[PRP] The Worst Anniversary (Rizdax & Shar)

[Hattaki]

No matter what he did, no matter how much he cleaned and buried himself into his work, this was the worst day of Rizdax's life, or at least the anniversary of it. To keep any memories at bay he'd been cleaning harder than ever before, on his hands and knees scrubbing even the cracks in the floor of his designated area long after all his fellow Candidates had called him crazy and wandered off to lunch or something else. What they hadn't seen was that he was fragmenting from the inside out, parts of him cracking further and further as the day wore on, but there was nowhere to hide in a Weyr, he'd found that out a Turn ago.

A Turn ago this day even...

Each time a tear traced down one of his dusty cheeks, Riz wiped it away with the back of his hand or arm, frustrated with himself for feeling this way even if it was natural. On top of his most recent failure at Impressing he'd had to greet this day without another soul around to help him, or at least not one that he would allow to help him, and it was actually more painful than he'd expected. Their names were on the tip of his tongue all day, their voices echoing in his head every time he didn't focus entirely on whatever it was that he was doing. Even in his head he would constantly repeat the words 'scrub, scrub, clean, clean' in an attempt to keep the echos of the past from overtaking him completely.

Where he would have pushed it down any other day, this day was impossible and it made him all the angrier at himself. Just because he hadn't Impressed didn't mean that he was bad, it was his first attempt at Standing and he knew that in the logical side of his brain. Still, as Rizdax stood to move onto the next area he'd been assigned, the silence of the hallway he was currently in gave him the chance to press his forehead against the cool stone of a corner in the wall. Taking deep breaths he wiped at his face and sighed, pulling R'ose's old jacket around himself tighter as if it would warm up his insides as well.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

It was just another day for Shar. Classes, chores, lunch, training, free time, eyes and ears on the sky to watch riders and their dragons patrol and drill. Nothing out of the ordinary, although she did have one more Hatching under her belt, and this one had been one for the record books. She had never left High Reaches to Stand before and it had certainly been an eye opening experience for her. She was glad Rizdax had gotten a chance to get his feet wet in the Sands as well as she knew how intimidating Standing for the first time could be. Now he knew how they worked and could mentally prep himself next time for it.

She was on her way to lunch when movement down one of the long hallways caught her eye. Someone was scrubbing the floor? She paused, frowning a bit at the lone figure putting quite a bit of elbow grease into their work. It wasn't until the figure stood that she recognized the red hair and the build of the young man - Riz! What the shells was he doing down there? It was time for food!

Before she could call out to him she watched as he wiped at his eyes and leaned against the wall. Shar stood puzzled for a few moments before he wiped at his eyes again and she realized he was crying. Not hard, but enough for him to want to wipe tears away. What the...

Diverting her path from the dining hall to her friend, she walked briskly down the hallway to the other Candidate. Once she was within a distance that wouldn't require shouting, she called out to her friend.

"Riz, what are you doing? Chores are over, it's time to eat." She didn't mention the crying just yet, not wanting to embarrass him right off the bat. If someone had bullied him or teased him she was going to get to the bottom of it and put an end to it.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Cold actually felt nice on his forehead given how red he felt, the sunburn still lingering despite it having been nearly three weeks since his first Hatching on that burning island. It absolutely was not what he was standing there for, but it was a nice perk all the same when he realized it. There was too much going on in his head for him to want to pull back and head towards lunch but his stomach was howling at him all the same. Placing both hands on his bare stomach, having worn no shirt beneath the jacket since everything but it seemed to scratch and make him itch all the harder, he debated getting at least something to keep his blurry day going when he heard his name called out down the hallway.

Every hair on his body stood on end when he realized who owned the voice and a pair of bloodshot golden eyes turned to look at Shar in something close to horror. His best friend couldn’t see him crying, she wasn’t exactly great at trying to calm others down, but just the shock had two more tears leap from his eyes and he rubbed at his eyes roughly with the jacket, turning to look away from her as he did so. In his head he knew that she might take it the wrong way, she knew a little bit of his history but he wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t remember what this day was, it was just another one to her. Ever since Thread had started to fall it had all blended together and people, not everyone but most, forgot the day. The first day that Thread had fallen from the sky and straight onto his Hold… straight onto his little brother.

