Accompany Me?

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 27th March 2016

Characters: Talwynn, T'shi
Description: T'shi is talked into helping Talwynn practice.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 19 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lissath, D'kere, Harki, Tavia

Talwynn crossed her arms and stared at her cousin. "Yes, I'm sure it's
going to be fine. I've been exercising with Lissath's weyrlings in their
training, regaining physical fitness at the same rate they are. By the
time they're ready to graduate I'm going to be ready to fly Thread again,
mark my words."

T'shi looked at his cousin and pressed his lips together, not sure if he
could trust just her word. When he'd arrived at Dolphin Cove and met his
cousins, he had known Talwynn as a crafter and a candidate, strong and
vital and determined as a bronze chasing the senior gold. Her Impressing
green hadn't surprised him and he'd expected her to be one of those
prodigies to wind up a wingthird in five Turns or less. The first few
times he'd seen her after her accident had been a shock; she'd been
drained and bedridden, and then barely able to get about. She had been
improving over the last few Turns, able to do limited duties like
conveyance and packages.

But she and Riveth had been a retired pair for almost three Turns, and
he'd assumed they'd stay that way forever. He'd known pairs had scorings
deep enough to require over a Turn of recovery but from everything that he
had heard from the Healers, few who passed the two Turn mark went back
into service with the wings. That she'd come as far as she had was
commendable, and yet she thought she could go farther? He believed in her
determination but he didn't know if it was actually possible.

She must have seen his doubts on his face, or guessed them from his
silence. The greenrider leaned forward and stared at him. "If I thought I
was going to fail, I'd go on my own and embarrass myself there. I'm asking
you to come with me because I think I can do this."

"Why aren't you waiting for when Lissath's class does rope drills? I'm
sure the weyrlingmasters would let you slot into their formation and then
you'd prove it to more people than just me."

She didn't answer immediately, and T'shi's eyes narrowed. "You're afraid
you can't," he accused.

"If I'm going to fail, I'd rather fail in front of you or Harki than in
front of D'kere and an entire clutch of weyrlings who-" she started before
abruptly stopping in the middle of the sentence.

"So you don't want to be seen as incapable in front of a number of
people," he guessed.

"There's a little over 40 if you count staff and assistants," she said.
"Look, I've practiced on my own and it went okay. But I want to practice
with people I know before the rope drills. Then I only have Riveth's
performance to worry about. What if we could pull it off but one of the
weyrlings fouls us? We could ruin our chance for a reason that isn't even
our fault."

"I can see that," he admitted. It was true that weyrlings in their first
few active drills made mistakes, some of which injured themselves and each
other. Wouldn't it be cruel for them to hurt her chances more than Thread
already had?

He seized on another point. "Why are you afraid to fail in front of D'kere?"

"We are not talking about that," Talwynn said defensively.

"You're at least thinking about it to yourself, right? It's an answer you
should know," he told her.

"It's my issue, not for my cousin," she said, tone clipped.

He held up a hand placatingly, willing to drop the subject. "Who else have
you told about this?"

"Harki. She's helped me practice flame control with stray firestone and
with sack throwing," she answered. "And I talked to Tavia about where my
physical fitness is. It's much better than my charts have been since the
accident. If I keep doing exactly what the weyrlings are doing, I should
be able to get up to their level by the time they do rope drills."

"Sounds like you've covered all the bases," he said, impressed.

"So you'll help?" she asked, her tone deceptively controlled despite how
much emotion she was feeling

Part of him thought it was a bad idea to agree. The other part of him
wanted to help her though. That part remembered being so determined to
prove himself in the sea hold that he took stupid risks and made dumb
decisions, often without any backup. She could have done this alone, and
it sounded like she'd started this process on her own. But now she was
coming to people, which indicated trust on her part - an impressive feat
for the prickly, independent greenrider. If she was on her own and she
slipped from her dragon and died, there would be so many questions and
recriminations. If he was there, if something went wrong, he could
intervene.

"I'll help," he finally told her. "When?"

"Next restday," she said. "Mind if I bring Harki?"

"If she's willing to come, it wouldn't go amiss. Means we can throw twice
as much at you. Unless you want to save that for later."

She snorted. "We'll see. But I'm ready."

"I'm sure you are. Next restday, then," T'shi said, sketching a quick
acknowledgement at her.

Last updated on the April 1st 2016

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