Meeting the Families

Writers: Devin, Avery
Date Posted: 20th December 2017

Characters: Kadira, T'lin, Jadirah, A'kades, V'rel, J'ler, Lennor, Pelnor, Peletys, Linntys, Elinnora
Description: V'rel and T'lin have family interactions while feeding their new dragonets.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 17 of Turn 9

T'lin

J'ler

Rymeth was starving. He'd waited so long for his food, hadn't he? He
needed it right now, and his rider was taking too long to help him
over there to eat it. The midnight blue dragonet kept nudging at the
Candidate's heels as they walked off the Sands to where the
weyrlingstaff waited with their buckets of meat. He could smell it and
he wanted it.

There were lots of buckets of meat, and lots of other new weyrlings
feeding their dragonets. Fortunately one of the clutchmates he most
wanted to see was somewhere near the end, where there was space for
Vatirel and his new lifemate to go stand by them and feed and talk at
the same time. It seemed more crowded around Dessa and her beautiful
gold.

"Hey, Ty," he greeted, not yet sure how his friend had elided his
name. "Is he almost done eating, since he hatched first?"

T'lin turned and his heart leapt at seeing Vatirel with a blue at his
heels. "Tir!" He pulled Vatirel close and kissed him, a quick press of
lips. "Oh, whoops. Not supposed to do that."

The kiss was a joyous, light one. Vatirel wanted to respond but
instead he stiffened. Then he pulled back, knowing they weren't
supposed to.

"No, we're not," he said.

He paused and checked in with Rymeth, who seemed fine. Puzzled, even.

}:Tir? What is Tir?:{ the blue asked.

"It's my name," he said to his dragon aloud. "Vatirel. People call me Tir."

}:Vatirel,:{ Rymeth said, turning it over in his mind, like he'd done
when they bounded. }:I like V'rel better.:{

That reminded him. "Right, I'm V'rel now. What is yours now? T'sel? T'lin?"

"It's T'lin and this is Calaroth." T'lin's smile was so wide it hurt
his face. "Isn't he wonderful? What's your dragon's name?"

Calaroth was licking blood from his jaws, satisfied now that his belly
was full. }:Hello,:{ he said to the other blue. }:Yours makes mine
feel good. I like him.:{

Rymeth nudged at the back of V'rel's leg again. }:More meat,;{ he scolded.

V'rel was quiet for a moment as he picked up a large, bloody chunk and
provided it to Rymeth's maw. The blue inhaled it and began chewing
with loud crunching sounds. When he had a moment, he responded to the
other dragonet, }:My rider make yours feel good? Then I chose well. I
want someone who makes others feel better. And who is also smart and
looks at things. What did you want in yours?:{

}:I wanted one that fit,:{ Calaroth said simply.

}:It is good that we both got good riders,:{ Rymeth said. He was
pleased that V'rel was continuing to feed him while he spoke to the
other blue.

"I'm so glad we both made it into this group," V'rel said to his
friend. "I was so happy for you when you Impressed! And then it got
down near the end and I thought maybe I wasn't going to make it into
this one."

"I was worried too." T'lin hugged him as best he could without
upsetting the feed bucket or bumping into Rymeth. "Oh I'm so happy!"
At first he'd been too dazed by Calaroth but as other weyrlings
started to arrive with their new lifmates he kept checking for
Vatirel, growing more nervous as time went on.

"I was the last one. But Rymeth knew exactly who he wanted," V'rel said.

He hugged T'lin back, and then looked around before stuffing another
chunk of meat into his dragonet's maw. "Is your family here? Do you
know?"

"Oh yeah. You know they always come. I'm sure they're fighting through
the big crowd." A gold always drew more spectators. "Oh and Dessa
showed up with a _gold_! Did you see her Impress?"

"I did!" he exlaimed. "She got knocked over by a brown but she's fine.
Thank Faranth. A mauled weyrling goldrider would have looked bad," he
said.

