A Better Form of Stress Relief

Writers: Ainsley, Eimi
Date Posted: 20th March 2009

Characters: D'ryne, U'kaiah
Description: U'kaiah finds D'ryne studying hides late at night and sets the brownrider to considering an altogether different activity.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 5

It was late, past time for him to be back to the weyr, as Quirinyth had
reminded him three times already, but D'ryne sat in the records room
with several dusty old archives and Fall charts before him. After the
last Fall, the first half of which had been the nasty clumps, he thought
he remembered seeing a note on irregular falling clumps of Thread and
recommendations on fighting it. Hearing someone enter he turned in
surprise to see his Wingleader.

"A bit late, isn't it?" the bronzerider asked, though his smile was more
amused than reproachful.

"According to Quirinyth, it is extremely late and past time for me to be
in bed. I'm not precisely certain when my dragon became my nursemaid,"
D'ryne chuckled running his hand over his eyes. "I was just trying to
work out formations more useful for fighting those sharding clumps we
had last Fall."

"Don't worry, we're going to work on a few things in drills. If you're
looking for a good formation to play with, though, you should dig
through the last Pass' archives and find Wingleader S'rit's 'Flying
Inverted Unbuckled Belt' formation. Now, that's a name with a story
behind it." And U'kaiah for one highly regretted that it had been lost
to the annuls of time.

D'yrne's eyebrows went up with that. "With a name like that it _should_
have a story behind it. I will have to look that one up." The
brownrider looked at the hides spread in front of him and shook his
head, "Another night of course. And what is our valiant Wingleader
doing here at this advanced candlemark of the night?" he asked his
voice teasing.

"I just woke up from a nap," the bronzerider replied. His smile said he
was rather pleased with himself. "A lady friend's weyrmate wouldn't
have taken kindly to sharing the bed all three of us, so I figured I'd
better save us all from an awkward scene and yield the field."

"Very considerate of you," D'yrne chuckled, as he started to pick up the
hides spread about. "I take it this was a _nice_ nap then?"

"Oh yes," U'kaiah said with an even bigger grin. "Nothing like winning
a Flight to take the edge off, eh? I always feel so refreshed afterwords,
and my bronze is far less grumpy than if he loses."

"You know, I think that might prove to be better stress relief than
searching through dusty old hides," D'yrne quipped. "And one Quirinyth
would appreciate far more as well."

"Unless he loses. I don't know about your lifemate, but Kalamath can be
hard to handle when he loses. He's grumpy and moody and doesn't want to
talk..." U'kaiah sighed indulgently. "That bronze has got an ego as
big as a queen's and sometimes there's just no living with him."

"Quirinyth might pout a bit, but he's not too hard to live with if he
loses. He still enjoys the chase regardless. Not that he isn't far
more satisfied with winning."

"What dragon isn't." Or rider for that matter. It might feel
satisfying to find a willing partner to help them work off their Flight
lust, but winning left you satisfied on so many levels.

"Or rider," D'ryne grinned as he voiced his Wingleader's thoughts. "I
think I've been spending too much time with these hides and charts,"
D'ryne stated dryly with a shake of his head. Following his brother's
death his focus on fighting Thread had become obsessive and he seldom
took time for other pleasures. Over the past turn he had begun to relax
back into his former self, but this discussion with U'kaiah reminded the
brownrider that he was still not the person he had been.

"Wondering if a woman or two might still be wandering the halls at this
time of night?" the bronzerider asked with a knowing grin.

"Not that the thought hadn't crossed my mind, but since _I_ have not had
the benefit of a nap, I might have to postpone such pursuits." D'ryne
yawned, "I doubt my Wingleader would appreciate my falling asleep during
drills tomorrow."

"Klah and a nice cold swim does the trick for me every time," the
Wingleader said with a shrug.

Having picked up the last of the hides, the brownrider's gray eyes
turned mischievous. "You know it certainly would not hurt to keep my
eyes open on the way to my weyr."

"You'll wake up with a smile, that's for sure," the wingleader said,
remembering his own expression after that tumble in the furs.

"With that pleasant thought, I will bid you good night, in hopes of
finding company of altogether another sort," D'ryne said giving U'kaiah
a nod.

Last updated on the March 21st 2009

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A Better Form of Stress Relief