Only One?

Writers: Chelle, Suzee
Date Posted: 27th March 2012

Characters: Veerona, Jylanya
Description: Jylanya takes her fosterling to the hatching.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 11 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: K'hetah

Jylanya

Jylanya held the little hand loosely as they walked the beach toward
the Weyr. The hatching was starting and it would only take them a few
minutes to get there walking. There was no need to subject Vee to a
dragon ride when it scared her so much. Jylanya was hoping the little
girl would see the new baby dragons and that would help her lose some
of her fear of the giant protectors of Pern.

Truth be told she herself needed to do the same thing. She couldn't
let her own trepidation rub off on her fosterling. Baby things were
always cute, even dragons.

"Come on sweetie," she said to the little girl at her side. "We're
almost there."

Vee looked at the big thing that was the Weyr. Her small body tensed up
without her thinking about and she clutched Jylanya's hand hard. She wasn't
too sure about this, but Lany had said there was going to be a feast there
with treats. She knew a hatching meant eggs and baby dragons. Still, she was
hoping to avoid the big creatures.

Jyl could feel the resistance building in the little body and stooped
to pick her up. With Vee riding on her hip she looked her in the eye.
"I used to be scared of them too sweeting. But they're really nice
people and they don't want to hurt you."

Her eyes searched the crowd for K'hetah but she couldn't see him from
where they were. She hadn't seen him for some time and had tried to
put their brief relationship out of her mind telling herself he was just
busy.

That was all well and good, but she still hid her face in Jylanya's shoulder.
When they were inside and there were so many people, she began to peek
out though. Plus the food smelled good and she was hungry. **Look at that!
And that!**

Jylanya stroked the silky hair of the head tucked into her neck.
Finally she found their seats and held Veerona on her lap so she'd
have a better view of the sands. "See all the eggs? They'll be little
baby dragons soon and find their lifemates."

"They're sposed to be hungry. Will they try to eat the white kids?" Veerona
looked out and saw the eggs, considering. She had seen wherry eggs but these
were different. The size alone made her pause. They were as big as her
or bigger! "How do they find 'em?"

"Oh no," said Jylanya. "They'll find their special person and ask them
for food. Then the boy or the girl will take them over there." Jylanya
pointed to where the weyrling staff were waiting for their newest
charges with pails of meat for the hungry dragonets. "They get their
first meal from those pails."

She considered the little girl's question carefully. "I don't really know
how they find them but the group of candidates have been taught
what they need to do."

"Hmmm..." Her eyes went to the gold dragon. Elleth was small for her
color, but Vee didn't know that. The creature was so big! How could anyone
ride that? She was pretty though. "Do they breathe fire now?"

"Not yet," she smiled. She wasn't very sure how that part worked but
she knew it didn't happen until they were mostly grown. Her eyes
scanned the crowd again, but this time she realized it was for a
certain dolphineer, not a Wingleader.

"Lany, the egg's movin'," she announced, pointing to one she saw towards
the middle. She didn't know that the way the eggs were arranged was peculiar
to Elleth. She thought it was nice since they were easier to see.

Though Veerona didn't realize it, this was the first hatching Jylanya
would be able to watch. The only other one she'd ever been near, she'd
worked at Dolphin Cove in the lower caverns. She knew exactly the
frantic activity behind the scenes that would produce the hatching
feast in mere hours.

"Yes," she smiled. "The babies are going to break out of the eggs."
She almost held her breath with the rest of the crowd waiting for the
first to hatch and the miracle of Impression to happen.

When the first one came out and Vee saw it was a bronze, she was very
quiet. Baby dragons looked a lot different than the big ones. They weren't
cute really since they generally seemed to just go about creeling all over
the place, but they weren't scary either. As the dragonets found their
people, she wondered about the whole thing. **How did it work really?**

Jylanya found herself remembering how big the blue seemed when he
brought her to the Weyr and then how Loeth had dwarfed the blue. But
the size of the baby dragons were so small in comparison to what they
would become that she marveled.

"Oh Vee, look how happy the new riders are." Truly the looks on the
newly Impressed spoke volumes about their joy.

The lot of them started to move off the grounds and Veerona watched as
they started to feed the hungry things. The way their jaws snapped as they
shoveled meat in there confirmed what she thought. "That one almost bit his
hand off!"

"Oh no honey, they're just very hungry. They'll never bite their
riders." She chuckled since she'd had much the same reaction. "They've
been inside those shells all this time and really need to eat. But see
how the helpers have all the food ready?"

"Lany, my tummy's rumbling." All that watching those dragonets being messy
eaters was reminding her of the smells they'd noticed on the way in. Vee had
never been to a feast and she was ready to get her hands on some of those
sweets.