Just thinking that made his shoulders shake sharply as he tried to suppress the memories, he couldn’t keep watching Izrad die over and over in his head and certainly he didn’t know what had happened to Xazri yet, still not hearing anything despite repeated attempts to reach the Hold on the Southern Continent. Screams echoed in his head for some reason and the redheaded teen moved his hands up to cover his ears, the jacket sleeves sliding down to show the scratch marks on his arms where he’d tried to distract himself from the pain. Rizdax couldn’t face Shar, he couldn’t face all the other Candidates faces if he went down to grab food and certainly didn’t want to show weakness in front of the ones that had scoffed at him for staying and cleaning like some sort of hyper attentive madman.

“I… its okay, Shar!” His voice managed to level itself out and he waved his left hand at her, pulling it from his ear for a brief moment to try and shoo her away. “I don’t know if I’m really all that hungry today. Maybe I can just stay and clean, or something.”

Trailing off as he replaced his hand, Riz still shivered slightly, hoping that the jacket might hide the movement since it was so much larger than he was. He felt like a disappointment to himself, to his brother and to everyone, that certainly didn’t help the with his already twisted up feelings.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

The reaction Riz gave her startled Shar into stopping in her tracks. She stood dumbfounded for a moment as she took in the other Candidate, his back to her once again, shaking and covering his ears as if dragons were trumpeting all around them. It was silent aside from her words, though, and she couldn't fathom why he would be taking such a position.

Cautiously she approached, moving to get within touching distance although she kept her hands to herself. From this distance she could easily see how much Rizdax was trembling and the red marks on his arms from what looked like fingernails. Brows furrowed, Shar tried to puzzle the pieces together but kept coming up blank. Was he upset about the Hatching? Surely he knew not to take it so hard that he hadn't been chosen. Some Candidates were never picked, after all! You couldn't count on getting a dragon your first time!

But something else kept her from stating those facts. Rizdax had been in lessons for a while now and he knew that sort of thing. Perhaps someone had bullied him about it? If that were the case Shar was more than ready to hunt whoever it was down to give them a piece of her mind.

"You'll scrub all the way to the other continent if you keep cleaning. Why are you crying?" she finally asked, having had just about enough of trying to figure out the reason.

"If someone teased you for not Impressing the other day I'll go kick their a** for you if you want. It was your first Hatching, Impressing on your first Stand is...it's...well, it's really rare. So don't beat yourself up over it if that's why!"

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

A gust of breath left him, not so much a sigh as him releasing every ounce of breath he'd been holding in the hopes that she would just turn and leave. Of course she wouldn't, she was his friend and he knew that she wouldn't simply let him be upset and not say something. If the situation had been flipped he would have done the exact same thing and so help it if someone had caused her to feel that way, he'd make them regret it. Rizdax could blame it on being an older brother as much as he wanted, really it was just who he was, no one messed with people that he cared about.

Which of course meant that he had to tell her so Shar, who was the same way, didn't go and take his pain out on someone else because she misunderstood. That would make him even more upset.

"No it's... it isn't that. This day is just painful, everything comes back no matter how much I try to distract myself from the memories. Even cleaning I can't really get rid of them entirely, so I wouldn't mind scrubbing the whole way to another continent if it meant I didn't have to see..." Riz trailed off before he embarrassed himself further by babbling and he covered his face with the sleeves of the jacket, making it look as though he were trying to wipe away tears for they were starting to come quicker as he spoke about it and broke his own rule.

Unfortunately he couldn't stop the shivering that was happening despite his best efforts and in the end he just turned his head back towards the wall way from her and wrapped both arms around his slim chest. Instantly his abused skin started to itch and burn like it was irritated but that paled in comparison to what was in his head.

