The Head of the Family

Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 25th July 2017

Characters: Tarley, Erathena, Gavkie, Korla
Description: Tarley and her sister, River Bluff refugees, move into the Dragonsfall Candidate barracks.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 13, day 1 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: G'nir, Yanley

Tarley felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach as she sat her meager bag of things down on the trunk that would be hers. The candidate barracks were brimming with candidates, those that had already been at Dragonsfall, and those that had been brought from River Bluff. She was the latter.

"At least it's a bed and somewhere to stay." Erathena said beside her. Even though they were six Turns apart in age, her younger sister was already the same height. People often assumed they were twins, something Erathena found hysterical, and Tarley found irritating.

"Yeah. We all have a bed." Her younger brother Acharl would be settling in the boys barracks, and her other brother Tyrael would be living with the other beastcrafters. Yralei, who was younger than Erathena, was apprenticing with the healers so she would have quarters with them.... That only left Chartel, who was seven, the youngest of the lot. Not being old enough to craft or be a candidate, she would be forced to live with a foster mother.

"And we have each other." Erathena said, setting her things beside of Tarley's. "I call top bunk!" She scrambled up the wooden ladder to the top.

Tarley watched as her sister positioned herself to sit with her legs dangling from the top bunk. She didn't wonder how her sister could seem so optimistic when they'd lost everything, their parents, their home, because she knew it was how Erathena coped. She was an expert at hiding her feelings behind a cheery exterior. A skill that Tarley had never learned.

More girls came bustling into the barracks behind them, they dressed in Dragonsfall garb. "New roommates," one of them said, sticking out her hand in Tarley's direction, "I'm Gavkie, but most people call me Gavvie."

"I'm Korla." The blonde beside her said.

Tarley returned Gavkie's handshake, "I'm Tarley, and that's my sister Erathena."

"Have you guys been at Dragonsfall long?" Erathena asked.

"We both grew up here, this is our second Turn as Candidates." Gavkie supplied, clearly the speaker between the two.

"What's the staff here like?"

"Well, there's Yanley, she's the Headwoman, she's knew to the position but she's nice. She'll probably help you guys get some warmer clothes," Korla eyed their necks, neither of which had a scarf wrapped around them. "Then there's the Weyrlingmasters, everyone knows ole G'rin doesn't really want the spot, he just wants to be Weyrleader again... Then there's the Second, D'kere, he's a bronzerider but you wouldn't know it from the way he acts, you'd think he was a brownrider."

Tarley wasn't sure what that comment was suppose to mean, except that perhaps the Weyrlingmaster's Second wasn't as arrogant and cocky as bronzeriders were always made out to be.

"Hey, do you guys want to go to the Dining Cavern? We can catch you up on everything." Gavkie offered.

Erathena hopped down from the top bunk with a bright smile, "Sure! I am starving."

"You three go ahead, I want to go check on Chartel."

Korla and Gavkie raised their eyebrows in question. "Chartel is our youngest sister," Tarley explained, "I want to make sure she's settled in with her foster mother."

"Okay, well, if you get done with that in time, come find us in the Dining Cavern." Korla and Gavkie linked arms with Erathena and led her out of the barracks, finally leaving Tarley with some peace and quiet.

Pulling her bag into her lap, Tarley sunk down onto her bed and rifled through her belongings until her fingers came across something soft and worn. Chartel's dolly. Tarley's eyes brimmed with tears as she pulled the rag doll out. She remembered with clarity her mother sewing the doll together, and finding bright blue buttons to sew on as the eyes. Tarley traced her thumb over the smooth buttons, now faded from the brilliant blue they had once been.

Lifting the doll to her nose, Tarley closed her eyes and inhaled. The smell made her throat constrict with emotion. The doll smelled as she remembered her mother smelling.

Tarley hugged the rag doll to her chest, the last possession they had that their mother had made. A part of Tarley considered keeping the doll, hiding it beneath her pillow as a memory from home.... But another part of her pictured Chartel, the youngest, who had less memories of her parents than the rest of them.

**She needs it more than I do. I am the head of the family now.** Tarley thought as she studied the smile that had been stitched onto the doll's face. Drying her face on her sleeve, Tarley tucked the doll inside her coat and then made for the creche. Tomorrow she would try to find their uncle and deliver to him the note her father had written before he died.

Last updated on the August 24th 2017

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The Head of the Family