The Morning After
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: Rochelle
Date Posted: 31st July 2008
Characters: R'syl
Description: R'syl muses as he watches the new dragonets leaving the barracks on their first day of classes.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 10, day 15 of Turn 4
After the previous day's rain the morning air was bright and clear, offering a lovely rose tint to the sky out to sea as R'syl watched the new dragonriders and tiny dragonets stumbling out of the barracks. He smiled to himself, and muffled a chuckle as one of the new greenriders exasperatedly told her dragonet that the rocks weren't edible, and that she was going to need to stop lunging at every new and interesting thing she saw after the tiny green knocked over one of the other new weyrlings, causing the boy's blue to squawk in concern.
So many riders overlooked these first few hours when they looked back into their memories, moving on to the Hatching itself when their minds merged with their lifemates' for the first time. They remembered the feelings suffusing them, the whirling eyes of their very own dragon in front of them, the heat of the sands and the shrieks of delighted hatchlings as they found their partners on the Sands. Of knowing they were no longer alone, and showing their worth to all of Pern by becoming a dragonrider.
Only another dragonrider could ever know the joy of that event, although many non-riders dreamed of it with all their hearts. They had every right to treasure those memories, and R'syl would never argue with anyone over it. But he did feel that they were missing another precious time that was just as crucial to their lives as the moment of Impression.
It was the morning after the Hatching that he treasured, watching each little dragonet greeting the world for the first time as their new riders slowly began to realize, really realize, that they were no longer alone. That the events of the day –or night- before had not been a dream.
R'syl couldn't prevent the smile on his face as he remembered his own first morning with Usaeth. He'd woken up to the sleepy touch of a young mind inside his, and been completely baffled by the sensation until he'd realized that he wasn't alone inside his head anymore, that he was the proud rider of the most wonderful bronze on Pern. It had been like being reborn, and moving through that first day he'd felt as if he was seeing the world for the first time.
He could see that expression on the new weyrlings now. The wondering, open yet completely baffled and hesitant expression of a new rider, their emotions flitting so vulnerably across their faces as they took the first tenuous steps at learning how to control their mental link to their new lifepartners. It would vanish soon, as they learned how to work the link to their dragons, how to tell what was them and what wasn't, but for the moment he could see in every tired, shining face the undeniable joy of being a dragonrider. It didn't matter that they knew they would be working themselves to exhaustion almost from the moment they woke, or that it was going to be six long months until they had freedom of any kind again. For these few precious hours caught between the glow of the Hatching and the gradual realization that the dream was real, R'syl could see the best in all of them.
Last updated on the August 1st 2008