Children

Writers: AL, Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 31st May 2009

Characters: Ri'len, Sorsha, R'haran
Description: The two weyrlings talk to the Weyrharper.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 21 of Turn 5

"You must be Ri'len," the greenrider wearing the knots of the Weyrharper as he paused on the shore of the Weyrlake where the weyrlings had gathered in the cool of the evening.

"Aye." The bronze weyrling turned to face the Weyrharper and nodded politely, then raised an eyebrow in a silent question. Had he done something wrong? "I'm Ri'len."

"I thought so. Tellen has a way with descriptions."

"Tellen?" As soon as he said the name, a memory sparked in Ri'len's mind. "Ah, the little boy. Oh, are you his father?"

"R'haran," the older man said, putting out his hand. "Green Evielenth's rider."

"Ri'len, as you know, weyrling to bronze Monilath." Ri'len took the rider's hand and shook it firmly. "Well met, R'haran."

"Indeed. And is this your weyrmate, Sorsha?" he asked, looking past the young man to the even younger woman.

She smoothed back her wavy black hair that was flying everywhere on the breeze and gave the old rider a warm smile. "Hello."

"Yes, this is my weyrmate." Ri'len confirmed, sliding his arm around Sorsha's shoulders. "Tellen said something about having just moved here."

"Hello Sorsha." he held out his hand to the weyrling greenrider. "Yes, earlier in the month after having lived my entire dragonriding life at Dragonsfall. It's a change - but so far a pleasant one. Have you two been here long? Long enough to Impress, I notice, but long before that?"

Sorsha shook her head, "We're from Willet Grove, and came just for the Impression."

"We didn't arrive too long before the clutch hatched." Ri'len admitted. It was still a surprise to many that he had been chosen, especially over his sister who had been Searched while he had not. Ri'len had asked to stand. It was ironic, but he wasn't complaining.

"And were you married before you arrived?" the harper greenrider asked. Being weyrmates during weyrlinghood was unusual, he thought, even if Dolphin Cove had its own rules on such things.

"Yes, we were." Ri'len had gotten asked that more times than he could count. Was it really such an unusual thing? "Of course, we'll not officially be weyrmates until after graduation." At least, not physically.

"That seems wise. Do you have a family? Children?"

Sorsha shook her head, "We were only married a few days before the hatching, but we plan on children someday." She remembered how she'd thought that she'd want them right away, but now that she had Roseth, she thought it might be best to wait a few turns before actively trying.

"Some day." Ri'len agreed, his thoughts echoing Sorsha's. There was time and for the moment, their dragons were consuming their lives in every aspect. The dragons came first.

R'haran nodded and silently thought better of advising them to not wait too long in the chancy environment of these days of Threadfall. They seemed like a couple who could think things through and make up their own minds. "I didn't expect to have a family at all," he said instead, his amusement at his own predicament in his tone. "And then I got _five_ all together."

"How do you have time for them all?" She wondered aloud, hoping it wasn't a bad subject. The idea of _one_ seemed daunting right now, she couldn't imagine so many.

R'haran laughed. "I have a foster mother - foster parent - for them," he admitted.

"That seems to be a necessity for dragonriders now that Thread has returned." It was one of the inconveniences of being a dragonrider that Ri'len wasn't too fond of. He would have preferred to have Sorsha stay with the children rather than someone who wasn't their mother, but life didn't always go as planned. They would simply have to find someone they trusted when the time came.

Sorsha remembered that Ri'len's mother had told him that she would take any of _his_ children. She also remembered that offer had been specific to any he had with anyone and also excluding any of hers she might have with someone else. Either way, she didn't know that she'd like to send their children off to a far away hold... then again she didn't know what sort of situation she _would_ like. "Were you wanting children?"

"I'd never even considered it," the harper admitted. "Given my preference for men."

"But you wanted them when you were asked?" It would have been possible in the Weyr to just give them to someone else and wash his hands of them. She'd worked with several weyrbrats who had no active knowledge of their parents except possibly in name.

"They were delivered to me, in fact. But yes, I wanted them. For themselves and because I thought I'd lost all of my family in the plague
- the last great one."

Ri'len nodded slowly. A lot of families had died out in the last plague. Cotholds had been left untended. Though it had been some time since the illness had ravaged the South, people were still fearful, wondering if another one would sweep in and prove even more devastating. It was not a pleasant thought.

"I look forward to meeting Tellen, all of them in fact," Sorsha tried to bring things back to a happier area. "They sound quite special."

"Tellen is that, I agree." The child was cute, talkative, and Ri'len had taken an immediate liking to him. "He's certainly a talker."

R'haran thought so, too. The elder two were more reserved, having had a better understanding of their precarious situation during the changes their short lives had already brought them, but the younger ones, starting with Tellen, were a chatty lot. "Come over and say hello if you see us in the dining cavern," R'haran suggested, not wanting to commit the young people with their busy weyrlinghood to any firm arrangement.

"We will." Sorsha smiled. It would be nice to be around little ones again. She missed her little sister as well as Ri'len's little sister Raise.

"And enjoy the rest of your day off," the greenrider suggested. His own weyrlinghood was long ago but he'd been an assistant to the weyrlingstaff at Dragonsfall to know very well how busy the pair would be.

Last updated on the May 31st 2009

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