The Best of all Worlds

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 27th September 2014

Characters: Azyn, Lihona
Description: Azyn chats to Lihona while the riverboat spends the day at the waypoint.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 9, day 9 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Ryell, Gethara, Azzy

When the others had walked on to explore the 'waypoint' as the stopover for the
riverboat was called, Azyn had headed back to the Sungazer. As he walked up the
landing stage he glanced back but Ryell, Gethara, and the children were out of
sight amongst the buildings of the settlement.

"Did Azzy stay ashore, Master Azyn?" Lihona called down when the man stopped on
the landing stage. She herself was sitting on the landing midway up the stairs
that ran from the main deck to the pilot house on the passenger deck.

"Ahh, hello Lihona." The captain's daughter was three Turns older that Azzy but
she had seemed happy enough to play with his daughter and he was polite enough
not to suspect that she might have other, more onerous chores waiting for her if
she wasn't so engaged. "Yes, she's gone on with her mother and Gethara to look
around the waypoint. That's what you call it, don't you?"

"Yes." She stood up and went down the stairs as the master printer completed his
walk up the landing stage and stepped onto the main deck. "It's where our family
lives. The Sungazer's family ashore."

"Oh? Are you all family, on all the riverboats?" He knew there was a crew deck
between the main deck and passenger deck, and that there was a variety of ages
among the crew, but he hadn't picked the family connection. Possibly he should
have - the printercraft ran strongly to families since it wasn't something many
young people were exposed to outside the Halls, so it wasn't a natural choice
for a bright youngster in need of a craft.

"Not on _all_ the riverboats." As soon as she said it Lihona re-thought her
statement. "Though maybe, since we mainly marry riverboat people." She knew that
wasn't always the case - her mother came from River Bluff Weyr, after all - so
she moved back onto more certain ground. "But everybody on the Sungazer is
family, and most people at the Dock, too."

Azyn followed her glance back ashore. It was a pleasant spot, by the great
river. Set back from the bank on a slight terrace were grey stone buildings,
rather tall, and making him wonder how often the river flooded. Beyond the them
were the even ranks of orchard trees and then crop fields making patches of
colour as the land rose in broad steps to the low, tree-covered hills in the
distance. "You call it 'the dock' as well as 'the waypoint'?"

"Needlethorn Dock is its name." She considered that for a moment. "Mostly we
call it 'the waypoint'. Every riverboat has one and they're not the same. Nobody
else stops at ours."

"And have you lived all your life on the Sungazer? You told me the other day
that your little brother was born aboard but you didn't say if you were."

As he had hoped the very slight motion of the riverboat paddling upriver hadn't
made Ryell ill and they had been able to enjoy the slow-moving journey into the
interior of the Southern Continent. Seeing the land change as they steamed by,
often quite close enough to the banks to feel as they were part of the scene and
not just observers, had been delightful and he could imagine this life would
appeal to many of the passengers. He wasn't so certain whether the crew would be
as enamoured but that was probably a matter of being overly familiar with the
journey, rather than disliking the life.

"Because I wasn't. I was born at River Bluff Weyr. Me and my older brother. And
my mother." With a pride she had only learned after leaving the Weyr she added:
"My mother's side of my family are mostly dragonriders."

"Really?" It seemed an exotic background for the little brown-haired chatterbox
who had the run of the riverboat. Then again, the riverboat was an unusual
environment in its own way. "And how did you end up on the Sungazer?"

"My grandfather got sick and so my father came home to take over - and brought
us all with him." She glanced over at the hills where her grandfather was
buried. That event was one of her earliest memories of life of the riverboat and
she remembered it very clearly.

"So your father - the captain - was born here, on the riverboat."

"Yes." Honesty prompted her to add: "I'm not sure if it was actually aboard or
at the waypoint. But here, as part of the family. And he went away to be a
seacrafter for Turns and Turns."

"Which is how he met your mother?"

The girl nodded. "His ship visited the Weyr all the time. And then we came here."

There was, Azyn though, a nice little tale in that story. The boy left home but
came back to take up his position on the riverboat, bringing his new family from
the Weyr to be raised as he was. The neatness of it appealed, though no doubt it
was more complicated than it appeared to eight-Turn-old Lihona.

"And you live your life going up and down the river." The best of all worlds,
travelling _and_ being settled at home.

"Meeting lots of people who come aboard as passengers." Twelve days was as long
as they ever stayed on the Sungazer, though a few were regulars and she had got
to know most of the nice ones. "Sometimes they leave us children behind at
Emerald Falls to do special harper classes but I've just done mine and won't
have to do any more until next Turn."

Azyn smiled in response to her grin of uninhibited delight. He could see that
would be a thought worth gloating over for most children. "You're a very lucky
girl, then," he said, meaning more than just the harper classes but he supposed
she was as familiar with life aboard as the rest of her family and couldn't
really appreciate what a pleasant life it was. "Are you allowed to go ashore?
You could probably catch Azzy up. They were going to look around the place. I
don't suppose they've got far." Not with three-Turn-old Rarden trotting along
with them.

"I could be their guide," Lihona said, straightening and puffing out her chest a
little. She waved up at the pilothouse and called up when her father came to
window: "I'm going ashore to look after Master Azyn's family."

Azyn smiled at the wording and again had the impression that there were chores
being abandoned now that she had a perfectly reasonable excuse.

"Thank you," Lihona said to the master printer, already stepping up onto the
landing stage and making her way down it at the very fastest walk she could
manage. Helping with somebody else's children ashore was _much_ more interesting
than minding her own brother on the riverboat.

Last updated on the October 19th 2014

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