Settled In

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 28th September 2014

Characters: Taine, Rayche
Description: Taine and his weyrmate reflect after a month at Dolphin Cove Weyr.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 9, day 14 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Tahvey, Pia, C'ait

The smell that Taine only noticed when he entered the rider's quarters of their
weyr was one of furniture polish. It was a light oil, he knew, with some herbs
steeped in it, and Rayche swore by it for making the wooden furniture gleam.

And gleam the furniture did after almost a month's worth of attention from
Rayche. His weyrmate liked to make her living space 'nice' and a first step was
to clean the existing woodwork and then polish it up until she was satisfied.

He would have stopped at 'clean', but then he knew that he was not as driven to
always be busy the way the greenrider was.

Still, he couldn't complain, he thought as he looked around the room. Rayche had
done what she could with the existing furniture and unpacked soft furnishings of
attractive jewel colours to brighten the space.

It felt like home.

A pleasantly warm home, he though, glancing at the louvred door between the
dragon couch and the rider's quarters. The door was wedged open as it usually
was, and through it drifted a light, warm breeze - and the sound of Rayche's
voice as she talked aloud to her dragon.

He smiled and walked across their room, shedding his shirt and boots to drape
the former over a straight-backed chair and kick the latter under the end of the
bed. He pulled off socks and dropped them in the tall laundry basket and then
emptied his pockets into one of the two bowls on the top of the table.

"Through here with Tahirath," Rayche called.

It was an invitation to join them and he appreciated it. His father (and hers)
had warned him when he was first considering a relationship that Rayche had a
very close bond with her dragon - the sort of bond that often meant that
dragonriders didn't feel the need to have other people in their lives in any
permanent way. He knew Rayche had made a decision to allow him into her life
with the knowledge that his presence would impinge on her time with Tahirath and
he always made a point of letting them be alone together unless he was
specifically invited to join them.

In the dragon weyr his long-legged weyrmate was sitting on a large, brightly
coloured cushion that was shoved up against the side of her dragon. Though the
deep cavern was cooler than the day outside Rayche had shed her trousers,
leaving her long, slim legs on display. Adding a quirky note to the picture she
made were the boots she wore. She had a paranoia about crawlers and insects,
tunnelsnakes and grit, none of which were welcome around her feet at any time.

Rayche glanced down at Taine's feet as he paused to pick up another cushion and
made his way over to her. Bare. On the rock where anything could be. She made a
face and surveyed her own half-laced boots, admiring the way their heaviness
made her ankles look delicate.

"Do you mind, Tahirath?"

"She says you may lean on her, if you care to."

Once he was settled beside Rayche she snuggled closer, resting a hand on his
bare stomach and her head on his shoulder as he curled his arm around her.

"How was your working restday, Master Taine?"

"Rather peaceful," he admitted. "I got a lot done. And how did the beach go?"

"We bathed and Tahirath swam out with the dolphins. When she was dry we came
back here and I oiled a few patches here and there."

"The dragon and the furniture?"

"Mmm. Might have done a bit of polishing. It's looking nice, isn't it?"

"Lovely," he agreed. He might not have ever bothered to go to the efforts she
did, he did appreciate the way she turned their living space into a beautiful home.

"Are you happy here?" she asked, her tone idle, almost lazy.

"With the move, certainly. The project looks like being as large and as
technical as I'd hoped and I have to say I'm enjoying the climate."

"It's winter," she reminded him darkly but there was teasing in her tone.

"And you?" he prompted.

He felt her nod against his shoulder, the silky hair she kept cut short and
sleek against her head slid over his skin. "It's nice. The wing is good to fly
with. Tahirath's happy."

"Missing the girls?"

"Hmm. Maybe a little." Rayche was certainly looking forward to her daughters
joining them at Dolphin Cove but even at Dragonsfall Tahvey and Pia had had busy
lives with their own friends and foster families and she hadn't seen very much
more of them there.

"Missing your family?" His own family, other than Rayche, consisted of his
father, a bluerider. C'ait had been to visit them a couple of times already
saying that Rayche's family weren't coming until she said she was happy to show
off their rooms. There was no doubt that her very close family understood her
perfectly.

"About ready to invite them to visit," the greenrider admitted. "They'll enjoy a
break from the snow. Perhaps next restday, if you can stand to actually rest
rather than work on it."

"I can stand to."

"And if they come from their early morning they can spend the evening here,
which is always pleasant." And it was a more active time around the Weyr since
even in the cooler winters the Dolphin Cove residents tended to make the most of
the evenings and avoid being too busy in the early afternoon heat.

"They can come and swim ... in the sea." It was something he was enjoying being
able to do - any time day or night. Any day. Outside, every time, not in the
deep caverns of the Weyr as was the case with the underground lake at Dragonsfall.

"It's full of sand," Rayche grumbled, not as enchanted by the sea. She was born
and bred at Dragonsfall and she liked her water to be floating over nice clean rock.

He laughed, kissing the top of her head and then relaxing against Tahirath's
warm hide. It had seemed like a big thing to take Rayche away from her family
and home but it was a nice place they had come to and he was grateful that
Rayche seemed to have settled in without difficulty. His eyelids drifted closed,
opened, and he looked out of the mouth of cavern into the bright sunlight,
pleased to have that instead of the short days at Dragonsfall.

The next time his eyelids closed they stayed closed, and his weyrmate smiled as
his breathing achieved the evenness of sleep.

Last updated on the October 3rd 2014

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