Sacrifices Gladly Made (1/2)
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: Erin
Date Posted: 17th February 2007
Characters: Niefren
Description: Niefren remembers the lengths he went to in order to move his family to RBW twenty Turns ago.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 2, day 2 of Turn 4
Niefren stretched. It had been hard, for a long time, to watch green-
and blueriders keep vigil over each other, not just as wingmates or fellow dragonriders, but as lovers and weyrmates. The vigils had been distressingly more frequent since the Pass had begun, but even before Thread, illness, accident or injury had ocasionally brought a man to his knees at the bedside of another man. He had watched, from the corner of his eye, as a greenrider sat and read quietly to an older man whose right arm and leg were swathed in bandages. He remembered being part of the trauma team who had first responded to that Threadscore; if the bluerider had not thought to block his torso and the vitals therein with his arm, he would not have lived past /between/. He had not always had such deep respect for the dedication of dragonriders to their fight and to each other. As a young man, particularly in his early teens, he had sneered and ridiculed unpopular boys, telling them to "go ride a green" just to hear the howls of laughter from his fellow tormentors. He hadn't truly understood what he was saying beyond that greenriders had sex with other men, and that that was practically inhuman.
He had been the third post-Plague child of a Healer journeywoman who had been stripped of her knots as thanks for her skilled and dedicated service during the outbreaks. Already a married mother of one, at least Anafrey had not been forced into the bed of a cruel man, nor was she averse to the idea of more children, though perhaps eight was more than she had ever intended to bear. As the Turns rolled on, Niefren's father, while agreeing with the need to restore the population, quickly became uneasy with the way women were being treated, and made certain to treat his own wife and daughters with the same respect he had given women before the Plagues.
He allowed Anafrey to assert her right in the cothold, and she in turn proved with her sharp mind and iron backbone that women were more than broodmares and dishwashers. Her gift for healing lived on in her children, and four of them, including Niefren himself, would eventually apprentice to the craft.
Niefren had been fourteen years old when his second-oldest brother Tarnaf, a journeyman tanner, left after a vicious fight with their father. The cothold had been crowded with so many children and there was little room to argue without being heard, so Niefren understood that the twenty-year old was going to a Weyrhold. He knew the only reason that men went to the Weyrhold without having been Searched first, and he clearly remembered being torn between the disgust he forced on others and the hero-worship of his brother. Though his father's respect for women ran deep, he had had little interaction with dragonriders and so believed rumors and tall tales, and Tarnaf's name was not spoken in his presence for many Turns though his mother often recieved letters (to which she secretly replied) from the son who became greenrider T'naf less than a Turn later.
At ninteen, Niefren married a quiet girl whose skill with needle and thread would have made her a boon to the Weavercraft. She bore him a son who did not live to see his first birthingday. As his wife grew rounder with their second child (whom his wife proclaimed was a girl), he could not help but look at her, his mother and his sisters and see the wasted gifts. He knew that women could craft in the Weyrholds. He approached his Hallmaster about a transfer and was refused without comment and with much disdain. He began to see his wife and newborn daughter in every woman wrung dry by near-constant pregnancy.
Niefren suddenly realized that the greenrider had stopped reading and was looking at him. He hadn't realized that he had been watching the pair intently. "Is something wrong, Niefren?" the greenrider asked, concern edging his voice.
"No, not in the least," Niefren replied, gathering his scattered thoughts. "I apologize, you just reminded me of something that happened a long time ago." The greenrider nodded in what he thought was understanding, but how could a weyrbred boy understand how far Niefren had gone to free his daughters?
Last updated on the February 19th 2007