Just Wait and See

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

Characters: Meledei, Ravere, Rilisa
Description: Mel, Ravere and Rilisa talk about their future as they collect spiderclaws.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 6 of Turn 4

"Watch it!" The girl cautioned as Ravere narrowly missed having his fingers in the clutches of the spiderclaw that was desperately trying to make its way back to the sea. "Those things embrace doesn't feel very pleasant once they get a hold of you."

"Like you're an expert now?" Ravere demanded, though he did pull his hand out of the creature's way. "Who was it that was hopping around on these very rocks not a sevenday ago, complaining that her finger had been severed?"

"I did no such thing." The candidate wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue at Ravere, then gingerly pounced upon another spiderclaw and placed it into the bucket with the others she had caught. "You have a faulty memory."

"You're right," the young man agreed. "You weren't just complaining, you were screaming. Wasn't she?"

Rilisa looked up when she was appealed to, shaking her head and waving a spiderclaw in each hand at her brother. "_My_ memory must be faulty. I never remember things like that. But I think we've go enough to feed the Weyr already."

"See, Rilisa doesn't remember me doing that either. Actually, I think _you_ were the one screaming. Sounded very much like a girl." Mel laughed ad then caught one more spiderclaw, tossing it into the bucket. "Are you sure it's enough Rilisa? Surely this would only feed half the Weyr."

"I don't think anybody wants us to completely strip the spiderclaw beds, either," Rilisa said, dropping her two into her brother's bucket. "Especially not these ones so very usefully close to the Weyr. And there's plenty of real food to eat," she said, not being very fond of any sort of seafood.

"I would be very surprised if we could strip the beds. I swear, you take one of these things and ten more spring up from out of nowhere." Still, they did have quite a few spiderclaws, certainly enough for them to take back. Of course, she knew others were gathering them as well so there would be plenty to go round. "But you're right, we should stop and head on back."

"I'm glad we came out early," Rilisa said, glancing at the position of the sun though it was more the rise in the day's heat from which she took her sense of time. It might just be a decent temperature today."

"You're so hot natured." Mel teased, moving over to poke her friend playfully in the arm. "You should move to a Weyr in the Mountains, that would suit you better."

"Why would I want to move at all?" Rilisa asked reasonably. "This is my home - and it's perfect."

"I'll remind you of that next time you complain about the heat." Mel gently swung her bucket, causing it to tap lightly against her thigh. "Then we'll see what you say."

"You'll be waiting for a warm day /between/ before Rilisa complains," Ravere commented, jumping down from the rocky spur he was balancing on and then checking his bucket for escape attempts. "She loves this baking heat."

"Not the heat so much," his sister protested. "I like that it _is_ hot and that we can retreat deep inside the cliffs and be cool. I enjoy that."

Mel giggled softly. "And what would you do if we didn't have those cliffs? Remind me never to go camping with you."

"Camping? Ewww." Rilisa looked at her friend as if she was mad. "Why would anybody _want_ to?"

"It can be fun." Mel gently nudged Rilisa with her bucket. "Although most the camping I seem to do is out with the animals when one is sick."

"Luckily her 'animals' go to the infirmary when they're ill," Ravere said. He liked children well enough but Rilisa's dedication to caring for them day in and day out was incomprehensible to him. Time enough for that when he had a family.

"Aww, don't call them that." Mel kicked at Ravere, but only playfully and purposefully missed. "They aren't animals. They just act like it sometimes."

"You wait," Rilisa warned. "When you have families of your own you'll think they're so precious and beautiful and far better than any child anybody else every produced. And I'll laugh at you both."

"Probably." Mel agreed with a chuckle. Parents seemed to think that their children were the best out of all. "But when they throw temper tantrums, you can take care of them."

"They _don't_ throw tantrums for me," Rilisa said smugly, and not entirely truthfully.

"Oh really?" Mel laughed once and shook her head. "Amazing. I'll just foster all my children to you then!"

The young woman shook her head. "You'll be dragonrider, no doubt. Very brave and heroic. Your children will need more than just care during the day. They'll need a real foster mother."

Ravere slung his arm around his sister's shoulders. "And me? Am I going to be a brave and heroic dragonrider too?"

"You'll be a weaver and have a former craftswoman weyrmate who enjoys motherhood far too much to allow her children to be fostered, but she might let their Aunty 'Lisa mind them occasionally."

"You have a lot of faith in me." Mel laughed, "But not so much in Rav, eh? Maybe he'll be the dragonrider and I'll be the former craftswoman who decides she can't bear to foster her children?"

"Who knows," Ravere said with a laugh. "If we could see what was in our futures we'd probably be frightened half to death. Luckily we have to take it as it comes and nobody can predict it. Especially not you," he said with a wink for his sister.

"I suppose you're right." Though there were times Mel sometimes wished she _could_ see what was in her future. Would she be a dragonrider? Or would she simply be a beastcrafter? Either path, she could be happy, but it would be nice if all her Standing was for naught or not.

"I'm always right," Rilisa assured her friend. "You just wait and see."

Last updated on the December 12th 2008

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Just Wait and See