Stories (part 2)

Writers: Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 24th May 2006

Characters: Firsa, K'far
Description: Firsa confesses, and K'far can read between the lines
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 25 of Turn 3

Both wineskins were drunk, as well as a third and half of a fourth.
K'far hadn't done very well with his promise to keep her sober, Firsa thought as she pushed her way back from the table. The dining cavern swum around her, pulsing in time to her heartbeat. Her eyes wouldn't focus properly on K'far as he rose after her and followed her to the exit. He had, however, done a very good job of distracting her... "So just to make things clear," the Journeywoman said once they'd reached the sanctuary of the hallway, "you actually gave-gave her a stinky dead fish?!" She slurred 'fish', but was too drunk to be more than mildly annoyed.

"I thought it was an appropriate gift, considering the circumstances." He wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her, despite the fact that he was far from sober himself.

"That was cruel," she said, but she was laughing. They bumped into a wall and Firsa turned to lean up against it. The plastered stone was cool to the touch. She reached out and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek; it was rough with stubble. "Do you think you get what you deserve?"

"Sometimes," he murmured, leaning alongside her, his face just a few inches from hers.

His eyes were hazel, almost green, she thought. Daremek's had been blue... "Rarely," she said, and then she kissed him. His lips were soft, contrasted against the soft scratch of his beard. He tasted like wine and she closed her eyes, her hands involuntarily clutching his tunic.

She smelled faintly of hay and the stables, but tasted like fruit. As his fingers caressed her cheek, down her neck, into her hair. It had been a while since been kissed so softly, so questioningly. It was different than kissing Harki, or Nineba. Perhaps it was the wine, but he could feel a warmth spreading throughout his body.

After a moment she leaned back against the wall, hoping that its cool would sort out the fever in her head. Drink made her head swim, she couldn't think. Didn't need to. She leaned over, kissed his lips, his jaw. "I don't want to go back to my weyr," she whispered.

"Well, you're lucky," he smiled as her lips tickled the hairs of his beard, "I have a weyr we could go to, if you like."

She nodded. "I would like."

~*~

Later, Firsa lay wrapped in K'far's furs, acutely aware of both the man beside her and her swimming head. K'far had led her by the hand, stumbling, to a weyr she'd probably never be able to find again, and they'd fallen hungrily into his bed. His beard tickled her skin, she'd run her fingernails down his back, he'd rained wine kisses on her throat and down her spine until she couldn't think, could barely breathe. He wasn't Daremek, and Firsa found she preferred someone unfamiliar and exotic. They lay exhausted in the dark and on the verge of sleep. She licked her lips. She was thirsty. "K'far?"

The brownrider turned toward her, laying his head on the pillow. He reached his arm over her, his fingers tracing lines along her side as his eyes closed lazily. "Yeah?" he asked lethargically, drunkenly. "D'you have any water in here?"

"Yeah," he mumbled as he opened his eyes and forced himself up into a seated position. "Hold on, I'll get it."

Firsa rolled onto her stomach and watched him cross the room.
Dragonriders were... different than most men. Broader in the shoulders, usually, with broad backs and a certain strength that most men didn't possess. Even drunk and stumbling, K'far had a certain grace. He slopped water all over the glasses and table as he poured, but managed to walk back to the bed and settle in beside her without spilling too much else. She took her glass and drained half of it in a single gulp, then moved so that she could rest her head on his shoulder. "Would you like to hear a story?"

"Sure, I love stories," he said setting back into the pillows and wrapping his arms around her. "Seems only fair, seeing how you told me a bunch," she muttered, then gulped again at her water. There in the dark, in the dragonrider's embrace, the walls she held around herself didn't seem as necessary.
She knew she should stop talking, but didn't care. "There was a girl, once, who got sent to the Weyr because... she wasn't much good for marrying anymore. It's a strange thing, to be all alone when you didn't chose it, to get to live a life you didn't want. But you make the best of it. She apprenticed and did well, and she stood on the Sands but never Impressed. It's hard seeing the people you know fall in love in ways you can't ever relate to and go where you can't follow. Saying goodbye never gets easier. One of the things I learnt is that the only person you can rely on is yourself.

"Then I met Daremek. He was... different." Her lips curved into a smile, and she was pleased at the way his name sounded in the dark.
"He told me once he'd never leave, and you know what? I was dumb enough to believe him. Maybe he believed it then, too. Who knows.
Anyway, he moved back to the Beastcraft Hall two turns ago. And now he's getting married." And she was jealous, hurt, and lonely. But she didn't say that. She laced her fingers with K'far's and ran her fingertips along the skin beneath her collarbone absently. "But what's the worst thing, is that he says he doesn't even remember the Weyr. I hate being lied to, but I hope he's lying."

K'far's mind might have been muddled with alcohol, but he could hear what she was saying, and _not_ saying, quite clearly. He kissed her forehead softly and whispered, "_You_ are not the Weyr, Firsa."

"You don't know me," she muttered sullenly. "And you think knowing you better makes people's memories worse?" He shook his head and trailed his fingers along her arm lazily. "He may forgotten what life was like at the Weyr, but he would have had to have been kicked in the head by one of his beasts to forget you."

It was easier to be angry, so Firsa pouted in the dark since she didn't have any arguments that didn't sound stupid. Instead she nestled herself a little closer in K'far's embrace and closed her eyes.

Last updated on the May 24th 2006

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Stories (part 2)