No Gloating

Writers: Devin, Len
Date Posted: 11th October 2010

Characters: N'vanik, D'len
Description: N'vanik has a talk with one of his wingriders
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 26 of Turn 5
Notes: Meantioned: U'kaiah, G'nir

N'vanik

"So you wanted to talk?" N'vanik said.

D'len glanced at his Weyrleader, bemused. "So, did you hear about what
happened over at your old home?"

**That U'kaiah lost again?** Was the first thought that sprang to
mind. "That they've had a complete change in leadership?"

"Yeah, they had that," the brown rider said. "No, not that.
It concerns one of your 'friends.' And his misadventures."

N'vanik lifted an eyebrow. "Are you talking about the rumor?"

D'len nodded, taking in his surroundings.

"Is there any truth to it?"

"Oh yeah, it's all true. Disappointment, he was calling it, from what
I heard. Funny that, I've always known it as rape." Disgust coloured
D'len's voice.

"Me too." N'vanik had found the rumor hard to believe, but it was
harder to believe why someone would lie like that about U'kaiah. Here
was yet another person saying it was true. "I get 'disappointed', too.
I make arrangements with women who can handle it." For a lost green
flight, he could grab whoever was nearest. For a lost gold flight, he
knew better.

D'len nodded. His brown may be cheeky but he was too young to dare
try to mate with a queen, even a smallish one, so he wouldn't know
about how intense a Queen Flight was.

"Yeah, poor G'nir. Just Weyrleader with a new Weyrwoman, and now
this. What a homecoming!"

"I sure wouldn't want to deal with it." People would think it was
personal if he punished U'kaiah for his behavior. He was glad it was
someone else's problem.

"How's your nerves with this upcoming Hatching?" D'len smiled. It was
time to change the subject. "Nervous or excited?"

N'vanik snorted. "Nervous? Why would I be nervous?"

The brownrider shrugged. "I'd be nervous. But maybe that's why I'm a
brownrider and not a bronze."

"I haven't been nervous at a Hatching since I Impressed." He thought
about it for a moment. "Well, I guess I was nervous for my daughter's
sake, when she Stood."

"That I can imagine." D'len mused over his own children, both of whom
were much too young to Stand yet.

"Other than that, I always find Hatchings exciting." Nervousness only
happened when it looked like a dragonet might not find a lifemate.
Hatchling deaths had happened in his early days as a rider, although
thank Faranth it was rare now.

Would U'kaiah come to Dolphin Cove's Hatching? Even if he didn't,
N'vanik would go to Dragonsfall's Hatching, seeing as it was the new
Weyrwoman's first. If he ran into U'kaiah, what would he say? "I can't
even gloat about U'kaiah's downfall," he told D'len. "Someone got
hurt, and that's nothing to gloat about."

"No, there's no gloating when a woman's been raped."

N'vanik drummed his fingers on his desk. "It's just ... not like him.
He's always been so sharding perfect." Was U'kaiah hiding a darkness
even worse than N'vanik's?

"Mate, you should know by now that those are the worst ones!
Perfect?" D'len laughed, "no one's perfect, not even U'kaiah."

"I know he's not actually perfect. But he acted like he was, and
people treated him like he was." Maybe that would change now.

D'len nodded. He didn't know the man in question at all, but what he
had heard about him had been all good. Until now. Until this. He
hoped Dragonsfall had a good Healer and a good Mindhealer.

N'vanik sighed. "I hope the girl doesn't have any lasting damage."

Last updated on the October 23rd 2010

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No Gloating