The Day After

Writers: Emma, Len
Date Posted: 20th November 2010

Characters: Demalia, G'wen
Description: Galwen feels self-conscious after losing his virginity and talks to Demalia
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 28 of Turn 5
Notes: Meantioned: Teseada, Cardella, E'naer
Note: follows 'Getting Experience'

Even though F'neb had said he wouldn't, Galwen was pretty sure he was
walking more than a bit funny on this morn. He had left the blue rider's
weyr just after the man and his lifemate had gone for a sweep ride. When he made it to the kitchens, that glow over Galwen's head that announced to the Weyr what he had done just last night had to surely be glowing all over the kitchen. Completely embarrested, he had just left the dishes unwashed and all but ran out into the bowl of the Weyr.

Shards, what was he going to do? Sevin and Cardella hadn't been there to
confide in. No doubt they were in class, some place he should be as well, but there was no way he could face that group. Onnyth wasn't on
her ledge so Faranth knew where Teseada was. He was painfully conscious as
well that the slight smell of sex was still on him. So perhaps he should
just go and bath. He headed in that direction when he spied the beautiful
green/yellow hide of Tapheth close by, her lifemate inspecting her.

He all but ran into the green, burying his face in her soft neck, before
saying, "um..hiya Demalia, she okay?"

"She's fine," Demalia said with a laugh. "But are you?"

He rolled his eyes at the girl before reaching up to scratch the green's eye ridges. "Yeah, I think so," he said in a quiet voice. The green was a
comforting pressence and a plain and honest reminder of why last night had happened.

"You only think so?" There was a note of amusement in her voice. "Well, you
did disappear a bit early last night."

He could feel his face go beet red. "Yeah...well, you were there too? That
party did seem a green and blue rider fest. Meet anyone nice?" Maybe he
could divert the attention off him and on to her.

"Only my friends, but then I wasn't going looking."

"Yeah, me either," came out of his mouth before he could stop it. Mentally
he kicked himself.

"But you did find someone?"

"Uh..." His face turned a brighter red. Well, it was Demalia, she wouldn't mind talking about it a bit. "Yeah..I mean, I didn't, really. Teseada set it up. Something J'darin said about getting experience."

"I get it," she said. The Weyrwoman's second had set the young lad up, that
was interesting fodder, which she filed away for later. "So you got some
experience then?"

"Just a bit." He wrinkled up his nose and held his hands out about eight
inches wide. There was a part of him that was bursting to share the
encounter with someone.

"Was it worth it?"

Laughing under his breath, he nodded. "He was gentle, at least that's what
he said. Well, most of the night anyways." F'neb wasn't so gentle early
this morning, but then again, Galwen hadn't been asking him to be. With a
bit of a flush at the memory, he recalled he had been demanding him to be
quite the opposite. Absently stroking Tapheth, he said to Demalia, "and at
least it's nice to have gotten all that out of the way. It's just...why
does it feel like everyone is watching you and knows_exactly_what you were
up to?"

"Just you wait until there's a flight your dragon's been involved in and
then they really do know exactly what you were doing not all that long ago."

Galwen laughed into Tapheth's beautiful hide. "Yeah, and at that point I
think my da will really have a stroke. Ah well, all for one of these pretty girls, eh?" He rubbed the lovely hide. "It's kind of weird, all these Hold kids have been actually 'searched' in the right sense of the word. But none of us Weyr kids know if we're really empathic at all, you know?"

"I wasn't weyrborn myself," she reminded him. "We moved here just when it
came clear that thread was back."

"Yeah, but you lived here and became a candidate through that route, right?
I'm talking about these Hold and Craft kids, they've been actually Searched
and found to have the right sort of mind for a dragon. But we're not in the Weyr. I mean..how do I actually_know_that I'd have anything that a dragon would want?" Now that he had gotten the question of his virginity sorted, the thought that it might have been for nothing nagged in the back of his brain.

"Not that my mother approved at the time. Papa said I should do my duty, and I listened to him." Her mother had been against the idea, telling her how stupid she was being to put herself in danger.

"Funny that, you'd think it'd be your father who would have disapproved."
At least it seemed that way with a lot of the green riding girls.

"Papa was just glad that they had taken us in here. He figured that the
least he could do was give me his permission."

Galwen nodded. Being Weyr-bred, he never had to do any moving. In fact,
he'd never seen much beyond the Weyr itself. But something else had just
occurred to him. "Um, Demalia, you won't tell anyone what I said, will you? I mean, it was really kind of Teseada and I'd hate for it to get out y'know? And it's not like F'neb and I wouldn't have meet at some point in the future anyways, right?"

"You can trust me."

He smiled at the girl, hoping she would keep to her word. The last thing he wanted was to get Teseada in any sort of trouble. Thinking back to what he had been saying, he asked, "have you and Tapheath here been used for
Searching?"

"She's not really shown any aptitude for it in the past."

"Ah well," he said, giving her one last scratch, "when you're this pretty,
you don't have to do that sort of stuff, eh? I just wonder how exactly they know."

"If only they could tell us more than they just 'know' whether or not
someone will likely impress."

"And if they could remember more than a couple days at a time!"

"She does sometimes remember things longer than that," Demalia said. "Every
now and then I get a surprise when she's coming out with something."

"The stuff you want her to remember, or the awkward stuff?" he teased.
Since being in their company, he had relaxed and was beginning to feel good
about what had happened to him.

"Both!" Demalia grinned. "And if she starts to gossip... Well if you impress you'll see for yourself."

"That's a big if there," he sighed. He hadn't thought much beyond the
Hatching. For all his thinking he might not Impress, he should be thinking
of the future, but he wasn't yet.

"You have turns yet," she reminded him. "If the dragon for you is not on
the sands yet, then there will be plenty more times."

"True." He was beginning to eye the bathing cavern. "I'm a bit smelly, I
think I'll go and use the baths before E'naer comes out of class and wonders why I'm talking to you and not to him."

"If you're quick you can sneak in at the back, and if you get caught, then
you can tell him I asked you to help me for a moment."

"Ah, cheers for that! Yeah, maybe if I hurry, I can still make the end of
class." He gave her green one last pat.

"You better get going."

Last updated on the December 16th 2010

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

The Day After