Death In The Family

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 19th May 2008

Characters: K'hetah, Zelle
Description: Zelle comes to K'hetah after her brother dies from threadfall scoring.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 8 of Turn 4

Zelle didn't really see the other people in the weyr. To be honest, she hardly knew that she had come to Dolphin Cove in the first place.
One minute she was at her home weyr, the next she was there, at K'hetah's, J'darin's...Dolphin Cove, the place she had been running to for the last few sevendays. For some reason, she had felt she needed to be there, even if she didn't quite remember thinking about it.

She had dismounted and knew who she was going to seek. Rillith had sought out Loeth and asked him where K'hetah was, and that was where Zelle was headed, the only sound reaching her ears that of her boots clunking against the ground and her heart breaking in two.

"Hey, hey. Slow down," the bronzerider said, catching the young greenrider in his arms in the corridor outside his office. "Loeth says
-" He stopped. The anonymity of the words "somebody's dead" sounded callous to him, and if that was why Zelle was at Dolphin Cove then it would sound hundreds of times worse to her.

Zelle's face twisted, lines pinching her brow and nose. "L'den...
he's..." She paused and took a deep breath. It was hard to say out loud. She knew it was true, but saying it almost seemed to make it even more real. "He...thread."

"Your brother - L'den's dead? This Threadfall?"

The greenrider nodded slowly, as if she had to gather the strength to speak without falling apart. "Yesterday, he was hit, badly. His face was..." Zelle stopped, her throat tightening painfully, though she managed to squeak out after a moment, "He died this morning."

"Oh, Zelle." Sometimes the instant death was preferable. Just ...
gone. There might be no time to say goodbye, but the usual circumstances of Threadscores that were to ultimately prove fatal meant that the 'saying goodbye' stage was usually traumatic for the survivors. He cuddled her tightly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Zelle let him draw her into an embrace and she held onto him tightly.
Tears stung her eyes though she did her best to fight them. She was unsuccessful however, for one escaped. More soon followed and it wasn't long before she was sobbing, her face buried in the bronzerider's chest, tears staining his shirt.

For a while he just held her and let her cry, but after a while he fished in his pocket for a handkerchief and eased her away from him.
"Time to mop up."

Zelle turned away from him, rubbing at her eyes with her hands. After a moment, she decided to take the offered handkerchief and dried her face with it. "Thanks." She murmured softly, a little embarrassed by her break down, but also feeling like she could do it all over again.
She didn't think that would sit well with K'hetah, however, so she fought against the urge, though she was unable to meet his gaze.
"Sorry. I just...didn't know where else to go." She had just needed someone, and K'hetah had been the one who came to mind.

"It's all right. You're always welcome here. Do you want to come in and sit down in the office? Or go outside ... to the beach?"

"The beach." The words were tight, her throat was tight. Zelle found it hard to talk when she was like this. She didn't cry often, but this...this was too much to bear.

"Just wait there a moment. I'll just let my Wingsecond know I'll be late for drills. Just one moment," he said, leaving her and jogging back into the office. Moments later he reappeared. "Right. Let's walk."

Zelle straightened up from where she had leaned against the wall next to the door, her face long and her eyes shadowed. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to move down the hallway. She remembered enough in her recent trips to Dolphin Cove to be able to lead him outdoors. She didn't say a word and didn't stop until they reached the beach that flanked the weyr. She crossed over the sand, her gaze settled upon a dark lump further down until she came to it, a boulder that jutted out, the only rock in a sea of sand. Zelle settled down upon it and lifted a hand to rub her eyes.

"Ahh, Zelle. You're usually such a tough little creature," he said, settling an arm around her shoulder as he leaned on the boulder beside her.

Zelle turned her gaze toward him, then looked away back to the sea.
She tried to be tough, but it wasn't always an easy thing. Life had a way of hitting one in the gut and this time it had hit hard. "I'm not little." She muttered, then sniffed.

"You're little compared to me," he assured her. "It's a shock, you know. Losing somebody suddenly. You're going to need time to get over the shock of it, let alone the grief of losing him."

"I know." She had been down this road before, though Zelle had never wished to go down it again. She supposed it was inevitable, but that didn't make it any easier. She reached up, rubbing her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "You should get to your drills. I don't want you to get into trouble because of me."

The bronzerider made a show of puffing out his chest. "I'm the Wingleader," he said pompously, then added more naturally: "They'll hardly miss me."

Zelle couldn't help but smile at that. "I'm sure they'll miss you more than you let on. Besides, who's going to keep them in line?"

"The excellent Wingsecond who did my job for months and months?"

"Then who will keep him in line?" Zelle held her smile for a moment more before it faded.

"He lives in fear of me," K'hetah said with his own smile for the ridiculousness of the lie. "Don't - promise me you won't go home without me. Loeth and I will escort you."

Zelle nodded slowly. "I have leave today. I'll wait for you."

"Whenever you're ready. Have Rillith bespeak Loeth." The last thing he wanted was an upset Zelle mistaking the visualisation and being lost.
He hadn't known her brother well, not well enough to miss him in the way that he would miss Zelle. "I can't _do_ anything to fix this, Zelle. I would if I could."

"I know." Zelle said softly, lowering her gaze. "But for that sentiment, I thank you."

"You're welcome." He tightened his arm around her shoulders but he didn't say anything more.

Last updated on the June 1st 2008

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Death In The Family