Would It Change?

Writers: AL, Devin
Date Posted: 21st March 2009

Characters: Ri'len, E'ron
Description: E'ron and Ri'len talk about the various changes that have happened since Impression.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 5

Ri'len took up the broom and began sweeping about the barracks. He glanced about as others worked around them, the weyrlings assigned different parts and different chores in a group effort to get the barracks cleaned and ready for inspection. He was glad to not have dung duty again. That was a messy, and rather stinky job. He looked
back down at the floor, working at the door and reaching under one of the bunks to get the dust that surely accumulated there.

"I thought the Candidate barracks were bad, but dragons track even more sand in," E'ron said, working on the other side of the bunk.

"They're bigger." Ri'len stated with a hint of amusement. "Bigger feet, more sand. Then of course, that's coupled with the rest of us." Sand certainly ran rampant and it was hard to keep it out of one's clothes and bunk at times, especially after rain.

"I can't wait til I have my own weyr. Then I'll only have to clean up after myself." E'ron shifted to get a bit of sand against the wall.

"And not your dragon because he'll be old enough to go /between/." Ri'len added. It wasn't the most glamourous part of being a weyrling, but even if he had to do it for all eternity, Monilath was worth it. "We're kept so busy, the time will probably fly by." And then he and Sorsha could be together again.

"It already is. Everything changed so fast." He felt like he couldn't get his footing.

"Yes, it has." While Ri'len had asked to stand, he hadn't ever really thought he would impress. Lenlee, yes, for she had been searched, but not him. He didn't regret it, it was just strange how things had happened. "I guess things will settle down eventually."

"Yeah ..." E'ron was quiet for a moment. "You were married, right? Before you Impressed?" It was a common bit of gossip among the weyrlings.

"Yes." That seemed to be unusual in the Weyr, though Ri'len hadn't thought the situation warranted much notice. People had certainly noticed, however. "Yes, we got married not long before the hatching."

E'ron leaned on his broom, wondering if Ri'len would take offense at his question. "What if you had Impressed blue? Would your ... your wife have looked at you differently?"

The question made Ri'len pause in his sweeping. He hooked his hands around the handle of his broom and leaned against it. The question was a fair one, he supposed, though he knew that a blue dragon would have never chosen him. He was still dealing with the concept of differences in sexuality that were so open there at the Weyr. Fortunately he wasn't having to deal with it on a personal level, but more on a horizontal level in coming to terms that sometimes people were just different and maybe - just maybe - not everything he was taught was correct. "I don't know, really." He stated after a moment. " I'd have to ask her." She probably would. Sorsha was
having to deal with changes too, though they were easier for her since she had been at the Weyr prior.

"What if she did, though? How would you deal with that?" It was stupid, really. Ri'len was a bronzerider, and this was just hypothetical. E'ron didn't know what good his answers would be.

"I would hope that she would trust me enough to love her whatever dragon I rode and that I would remain faithful to her." Would she though? Would Sorsha have been able to deal with the fact that he was bisexual? He wasn't, of course, but the question did come to mind at E'ron's own questions to him. Ri'len hoped she would look beyond that and see that she held his heart no matter what.

"So if she really cares about you, Impressing blue wouldn't change that?"

"Not if she really cares about me." Ri'len echoed by way of agreement. "Love shouldn't be conditional. Not real love."

"I suppose I never had many real friends, then." All those people E'ron used to hang around with ... now they were whispering behind his back.

"Why is that?"

"Because they treat me so different now."

Ri'len nodded. He'd seen it, though it hadn't affected him. He'd not really spent much time with E'ron before impression so nothing had really changed between them. "But some of them don't?"

"A few, mostly weyrbred. Actually, one of them never talked to me before I Impressed. I think he has a crush on me." E'ron blushed.

"Ah." Ri'len shifted, a bit uncomfortable at that bit of knowledge. "Well...true friends will like you for you who you are, no matter what, right? At least you still have some, right?"

E'ron nodded. Other people were only part of the problem, though. He didn't fit his own image of himself. He was supposed to be the handsome, popular bronzerider.

"We'd best pick up speed." Ri'len stated after a moment of silence. "Or we'll be working into our free time."

"Yeah." E'ron straightened up and resumed his sweeping. Who was he supposed to be now?

Last updated on the March 25th 2009

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Would It Change?