Maybe it wouldn't have been the worst idea to let her believe that not Impressing had caused this sort of reaction in him, but he knew that would make her think he was weak as well and Rizdax couldn't bear that thought either. Not to mention it would be lying and he'd taught two kids for turns not to do exactly that. Just thinking that had his chest tighten up further and his eyes closed against it all as tightly as they could. He shouldn't have to feel this way just thinking about it, but lying to his best friend seemed so much worse to him.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Shar waited for a name, but instead she got a far more confusing answer. This day is just painful? Why? Everything comes back? Distract himself from the memories? As Riz trailed off Shar put her own mind to work, trying to think back to a year prior to give her a clue as to what he might be talking about. A few months ago was when the sickness had swept over the Weyr so it couldn't be that. He'd started classes nearly a year ago after he had healed up from the Threadfall that had hit his village and-

Oh. Oh.

Now she understood. This wasn't about bullying or not Impressing. This was about the reason he had come here in the first place. Losing his siblings to Thread.

Riz hadn't really talked much about it in the past year but Shar had gathered enough information to know that he had watched his brother perish in the same Threadfall that had given him his own scars. Shar didn't have any siblings so she couldn't know that sense of loss in the same way he did, but she did know if it had been her mother caught in the deadly stuff she would have remembered the day with sore memories.

She stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, trying to gather her thoughts to say something. Shar was good at problem solving and helping people find things they were good at, but in situations like this she was rather lost. She was rational and not very good at emotional problems, especially as one as volatile as this.

Letting out a little breath, Shar took a step forward to rest a hand on Rizdax's shoulder. This was how you comforted someone, right? She might not be able to offer the proper emotional support but she did know that distractions were key in times like this.

"Well...it's easier to be distracted when someone else is here, yeah? Let's get all this cleaning stuff picked up and put away and we'll just...talk. Or practice our lessons. Or something."

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Swallowing past the lump in his throat that seemed to be made up of his heart and some sort of pain he hadn't known was deep down in him until this moment. Until Shar put her hand on h is shoulder and his eyes were forced to look straight at hers. It was hard, knowing that there were still tears running down his face and streaks where old ones had been coming down before that. Both eyebrows pulling together and tilting up a bit, Rizdax's grief felt a new layer as he realized that his poor friend was feeling awkward in the face of it but still was willing to try and help him and he felt a rush of gratitude towards her, his first friend.

Reaching up with one hand, he placed it gently on her arm as if to push it down so she didn't have to try and comfort him in this way anymore. Not that he didn't want it deep down, but it would be too much and far too selfish to expect it from her when she should have been going to eat lunch. She was much smaller than even he was and worked just as hard as any grown dragon rider, it was part of why they were such good friends.

A feeling swamped him at her words and before he could stop himself his instinct had him reach out and hug her by way of showing his thanks and hiding his emotions all at once. "It's a lot easier when there's someone else, especially when it's a friend. Thank you for trying to help." he slacked up a bit in the hug so she could shove him off if she wanted or needed to. Riz wasn't exactly blind or stupid to how reserved she was and generally speaking he was the same way, but it was good to hug someone finally as he hadn't really done it in a long while.

Now he just had to hope that Shar wouldn't off and punch him for not letting go right away or for hugging her in the first place even! Never once had he seen anyone brave enough to do such a thing with her.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Boy, he looked a mess. Shar's nose wrinkled just a bit in sympathy as Riz looked at her, old tear tracks mixing with fresh as more pooled in his eyes. When emotions overtook her she generally got mad with the occasional sobfest occurring. It wasn't as if she didn't know how to cry or didn't understand the feelings that went with it, it was just something she didn't experience often and wasn't sure how to combat it.

...perhaps combat wasn't the right word. She needed to be understanding and soft in this moment, she told herself as Riz lifted a hand to rest on her arm in turn, either as comfort or to push her away remained to be seen. Her usual method of attacking whatever the problem was wasn't going to work in this situation. Her wrinkled nose turned into a mild frown as she continued to struggle internally, trying to suss out what exactly the best course of action would be to-

In an instant all thought process stopped. Slim but strong arms wrapped around her, squeezing her tightly in a hug that had both Candidates pressed together. Her eyes went wide with shock and surprise and she barely processed the words Riz had muffled into her shoulder before the tightness eased off a bit. It still felt like a vice had clamped around her mind, rendering her speechless and immobile at the gesture.

