Comfort Food

Writers: AJ Kraier, Jane
Date Posted: 10th February 2007

Characters: D'val, Jh'slaen
Description: Wingmates D'val and Jh'slaen discuss the reaction to Jh'slaen's opinions over some comfort food.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 2, day 11 of Turn 4

**Ayleth... You know, I am starting to think that there definitely are certain benefits that come from being involved with a cook -- and especially one who bakes pastries,** D'val observed, as he made his way through the dining cavern with a plate heaped full of fresh-from-the oven pastries and a large mug of milk to wash them all down. He'd just parted company with his father L'daven and L'daven's latest lady friend: one of the Weyr's bakers. She was an odd sort of woman -- odd in that she liked to shower L'daven's children with plate-loads of freshly made treats from the kitchens. One or two of his half-siblings thought her daft as a wherry for this, but D'val thought her sweet for thinking of them and accepted her gifts graciously.

}:Dragons prefer meat,:{ said Ayleth, disinterested.

**I didn't say the benefits were necessarily for you.** He paused briefly at an empty table to wrestle away one of the pastries from the young and overly curious bronze firelizard perched on his upper left arm. **On the other hand, maybe meat would be less of a curiosity for Wish and he'd leave my plate alone,** he added, resuming his journey.

}:Doubt it.:{ D'val silently nodded in agreement. He was headed for the dining cavern's exit, and as he walked he was looking out for his wingmates
-- though he wasn't sure whether it was to share the pastries with them, or so as to avoid them and keep all of the pastries for himself.

"Are you going to eat them all by yourself?" Jh'slaen asked with a smile for the other greenrider. The man had a plate filled to overflowing with pastries and was escaping the dining cavern.

Stopping short, D'val grinned sheepishly, and said, "That, ah, was the plan... Want one?"

Jh'slaen made a show of putting his hands in his pockets and looking disinterested. "Only if you're _sure_ you don't need them all," he teased.

"Well, they are one of my favorites," said D'val with feigned hesitancy, "but I guess I could spare one or two for you." As he spoke, Wish cautiously crossed to D'val's other shoulder and craned out his head to take a closer look at the other greenrider.

"A bronze!" Jh'slaen said. "I didn't even know you had one and bronze's aren't that common, are they?" He put out his hand to the plate of pastries and cautiously took one. "I have a little green.
What's his name?"

"His name is Wish -- not terribly original or impressive, I know, but the guy I was seeing at the time suggested it and, well..." D'val sighed softly. "You know how it is. A charming and sexy guy makes a suggestion and you... go with the flow. That was six months ago; Lord Charming is long gone, but the Wish lives on."

The other greenrider grinned. "My green's Summer, and her clutchmate
- a brown Impressed by my best friend at the time - is Autumn." He laughed at the memory. "We were fourteen-Turn-old holdbred boys and the eggs were the most exciting thing that had ever happened to us.
And just to prove friends are better than lovers, my best friend is still around." The conversation was proving to him that despite over a Turn in the same Wing he hadn't really talked to D'val. They were often part of the same groups - the Wing, socialising with their fellow wingriders in the evenings, or similarly with other greenriders
- but not just D'val. "Are you going somewhere with that plate-load of excellent pastries?"

"Nowhere in particular, just outside to enjoy it while watching the sun set -- it seems too nice an evening to spend it inside unless you absolutely have to."

"I don't have to," Jh'slaen suggested with mock innocence. "I'm available to save you from eating too many pastries. Eating alone -
eating a _lot_ of pastries alone - seems a little ... sad, don't you think? Like drinking alone?"

"It's only sad if you are eating them as comfort food," said D'val. He nodded toward the exit, then started walking toward it. "I'm not in need of comfort food -- at least not tonight." He offered Jh'slaen the plate. "How about you?"

The other man took another pastry as he walked alongside D'val. "Well ... Perhaps it's not comfort food if it's eaten in company." If food was what comforted him he thought he might have turned to it over the last month or so.

"Perhaps." D'val ate one himself, then said, "There's a rumor going around about you... is it true?" He kept his expression neutral.

"If it's about me saying something that gets the old riders riled up, then yes, I voiced a reasonable, well thought out opinion which some people have taken exception to." He peered at the pastry and wasn't sure he wanted to finish it.

"I can think of one bronzerider who took great exception to it," said D'val, and then cracked up laughing. "I'm not sure which was more amusing: the look on L'daven face when he heard your opinion, or the look on father's face when he heard his Adrath tell my Ayleth that that sounded about right -- at least from what he could recall of their youth."

"Not another one. At least _he_ hasn't made a point of telling me how wrong I am. And that's what I can't understand. Why they all think I'm saying they're not as good as us? I'm saying they just didn't know they would have to face Thread - they had no choice about risking their lives against it. Their dragons pretty much require them to fly. I had a choice; I made it to be as brave - hopefully as brave -
as they are, but I had a choice they didn't."

"I'm not sure why the react like that. I mean, I Impressed before Thread returned, but I certainly didn't find it offensive." D'val nudged Wish into a more comfortable position on his shoulders. "I...
ah... Maybe it's that you've given voice to some unspoken truth and made people -- like my father -- face something that they have kept buried for these past couple of Turns."

"Mmm. Probably jealous of me - us. When did you Impress? After they knew for sure about Thread? What was that? Turn 1200?"

"I Impressed in 1199. There were signs then, but it wasn't really an absolute certainty until Dragonsfall confirmed it somehow in 1202 --
about a Turn before Thread started falling regularly."

"Did you think about it? Thread? When you decided to Stand?"

D'val considered this question for a long moment before answering. "I didn't, but then again I never expected to Impress. I was content to just be a healer, but... the Weyrwoman was insistent that I stand, so I did -- it was easier to say yes than to keep saying no thank you. I don't regret it," he hastened to add.

Jh'slaen nodded. "I thought about Thread. When Fin and I were Searched. That's the difference. Not a better-or-worse difference.
Just the difference between generations of riders. I couldn't ignore what I was letting myself in for."

"And yet you decided to stand anyway because...?"

"Because the Search dragon thought me suitable and, if I could, I wanted to do what I could to keep Pern safe." He reached out for another pastry and smiled. "It was a very high-minded moment. The reality's not quite as heroic, as you know."

D'val chuckled. "Yes, I do. The heroic glamor lost a lot of its shine right about the first time I had to deal with Ayleth having an impacted anal tract."

Jh'slaen struggled not to laugh - but only because his mouth was full of half-chewed pastry. "Oh," he said when he could with some semblance of grace, "_that's_ a facet of being a dragonrider that I haven't been blessed with yet."

"Be thankful to Faranth for that!" replied D'val.

Last updated on the February 17th 2007

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Comfort Food