Under Pressure (1/2)

Writers: Iluva
Date Posted: 31st May 2024

Characters: A'radess
Description: Avradess and his family settle in to their new home
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 10, day 4 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: Kapera, Aydhan (none by name)

A'radess

Daylight must have crawled out of somewhere. He couldn't be sure where just yet, since he wasn't immediately sure where he was. It had been a couple candlemarks since he first woke up and squinted into the darkness. Apart from the usual sounds of sleep, it was quiet. Still. From his cot his eyes followed the lines of the walls, the ceiling, following what he could see and what he couldn’t in the dark beyond. Eventually, as they adjusted, they traced the perimeter of the space and gained some sense of where he lay within.

It was as familiar here as it wasn't -- still in a barracks, his brother still snoring like a wher in the next cot over, but the cooler air demanded more clothing than out by the coast, more than he was used to, and for those few quiet candlemarks Avradess was content to lay there under the furs. Sleep never did come back for him and it was hard not to think ahead, not just about the day that was slow to get going, but the future in this place.

In the back of his mind a constant comparison waged between the two, not just in size, shape, history, legacy, or people; the obvious departure from what he'd known.

Weirdly, the starkness of those differences calmed him. A clean break.

At Vista Point, the concept had been almost daunting; their entire lives had never spread over anything but that one caldera and the vast swathes of time stretched within it. After so many generations, they were as much the place as the place was them. Inseparable, unchanging, immediately recognizable. Home. His grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Foster siblings, friends. He hadn't felt it until that morning, the strange weight in his gut that took a moment to name -- homesickness. But there was something else too -- the bizarre, almost freeing feeling that it really wasn't his home any longer. It hadn't been from the moment they all arrived at the same answer: 'yes'. Let's go.

In the end, while it would always be where they came from, it was not where they belonged. His family was somewhere in between two places now, moored upon the chance they'd taken and awaiting re-entry into the atmosphere.

Vista Point could only take them -- him -- so far. Whatever reasons dragons had, if they were reasons, weren't easy to make out on the other side of the haze his parents were left on at their final Hatching.

If there was anything here at Barrier Lake, he hoped it was the chance for that fog to lift.

Avradess was running out of time and he felt it with each second he lay there. Two, maybe three Hatchings, he'd wager. It was enough time, if just one of those had a dragon look his way. If just one would lift the veil on a bond that remained forever out of reach and yet frustratingly familiar, at least as a concept. As an image. What went on behind the dreamy look in a rider's eyes when they spoke, thought, _felt_ their dragon, what ecstasy bled through two minds meant to be together and would be forever in the Hatching Cavern. He'd heard that enough to believe there was truth in it. He'd seen the delight and tears on his friends' faces on the Sands to trust what he wanted to be true. But the only things he could imagine were what he'd observed and been told. If things were going to change, he didn't want to do it through the lens of imagination. He wanted direct and uninterrupted experience, he wanted to _know_. He wanted out from under the solid weight on his chest, sitting patiently and filing its nails as he breathed.

His brother's snoring started to taper off, an incomplete line break. Eventually Iridas made an indistinct sound, like he wanted to stay asleep but the power and promise of the morning was too much. He let out a huge yawn into the still morning air and Avradess grinned. Some things did not change. Soon the entire barracks began yawning and stretching its limbs and before long the footholds of the day sprung up before them, eager to carry them through a routine that was the same no matter where on Pern you laid your head.

It wasn't until there was some free time later that it came back. The weight. Avradess wasn't sure what brought it on, or if it was just used to hitching a ride on his shoulders, but he took to a light jog on the perimeter of the lake near the 'Weyrbowl', trying desperately to shake it. Effort was made to watch where he was going, but the lack of grassy 'bowl was surprisingly difficult to ignore. The reflections of dragons leaving their ledges or swooping up over the rim brought sudden ripples of color across the lake's surface, weaving, re-appearing, before vanishing at the mirror's edge. It was mesmerizing.

“Avradess!” A voice somewhere behind him slowed his stride.

He looked to see a girl with long brown hair capering wild about her shoulders. "Hey, Kal."

Kalavra huffed a few loud exhales as she stopped beside him, her entire face warped in a pained smile. “Gosh you're faster than I remember. Did you not hear me calling out to you?”

“No, sorry." Avradess wrinkled his nose. "We haven't raced in a while, have we?”

“Oh it's alright.” She waved the apology away. Her attention jumped out across the water, still panting. “OH. Avi, did you see that big boat that came right in there by the docks earlier? The one with the black painted hull and the-” her long arms made some oblong shape that failed to translate for him, “-the-the large things on the side?”

“No, I don't think so.” He scanned the harbour curiously, a handful of small vessels nodding with the waves.

“Really?”

“I was in the kitchens for chores." Avradess rolled his eyes. "How big was it?”

“_Big_. I mean, I’ve seen bigger, but I didn't expect to see them that size here. It's not like we’re right out by the ocean anymore.”

He looked further out across the shimmering water, still trying to get used to the idea that this was home now. It felt clunky and a bit awkward, which was to be expected. A little like wearing damp clothing-- not terrible but not great. The unfamiliarity with the place meant there was always more to look at, something new to see, some detail jumping out at him with urgency. His eye was caught by a brown gliding with easy grace up to the rim, joining a green.

“I wonder just how big they can get here.”

