybana blinked. She hadn’t thought to question the quality of those stolen kisses-- they had seemed thrilling enough at the time, spiced with secrecy and rife with romance. But something about Zaphare’s expectant gaze made her consider the matter with new eyes.
“I suppose it was… rushed, but of course we never had much time,” she said, excusing the matter even as she presented it. Yet as she thought back to those times when Alengar stole her away from the governess, the times he had her up against a wall and kissed her senseless-- “Still, he never… lingered.” She’d read about Lingering in Savi’s book. “I always felt desperately wanted, but not necessarily… liked.”
She flushed, feeling foolish and small for never noticing that before, for admitting it now. “If there’s a better way… show me.”
Zaphare worried, for a moment, that she’d over-promised and might under-deliver. Did she even know how to make someone feel _wanted_ in the _good_ way, not just the… well, carnal way?
But wait, what was she hesitating for? It was _men_ they were talking about. Of _course_ she was better at this than any of _them_ could be.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” she said, cupping Sybana’s cheek gently and leaning in to kiss her as passionately -- and unhurriedly -- as she would allow.
Last updated on the October 3rd 2025