Be Happy

Writers: Bree, Jane
Date Posted: 12th March 2007

Characters: O'rian, O'dan
Description: Odarian talks to his father, O'dan.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 26 of Turn 4

Odarian came around the rough stone of the seaward cliff and stepped out onto the beach proper. He smiled at the heat baked through his light shirt and trousers, and tilted his head back to peer along the shore from under the brim of the raggedly woven hat.

There were plenty of people around, even in the early afternoon, but one figure was instantly recognisable. With more determination than delight he made his way down to the waterline.

"O'dan," he said in greeting as he approached.

The bronzerider rose up on one elbow and held up a hand against the sun's glare. When he recognized his son's features, his lips curled up into a smile. "Odarian! Good to see you, lad."

"And to see you." The apprentice healer remembered his resolutions to spend more time with his father and sat down beside the older man. How are things going?"

"Not so badly. I'm getting around all right with my crutches now." He indicated the hated crutches laying next to him with a nod of his head.
"Maybe I'll get rid of them soon. How about you? Dantial says you're doing well in the infirmary."

"Does he?" the young man said, flattered and surprised to hear his uncle and journeyman's opinion. "Oh, well, that's good. I do want to make journeyman before I'm ready to retire."

O'dan laughed. "If they made _me_ a journeyman, I don't think you have much to worry about," he replied with a grin. "Ask your uncle sometime what a terror I was as an apprentice."

"Yeah. I don't quite live up to your standards in that, do I?" Having a foster-mother who didn't tolerate pranks had probably turned out a very different person from his father.

"Probably all for the best," O'dan replied easily. "How is everything else going? Have you thought about if you're going to Stand at the next Hatching?"

"Ahh. No. Haven't thought, I mean." Odarian shrugged, knowing it was still a difficult subject between himself and his father. It wasn't that easy a subject in his own mind, for that matter. "I'll go to the Hatching, though, so, you know, if there's a hatchling that needs just me ..." He shrugged again.

O'dan was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. "I don't... Well, you know, I don't think any less of you if you don't want to try, Odarian.
The Weyr needs healers."

Odarian appreciated that his father was willing to concede that much. "And Pern always needs riders - otherwise the queens wouldn't keep clutching at the rate they are. I've never really wanted to be a rider." That had always seemed to need a personality like his father's, where he knew himself to be a quieter person. More introspective and studious. "I think I _should_ want it, if I Stand."

"Without a doubt," O'dan agreed. Not so long ago, the idea that his son hadn't wanted to Impress had been a disappointment. A lot of things seemed different these days, though. "It's a hard life even for those who do want it."

"_Now_ it is. I wish it hadn't come back," Odarian said suddenly, wishing along with it that he hadn't lost his mother, that his father hadn't lost his place as Weyrleader under the circumstances that he had.

"So do I, son." O'dan sighed and shook his head. "How did we get on to such a dreary topic? Tell me interesting. Is there any new Weyr gossip I should know about?"

"Nothing's come to my ears. What have you heard, lately?"

"Next to nothing," the bronzerider admitted with a sigh. "No one tells me any of the good gossip anymore."

"Probably nothing to tell while you're recovering," Odarian suggested, hedging around the possible reasons his father was no longer the centre of attention.

O'dan snorted. "I am sort of boring lately, aren't I? I suppose there are worse things to be." For the first time, he actually considered how the vast amount of gossip about him might have affected his son. It wasn't a very pleasant thought. "Maybe I'll try to go out of my way to be boring for a while, and see how I like it."

Odarian didn't think his father would like it for long. "Not a bronzerider's way, surely?" he teased.

"Oh, it will be a challenge..." He winked at his son. "But meeting a challenge _is_ a bronzerider's way."

The sorts of challenges his father was known for meeting weren't of the 'boring' variety, but Odarian didn't want to be discouraging. "Well, you practise being boring until you're really good at it - and I'll practise being a good son," he suggested lightly.

That stung a little, considering the fact that no one could possible accuse O'dan of being any sort of father at all, much less a good one.
"I'll be happy if you practice being happy," he replied, managing a smile. "That's what parents like to see." At least, he assumed it was.

"Even if I don't Stand?"

"Even if you don't Stand," O'dan agreed. He hadn't felt that way a few turns ago, but a lot had changed. "Be happy, Odarian. However it suits you to do it."

For a long moment Odarian could find nothing to say. This was exactly how he'd hoped his father would one day feel, and now it had happened he was too surprised to deal with it. Eventually he nodded. "I will."

Last updated on the March 13th 2007

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