What They Call You

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 27th April 2009

Characters: Ri'len, Tellen
Description: Tellen gets acquainted with Ri'len.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 10 of Turn 5

The seven Turn old boy was dark-eyed and dark-haired with a snub nose and a smattering of freckles that showed up even against naturally nut brown skin.

He was also possessed of a openness and curiosity that couldn't be stopped.

"Are you a weyrling?" he asked the young man on the beach.

Ri'len turned at the sound of the question and peered down at the young boy. He looked around but didn't see anyone else, no adults who might claim the child as their own. He nodded in answer to the question, then cast a glance toward his lifemate who was digging in the sand as if his very life depended on it. Monilath had taken the notion that he wanted to get out of the barracks and explore. Roseth hadn't been of a mind and Ri'len didn't want to force Sorsha to come, especially since she was rather tired - so they had gone off on their own. "Yes, I am."

"And is that a brown dragon or a bronze?" the boy asked, happily oblivious to the offence such a question might cause.

"Bronze." Ri'len was rather surprised at the question, especially since Monilath wasn't particularly that dark of a bronze. Certain his hue was more reddish, but his colour was still pretty obvious.

"Hmm. Is he always that colour, or is he sun-burned?"

"He's not sunburned." Ri'len couldn't help but chuckle at that and patted his dragon. "He's just got a bit more red in him than most bronzes do, I guess. That's his natural colour."

"Hmm," Tellen said again, still surveying the young dragon with a critical eye. "Is he going to grow very big?"

"I would say so. Bronzes are among the largest dragons." Ri'len turned to eye his lifemate with gentle criticism. "And he seems to be the largest of our class." Larger than even Elleth, for the moment.

"My father's dragon is a green and she's _small_," the boy admitted. "But that doesn't matter because she a _girl_."

The child's admittance gave the bronze weyrling pause. "Your ... father ... impressed a green?"

"Yes. A long time ago," Tellen added dismissively, because it must have been a _very_ long time ago, since their grandfather had been R'haran's nephew. "Before he adopted us."

"Ah, I see." That made more sense. Ri'len would have found it difficult to believe that a male greenrider would have sired children. Probably not entirely impossible just...improbable. "And yes, greens are rather small."

"And Evie's hurt, too. She doesn't fly properly." Tellen eyed the young dragon. "Though yours probably doesn't fly at all, yet."

"No he doesn't." Ri'len agreed with a chuckle. "Not yet, but soon though. He'll fly eventually."

"And then you'll be a real dragon_rider_, although they call you that now when it's not really right."

"We're called weyrlings." Ri'len didn't consider himself a full fledged dragonrider yet - he and the rest of the class had a long way to go. It was prideful state otherwise. "That is what we are called."

"Weyrlings?" Tellen considered that. "That's better," he agreed. "Later you can be a dragonrider - when he can fly and you're allowed tyo ride on him. My father's the Weyrharper, too. We've just arrived."

"Ah, so you're new to Dolphin Cove?" Ri'len was still new, felt new for all the months he'd been there - not even a turn. He had been certain when he first arrived that he'd never figure his way through the corridors, but that was getting easier.

"Yes. We were at Dragonsfall before. But we were SeaHold folk first," the boy added with obvious pride.

"Ah." Ri'len had never been to any other Weyr, just Dolphin Cove. "Is it much different there, at Dragonsfall?"

"Oh yes. Much further from the sea. And cold. _Snow._" Tellen said, his tone betraying just how amazing he still considered that facet of the weather.

"Really? Snow?" Ri'len couldn't hold back another chuckle at the young boy's wonderment. "A lot of snow?"

"Piles of it," Tellen said waving his hands over his head, delighted to find somebody who appreciated how incredible it was. "This high in some places, and water _freezes_."

"Wow, really? It freezes?" Ri'len replied with a tone of incredulity for the boy's sake. Monilath, who had been sifting through the sand on he shore lifted his head and regarded the boy. A moment later he turned and approached, then sniffed at the child, his breath teasing the boy's hair.

Tellen laughed and tried to hold his hair down. "Tell him it tickles."

"He can hear you." Ri'len had found that a lot of non dragonriders talked to them as if their dragons were deaf. It was definitely not the case. "Just talk to him. He may not talk back directly to you, but he can hear you and I can tell you what he says."

"Can he? Can you?" he asked the dragon, then back at the weyrling: "What did you say his name was?"

Ri'len hadn't told the boy his name, but didn't argue the point. "Monilath." Then Ri'len realised he hadn't offered his own name, nor had the boy offered his. "I'm Ri'len."

"Hello Monilath, and you Ri'len. I'm Tellen," he said, obviously speaking to the dragon. "My father's R'haran and his dragon's Evielenth."

"Well met, Tellen." He was an amusing boy. Monilath sniffed at the child again then lumbered over to Ri'len, giving a punctuated yawn before settling down. "I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting your father."

"I shall tell him to come and introduce himself," Tellen said firmly, thinking nothing of committing the Weyrharper to visiting a weyrling.

"Oh...sure." Ri'len wasn't sure why his father would be interested in meeting, but he wasn't about to start an argument with the child. "Well, I should really go. It was nice meeting you Tellen."

"And you, Ri'len," the boy said with the pretty manners that Weyrharper had drummed into him.

Last updated on the April 28th 2009

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What They Call You