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Writers: Corrin, Shawna, Sia
Date Posted: 30th June 2025

Characters: T'gyrlan, Zariah, Jevikas, Kevia, Raleri, Zerias, Ellenico
Description: A trip to the beach gets interrupted by politics and passion as a rising gold flies past
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 8, day 15 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Jossenth (Nidre)

T'gyrlan

It was a restday for his wing and time once more for T’gyrlan to earn his keep as the ‘fun uncle.’ He coordinated with E’kavas and surprised his niece and nephews with a trip to the seaside in the midst of winter, accompanied by Zariah and her children.

The coast curved in a wide, golden crescent, the lazy afternoon sun gilding the waves and warming the sand. T’gyrlan spread a checkered blanket in the shade of a few palm trees, weighing down its corners with the shoes and winter furs that the children had discarded in their race to the surf.

“Ingrates,” he chuckled as he began to unload the picnic basket, setting out a bottle of chilled juice, a tray of sandwiches, mini dragontails, and fruit. “I paid the kitchens to pack us this brunch and they’re not even eating.”

“Well, there's a minimum amount of sandy and salty they need to be before they’ll sit down for the picnic,” Zariah joked, watching the children running away from the waves lapping at their feet. “But I’m sure they'll be famished once they're sufficiently dirty and damp.”

The kids did what kids would do.

Dig a hole.

Digging the hole had a purpose, though. That purpose was burying Zerias up to his neck in the sand and, if all went well, abandoning him there for a little while.

"Stop wriggling!" Jevikas ordered as he patted sand down around Zerias' shoulders. "You're ruining the structural integrity."

"My nose itches!" Zerias whined, scrunching his face.

A dragonlength away, Ellenico was dragging a branch across the sand, leaving long, erratic tracks behind him. "I'm making it look like tunnelsnakes came through!" he shouted helpfully, "Then when someone just finds his head, they'll think the rest got eaten!"

Kevia giggled. "I love that. That'll scare the pants off them." 'Them' was a bit amorphous at this point; it wouldn't fool their responsible adults, whom they'd left to stare googly-eyed at each other over sandwiches, and it certainly wasn't other dragonriders. She was feeling magnanimous today, though, and gently scratched Zerias' nose.

She felt the change in the air before she heard it. The echoes of dragonroars from somewhere really high above. The echoes of dragonlust, the strange pressure that meant a dragon mating flight. Kevia looked up, hands shading her eyes from the sun as she squinted, looking for glimpses of color. "Hey, Uncle Tig, where are we, anyway?" She called.

“Near Topaz Seahold, why--” the question died on T’gyrlan’s lips as he felt the shift in his dragon’s attention.

The bronze was in the shallows with Raleri riding on his back, but his head abruptly snapped skyward as he too caught the distant call of-- a queen rising.

**Don’t you dare!** T’gyrlan leapt up from his perfectly laid picnic and started towards his dragon, but he was too late.

}:She calls for the best, she calls for me!:{ Hanassath roared. Rearing up, he shook Raleri off into the surf and sprang into the air to meet the approaching flight.

Raleri shrieked as she was tumbled into the water, the sound cut off when her head slipped under the waves.

Zariah had a moment to panic, looking towards her eldest child, before Relsath dove through the surf, making herself a wall for the sputtering teen to bounce against and stopping the waves from dragging her further out to sea. Panic turned to fury as the girl scrambled up the familiar grass green hide, starting to spit curses she’d learned in the lower caverns as the green calmly walked them both to shore.

Her heart still in her throat, Zariah turned to T’gyrlan with a mix of annoyance and concern, “Who? What? Do we need to take you…. Somewhere?” Dolphin Cove. That had to be the closest weyr, she realized.

}:It’s Jossenth,:{ Relsath confirmed. }:Golds are so dramatic.:{ Zariah chose not to remind her of a certain blizzard flight right at that moment.

T’gyrlan slid to a stop in the hot sand. Raleri was safe, Hanassath as good as gone.

“Blast it all,” he groaned, raking a hand through his hair. He didn’t need to ask who ‘she’ was. Only a gold would possibly fly this far afield on a mating flight. Only a gold would have such an effect on Hanassath. He could already feel the dragonlust starting to creep over him-- the prickling, primal need.

“I thought we were well clear,” he said tightly, his shoulders--everything--tense. He took a half step forward, as if to follow his dragon into the sky, before catching himself and shaking his head sharply. “It must be one of the Cove golds. I knew one was nearing her time, but I thought-- We can’t leave the kids. I’ll just… go.” His gaze unfocused. Hanassath had reached the flight. It took T’gyrlan a moment to pull away. He grimaced. “Go sit somewhere. Under a tree. Until he’s done.”

It wasn’t an ideal plan, but it was the best he could think of in the heat of the moment. Like it or not, his lifemate _was_ chasing, and thought he had half thought about going to sit in the cool seawater, T’gyrlan didn’t intend to do anything to distract or sabotage his dragon. He could feel the depth of the bronze desire, the pull the gold--Jossenth--had on him. How could he deny that?

“Raleri and Jevikas are old enough to be riders, they’re old enough to babysit,” Zariah said firmly, though she had glanced back over her shoulder to make sure Relsath had safely deposited her daughter on dry land. She had, and the girl was clearly more angry than harmed by her brief dunking, stomping and waving her arms as she ranted at the other children.

“So if you want a ride to Dolphin Cove, tell me now, or if you… want company, tell me that,” Zariah said with only the slightest hesitation.

T’gyrlan’s brow furrowed as he struggled to keep his attention on Zariah. He felt the cold breath of the clouds against his sun-warmed hide, he heard his rivals roaring in his ears. He glimpsed Jossenth through Hanassath’s eyes, close. So close. “No,” he ground out, jaw tight. “It’s nearly over. We won’t make it.” If they won--Shards!--if they won, the goldrider would have plenty of men at hand to see to her. He had-- He gratefully took Zariah’s hand and led her into the trees.

Last updated on the July 15th 2025

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