Lost Relatives

Writers: Paula, Eimi
Date Posted: 5th December 2017

Characters: Sh'dori, Dessa, Baltim
Description: Dessa helps Sh'dori to track down a long lost relative.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 9

"You are presistant one, aren't you?" Sh'dori looked the young woman
in front of her. She was very beautiful and way too young to make him
comfortable.

"I believe you made a promise? Besides, don't you think it would make
a fine graduation gift for A'be?" Dessa pleaded and gave him a wide
eyed look. According to G'dori, his father wasn't able to resist
beautiful women, which is why Dessa had decided to get to work.

G'dori was right, Sh'dori had difficulties saying no to a pretty lady.
Besides, she did have a point. He had promised to find out if A'be was
related to him. He just never got around to start. It didn't seem
urgent and something else came up and it just got postponed time after
time.
"Fine, you've got the point. I'm free this evening, how about you?"

"I can arrange it," Dessa replied.

~*~ later, same day ~*~

Rahmuth landed outside the Topaz Seahold's main building and Sh'dori
helped his passanger down.
"How do you want to handle this?" Sh'dori asked when the removed the
flight gear and tucked them into Rahmuth's straps.

"Why don't you go to meet A'be's grandfather and I search the Hold's
records for clues for A'be's father's identity?" Dessa suggested.

"Alright, meet me here when you're done," Sh'dori replied, gave
Rahmuth instructions to stay put and not to spook the Hold's
lifestock.

They went their separate ways. Sh'dori asked around until he found out
where the man lived. The brownrider actually felt slightly nervous
when he knocked the door.

Baltim frowned when he heard the tap and the door. Putting down the
wooden spoon he had been whittling for his latest granddaughter, he
brushed the shavings off his hands. "Coming!" Who was it now?
Hopefully it wasn't that little old woman wanting him to fix her
closet door _again_. Didn't she know they had Hold staff for that?
"Yes?" he asked, opening the door with a pull surprisingly strong a
man of his age.

"Hello, are you woodcrafter Baltim?" Sh'dori greeted with a smile. He
was bit shocked when he saw the man answering the door. He did
resemble his mother quite a bit. Was he going look like that after
decade or three?

The older gentleman looked up at the tall, muscular man with a bit of
surprise. Glancing at his knots he was doubly so. "I am. What can I
do for you, dragonrider? I know you can't be wanting me on Search..."

"No, I'm not. I'm here for A'be. Oh, I'm Sh'dori, rider of brown
Rahmuth," Sh'dori replied.

"Well, met," Baltim said with a nod. "I'm A'be's grandfather, but he
isn't here."

"I know, he's back at the Weyr. Look, ever since that boy arrived to
Dolphin Cove, we have been wondering if he's relative of us. He looks
so much like my son. So, I'm here to trace his family roots," Sh'dori
explained. They were still standing at the door way. "Can I come in?"

"Look, dragonrider," the old woodcrafter said raising his hand in a
firm but pacifying gesture, "I don't know you and I don't see how our
family is your business. It's just a coincidence is all. If he looks
like you, it must be his father in him, and I can't help you with
that. My family has no ties to any Weyr outside A'be, so I think
there is really nothing for us to discuss."

"Are you sure?," Sh'dori asked. "I mean, you are from Amethyst Cliff
hold?" That much A'be had know. "So's my family, been woodcrafters for
generations."

That started Baltim a bit. But he shook his head, "I am from Amethyst
Cliff, and my family were woodcrafters, but my family died in the
Plague. Maybe, if you go back into the distant past there was a
relation, but..."

"So did my mother, well most of them, and she lost contact with those
who weren't killed when she left Amethyst Cliff and the Woodcraft
Hall."

"Well, is your mother still alive? Maybe she knows something." In
truth, Baltim really didn't know what the bluerider expected of him in
all this.

"She is and I've talked with her. All she can tell that she had two
sisters and a brother. One of her sister's died, she's not sure what
happened to the other one and her brother was assigned to Topaz
Seahold before the plague hit and that's last she's heard of him,"
Sh'dori replied.

Baltim's eyes narrowed for a moment. He had been assigned to Topaz
Seahold. And he had had three sisters and a brother. But so had many
families, and coming from the Woodcraft Hall, men were being assigned
to Holds all over the South. But still... "Tell me their names if
you know them and I can try to recall if I at least knew the family."

"Well, my mother's name's Balidora," Sh'dori told him.

Baltim's eyes opened wide at the sound of a name that he hadn't heard
spoken aloud for Turns. "No. No, that is not possible."

"What?" Sh'dori asked. "Are you alright?" he asked with concern
because the old man was starting to look less good. "Do you need sit
down?"

"Who are you, dragonman?" The woodcrafter might have been old, but he
still had the strength of a lifetime of physical labor hanging on his
bones when he took hold of Sh'dori's tunic and gave it a good shake.
"Tell me why you are doing this! The truth now!"

"I'm Sh'dori, rider of brown Rahmut and journeyman woodsmith. I think
we have found a long lost cousin in A'be and I'm trying to confirm
this," Sh'dori replied gently. "The boy needs to know if he's related
to my children, so he'll know to keep his dragon out of their
Flights." (And sons too but Sh'dori deliberately left that out.)

"But why do you say you are the son of Balidora?" Baltim shook his
head, not allowing himself to believe the brownriders story. "She is
dead. They are all dead."

"She's not. She fled the Amethyst Cliff Hold and rebuilt her life in
Dragonsfall. Then she moved to Dolphin Cove Weyr. She even tried being
a cook in a Printer Hall for a little while. But she's grown used to
live in a Weyr, so that didn't last long. She built a new family, was
mated to a dragonrider." Sh'dori said.

Baltim searched Sh'dori's face. Yes. There it was. Faint traces of
the girl he once knew. His eyes filled with tears. "If I had known
she was alive and so close, there's not a force on Pern that would
have stopped me from finding her."

"I know, Uncle," Sh'dori's eyes weren't exactly dry either.

~*~
When Sh'dori returned to his dragon, he found Dessa already there,
scratching the brown's eyeridges. Rahmuth practically purred under the
girl's touch.

"Did you have any luck?" Sh'dori asked.

"No," Dessa said with a shake of her head. "The records were dead end,
his birthrecord has unknown where the father's name should be. But I
might had gotten a clue after talking with some old aunties. Nothing
definent yet, and not something I would want to mention to A'be. How
about you?" Dessa replied asked.

"I found my uncle, mom's going to be so happy!" Sh'dori declared.

"And had a drink," Dessa said with a tone that made Sh'dori feel like
she didn't approve it.

"Hey, we had to celebrate. Anyways, A'be is a cousin, second cousin to
my children. We need to visit his mother and tell Betrina the good
news."

Last updated on the December 21st 2017

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Lost Relatives