Good To Have You Back

Writers: Ainsley, AL
Date Posted: 10th March 2009

Characters: D'ryne, Shaiya
Description: D'ryne and Shaiya get reacquainted on the way to dinner.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 23 of Turn 5
Notes: Follows "A Welcome Return"

D'ryne had to chuckle at himself for the care he had taken in preparation for dinner with his old friend. She would undoubtedly give him a hard time for it, but he was so pleased at her return that he had felt like sprucing up a little.

}:You should have invited her to dine at the weyr, I enjoy the sound of her voice.:{

**I will let her know that you asked after her.** D'yrne had to laugh at how some of his dragon's likes paralleled his own so closely.

A knock upon the door interrupted the conversation and was followed with a call. "D'ryne? It's Shaiya."

"Come on in. I was just finishing up," he answered as brushed his tunic one final time and exited his sleeping chamber.

There was the sound of a door opening and then closing. She moved into the main room and smiled as D'ryne came into view. "Good evening."

"And to you," he said with a ready smile. "Quirinyth gives his regards and has chastised me for whisking you off so abruptly this morning as well as taking you out to dine. He enjoys the sound of your voice."

"Really?" Shaiya laughed at the compliment and turned to look at the curtain that separated the main Weyr from Quirinyth's ledge.. "Why thank you Quirinyth. I'll take a dragon's compliment over ten men's any day."

The large brown's eyes whirred a contented blue/green and he preened a bit at her words.

"Lovely, now I've no chance at impressing you with my not so silver tongue," D'ryne quipped, knowing full well that when it came to using words Shaiya was far his superior any day of the turn. "So how did your meetings go today?" he asked moving forward to kiss her on the forehead in greeting, much as he had his younger sister when she had been alive.

"I've been given quarters and the Master has agreed to let me pick up where I left off." Shaiya had honestly been afraid she would not be welcomed back to the craft, but the Master had seemed quite glad to have her return. "How did your day go?"

"Well, enough. Standard drills for the most part and then I had to oil some riding straps," he answered. "Do you want to sit and have a glass of wine or shall we head straight down to the dining cavern?"

"It might be best to eat some food before we imbibe in spirits." Shaiya suggested. "But I wouldn't mind coming back to spend some time together and enjoy a glass or two."

"You always were the sensible one," he grinned, thinking it had usually been one of the two of them and certainly not V'ryne. "Do you want to walk or shall Quirinyth give us a lift?"

"Walking will do us good, and it will be easier to talk." Shaiya smiled at the description. Sensible? She hadn't felt very sensible after V'ryne's death. Indeed, she had felt quite out of her wits.

D'ryne held the door for her and followed her out, sending a silent goodbye to his lifemate who had decided to take a nap since he was not going to be called upon to take the couple down to the dining cavern. "So tell me more about your time away from the Weyr."

"It's rather boring for the most part." Shaiya waved a hand dismissively. "I went back to Amber Hills, visited family." As much family as would allow her to visit, that was. "I got to spend time with my youngest sister, which was nice. I worked."

"Seeing your family must have been nice," he offered sincerely as his mind conjured memories of the little sister he had lost and of course...V'ryne. "Brave, though," he added thinking of the hidebound attitudes at Amber Hills. He rather liked the tavern at the Vintner Hall and visited with some regularity. "Have your parents come to terms with your crafting? And coming to the Weyr?"

"For the most part. I think they were hoping I would settle down and be a proper wife when I returned." Shaiya's smile lacked much humour. They'd had arguments over the last few turns, but at least they hadn't been as bad as before. "I feel sorry for my sister though, a woman who has a heart for crafting yet is so conflicted that she doesn't seem to dare try to break the chains my parents have placed about her."

D'ryne shook his head, "That _is_ too bad. Did you talk to her about her options? How old is she?"

"She's twenty. I know, it's surprising she's not been married off, but I think my mother's hesitant to let go of her last little girl - as is my father." Shaiya shrugged. It could have been worse, they could have shoved Aiyana off to the first person they could get to agree to a marriage contract. "Unfortunately, Aiyana hasn't seemed very inclined to getting married. She says she just hasn't found anyone she's interested in yet, though she knows it's really only a matter of time."

"It still amazes me, the extreme dichotomy between Weyr and Hold," the brownrider said with a shake of his head. He could not have imagined his fireball of a sister being pressured into a marriage - or any other decision for that matter. Though, had she played a more traditional female role, she might be alive today.

"It's not like that everywhere." Though for the most part, women were still considered to be of a lower class than men and not as capable. It didn't matter that records told of a time when women were as evident in the various crafts as men were. It was as if people considered their ancestors daft for daring to let women craft at all. "You would think the South would learn from history, or even from the example of the North."

"What amazes me is how very fast it happened. I mean before the plague women had an entirely different role. Granted it was before we were born, but really it was not so very long ago, there are many that can remember a very different South."

"My grandmother was one of them." Shaiya nodded slowly. "She approved of us, V'ryne and me. She was the only one who did."

D'ryne smiled, "Did she encourage you in crafting as well?"

Shaiya's smile brightened. "Yes. Yes she did. She encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. She had stopped crafting, feeling pressured to do so and regretted it, so she encouraged us to do what we wanted."

"She sounds like a very special woman," he looked at the confidant woman beside him and thought that her grandmother must have bequeathed that quality to Shaiya. He had always been proud of his brother's choice of a weyrmate.

"She was." Shaiya agreed quite readily. Her grandmother had been a great support even after V'ryne's death. Her death only a couple of months prior had been, perhaps, the last catalyst to make her seek the Weyr once more. "We'd best pick up our pace or we'll get there after the food has all been eaten and what little's left put away."

D'ryne chuckled but picked up his pace. It sure was good to have his friend back in the Weyr.

Last updated on the March 21st 2009

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Good To Have You Back