Never Too Old
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: AmajoS, Emma
Date Posted: 6th August 2007
Characters: K'sedel, Kesree
Description: Kesree visits her father and little sister and contemplates her own life.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 9 of Turn 4
Kesree hummed softly as she walked the passageways leading to where her dragon had relayed the location of her father to be. She hadn't seen her father for a few months and so when someone was needed to play messenger to River Bluff, she'd volunteered. Her green hadn't minded one bit either, always excited to travel.
"Now, you need to stay quiet," K'sedel said to the baby he held. "Your mama is with your brother and sister right now, but she hasn't forgotten you." The babe gurgled as if answering him, and a smile crossed the Weyrleader's face.
"Which one is this, now?" Kesree asked, grinning at the sight of her father and baby sibling.
"Radela, as you well know," replied her father. "What brings you here today?"
"Delivering a message from one harper to another. Thought I'd pay my father a visit, see if the number of brothers and sisters has increased since I last counted." Kesree flashed her father a teasing smile as she entered.
She gently grasped one of Radela's little feet and shook it, "Hello there, little one."
"She's too little to answer yet, but she might appreciate a hug from her big sister," said K'sedel, smiling to see his two daughters like this.
Kesree happily took the baby from her father, making silly faces at her sister as she settled her in her arms. "Of course she would! I'm her favorite sister, after all."
"The only one she's met so far. Akessa hasn't managed to hitch a ride here yet, and K'deren has been too busy to bring her with the clear up they've had to do at Dolphin Cove."
"Silly wherry should have written me then. I'd have brought her around," Kesree replied, shaking her head. "It's what I do when there's no Fall to fly or Drills to practice after all." She returned her attention to her baby sister, "Your sister Akessa is a silly wherry hen and I'm your favorite, isn't that right?"
K'sedel smiled, the two of them together made such a picture. "I almost wish there were a harper here to capture this, the two of you together."
Kesree found a seat and resettled the baby in her lap before smiling up at her father fondly. "I didn't come to sit for a portrait anyway, you know. Tell me, how've you been since I last saw you?"
"Well, spending what little free time I get these day with Radela, I want her to grow up like you did, knowing her family."
"You know," Kesree said, her tone wistful, "if I ever decide to have a child, I hope his or her father is just like you." Part of the reason she hadn't yet was that she knew finding a rider - and she couldn't imagine herself with anyone who wasn't. How could anyone who wasn't a rider really understand what it was like? How much of a part of one's life a dragon was? But she couldn't imagine any of the riders she'd been with being -fathers-. Wanting to be more than acquaintances with their children.
"The right man might be around the corner," assured her father gently.
"Whether he's a rider or a crafter you won't know. But he better be good to you."
Shaking off the serious moment, Kesree laughed and replied, "Whoever he is, he'd be crazy not to. My dragon has a temper and my father is a Weyrleader."
"And with things like that he'd behave." K'sedel grinned, but it was the right of a father to be protective of his daughters, or so he supposed.
"I bet," Kesree grinned.
"I take it that means there is no one on the scene just yet?"
"Not really," she sighed. There were men of course, during Flights and other times. But none she felt enough for to settle with.
"You'll find someone when you are ready to. It'll just happen."
"Like you and Ciara?" Kesree asked with a small smile.
"Just like that."
"If I'm lucky," she smiled. Just as Kesree said that though, the baby started fussing. A quick check revealed the reason and the greenrider quickly rose to hand the baby back to her father, her nose scrunched a bit. "Someone needs a new nappy."
"And that must be a father's duty!" joked the Weyrleader as he took his daughter.
"You're the brave and stalwart Weyrleader," Kesree pointed out with a laugh. "Where do you keep them? I'm not above handing you supplies from a safe distance."
"You'll find a cloth in the bathing room over there, and nappies are in that cupboard," came the reply as the child was laid on a changing table.
Kesree found the requested items and brought them over to the table, once again admiring how wonderful her father was with her sister. She avoided watching directly as he changed the baby though. She could handle the blood and gore of a feeding dragon and the horror of seeing threadscore and had even dealt reasonably well with mucking her dragon's couch when they were weyrlings. One might think that a dirty nappy wouldn't be a bother after things like that. One would be wrong.
The turns of experience with babies made changing the soiled nappy a fairly quick process, and it wasn't long before both the cloth and dirty nappy were in a laundry bucket. "Before long, you'll be doing this for your own."
"You sound eager," Kesree replied with a small grin. "I'd have thought a new baby would curb the desire for grandchildren," she teased her father.
"The more the merrier, besides Radela here will need some family members close to her own age to play with."
"Are you trying to say that I'm too old to play?"
"You're never to old."
Watching her father entertain a now happy baby who grinned a wet, toothless grin at him, Kesree decided that those were probably the truest words she'd heard in a long time.
Last updated on the August 7th 2007