Wherever It Takes Me

Writers: Chelle, Mirren
Date Posted: 1st March 2016

Characters: Darez, Prackiues
Description: The boy asks for help.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 5, day 2 of Turn 8
Notes: Pt 3 of storyline

Darez held the note scrunched in his hand. He tapped on the harper's door. Doubtless he'd have been expecting this visit since his Ma died.

Ma - or whoever she had been. He chewed his lip, suppressing tears. He had to be a man now. He didn't feel much like one.

Prackiues opened the door and peered out. His quarters were attached to the records room with the classrooms on the other side. He looked down to see young Darez and found himself curious. "Well hello young man. What can I do for you today?" His voice boomed just a little, a bad habit he forgot about until someone pointed it out to him. His eyes were kind, though.

"Hello sir. I…" The lad hesitated before holding the note up to the harper. "I found this, beside my… Ma's bed, after she…" Words had never so difficult as they were now.

He took it seeing the boy's distress and became even more curious. "Come on in lad. Let's see about it." Reading the note, his eyes got wider. This was quite interesting, interesting indeed. "So you read it? And did you know of any of it before?"

"No, none, I just thought she was my mother. She told me my father was dead." Darez made his hands into fists and uncurled them again. There was no one he could take his frustration out on. "Now I don't know. I have no idea who I am, where I came from…what my name is."

He sucked in a breath. "What if my parents are out there looking for me? Hoping I'll come home someday?"

"Let's think about this for a moment..." This was a new one on Prackiues. Still, he was a harper and things like this were great for harpers. It allowed them to use harper skills they rarely used. Plus it was exciting and this was a small Hold. Face it, nothing ever happened. "They might very well be. The first thing we have to figure out...where this happened. Among your mother's...her things...was there anything she had had for a long while? To suggest where she might have come from?" He had to reason this out.

Darez frowned. "I suppose so. Ma…_she_never threw anything away. She even has a blanket from when I was a…" He stopped cold. "Maybe that's a clue?"

"Maybe! Go get it!" He tried to keep his tone modulated. He needed to be the adult in this situation. The boy was overwrought and needed some guidance.

"I guess, if you think it'll help." Darez ducked back to the rooms he'd grown up in and returned in a matter of minutes with a small blue blanket over his arm.

The harper took the blanket and looked at it, turning it over and over in his hands. "This weave pattern and how thick it is....this was from somewhere cold. So if it's southern, and I'd say probably-you're looking at somewhere in the mountains."

"That could be a lot of places," Darez pointed out. "I wouldn't know where to start looking, or if I even should look."

"Well the alternative, Darez...you go the rest of your life not having any family. And yes, you're old enough to perhaps be fostered or something but what if you didn't have to be?" And there again, the boy might be related to any number of people. As a harper, he understood the importance of understanding heritage. So many things could be inherited-even illness.

"I could apprentice," Darez said, although he knew it wasn't that simple. Someone had to be willing to take him on and train him, and share their marks with him. "But if I did look, where should I start?"

"The colors...if they're significant, they would be in Sapphire Meadows territory. Somewhere there. I'd say start at the main Hold and work your way from there." The harper started to think about how a young man might manage that. "Check with the headwoman. Maybe there's a trader train going that way or you could try taking one of the riverboats down."

Darez nodded slowly. "I guess… Ma - she - left a few marks, I can pay my way, for a little while."

"Just look at things. If you see some work and no one's doing it-start doing it and demand pay for it." There were always chores to be done. And sometimes chores didn't mean marks but they meant a bed and food which was just as good. "Might even be some crafters going that way. The baker hall is there, after all."

Darez nodded. He'd always wanted to see the south. He hadn't quite had this in mind though. "Thank you sir. I guess all I can do is try."

"Feel free to write me. I've got some contacts here and there. Maybe it won't take so long." Thinking about how it felt as a young journeyman, setting about Pern so long ago, he wished the boy the best. He knew this must be quite a shock and might not even turn out right. Still, at least he wouldn't be stuck here in the Hold.

Last updated on the March 4th 2016

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Wherever It Takes Me