Good To See You Again

Writers: Anika, Avery
Date Posted: 11th May 2015

Characters: A'kades, V'kellyn
Description: Two old friends catch up.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 13, day 4 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Rhosyn, Tsaera, Lanniya, Lenala

A'kades was grabbing dinner early in the day, so the dining hall was
reasonably deserted. He was sitting in a spot with a prime view of the
door, so he saw a familiar figure when it walked in. It took him a moment
to process who he was seeing, though, since it was so unexpected. Once he
recognized the man, he stood up from the table and walked over.

"What's an old wherry like you doing here?" he said, broad grin spreading
across his face.

"Coming to check on what an old tunnel snake like you is up too,"
V'kellyn shot back, teeth flashing at the sight of the familiar face.
"As a matter of fact, I've decided to stick around and make sure
you're staying outta trouble, you needing to be all respectable and
all now with your new position."

"I'm always respectable," A'kades said with a snort. "Decided you
missed the weather?"

"That and my mother said she'd dismember me if I didn't bring her
granddaughter to live closer," he quipped before his voice took on a
more serious edge. "With V'cam's injuries..." he shook his head. "It
was time to com home."

"Oh no, not being threatened by your mother!" His voice turned more
serious. "It's good to have you back, whatever the reason."

"It's good to _be_ back, but you were eating. Let me grab some food
and I'll join you. You can fill me in on the news here," V'kellyn
suggested before heading to do just that. Once he had a full plate he
took a seat next to the other rider. "So what's new?"

"What's new... You know, the last Turn has been relatively good.
Rhosyn had a baby and Tsaera was back for a bit while we had both our
breeding golds and riders down," A'kades mentioned.

V'kellyn nodded. "And you've a gold to train up," he added. "One
that heard all dragons, I've heard?"

"Indeed. Your bronze will probably hear from her shortly. She's quite
the character. Trader girl, doesn't wear shoes, not much for lessons.
Strong-willed as a goldrider should be. It will be interesitng seeing
how she gets on with Rhosyn and Lenala."

V'kellyn laughed at that, "No shoes you say? She really must be a
character! I really can't see Rhosyn giving lessons on decorum. Has she
delegated that to Lenala?"

"That's exactly what happened, how'd you guess? I'm curious as to how it's
progressing."

"Rhosyn was still a few turns at Vista Point while I was there," he said by
way of explanation. "It always makes me shake my head, the interactions
between goldriders. I'll look forward to meeting this new one. How are
you doing, though? My sister tells me you were badly wounded during a Fall
this turn."

"My face is still handsome, right?" he quipped.

At the reminder, A'kades touched the right side of his face, where the
char scar rings had been added. It was a reflexive habit he'd developed
when the bandages were there, and quitting it was hard. There had been a
time when they'd thought he'd lose the eye - firestone and thread dust
made for nasty infective material and the head was sensitive. Even though
the damage to his shoulder had been worse, the idea of losing his eye had
horrified him more than losing the use of the arm. Something about the
idea of losing part of your sight adragonback...

"Not even an distinguished scar can do anything for your ugly mug, my
friend," V'kellyn teased. "I had my own tangle with Thread couple turns
back. Not a thing that's like it," he said shaking his head, remembering
not only the pain but sheer terror of the age-old enemy invadading your
flesh. As he understood it, A'kades's situation had been rather dire and
he recognized the other man was covering, trying not to let on how much it
had affected him. His brown eyes met the other bronzerider's earnestly,
"Must have been a difficult time for you."

Aw, crackdust. If he couldn't tell his best friend, who could he have told?

"It scored the shoulder and the top of the arm, Volaith's foreleg. We
/betweened/ fast enough to kill it, of course. They never thought I was
going to lose the limb, though. Therapy's a pain, but you get lots of
massages from pretty girls," he joked.

"Hey, don't you forget one of those pretty girls is my sister," V'kellyn
cautioned with good humor, though he knew Veleska could handle herself with
any rider. The horror of Threadscore was nothing to take lightly, but
sometimes it was easy to shift the focus to something you _could_ joke
about. More seriously he added "I'm glad you came through it as well as
you did. You'll do a fine job terrorizing the weyrlings."

"After the last time I flirted with her and she rebuffed me? Don't worry,
her honor is safe."

"She is her Mother's daughter and I tell you right now you do _not_ want to
tangle with my mama. She could make a fevered wild feline run for the
hills when she's in a temper."

A'kades shuddered theatrically. "I'd avoid that for sure," he agreed.

"So when is the next big dragonpoker game planned?" he asked his friend
with a knowing smirk. They needed a private setting and a pitcher of ale
before they talked too much on serious matters, but he promised himself
that he'd speak more with his friend when they had some time away from
prying ears.

"I was thinking after the weyrlings graduated. That's a reason to
celebrate. But there's time for a smaller one before then."

"I like the sound of that," V'kellyn rubbing his hands together.
"It's been too long.'

Last updated on the May 14th 2015

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Good To See You Again