In All The Weyr (1/2)

Writers: Eimi, Rochelle
Date Posted: 31st March 2007

Characters: Eleada, R'mer
Description: Eleada drops in on R'mer, and learns something he'd rather have kept hidden....
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 28 of Turn 4

Eleada flopped back in her chair, letting her head fall back until she was staring at the ceiling of her weyr. Her new weyr. It was lower down than her old one, easier to get to from the internal caves and hallways, although the view wasn't as impressive. Wingthird had some nice perks
-including the private bathing area. She'd never had one before, and it was worth every moment. She didn't even mind the extra hidework that needed done. It gave her something to do with herself at night, when she was avoiding sleep.

But sometimes the hidework was over too quickly. Like now. She needed another candlemark or two of it before she was tired enough to sleep without dreams, but she'd run out. It was still early enough. Maybe she could talk to someone...? Hmm. Her brother and Nesily were having a family night, and at least three of her new friends she knew already had companions. One was still out sweepriding. **R'mer, maybe?**

}:Hanunth says his is in his weyr.:{ Gliorith volunteered with a yawn.

Eleada glanced at the massive green head through the door to her weyr.
Gliorith had curled up on her bed already, and was watching Arieoss play with a bit of string torn from the hem of an old dress with lazily whirling eyes. She stood, stretching her back a bit. **Why not?**

~*~
R'mer was concentrating so hard on his book, he didn't hear the knock on his door. "'I'll help you find your... hooo.... hooman... human,' the queen flit said. 'Oh thank you! Thank you!', the litt-tle feline cree...creed... cry-d... cried and ...jump-ed... jumped up on the...flit's back."

Eleada pushed the door open cautiously. She could hear R'mer's voice, but no one else, and he hadn't answered the door. She slipped inside, and saw that he was reading on his couch. Aloud. She raised an eyebrow, heard the way he was carefully sounding out the words to the simple story, and smiled to herself, a few stray comments coming together in her mind.
She leaned against the wall, waiting for him to finish.

R'mer continued to carefully sound out each individual syllable as the feline heroine searched the Weyr for her human friend with the help of a flit and a dragon. Finally she could be reunited with her human friend, much to the joy of everyone. As R'mer closed the book with a triumphant smile, his dragon's sleepy voice spoke up. }:I like that story. But dragons don't talk to felines.:{
**It's just a children's story. Lots of things happen in children's stories that don't really happen in real life. But children enjoy using their imagination.**

}:I think grown humans do too. Gliorith's rider seemed to like it,:{ Hanunth commented as his lids slowly dropped one by one.

**Gliorith's rider?** R'mer suddenly felt a tingling on the back of his neck and the blood rush to his face. He could feel eyes on him. Turning slowly his eyes widened in embarrassed surprise as he finally noticed the greenrider leaning up against his wall. "Eleada?"

}:Yes, she's been listening to you too. You were doing so well I didn't want to interrupt you,:{ the bronze proclaimed proudly. }:You shouldn't be shy. I think she liked listening to you read.:{ "Shards, I..." R'mer jumped to his feet, hiding the book instinctively behind his back. "I didn't hear you... Hanunth saw you but he didn't say... Flaming Thread, just how long were you standing there?"

"Since the feline hopped on the queen's back. I didn't want to interrupt." She said with a smile, pushing off the wall. "And stop hiding the book R'mer. It hasn't done anything wrong." She added mildly.

He wanted to rip the book apart, but instead threw it unceremoniously on the table. She had heard it all. There was no hiding. Of all the people in the Weyr... "You must think me an idiot. Its ok. Its true."

Eleada frowned at him, making an exasperated noise as she crossed over to him. "You are not an idiot, R'mer." She said sharply. "And never let anyone tell you differently. Haven't you learned anything from me?" She sighed, flopping on the sofa. "So you didn't know how to read before you Impressed. So what? There's nothing to be ashamed of. You're learning now -and doing well, I might add. That's all that matters."

She was just trying to make him feel better. His reading was atrocious! It still took him three times as long to read the material for his classes. "Everyone else came knowing, Eleada. The only way I survived our classes at first was because one of the other boys took pity on me and read the material to me. I'm the only one in this whole sharding Weyr who doesn't know something as basic as how to read."

"So what if you are?" She challenged. "Even if is a sharding lie, so what if you are the only one?"

"You know have no idea what its like knowing you're the only one..." R'mer was surprised and ashamed at the feeling of his eyes filling with water. Shard it all, he would not cry. He hadn't cried since he was a child! "Only one what, R'mer?" She asked gently. "Only one who can't read?
That's a sharding lie, and you know it too, if you'd think about it. How many people are searched each turn from remote cotholds? Who've seen a harper maybe once a turn if they're lucky? Not all of them can read. The important thing is that you're trying."

She was just trying to make him feel better, and it just made him feel worse. "Then where are they? If there are so many of us, why haven't I ever met any of them?"

She started ticking off her fingers. "One, you're still a weyrling, and you're so busy trying to get things done I'm sure you really don't have time to look around. Two, it's not exactly something you ask about in polite conversation. Three, given how you're reacting to ME discovering your little secret, why should they be any different? Do you really think they're going to announce to the whole weyr that they feel like idiots because they can't read?" She asked shrewdly.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child, Eleada. I may be ignorant, but I am no child."

"Then stop acting like one." She snapped. "Do you really think so little of me that you believe I'd lie to you about something you obviously consider important?" She stood again. If he was really that determined to wallow in his own idiotic notions, there was no reason for her to stay.

"No. In all the Weyr, yours was the good opinion I wanted to keep." She was certainly the last person on Pern he wanted to see his weakness.

She paused. **In all the Weyr...? Wh... Oh, shardit!** She thought in resignation. She'd forgotten about her suspicion he was crushing on her.
She turned to face him again, her arms crossed. "And why is that?" She asked neutrally. Time to see how he was going to play this.

"Because you take the time for me," he shrugged. "I'm younger, I'm less experienced, I'm not the smartest, or the strongest or handsomest. I know that. But you don't mind being seen with me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why should I mind? You're a handsome young man, and I enjoy teaching you. It doesn't matter if you aren't the best or most experienced -who is? I'm not available for either anyway."

He shrugged again. "No one else takes the time."

"Have you given them a chance?" She asked gently. "It takes a while to make friends in a new place. I know. But it doesn't help if you don't think enough of yourself to let them get close. Let's face it, I saw you as a target and kind of attacked you that first time." She grinned at him, remembering how she'd teased him crimson at their first meeting.

R'mer flopped back on the sofa, tired of fighting. Tired of everything.
Tired of this place and everything new. "I never had to make friends before. I'm no good with people."

"That's not true, R'mer." She crossed back over to the sofa and sat cautiously beside him. Shards but she wanted him to believe her! He really needed to work on his self-esteem. "You're better with people than you think. If you weren't good with people, you could have been at the weyr your whole life and never made any friends or gotten along with your family. You've got friends and a pretty weyrling who likes you. I'd say you're doing fine."

Yes, well, that pretty weyrling hadn't seemed too interested lately, though R'mer couldn't figure out why. Perhaps if he had more experience with that sort of thing he'd know. That was it. Everyone else seemed to catch on to things just a little faster. Catch on to everything -
reading, drills, jokes, other people...

Last updated on the April 1st 2007

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In All The Weyr (1/2)