"And it would have been _Dessa_. I'm glad she's okay." T'lin glanced
down the row of new weyrlings but his view was blocked. "This is going
to be so great! It's like a dream come true, me and you, riders
together." And Dessa. T'lin had also spotted Neria and Kedon with
dragons earlier when he was searching for V'rel.

Calaroth bumped his leg and T'lin reached down to rub his head. The
blue was a warm presence his mind. }:You are thinking of others.:{
After a slight pause, Calaroth said. }:I would like to meet them. Do
they all make you happy like Rymeth's rider?:{

"Lots of them do, yeah."

"I'm glad she's okay too. I can't wait to be in a clutch with you and
here, I think we're going to be an amazing class," V'rel said.

Then he tilted his head. "Calaroth has a lot of questions, huh?"

"Oh, yeah." T'lin smiled. "Gotta remember to talk to him in my head.
What about Rymeth?" Then he spotted his family coming toward him,
waving and smiling. T'lin took a step, thinking of running to meet
them, but Calaroth was still against his leg so he stayed where he
was. "Hi!"

}:Oh, more people. You are happy!:{ Calaroth trilled.

His youngest sister ran up to him and jumped into his arms. Then it
was a flurry of congratulations and hugs as T'lin's family swarmed
him.

"And you too Vatirel! We're so happy for you!" T'lin's mother pulled
him into a hug.

V'rel tossed the last two pieces of meat into Rymeth's mouth, then
turned to the side and began wiping his hands off on a towel. So he
missed seeing T'lin's sister jumping into his arms, but he turned
around with (fortunately now cleaned) hands just in time to be hugged.

"Thank you," he said."I'm so glad we're in the same class together!"

Linntys, T'lin's youngest sister, was rubbing Calaroth's headknobs
with a huge grin on her face. The blue was soaking up all the
attention.

"A handsome blue for my handsome boy." Peletys patted his son on the
back. T'lin wiped away happy tears. Everything was so perfect.

"And who is this lovely fellow?" Elinnora squatted down to be on a
closer level with Rymeth.

}:Are these your people?:{ Rymeth asked.

**No, they're T'lin's people. But they treat me like they're my own
family,** V'rel replied, forming the words in his mind like he was
rehearsing them before speaking them and hoping the blue got them.

}:That is nice of them. That makes them like your clutchmates,:{ the
blue decided.

"This is Rymeth," he told Elinnora. The blue leaned towards her and
blinked his eyes.

A throat-clearing had V'rel jump up and look behind him. There was
standing some of his other family. Kadira was looking at Dessa and her
gold, Jadirel's eyes were as big as saucers as he looked at all of the
dragonets, and Jadirah was beaming brightly at him. Most importantly
to V'rel, his father was standing there with a broad smile on his
face.

"We're so proud of you," the Healer gushed.

"He's such a dark color," Jadirel said.

"Nice job of being last. I thought dad was going to stop breathing,"
Kadira said. Jadirah sent her a sharp look.

A'kades cleared his throat again and stepped forward to hug V'rel. It
was such a tight hug, and he was being patted hard on the back.
"Congratulations," was all the bronzerider could manage. His voice was
thick with unshed tears and emotion all layered in the one word.

"Thanks, dad," V'rel mumbled into his shoulder.

"You're not...disappointed or anything?" he added after a minute. He'd
known he liked men for awhile, but he hadn't told his father about it
ever because those prior flings hadn't been a relationship. He'd only
told his father about Ashelia because that had gone on for months. So
what if his father had really wanted a young bronzerider?

"Not at all. I'm happy you Impressed," A'kades assured him.

Jadirah turned to T'lin and his parents. "Congratulations to you as
well," she said.

"Thank you." T'lin was smiling so much his face hurt. A'kades had
come! "This is Calaroth." The dragonet was partially blocked by
Linntys and T'lin's brother Pelnor who were both petting him.

}:So many people! Will there always be this many people?:{

**No, but that's what parties are for.**

When A'kades was done hugging his son, he smiled at the other family
close by. "Congratulations," he said to them as well.

"My friend T'lin and his family," V'rel said to his family, knowing
the kids didn't know his friend. "He has Calaroth, like I have Rymeth.
And we both know Dessa, who's in this clutch."

