Hard to Say Goodbye

Writers: Nicole
Date Posted: 20th April 2006

Characters: Khalida, Elamen (NPC), Karima (NPC), Muared (NPC), Muna (NPC), Sorya (NPC)
Description: Khalida says 'goodbye' to her family.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 10 of Turn 3
Notes: Khalida's family is adoptable! There's a lot of teenagers and there's

a gold rising in month 11. *winkwinknudgenudge*Know-what-I-mean? My

apologies for the backdating, too. The email gods were apparently hungry. ~@~

There was a thick lump in her throat as she watched the last boxes being
loaded onto the wagons. She'd awoken extra early to feed a groggy Kirrsinth,
and dark circles were still under Khalida's eyes from her sleepless night.

"Well, I guess this is it," said a familiar voice, and arms slipped around
her from behind. Khalida turned to hug Muna.

"I know," Khalida frowned, "I'm sorry I can't come with you." She blinked back tears from her burning eyes.

"Don't be silly," Muna said, smiling and standing back from Khalida just
enough to be able to see her face. "If you hadn't stood that day, Kirrsinth
would have _died_! Nothing could be worth that."

Khalida paused, holding onto her friends hands and thinking--

}: There would have been no one else, :{ Kirrsinth told her, just as soon as her rider thought it, and Khalida smiled.

"I just wish I could be there for your wedding..."

"I'm putting it off," Muna said, grinning.

"Oh no, you're not!" The weyrling insisted. "This is the moment you've waiting for all your life. You're not waiting any longer just for me."

"I am too," the trader girl said defiantly. "I already told him. If he can't
wait for me until my sister can be there... well, then, he can wait
forever."

Khalida smiled at the comment. That's what would be the hardest to leave
behind. In the caravan, everyone was blood. Here, in the Weyr, she felt like
just another face ambling down the hallways.

"How long will it be until she could go /between/?" Muna asked, watching
Kirrsinth spread out on a rock. The little green was quite aware of the
attention, and dramatically flared her wingsails to catch the rays of the
rising sun.

"A while," Khalida frowned. But, as she watched her lifemate, a grin crept
up the corners of her lips.
"But, he doesn't have to know that," she said, turning a wry smile upon her
friend. "Tell Melstas that if he doesn't treat you well, Kirrsinth will eat
him."

Muna laughed.
"Please, I'll be sending my husband to the mindhealer with nightmares of
green dragons."

}: Would he really think I would eat him? :{ Kirrsinth said.

**No, love,** Khalida sent.

}: Good. Because, I think he'd taste quite awful. :{ The green dropped her
jaw so that it showed a little of the nubs that would develop into her
teeth, and shook her wings. Her eyes whirled a brilliant sea-blue as she
studied both girls, almost posing.

"Faranth, it almost looked like she was smiling," Muna commented, watching
the green with her arms folded tightly against her chest. The wind that
swept around the bowl threatened to unwrap the thin, red and yellow fabric
from around her small frame.

"She was," Khalida assured with a grin, and then hugged her friend again. "I'll miss you."

"All right, all right," Elamen said, rolling his eyes from where he'd snuck
up behind them.
"If someone doesn't separate you two, we'll never get out of here."

Khalida deftly reached over and clouted him upside the head.

"Ow! Are you _ever_ going to stop hitting me?" He whined, rubbing the skin
where his short hairline stopped.

"I guess now I don't have a choice," Khalida shrugged, staring down at him.
"I just thought you needed one last brainduster for the road."

"You just wait until I Impress a bronze. He'll be a lot bigger than your
green, and we'll see who needs a brainduster then!"

"Elamen, all you've been trying to impress for the last three turns is
girls."

He snorted and kicked dust up at her, then to her surprise rushed up and
hugged her. As she embraced her brother, another weight hit her from behind,
and she lifted one arm to encompass Sorya as well.

"You know what this means?" She told her sister, raising a brow.

"Huh?"

"You've gotta keep him in line for me while I'm gone," Khalida grinned.

"Faranth, don't tell her that!" Her mother's voice said from behind her. "He'll be covered in bruises halfway to Emerald Falls."

"Either than, or gain a nick of common sense," Khalida replied, watching as
her brother settled into the back of a wagon, with one last, long stare at
Kirrsinth.
"Nah," she said after a brief moment of thought. "We've been trying that for
turns."

"I'll miss you, dearheart," her mother told her, her voice almost a whisper. Khalida practically collapsed into her, and the tears wouldn't stay back any
longer. She found herself bawling her eyes out as she held the woman who
had loved and nurtured her for her entire life. This was the last time she
would see her for months. There would be no more traveling the routes
together, no more homemade breakfasts at the crack of dawn. She'd miss the
arguments, the trials, the mad rushes of books, pots, and boots as they
scrambled to squash some massive gossamer spinner that had crawled into the
wagon.

"I'll miss you, too," Khalida whispered to her. Her mother stepped back, and
Khalida stared up at her father. In his eyes she could see the same thing
she'd seen at the Hatching feast: doubt and disdain. Would he _ever_ be
happy with her as anything but some holder's wife? She had been picked out
of thousands for something many people her age dream of experiencing, but
never do, and all he could think about was what she wasn't. Khalida could
feel her soul simmering in a sea of resentment: that she would never be good
enough because she wasn't male, or because she couldn't sit silently beside
one.

}: I love you, and I think you are perfect, just as you are, :{ Kirrsinth assured her, and Khalida's emotions were flooded out with her
lifemate's projection of love. She still couldn't believe how much stronger
the connection was than hers and Quarter-mark's.

Staring back at him, her hardness faded. She couldn't be angry at this man,
who had put aside his dreams for her to let her live her own. Who had loved
his daughter enough to toss his reservations out the window. And if he
second-guessed himself at times like this, who could blame him?

Khalida rushed into his arms, hugging her father tightly as she smiled and
tears ran down her face.
"I love you, Papa," she told him. "Thank you..."

"I love you too," he told her, his eyes also wet with tears. "Take care of
yourself..."

"I will," she smiled, wiping the moisture from her face.

"And write," her mother reminded sternly. Khalida nodded.

She said goodbye to the rest of her family in a burst of emotions and hugs. Then, watched them load themselves into the wagons, and roll away.

Khalida waved until she could no longer see them, feeling as if part of
herself had left with that caravan. She suddenly felt alone and cold without
her family by her side. Turning towards the Weyr, she stared at the looming
mass of gray stone that couldn't replace the home that had just left her.

}: I am here, :{ Kirrsinth reminded, shoving her head into Khalida's hand
until the girl's fingers rested on her eyeridges. Khalida smiled and rubbed
her dragon's eye ridges absently. The little green's affection flooded her,
filling the hole her rider felt had opened inside her.

This place was all she had now, and she would make the best of it -- both of
them would.

"Come on, Kirrsinth," she told her dragon. "We'll be late for class."

Last updated on the April 26th 2006

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Hard to Say Goodbye