Carefully she shifted to step back, pulling away from Riz slowly so as not to make him think she was disgusted or angry. Hugs were perfectly normal ways of expressing thanks, gratitude, friendship, all sorts of things! And really, if she had been expecting it she wouldn't have been so shocked. There was a lot going on in her mind when it had happened and that certainly hadn't helped much.

"Yeah, well. Um. Anything I can do to help," she said, trying to recover from her sudden moment of freezing. "You shouldn't be alone on a day like today. So I'll stay with you. But we're not gonna clean the shafting floor anymore," she went on, finding her normal self returning the more she spoke.

"Don't have to eat if you're not hungry," she added, knowing that if Rizdax was going to be crying he probably wouldn't want to be seen in a huge group of people. She wouldn't want to be, anyway.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

For her to pull away wasn’t overly shocking, in fact he’d been expecting it and much worse all at the same time, so he more than understood and respected the motion. Had Rizdax been in his normal frame of mind he might have even hazarded a chuckle at the thunderstruck look that spread over her face as she pulled away, but he was far from normal. Which was saying something for the boy that didn’t fall under ‘normal’ as it was anyway.

Stuffing his hands down in the pockets of his oversized jacket, Riz looked at the floor in something close to embarrassment. His own emotions shouldn’t cause him to inconvenience one of his closest friends, arguably the closest one to him at all. Not only had he put her completely out of sorts but she had to be starving on top of it, late for lunch after working harder than at least two grown men twice her size, Shar never stopped going, it was how they’d become such good friends. That and her propensity to be caring deep under her somewhat stoic exterior, she simply expressed it differently and he really loved that part of her.

So there was shame in him, for causing that look on her face and throwing her guard off.

"You have to be hungry though, right?" Riz offered, his worry showing through his tone of voice even if his face was still a leaking mess. It would be stranger if he didn't worry in reality, as he spent so much time doing it. Had done so all his life in fact. "I can keep on..." He looked at the floor for a moment and thought better of using that as an excuse. "Cleaning something? Then we can meet up afterwards if you really want to be seen with a mess."

That at least pulled a laugh from him as he tried to rub away the evidence that marked him as such a colossal mess, but it was self deprecating all the same. Even if she was saying that she would stay with him he couldn't quite understand her reasoning for why since none of the other Candidates, both younger and older than himself, had just scoffed at him and left, something that he expected of them of course. To all of his fellow Candidates he likely looked like a weakling that was having a bad reaction to not Impressing at his first opportunity to stand and Riz wasn't going to tell people that he had barely gotten to know that it was something much darker. He hadn't even told Shar all that much and he trusted her completely.

"I'm sorry about, well, me." He said quietly, using his arms to gesture at his entire being as if he were a mistake.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Riz put some space between them thankfully, giving Shar some space to breathe. She could tell he was a bit ashamed for making her freeze up like that but she didn't comment on it. It would make the both of them feel even more abashed and that wasn't the point to this conversation. Maybe with enough hugs she'd at least get used to them so she wasn't so shell shocked when she did get them, but again. Not the point.

She shook her head, holding her ground as Rizdax offered to have her go eat while he stayed here to keep scrubbing. He'd get himself into a funk again and Shar felt like she had made at least a little progress in that respect and she wasn't about to lose whatever bit of ground she had managed to gain.

The moment Riz motioned to himself and apologize she was back to her old self. She reached out to slap his hand away from motioning to himself, whipping the hand up after to jab her finger in his face.

"Oh no, we're not going down that road. You're more than entitled to be sad today but you're not getting away with that whole pile of dragon dung. Don't ever apologize for being you. Ever. No matter what." She had stepped into his personal space as she spoke, her finger still in his face. If there was one thing that got to her it was when people felt the need to apologize for simply being themselves even at their worst. Her mother hadn't taught her many life lessons - most of them had been about dragons - but the one that had stuck with her the most had been to be unapologetically herself. If someone didn't like her at her worst they didn't deserve her at her best.

