Catching Up on Gossip

Writers: Devin, Vix
Date Posted: 5th September 2007

Characters: Chali, Bryn
Description: Chali catches Bryn up on all the gossip going around the Lady's Solar
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 5, day 13 of Turn 4

Chali was relieved to see that the seat by the window was still free. That was her favorite place to sit and daydream while she pretended to care about the socks she was donning for her father, or the shirt she was mending, the embroidery she was working on, the story the old aunty who droned on and on was telling. Today she had managed to hide a book into the folds of her father's shirt she was supposed to replace the buttons on. At least she could sneak a few moments of entertainment in what was shaping up to be just another boring day.

Carrying a small basket, Bryn walked into the Lady's Solar. Glancing around, she spotted her new friend and hurried over. "Hello, Chali," she said brightly.

Well, this certainly was a surprise! "Bryn! I didn't expect to see you here! Of course, I don't know why I thought that. Of course you'd come here. But... what a surprise!"

She laughed. "I'm glad you're so happy to see me! I'm happy to see you, too. Now I'll have someone interesting to talk to while I mend these."
Bryn lifted the basket slightly and pulled an empty chair closer to Chali.

"I'm just glad I have someone more my age to talk to!" Chali grinned, turning in her chair to face Bryn a bit more comfortably. "My mother insists that I come down here even though most other girls my age are either married or much better about getting out of coming here than I am."

Bryn laughed. "I'm supposed to be learning all the aspects of life here, and this seems to be one of the most important, since my foster parents were so eager to send me."

"But of course it is!" Chali grinned. "Where else can you catch up on an the gossip?"

While gossip bored her at home, maybe the gossip here at Emerald Falls would be much more interesting. "What kind of gossip?" Bryn asked. "Well, there's Shoyana over there," she said with a nod towards a woman wearing a blue dress and a rather sour expression. "Her son was found on Search a turn or two ago. Of course, I had overheard her bragging how he was going to Impress well. That is until he found a green on the Sands in the last Hatching. Now she doesn't talk about him at all."

Bryn frowned. "Well, that's a shame. Anyone should be proud to have a dragonrider in the family."

Chali nodded and sighed. "If I were him I wouldn't much care what color I Impressed as long as it meant I could get out of here. Though you're making it much more bareable," she added.

"Thank you." Bryn smiled, pulling thread and needles out of her basket.

Oh yes, she had mending to do too. It was so easy to forget for a while... Chali pulled out her small jar of buttons and began searching for some that would work for her father's shirt. "Let's see, what else.
Oh! They say a dragon has been spotted circling the courtyard, but not landing. Everyone is having a wonderful time speculated why that may be."

"Maybe he was looking for someone that wasn't there," Bryn suggested.

"Ah, but see, that's the mystery that has all the tongues flapping like flits wings," Chali grinned. It was becoming something of a game for her while she was staring out the window totally bored. "If it was just once, it would be easy to assume that was the case, but he has been spotted at least three times."

"What color?"

"Well," Chali paused as she fished out a button from the bottom of her jar, "I haven't seen him myself, but there are conflicting reports. Some say its a large brown, others say its a small bronze. Sometimes they're hard to tell apart at a distance."

"Hmm, that makes it even more interesting." Bryn pulled out the dress she'd been given to mend and looked through her box of thread. "If it was a blue, or a green, I'd think maybe it was someone looking for a relative, but afraid of how they'd react to what the dragon's color meant."

"Personally, I think its a signal to a clandestine lover. When she sees him circling in the sky, she knows she can meet him soon." Chali had read something similar in a novel once. And it was utterly romantic.

Bryn laughed lightly. "Ahhh, a true Harper romance."

"You probably think I sound silly, don't you." It was all right. It kind of sounded silly to Chali too. Still, it was nice to think that there was true love for _someone_ out there.

"It could be true," Bryn shrugged, threading her needle.

"You're not so interested in romance?" Chali asked as she pulled her spool of thread out of her basket.

"I've heard other girls talking about stories like that, and I've looked through some of their books." Bryn shrugged, looking down as she tied a knot. "It all seemed very silly to me."

Chali looked at her sideways as she pulled out her small pair of scissors and cut an appropriet length of thread. "There has to be _something_ you consider romantic, surely." "Hmm." Bryn tilted her head thoughtfully. "Dragonriders are romantic.
And the idea of being carried off to the Weyr."

"Well, then, you should love this story. Maybe the rider is looking for his love to wisk her away to the Weyr with him."

"That is a nice idea." Bryn's needle started going in and out. "But scary, too. All those huge dragons everywhere and those ... those ..."
Her voiced lowered and she leaned closer to Chali, "things you hear about them doing there."

"I know," Chali said, her eyes growing wide as she leaned in and lowered her voice. "I heard all some of them ever do is have sex until Threadfalls. And then they go back to it when its done. And when their dragon's rise, they'd have sex with _anyone_."

Bryn leaned even closer. "And the men have sex with ... other men." A flush crept into her cheeks.

"I know! Like the greenriders." Chali nodded towards the woman she had pointed out earlier. "It's so... unnatural."

"It's very strange. I don't understand how a man could want another man like that." Honestly, Bryn couldn't understand why _anyone_ would want a man like that.

Chali just shrugged helplessly. Who would ever understand? "The Weyr just... makes people do things... I guess."

Bryn was quiet for a moment, thinking. "I wonder what they think of us?"

"What do you mean?" What was there really to think about Hold people? They were just... normal!

"Well, their lives are so different from ours. I wonder if they think we're boring or hidebound, or if they feel sorry for us because we don't grow up around dragons." Bryn shrugged.

Hidebound and boring, perhaps. But what's so bad about not being raised around dragons? It was obvious dragons made people do scandalous things! "I suppose if they feel sorry for us, they don't really know anything, do they."

She shrugged again. "It was only a thought."

"Well, they might feel sorry for us," Chali conceded more gently, not wanting to offend Bryn for her opinion. "But I don't think they should."

"No, they shouldn't." Although Bryn thought she was maybe a little jealous of weyrfolk for being able to live with dragons.

Last updated on the September 8th 2007

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Catching Up on Gossip