As most of the Impressed pairs were leaving the sands the crowds were
beginning to make their way toward the festivities so Jylanya didn't
see any reason they couldn't as well. "There sure looked like there
were some _very_ tasty things out there. What do you want to try
first?" She put Veerona on her feet and held her hand while they filed
out of the grounds toward the waiting food.

All for that, she practically dragged Jylanya to the food tables, though she
did get slower when they were thrust into the throng of people who all had
the same idea. Never having seen that many people in her entire life, she
kept close to her fostermother's skirts even as she peeked over the tables
at the food.

Jylanya scooped up plates for them both and handed the smaller one to
Vee. "Hold your plate and tell me what you'd like to taste ok?" She
began easing along the table selecting morsels for both of them from
the buffet of goodies.

Taking the plate carefully, she found it was hard to hold and peek over to
see the food. There was too much and the tables were too high. "Lany I
can't see..." she whined.

"Ok," she said with a grin and put down her own plate. "Here," she
picked up the little girl and set her on her hip. "What do you think
you'd like?"

"Umm some berries and some cream and some cake and squares and pie
and...." Her eyes scanned over the tables quickly, picking up on her choices.
"And some sweet rolls?" She gave a big smile, hoping that would help.

"Maybe a meatroll and some veggies," prompted Jylanya trying to stifle
a grin at the blatant play for a plateful of sweets.

She made a slightly heavy sigh, predicting her fostermother would say something
like that. Adults-always worrying about eating the right things. "Well okay.."

She grinned and started picking up the items Vee had asked for and
adding the meatroll and some of the tasty veggies with some sauce for
dipping. Then she carried her to a nearby table and went back for her
own plate. She kept her eye on the little girl as she did and soon she
was back sitting next to her.

Quickly she started to eat. Her tummy really was rumbling with
emptiness down there and she needed to fill it. She took a bite of the
meatroll and then was trying to put it back down on the plate when a
piece of the stuffing landed on her dress. She looked down and
frowned, then started to get upset but she couldn't make a
noise since she had food in her mouth.

Quick as a wink Jylanya flicked her napkin from her lap to scoop the
offending stuffing from Veerona's pretty dress. Then she reached for
the one by Vee's plate and shook it out. "Here, tuck this into the top
of your dress. It will help keep the spills off."

She would have said thank you, but she started chewing instead. Happy
for the moment with her meal, she saw some of the riders go by and dismissed
them. Of course, she didn't know that one of them might have been her
father. When she finished, she sat back and looked up, wondering if she
could finally have dessert.

Wonder of wonders Veerona had cleaned her plate. They had a deal and
Jylanya remembered it. "So what would you like for dessert?"

"Everything?" **Please let the big smile work this time** She hoped and hoped
even as her gap toothed grin came to the fore.

"Everything?" Jylanya grinned. "Are you sure you have room?" She
patted Vee's belly. "I don't know, feels pretty full to me. I think
you're going to have to shake some of it into your legs."

She looked down as if she was considering all of that. "Well whatever's
left, we'll take home and I'll have it tomorrow." Her head swayed from side
to side as if it was obvious.

"I tell you what," said the headwoman. "You can have one to eat now
and one to take home."

"Only one? It's a feast, though. You're sposed ta have a lot at a feast."
She looked around at all the other people there, most of them with notably
more than one dessert on their plate.

"Well two desserts are a lot for a little girl," Jylanya smiled. "But
maybe if I were to get a hug and a kiss I might think that three would
be ok." Her eyes rolled a little sideways and up so she wasn't looking
directly at Veerona.

No one had to tell her twice. She almost toppled her plate in her exuberance.
Veerona jumped into Jylanya's arms and planted a big wet one on her cheek.
Smiling, she pulled back a bit. "Was that enough?"

Jyl chuckled. "You give _very_ good kisses Vee. That's good enough.
Why don't you go pick one now?"

So excited, she hopped down and went to the dessert spread. Indecision
crossed her face. There were so many choices. Her eyes went to first one and
then another. Finally she settled on a creamy cake that had fruit slices on it.
Unfortunately, her little hands couldn't get a slice and she frowned.

Jylanya followed her to the table and when Vee couldn't seem to get
what she wanted, stepped up behind her and covered the little girl's

hands with her own. She helped her guide the piece of cake onto her
small plate and then let go to allow her to carry it back to the
table. "Careful," she said.

Remembering the earlier spill, she brought her lips together into her most
serious look and started out for the table. She held the plate like it was a
treasure. Looking from side to side, she watched for people coming. Finally,
she made it and set it down, forgetting to dig in as she felt pride at
doing such
a small task.

"Good job sweetie," whispered Jylanya coming behind her with a small
piece of the same cake. She could tell her little charge was beginning
to get tired and they still had a bit of a walk home.

Last updated on the April 2nd 2012

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