It's Complicated (1/2)

Writers: Aaron, Estelle
Date Posted: 10th May 2020

Characters: R'fal, Brennault, Lorican
Description: R'fal takes Brennault to Barrier Lake to deliver some messages and see Lorican
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 4, day 8 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Urlene

Brennault

It was Marlath who saw the runner first, when he and R'fal were
returning from their morning's dragonhealing class. The young brownrider
had been thinking of going to their weyr to study through the noon meal,
as he often did, when his dragon interrupted his thoughts.

}:Look, there is your friend.:{

R'fal followed his dragon's gaze, expecting to see one of his classmates
from weyrling training. He smiled to see who it was, and raised a hand
in greeting.

"Hi, Brennault!"

Brennault smiled from ear to ear – as he often did when he saw a friend
– and waved back to R'fal as he jogged to join him. He had not counted
on running into a rider he knew well, but he had hoped he might.

"Hey, R'fal!" he answered. "And hello, Marlath! Are you two faring
well?" he asked. He looked about for Marvel, as it seemed as though it
had been a little while since he had seen the firelizard, but he was not
overhead. Busy, Brennault supposed, though he expected it would be easy
enough to call Marvel to join him with thoughts of going on an adventure.

Marvel sent feelings of excitement and joy to Brennault as he popped
from between as if on cue. He showed a series of images of the two of
them departing in many different directions and added a note of
curiosity that Brennault took to mean, 'Where are we going?'

**Wait and see.**

Marvel showed an image of Brennault handing him a bit of meat and added
a demanding feeling. Brennault fished out a dried meat bit from his
pocket to satisfy him.

"Not too bad. It's good to see you again!" R'fal rested a hand on
Marlath's neck as the brown lowered his head to Brennault, hoping for a
scratch. "Have you been out on the road?"

"I've been back long enough to rest for a bit and have a bit of fun, but
I wanted to ask you about a little plan I have for popping out and back
for a moment, if you don't mind hearing me out," said the runner with a
wide grin of excitement.

"Oh? What's that?" R'fal asked, intrigued. "Marlath and I have been in
class all morning, so he wouldn't mind stretching his wings."

"Now, I know you're not my ferry service," Brennault started. He hated
the thought of offending his riding friends with requests to make his
job easier. "But. I have a bit of an opportunity to take a few letters
out to the new weyrhold. And if you and Marlath wouldn't mind making a
bit of a day trip out of it, I would be happy to split the fee with you."

"Sure, I'd be happy to help. I haven't seen the Weyrhold yet," R'fal
said. Some of his wingmates had been doing transport duty, carrying
supplies for the building work, but he'd not had the chance. Though he
didn't say it, the marks would be welcome, too. He could take them to
his mother at Turn's End. "When would you like to go? Right away?"

Brennault smiled, standing up a bit straighter as R'fal agreed to the
plan. This was not exactly going to save Brennault much time. He would
only have been taking the letters out to the waystation if he had not
convinced a dragonrider to help. But it would give him a chance to see
something new.

And if things went his way, a chance to see another friend he might not
otherwise see again for a very long time.

"I just need to grab my satchel, if that's alright. Care to walk with
me, or should I meet you somewhere?"

"I've got to get Marlath's riding straps from my weyr. We could meet
back here in a quarter candlemark?" R'fal suggested. "You might want to
get a warm coat, too, since we'll be going /between/."

"That's perfect. Fifteen, and I'll be back here with my coat."
Brennault's warmest coat was not particularly warm, but it was easy to
pack – and that made all the difference to someone who rarely needed a coat.

He arrived back at the same spot very punctually, carrying the coat over
one arm and with the letter satchel over the other shoulder.

R'fal had just finished checking the last of Marlath's straps and
confirming with his dragon that he'd got the visualization from one of
the other dragons. He waved to Brennault and scrambled up to Marlath's
back. "Ready to go?" he called. "Climb on up."

"I was born ready!" Brennault assured R'fal. Such was among his favorite
readymade responses. He gave Marlath scratches and thanks for carrying
him and then climbed up with the relative ease of someone who had
dragons for friends but who did not have one of his own.

The young brownrider grinned. "Let's go, Marlath." Since he'd last flown
with Brennault, R'fal's lifemate had grown to his full size and they
felt his back tense as he crouched, then leapt into the air with a
powerful downbeat of his wings. The ground fell away beneath them and in
moments they rose above the Weyr cliffs, circling out over the
glittering waters of the ocean while Marlath spoke to the watchdragon.

"Ready to go /between/?" R'fal called over his shoulder.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" said Brennault. That one was a little less easy
to get excited about than mere flying. The view from up high was
beautiful – exciting. The view from between was, in a word, terrifying.
But between did not last forever.

Unless it did.

Brennault shivered.

Before he had much more time to think about it, Marlath jumped into the
darkness. Moments later, they emerged into the sunlight again over the
glittering waters of the bay where the Weyrhold was being built. Even
from their height, they could see the new buildings scattered around the
bay, trader vessels at the docks and clouds of dust on the road to the
nearby Hold that were the signs of carts bringing supplies. R'fal's
heart lifted at the sight. When he'd dreamed of being a dragonrider,
he'd imagined visiting places he'd never have seen as a herder boy.
Despite everything, here he was.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" he called back to Brennault as Marlath
swooped over the water, bugling to the watchdragon as he headed for the
cleared area to the south.

