One Little Gold and One Cruel Remark

Writers: Len, Paula
Date Posted: 29th May 2013

Characters: E'naer, G'wen, T'bel
Description: Feral clutches and an off-hand remark ruins E'naer's relationship with G'wen
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 11 of Turn 7

It looked like Weyr's _every_ firelizard was in E'naer's weyr, watching and humming. Feral was digging a hole in to the sand E'naer provided her as nesting place. Digging and humming softly, her sides bulging with eggs.

E'naer poured wine to glasses.

"Oh, thank you, dear." T'bel waved his glass under his noise before taking a sip. "Ah, my favorite wine as well!"

G'wen sat close to the two older riders, ignoring his own glass in favour of chewing his thumb nail. "How many do you think she'll lay?" He nodded to the tiny gold, his gaze as intense as the numbing chatter of Neath in his mind. The large green had her nose pressed as far into the weyr as space would allow.

"She's pretty small and young, if she lay's ten, I'll be happy," E'naer replied and watched Feral settle down to clutching position.

G'wen groaned but it had nothing to do with what E'naer said. Or, at least, not directly. "Is there anyway to turn_off_the constant monologue of your dragon's voice in your head? If Neath doesn't stop fretting over the eggs I may blow my top."

The curtain to the wallows gave a push as the green dragon in question gave an almighty sigh.

"Nope, you can try ignoring it," E'naer replied, his attention elsewhere. "LOOK, it's the first one!" he yelled and almost spilled his drink.
Feral had indeed pushed out the first egg and now rolled it to the center of the sand hole. She crooned proudly.

G'wen crossed his legs with a pained expression. "Ugh...that looked like it hurt."

"I'm suddenly grateful that I'm _not_ a woman," E'naer replied.

Feral positioned herself to lay the second one and hissed at curious green who got too close. She didn't mind spectators as long as they kept a respectable distance.

"Oh please, I never wanted to be a woman!" T'bel snorted at E'naer. "I love being exactly what I am."

"Not even when a gorgeous bronzerider walks past without a shirt on?" E'naer asked. He wasn't serious about.

T'bel merely grimaced and shook his head. "Never saw what you all see in those over-puffed idiots. Give me a nice bluerider any day!" He nodded and took a sip, adding in a sly tone, "and besides I don't see you with a manly man either." He flicked a glance to G'wen, sitting on the edge of his seat, engrossed in Feral, looking every inch the beautiful and fresh faced greenrider.

"Man can dream. Besides Sh'lua is nice bluerider and quite manly besides. That's fourth egg and Feral is starting to look slimmer," E'naer replied, not forgetting why they were here.

But with that remark, G'wen did. Turning to give his lover a hurt look, he said, "I didn't realise I was holding you back from your dreams. I'll leave and let you have Sh'lua all you wish."

Standing up quickly, lest T'bel or E'naer see the tears that had come to his eyes, he left the room, taking care not to slam the door on his way out.

"What's now? G'wen!" E'naer called after him, taken by surprise and not understanding what had gotten into him _now_. He had just been flapping his mouth, not really thinking what he said. He gave T'bel a bewildered look.
"If he bolts off like that every time I mention some bluerider, this is not going to work."

"If you act like he's nothing but your bed warmer, why should it work?" T'bel gave him a stern look as he reached over and took the glass of wine the boy had left behind. There was no use in letting good wine go to waste, after all. "If his father ever made a remark like that around me, trust me, I wouldn't have been so gentle about it."

"I never said I was good at relationships," E'naer sighed.

"Well, there's no great art to just not blurting out Sh'lua's name when talking about desiring someone. I used to think that G'wen didn't deserve you, now I'm thinking the opposite. Do you love the boy?"

E'naer covered his face with his hands and groaned. "I do care about him. You're right about it, I'm not good for him. He deserves someone who can actually commit to a relationship. "

T'bel gave him a scathing look. "Well, if that's your attitude about it then yes, by all means, cut him loose so he can find someone who actually_does_want him."

"I do _want_ him," E'naer muttered.

Feral was giving them scathing looks too, because they were ignoring her, she was the star of the show here!

T'bel flicked his fingers at Miss Priss. "Then_show_him you want him, don't just treat him like he's only good for lovemaking, it's not fair to the boy. You had the perfect moment there to flatter him and instead you turned to thoughts of Sh'lua. How would you feel if you were him?"

E'naer sighed and rubbed his temples. "I think I'm repeating something that was done to me...Shardit. I need to make it up to him. Would an egg of Feral's be good making up gift?" he said.

"If it's a bronze or a brown, then maybe." T'bel's voice softened. "Something that would be able to catch this girl here and give you both those same feelings as a Flight, but together. Though anything less than a gold may annoy her Highness over there." He nodded to Neath, who had managed to get most of her head into the weyr to watch Feral lay the eggs. The men may have been ignoring the tiny gold but she wasn't.

"There's no knowing what will hatch from which egg," E'naer reminded him. His gaze returned to Feral. She was humming, arranging the eggs and pushing sand to cover them. Then she curled protectively around them. E'naer got up to count them, since he had got distracted after four. "Six, no, seven eggs. I think she's done. Not much but it was her first clutch."

T'bel peered over his shoulder. "That one." He pointed to the largest egg. "Give the boy that one, it should be a brown at least. And E'naer, remember how that first love made_you_feel. Just because one man hurt you horribly, that doesn't mean you're no good for relationships. Maybe this is_the_one, who knows? But until you try--really try--you'll never know and you'll never heal. And you could make G'wen just as wary as you've been, and that's not fair. He's a lovely boy, treat him like he deserves to be treated."

"Thanks, thanks for the advice," E'naer said humbly. Perhaps he could make it work, if really wanted. Thinking a life without G'wen did feel lonely, empty.

"Anytime dear."

Last updated on the June 17th 2013

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One Little Gold and One Cruel Remark