“Not much larger than Riyanth, if I had to guess. The lake can’t be that deep, can it?"

"Oooh," she shuddered, "I don't want to find out."

Avradess smiled. His curiosity hadn't taken him to finding out either, not yet, though it seemed like some riders had trouble keeping their dragons' curiosity in check. It never occurred to him that a rider could sit on their ledge while yelling at their dragon to stop chasing boats until he came here, but if there was a good sign for this place, that was it. "It's not the ocean, anyway. So it's got that. Where are you off to today?"

Kalavra frowned, a shift in her voice. "Risa really needs to learn how to swim soon. She could sleep walk herself into it."

Avradess looked at her, but she didn't return it. "The watch dragon wouldn't let that happen."

"I know." Kalavra said quietly. The lake was all she saw. "Avi, you don't think..." Then it was all him, green eyes tinged with a startling amount of apprehension turning up at him. "Do you think we're in the right place?"

"What do you mean?" Avradess asked softly. "Barrier Lake?"

"Yes." She said. "No. I mean, you don't think any... bad luck could follow us here, do you? Mom hasn't stopped talking about the new Weyrwoman's Second, and how good fresh starts are for everyone. No matter who you are or where you're from. You know, all that. And I think it _is_ good. But what's going to happen when there's a clutch? What if... it's more of the same? And, I don't know, this place is only here because River Bluff was -" she lowered her voice, "destroyed. By earthquakes and tsunamis and... I don't know." She left it there, almost like there was something ominous in her words, in the breeze around them. "I guess I just have a weird feeling."

"No, I don't think that." He said gently. "That's gone, Kal. This place only has the people from River Bluff. Nothing else."

"And the dragons from River Bluff."

"Yeah. Always dragons. People and dragons from all over. It can't be just us who look green and out of place." He chuckled and ran a hand across his hair. "It's different here, but it's good." Then his hand gripped her shoulder with a smile, able to reach into her and touch an unease he knew all too well himself. "It's definitely a lot. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but we haven't been here a full sevenday yet. We might be a bit early to whatever's going to hatch for us."

"It is good." Kalavra agreed, exhaling. "We're still humming, aren't we?" She brightened a bit, looking more herself. "Have you been down to the lighthouse yet?"

Avradess shook his head. "Nah, Iri said not to go without him and other than his snoring I haven't heard or seen much of him. You want us to come find you when we do?"

“_Yes_, please do. I want to see what this place looks like coming into the harbour. Oh!" Some realization tickled her as she turned to go, "Dad asked me to give you this.” A slightly crumpled note appeared from her pocket, which Kalavra pressed to his palm like a handshake. “Okay, I gotta run. Bunch of the girls are going swimming. I'll see you after!”

“Yeah you have fun!” He called.

He watched her jog back down the sand-rimmed escarpment, flashes of her hair dancing along the water until she was lost among the faceless figures hugging the lip of the lake. The sun stood high now, the air warming. Avradess picked his way along at a brisk walk, glancing every now and then at the stone face of the Weyr pocked with the dark mouths of dragon homes. A sea of greens, two glorious gold beacons.

His gaze lingered on a blue with huge wings fanned so precisely, so still, they seemed to simply float above him. Navy sails hovering of their own accord, as if they needed to stay near such an elegant creature. The dragon's head turned in his direction. He paused in his stride and stared back. He couldn't see the color of his eyes, but there was as much mystery as there was comfort in it, that possibility that this dragon might sense the admiration in him, might hear his unvoiced thoughts. Avradess smiled, a wave of youthful excitement cresting, before raising a hand and carrying on.

The journey up to the star stones took hardly any time at all. Up here, with the sun and sky a little closer, the people a little farther, the Weyr was as close to what riders saw adragonback as he could get. He sat at the edge with a leg dangling, the other bent to rest an elbow on. A hand slipped through his brown hair a few times, in a rhythm without thought. What a day. Watching dragons, boats, the sun, the people, feeling such open space around him, it was easy to forget how he wanted so much more than this. For just that moment, just that deep breath of air, this was all he wanted.

Ever since they'd arrived, most quiet moments were spent alone. He really had to change that. He needed to talk to people. He needed to get to know them. They were from all over, just like him, and he didn't quite understand the nervousness. He wasn't exactly sure if it was nerves. Most things were the same, apart from the obvious. The important parts. The unique and all-too-often talked about structural differences were still a bit too jarring and interesting to tear his eyes from, and aside from getting turned around in the hallways or heading in the complete opposite direction, eight Turns of candidacy continued on here without a single blip of interruption.

It was good, Kal said. Maybe so -- it certainly didn't hurt to have that bridge between familiar past and uncertain future. A fingerpoint to follow, if nothing else, since the whole hand had yet to be extended.

It was fine, he supposed. As long as the next eight Turns weren't the same as the last. It was fine. For the moment it felt like enough.

Taking his time on his way back down, Avradess finally remembered the note. A soft piece of parchment no larger than his hand, folded crisply at first, crumpled in transport. The middle bore two fine black lines. This was what had Kalavra out of breath, racing after him like a runner to an imperiled Lord Holder.

His eyes traced the lines again. At the bisecting of the folds and scrawled with careless perfection in the center: '10'. The only contact made with the paper.

Amused, Avradess shook his head, pocketed the note and continued on.

Last updated on the June 1st 2024

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Under Pressure (1/2)