"Gorgeous," Brennault agreed as he surveyed the new place from overhead.
It might have been grand to have wings of his own. But it was not for him.

R'fal asked Marlath to circle a few times, so he and his friend could
enjoy the view, and then they glided down to land near the largest of
the new buildings. The young brown looked longingly at the clear waters
of the lake.

**All right, but let me get your straps off first!** R'fal climbed down
after Brennault and started to unbuckle the riding straps. "Where do you
need to take your letters?"

Brennault stretched once his feet were on the ground.

"Well, let's see. I've got..." He listed off names and positions when
they were included for each of the letters in his satchel. "And last –
but not least – this one for Journeyman Lorican. I shouldn't take all
that long to deliver most of them, but I might like a moment to catch up
with Lorican, if you have the time to wait."

"Take as long as you need. I'll have a look around while Marlath swims.
If you want to go back and I'm not here, just ask a dragonrider." R'fal
thought back, remembering where he'd heard the crafter's name before.
"Oh, and give my regards to Journeyman Lorican, and tell him I'm glad
he's better. Marlath and I brought him to the Weyr for healing after
his, uh, accident. I wondered what happened to him."

"Oh, is that so?" Brennault asked. "Well, then, it seems we've got that
in common!" He chuckled, but he trailed off into a cough as he realized
it was a bit more serious than might warrant a laugh. "Hauling him to a
healer at the weyr after an accident, that is."

"Well, would you like to come along to see him, then?"

"Sure, I'd like to see him again. I'll let you two catch up after,
though, it seems like you're friends." R'fal slung the riding straps
over a shoulder and they walked away towards the crafter village as
Marlath leapt into the air and glided towards the water. "So you helped
the journeyman as well? How did that happen?"

"It's kind of a long story," said Brennault, "but I found him on the
side of the road after he lost his runnerbeast. Took a bit of a tumble."
He left the exact particulars of the situation vague, as he did not want
to violate Lorican's privacy now that he thought about it.

"So I helped him back to the weyr. He stayed there for a bit, and then I
visited him up at the hold before the accident at the forge."

"Poor man, he hasn't had much luck, has he? When I brought him in, he'd
been in a fire. But then," R'fal said, "I did hear he found favor with
the Weyrhealer at Dolphin Cove, so he can't be all that unlucky."

They walked along the shore of the lake, stepping out of the way of
craftsmen and builders carrying supplies or pushing carts piled with
rubble or sand. Everywhere was the sound of picks striking rock, sawing
and hammering, and the shouts and laughter of the workers. R'fal had to
take care not to be distracted by all the activity around him and walk
into someone. It felt strange and exciting to see a Weyr being built;
all the others had been standing for hundreds of Turns, long before his
birth. Would this Weyr still house dragons hundreds more Turns from now?

As they rounded the bay and turned towards the crafter village, their
ears caught the familiar sound of hammers striking metal from one large
building. One of the walls was open, and R'fal could see the glow of a
forge fire inside. He pointed. "Look, there's the smithy."

"Perfect," said Brennault. "It's an amazing thing, seeing all of this
being built," he went on with awe in his tone. "I've never really gotten
to see anything quite like it."

He wondered just how much favor there still was with Lorican and that
healer back at Dolphin Cove...

"I'll go and ask someone if he's busy." R'fal saw a boy with apprentice
knots stacking boxes into a handcart nearby and approached him to ask
after the journeyman, since he wasn't sure if anyone could just walk
into the smithy.

"Yes, brownrider, he's here. I'll let him know he has visitors." The
apprentice set down the cart and disappeared into the smithy,
re-emerging a few moments later. "He's just finishing up a piece, but he
can take a break in a few minutes, if you don't mind waiting?"

R'fal nodded and returned to chat to Brennault while they waited. After
a short time, a man ducked out of the smithy and glanced around warily.
The news that two men had come looking for him had caused Lorican some
anxiety, though he'd been relieved to learn that one of them was a
dragonrider and the other looked nothing like the man who Urlene had
described in her letter.

When he recognized them, he relaxed and smiled, raising a hand to greet
them. "Brennault! It's good to see you - and Brownrider R'fal. What
brings you to the Weyrhold?"

"I convinced R'fal to give me a ride out here," said Brennault, grinning
proudly. "It's been too long! How have you been faring way out here?" He
pulled Lorican into a hug.

"I'm - uh, I'm well. Much recovered. And glad to see you," Lorican said.
That much was true, though he'd earned plenty more bruises from Lusilk
over the last months. It occurred to him that perhaps he shouldn't seem
too friendly towards Brennault, or the dragonrider, in case he put them
in danger too, but he didn't think the man pursuing him could possibly
be here yet and he couldn't give up on having friends altogether.

"And I'm being kept busy," he went on, gesturing towards the smithy.
"We've been working almost non-stop since I got here, every day brings a
long list of new orders. I wish I could take the rest of the day off and
give you the tour, but... I can at least take a short break, after
you've come all this way."

Last updated on the May 31st 2020

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

It's Complicated (1/2)