Two Lives

Writers: Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 22nd June 2008

Characters: Mosler, Leisenn, Hanthan, Ehrind
Description: At the Dolphin Hall Mosler is recovering from another heart attack, while elsewhere Leisenn is enjoying herself in in the sun.
Location: Dolphin Hall, Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 10, day 19 of Turn 4

Tu swam hard, determined to beat the older dolphin swimming alongside despite the other male's mature muscles. With a shower of spray the two dolphins passed between the channel marker buoys that were the finishing mark for their race.

"Wiiin!"

Leisenn was breathing deeply now that Tu was idling around and giving her a chance to get air back into her lungs. Breathing deeply and laughing. "Did you have your eyes closed, Tu? Raki won by a body-length."

Tu laughed along with his partner, circling back to swim slowly beside his dam's brother and Raki's partner.

"Your boy's a trick and no mistake," Ehrind said admiringly. "And you're not doing too badly for a woman your age."

"For a woman? Or for my age?" the dolphineer asked, ducking her head under as they moved through the water to sleek back her grey hair from her forehead so that she could keep an eye on the younger master dolphineer.

The man shook his head. "Far be it for me to to make waves about you being a woman in the craft."

"Quite right. And for your information my family is long lived. I still have an aunt alive, I think. And she must be ninety."

"Still working as a dolphineer, is she?"

Leisenn grinned at the dry question. "Perhaps not, but take note and stop trying to tell me that seventy-eight is such a great age. You're not all that far behind."

~ * ~ * ~

"Here, take a sip, you really need to drink more." Hanthan, a master healer who had arrived to help treat Mosler, instructed as he held up a cup to the Dolphin Hallmaster.

"I don't need to drink much when you don't allow me out of this bed so that I can become parched." Mosler grumbled as he took the cup. "When are you going to let me move around, I would really like to get out for a swim."

Hanthan shook his head, "We've had this talk before, we're taking things slowly this time. Two heart attacks in as many months indicate you need a _rest_, and as relaxing as I've come to realize swimming with dolphins are... it's still a strain, and not what I'm going to prescribe just yet."

Mosler didn't need to be reminded at the frequency of his attacks, nor did he have a death wish. However, he did feel he was going to go mad if he had to stay in this room another day. "How about a walk then?
Just a little one out to the docks so I can talk to my dolphin. She's got to be worried, even if she's been given updates on me."

"Perhaps tomorrow... if you drink more." the healer added, never against bribery to get his patients healthy again. "And since I'm here, have you given any more thought on what we discussed a few days ago? If you refuse to step down as Hallmaster, I will, in the name of your health and certainly life, feel compelled to take it up however far it needs to go-"

Mosler tiredly waved him off, not at all inclined to listen to him start ranting about how the job was killing him and he needed to retire to a calm peaceful cove someplace out of the way. "Hanthan, don't start today. I've talked with a few of the masters, and unfortunately they agree with you. I've already sent a message off, you've won."

*~*~*~*

Leisenn walked alongside Ehrind up the wide steps to the large doors of the Dolphin Hall, enjoying the feeling of the mid-afternoon sun on her back and shoulders. Like her companion she had pulled on loose shirt and shorts on the dock but they hadn't rushed back to work.

"Master Leisenn."

"Yes, Raeny."

"The Hallmaster wants you to report to him. _Immediately_."

"I'm heading that way," the master dolphineer said mildly, dismissing the journeyman with a wave of her hand. As the young man disappeared she sighed and grinned at her companion. "Now _there's_ one who wants to make waves about a woman in the craft."

"You have every right to be here," Ehrind pointed out. "You had rank in the craft before the ban." He shrugged. He had been an apprentice -
one of Leisenn's special apprentices - when the ban on women becoming crafters had been enacted for all the Southern Continent Halls. Since he had been so young he hadn't ever felt the edict had affected him to any great degree, but as time went on women dolphineers became less and less common. Leisenn remained, though, as a hold-out against the changing attitude that followed the ban.

"I doubt he even knows -" She stopped outside the Hallmaster's office.
"I'll catch up with you later," she promised.

*~

"What did he want?" Ehrind asked as Leisenn entered his office, getting to his feet at the expression on the older master's face. "_Leisenn_?"

"It's a promotion."

"A Hallmaster position? Who's dead?"

Leisenn laughed, the tension easing with the laughter. "Nobody. Not one of ours, anyway. Not even one of theirs apparently, he's just retiring. But, yes, a Hallmaster position. At the Northern-aligned Hall. The one that took over from us at Topaz SeaHold - and then had to move when Topaz was destroyed."

"The one with ..." He couldn't help but grin with her. "All the women.
Apprentices, journeywomen."

"That's the one. The Dolphin Hall at Dolphin Cove."

Last updated on the June 28th 2008

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Two Lives