"Well met to you and Calaroth," Jadirah said. "I'm sure you'll have a
better weyrlinghood with friends."

"Tyselin says you're courting now," T'lin's middle sister Lennor said.
She put her hands together under her chin and sighed. "Too bad you
can't kiss each other for a while. You can't do that as junior
weyrlings, right?"

T'lin blushed and looked at V'rel. "Uh, I might have mentioned that in
my last letter."

V'rel was glad his skin tone was dark and Lennor couldn't see. "We'res
friends and more now. That's okay with you, right?" What if his family
didn't like it?

"You two are courting?" A'kades asked with a raised eyebrow.

V'rel held up his hand. "I know we can't do anything like that, Dad, I
know," he said before he could get embarrassed by his father switching
into a 'stern weyrlingmaster' mode.

"I was going to say that I didn't hear when this happened," the
bronzerider retorted, but his tone was light.

"Recently," T'lin told A'kades. "Should I assure you that I'm going to
treat him right? Because I will." He gave V'rel a soft look.

"Oh this is soooo cute." Lennor giggled.

"We're very happy for you," Peletys assured V'rel. "You're practically
family already. Not that we're rushing you boys into anything."

Jadirah pressed a hand to her mouth to cover her smirk. T'lin seemed
head over heels for the boy. Was it real affection or was it everyone
riding high on the warm emotions of Impression? For both the boys'
sake she hoped it was real.

"They'll need to get through their six months of weyrlinghood first.
But graduation is often a time of celebrating important moments and
maybe we'll have good news from you both then," A'kades said. If V'rel
was really serious about this boy, and wanted to settle down, he'd be
fine with that.

}:What is courting? You feel so warm. Your head is full of Rymeth's
rider,:{ Calaroth said. He seemed curious, but not upset.

**Courting is when you like someone a lot and want to be with them all
the time.**

}:So you want to be with Rymeth's rider all the time? And he will make
you feel happy?:{

**I hope so.**

}:Mine says our riders will be together all the time. I think that is
wonderful,:{ Calaroth told Rymeth.

}:My rider is also thinking about it. He feels warm about his
clutchfamily here and differently warm about your rider. I feel warm
about you and our other fellow clutchmates, but it's not the same,:{
Rymeth said, puzzled.

}:Yes it is a different feeling. It is strange but I like it.:{

"You're being worse about this than I thought." T'lin laughed. "Now I
have to capture his heart by graduation? I definitely need to work on
my poetry."

"Don't tease him, dad!" V'rel protested. "Or me. Anything that might
happen with us - it'll happen in months, when weyrlinghood is over,"
he said firmly.

Rymeth nudged V'rel's side. }:I tire,:{ the blue says.

"Oh, we should get them to go to be," V'rel said, knowing his father
would understand. "We can catch up at the feast though?" he asked,
looking over at T'lin's family and then at his own.

"Of course," Jadirah said. "We families will just be getting to know
each other."

T'lin smiled at her. "Ohh, you're the one I need to watch out for."

"She's more of the matchmaker mother than _my_ mother," V'rel murmured.

"I'll be good until you both aren't weyrlings, don't worry," the
Healer said cheerfully to T'lin. It was almost going to be a shame she
wouldn't get to see how this evolved firsthand.

"Too bad weyrfolk don't have weddings," Elinnora smiled at Jadirah.

}:I want to stay but I also want to sleep,:{ Calaroth said. Hatching
and eating and meeting humans was a lot of work.

T'lin suppressed a yawn. "We really should get them to sleep."

"Go. We'll see you," A'kades encouraged gently. He recognized drooping
dragonets when he saw them.

V'rel rested a hand on Rymeth's beautiful blue head. "Time to go find
our spots in the barracks."

Hopefully he and T'lin could sitll have beds by each other. They had
been neighbors in the Candidate Barracks and surely nobody would
begrudge it in the weyrlings ones too. Right?

Last updated on the January 30th 2020

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Meeting the Families