Growing Attraction

Writers: Ainsley, Cali
Date Posted: 16th February 2009

Characters: Sorsha, W'lerin
Description: The two weyrlings go out on an outrigger during their exercise period.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 12 of Turn 5

W'lerin could not believe his good fortune when he was paired with Sorsha for the paddling exercise. Maybe the weyrlingstaff liked him after all. He bet her bronzerider "husband" was just _loving_ this. Sorsha was just the kind of girl he had always dreamed of being with, but of course girls like her generally wouldn't have given him the candlemark if asked in his old life. Faranth how he loved being a dragonrider! One day his handsome brown might just fly her green and oh that would certainly be the day! The smile he flashed her was genuine and his greeting pleasant, "Hi Sorsha! Ready to get a bit of exercise?"

"Hi W'lerin, yep, just let me stretch out a second." Sorsha crossed one arm and pulled it against the other, repeating with the other side, and then doing both again before holding her hands behind her back and leaning forward so that they stretched towards her head. Last time they'd gone out on the outriggers, her shoulders were so sore the next day from all the paddling, she'd had to put numbweed on them.

The brownrider, turned as if to inspect the outrigger, but he watched Sorsha out of the corner of his eye, appreciating the way that the stretching showed off her shapely figure. He swallowed hard and trained his mind on something else. "So had you ever been out on a small craft before coming here?"

"Oh yes, I'm from a sea hold.." She explained as she helped W'lerin push the small two person craft off the beach and into the calm water of the cove. She pulled herself in easily enough and then gave counterweight while W'lerin did the same. She handed him his paddle and plowed her own deep into the water before they drifted back to shore. "Of course," she added with a fake pout, "We always got to use sails."

Taking in her expression W'lerin couldn't help but grin. Shells she was adorable! "I'm not so good with a sail," he confessed while applying his own paddle to the water. "I had never even been in a boat of any kind before coming to the Weyr." He had hardly done anything besides work like a herdbeast for the gain of a greedy holder!

"Oh?" Sorsha tried to imagine how odd it must be for him, but it was just too natural an experience for her. "Are you from a land hold then?"

"Yes," he answered rather curtly, cutting harshly with his paddle. He cleared his throat, realizing his slip. Woman didn't like broody men, or at least that was what his mother had told him. "A small hold far from anywhere. I was _very_ happy to be searched," he stated by way of explanation.

She could tell it was a sore subject, previous homes were for several of the candidates, so she moved it to safer ground. "You like it here then? Some people get intimidated by the size of everything."

"I love it here," he answered with a certain intensity. "There is opportunity to completely redefine yourself."

Sorsha grinned, "You sound like a man with a plan." She saw another weyrling pairing pass them a ways to their left so she sped up her stroke slightly so as not to fall behind.

Matching her increase W'lerin pondered her words. A plan? Yes, he had a plan. He was going to be a sharding good dragonrider and show up all those that thought themselves better than he was. Prove himself so that a girl like Sorsha would choose him over someone like Ri'len. "And you? What do you think of life at the Weyr?"

"It's very loud." Sorsha replied with pretty much the same answer she gave everyone that asked, it was hard to describe the difference any other way. "I'm used to it being more quiet and laid back. Still, Roseth is worth it. Oww..." Sorsha grimaced as she stopped paddling and reached across to her right shoulder, trying to rub it. "So much for stretching."

"I have some salve I got from the healers that does wonders for sore muscles," he offered, pushing any thoughts he had of applying that salve to her bare shoulders far, far to the back of his head. It's a good thing his young dragon was sleeping.

Sorsha tried to smile as she worked out the cramp. "Great minds think alike, I've got some from last time. Too bad I didn't think to bring it with me. I'll be okay though, and I hear this isn't anything like what they'll be doing to us once we start tossing those firestone sacks around."

"It's hard work, particularly for those that are unused to it," W'lerin had some difficulty keeping the derision from his tone as he thought there were several weyrlings that had been coddled their entire lives, never having to lift a finger to do a real job. Sorsha said she was from a sea hold, though, and had sailed small crafts before, so he did not count her among these. "What was your life like at the sea hold?"

Though her shoulder still hurt somewhat, she didn't want to be the cause for being last back in so she focused on answering W'lerin as she dug her paddles back in the water. "Oh well, I didn't have a mother so I helped my father alot. He taught me how to mend net and sail, how to make fish traps, stuff like that. It wasn't an easy life, but it was home you know?"

No he didn't. He had never felt that way at all about where he was born or the situation he was born into. Sorsha's outlook was so positive. Why was that? Was it simply a matter of social position? Putting more effort into paddling, he let the physical release rid him of some of the tension that always built when he thought of such things. "We have something in common, then," he said, hoping his voice did not show any of the negative emotion he was feeling. "I was raised by one parent as well. My mother, though."

She could tell something was upsetting him and wanted to ask about his father, but felt that it might be painful. "We have that in common with a lot of people here at the Weyr."

"I guess you're right," he really had not given much thought to other people in general. W'lerin tended to focus on himself, his own desires and how to get what he wanted.

Sorsha sqeeled in delight as she saw everyone making the turn point. The dolphins were there doing joyful acrobatics whenever a team passed by. "Oh they are beautiful!"

W'lerin was amazed at how much unabridged delight Sorsha showed in the smallest things. Normally, this would have annoyed him, and he would have made a cutting and sarcastic comment, but he was finding that with this particular greenrider, he found it rather enchanting. Why was it that everything about her tantalized him? Was it simply because she belonged to another? _Had_ belonged to another, he corrected himself.. They were dragonriders now. "Very beautiful," he said, but his eyes were on Sorsha not the aquatic mammals.

Last updated on the February 20th 2009

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Growing Attraction