Companionship and Convenience

Writers: Emma, Jane
Date Posted: 2nd January 2007

Characters: Jh'slaen, Nytha
Description: Jh'slaen joins Nytha for breakfast and airs some unusual thoughts.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 10 of Turn 4

Breakfast - and early enough that the dining cavern wasn't yet crowded with people. Jh'slaen enjoyed being up early and by the time the first meal of the day was served he was always more than ready for it. This morning was no exception and he rounded up everything he could before finding a place to sit.

While there was plenty of space and he could sit alone at one of the large tables if he chose to, that always seemed faintly ill-mannered to him. Somehow the Turns of close living in the cothold had made taking meals alone seem rude. (He also felt similarly about the luxury of having a room to himself - but he was happy to learn to live with _that_.)

"Nytha? Do you mind if I sit here?" The other greenrider was in a different Wing but only a little younger, he thought, and certainly only a little junior to him.

"No, not at all," she pushed her cutlery closer together, making a little more room for the greenrider.

Jh'slaen got himself settled and eyed his breakfast with pleasure. "How are things going in Torrent?" he asked, partly out of politeness and partly because he was interested. Although riders weren't moved around heedlessly, sometimes transfers between wings did happen and greenriders were usually the first to move.

"So far so good," she said. "U'das is a good Wingleader. He keeps drills running well."

That was reassuring. "And Thread? Are you two still hide whole?"

"So far. You two as well?" asked Nytha.

"Nothing except a silly ash burn since our weyrling days," he admitted.
"I'm never sure whether to be proud of that or grateful. Sometimes it doesn't seem as much like skill as luck." He moved his plate around having cleared the section in front of him.

"And hopefully that's all it'll ever be," she said, before reaching for her klah mug. "My little brother will be in the wings soon, and that's scary."

Jh'slaen nodded. He'd felt something of the same when F'naren had graduated. "Nothing you can do can make them safe - which is the difficult lesson to learn. Well, it was for me, and F'naren's the same age as I am. Can't imagine if was ever one of my nephews." He wondered if it could be. That F'naren and himself had both been Searched suggested there was something in their shared bloodline that dragons found suitable.

"F'naren?" The name was not familiar at all to Nytha. "I don't think I know him."

"My friend." There was a blood relationship but it was difficult to explain. "Brownrider. Impressed between you and I. Funny to feel responsible for him just because he was a weyrling class behind me."

"Is he in your wing now?"

"No, somebody thought we looked too alike for that. Still, it doesn't make me stop worrying about him. They won't pout An'dr in your wing, either, but I doubt it will make you feel any better about him being out in 'Fall."

"No, he's my kid brother, you know what I mean."

"Yeah. And - he didn't choose to Impress, did he? Not like you and I did. Like most of us did, understanding what Impression would mean."

"Pluserth chose him," she said, suddenly feeling a little defensive.
"He'd have died without An'dr."

"Oh, yes." Jh'slaen wasn't ever sure about that, but certainly hatchlings did die for lack of somebody to Impress. "But he's like the old riders, not as much like us. We're the ones who Impressed during a Pass - we knew exactly what we were agreeing to do. Fight Thread for fifty Turns, or more if this Pass is different. We're the real dragonriders - the pure dragonriders. Not like the ones who Impressed before when it was a Weyrhold and Impression meant nothing but ease of travel and a lifemate. They're facing Thread because of a decision they made without realising what it would mean later." He sighed. "It's hard to explain. We chose this fight - they chose companionship and convenience."

Nytha stared, and she was sure anyone else in earshot would be staring too. That was at the least, what her mother would describe as a provocative statement.

"What? You don't think so?"

"Not in the least. It was a decision they made knowing that their lives would change forever, for the better."

"Y-yes. But it's more than that, now, isn't it?"

"They knew the risks of riding a dragon. Nobody ever said it would be safe."

"Nobody told them they'd face Thread. In fact, everybody told them they never would because it was gone forever. We Impressed under different circumstances."

"Jh'slaen," she began, a little lost for words. "I don't think you should say that."

"Why not?" He shrugged. "Oh well, it doesn't make any real difference in our lives." He looked down at his empty plate, then tilted his mug and peered into it and found that empty, too. "Looks like I'm done."

"Maybe I'll see you another time then?" suggested his fellow greenrider.

"Yeah, that'd be good." Jh'slaen grinned. "And next time I'll try to keep my mind on breakfast and not my theories about life."

Last updated on the January 2nd 2007

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Companionship and Convenience