To Stand or Not To Stand (1)

Writers: AL, Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 11th December 2008

Characters: F'gol, Eshmeir, Sheste, Cerra, Jestyn
Description: Eshmeir finds Cerra with some of her friends and the group chats about the hatching and their future.
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 13, day 10 of Turn 4

Eshmeir caught sight of his new friend Cerra, but she was with a group of other apprentices gathered around the supper table. He hesitated, not certain of his welcome, and then approached the group. After two sevendays at the Hall he was starting to become familiar with the layout and schedule but he didn't feel he had made any particular friends other than the weyrbred girl apprentice and it was entirely possible that she was just being nice to a newcomer.

If that were the case, however, she was certainly putting on a good show. The girl's expression brightened at Eshmeir's approach and she patted the seat next her. "Well hello there, Eshmeir. Come join us!"

Jestyn and Sheste turned their attention to the newcomer and Cerra motioned to each of the other apprentices. "That's Jestyn," The young man reached out his hand in greeting. "That's Sheste, and over here is good ol' Figol."

"Huh?" Figol looked up when he heard his name, he'd been leaned over the table working on some lyrics to match a tune he'd been humming all day. He saw the new face and gave a little wave. "Hey"

Eshmeir shook the Jestyn's hand. "I'm Eshmeir," he said, hoping he sound more relaxed than he felt. He wondered if other newcomers to the Hall felt that they had suddenly grown up when they had to introduce themselves and shake hands - something he had never needed to do at home where everybody had always known him. He touched his knots, the brand-new junior apprentice knots he was inordinately proud of. "I apprenticed just recently."

He had discovered it was a necessary explanation because he was older the very junior apprentices, which made him taller than most. He felt like a giant in class, sometimes, and often had to explain that he didn't know things because he wasn't a senior, but one of the very newest juniors.

"Eshmeir's new." Cerra explained as if she had been listening in to the apprentice's very thoughts. "But I think he's fitting in quite well, wouldn't you say?" She winked at Eshmeir, then looked to Figol and clicked her tongue. "Your sleeve is in your stew again, Figol."

Figol looked up at his name again, at first annoyed that people kept trying to talk to him while he was working, then realized what Cerra had been saying, "Oh crackdust!" He wiped the wet sleeve with his hand and then just rolled it up out of the way.

Sheste and Cerra both giggled at the poor composer's lapse in dignity. "Oh Figol, you need to get your mind on your food, not your music." Sheste chided gently. "Else next thing you know your dinner will be all over your lap!"

"Just a few more minutes." Figol promised leaning back over the hide. He'd made that promise several times already, but he was so close to getting it right.

"What are you working on?" Eshmeir asked politely, then wondered whether the question - and interruption - would be welcome.

Figol looked up again, he hadn't had time to get reabsorbed yet. "It's just a new song I'm working on. I'm thinking it might be good as a teaching song, but it probably won't end up as anything." He still wasn't very secure in his talents as a composer.

"You're writing it _yourself_?" Eshmeir didn't have to sound politely interested, he was genuinely impressed. His own talents - if he had any, because he was sure that was yet to be proven - lay in his ability to play instruments. He had a good ear but he had little of the imagination needed to see things that didn't already exist. Music that wasn't written, for instance. He wouldn't know where to start.

"Figol is _always_ writing _some_thing." Sheste stated with a laugh and flipped her hair behind her shoulders. "Even when he's sleeping, he's got music pounding through his brain, I bet!"

"I'm impressed," Eshmeir admitted.

He gave up getting back into the words, he was being dragged into the conversation whether he wanted to be or not. "I'm not very good. I just can't stop it coming into my head though. Maybe a few won't be that bad and I can turn them into something decent."

"He's better than he lets on." Sheste stated, poking at the young man. "Didn't one of your compositions get chosen to be performed at the next hatching feast recently?"

Eshmeir was simply speechless. He could see that Figol was a senior apprentice, but he wasn't one of the really old ones. In fact, the other apprentice was probably about his own age.

Figol sighed, he could see that the upcoming hatching had infected her brain too, and not just Jestyn's. "No, it's for Turn's End. And it was just an apprentice competition."

"But the Hatching comes first," Eshmeir said absently.

"Hopefully. Maybe they'll take longer than expected." Cerra stated, grinning at the pain looked it produced on Sheste's face.

"What will take longer?" the new apprentice asked, suddenly coming out of his own thoughts to realise he wasn't sure of the subject under discussion.

"The eggs. Maybe they'll take longer than expected to hatch." Cerra repeated with a grin as Sheste stuck her tongue out toward Cerra. "Someone is so eager for the hatching."

Last updated on the December 12th 2008

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To Stand or Not To Stand (1)