"Now, we're gonna clean up these supplies and go get some air outside. We've got some time before lunch is over, we can see how you're feeling in a bit." There wasn't any need to rush, she'd missed lunch before for one reason or another. Dinner wasn't far away and they could both double up on food then if they didn't make it to the meal now.

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Eyebrows pulling swiftly together and eyes crossing as his best friend not only took a step back but instantly took a step closer and got right up to him once more, Riz's gold eyes blinked a bit despite being crossed at the finger in his face and confusion spread through him. Though his hand had been smacked to the side he still had both of his arms out-spread and his nose crinkled a bit as he fought the urge to take a step backwards. Shar wasn't threatening to him, he knew her far better than that and wasn't at all afraid of her or her temper as Rizdax had never been foolish enough to do anything that might make her angry at him. Most of her ire was saved for those that slacked or didn't complete their duties to the satisfaction level of the Weyr, not just her own. Though sometimes her own if he was honest.

No, this girl was his best friend of all and he was completely comfortable around her, but he could tell that he'd made her at least a little upset and wasn't sure if it was the hug or the words he'd begun to speak until words began to come from her in return. It filled him with chagrin because deep down he knew she was correct, that he shouldn't feel that way or speak that way at all about himself, but it was a long time and many turns of neglect that had made him this way. Never enough, never meant to be enough since he'd always been trying to instill in two others that they were enough. Two others that were gone now which made him feel even worse than less, it made him feel like a failure of a human being that he was still alive and now standing in a Weyr.

Swallowing against the emotions just thinking about that rose in him, Riz nodded his head, "I know... I think. I'm sorry, I'll try not to." He put one hand on his chest as if to show her that he'd taken it to heart even if he knew full well that there was no way for him to right away. It was going to be some time before he could fully relax into accepting that his siblings were dead and that he wasn't the worst for it. Many turns and lots of cleaning if he had his way and in the end he would one way or another. "If you're okay with missing lunch possibly to help me, if you're sure, then I have no problem with it. Honestly I'd rather not... be alone anyway."

Just saying the words out loud came with a shuddering sigh and he looked at Shar with his eyebrows pulled tight together, wanting not to get on her nerves but at the same time happy, really happy, to have her company. Without thinking he reached out and started to grab the brooms and mops that the other candidates had left, expecting that he would take them back correctly. He really had always been the dad friend of them all, even now when he was upset he couldn't help himself from helping them and doing anything that they didn't want to.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Shar continued to glare at Rizdax as the boy attempted to calm her ruffled feathers. They had known one another for almost a full Turn now and she could tell when he was being sincere (which was all of the time, really), and she knew that he had taken her words to heart. That being said, she also knew it wasn't something that could be fixed with the snap of her fingers. Although she had never experienced loss like he had, she did know it was a process that could last ages. Sometimes it never really left. Hopefully once he Impressed and found his life partner things would be easier for him, but for now she'd have to do.

"Listen," she said as she moved to help him gather up the cleaning things. "I don't know all the details about what happened to you, but I know enough to tell you it wasn't your fault, all right? Thread doesn't care who it takes. Could be the strongest, smartest, most important person in the world or the smallest little blade of grass." She paused as she hoisted up a few empty buckets and brushes, leveling Riz with another stare. This one wasn't as intense as the last, although her brows were still furrowed. Shar had a gift of finding people's talents even if they were blind to them and could give a pep talk like no other, but adding emotions into things was difficult. Still, this wasn't something she could look at clinically. Rizdax was suffering and it wasn't a wound she could heal with some numbing paste.

"Everything happens for a reason. You're here now and you're gonna be a dragon rider some day and you're gonna save a Weyrfull of people. Families, thieves, politicians, drunkards...I know it's not gonna make up for what you lost, but at least know that they didn't die in vain. You're gonna save so many people, Riz. And every time Thread falls you'll ride out in your family's name to do them proud." She used her free hand to give his shoulder a hardy slap before grabbing the last of the brooms before Riz could. She tossed a smirk his way as if to say 'ha, beat you', and turned to head for the storage area.

"Come on. This stuff isn't going to put itself away."

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Hollow gold eyes stared at Shar out of Rizdax’s pale face, he would really need to do something like opening up to her someday when he didn’t feel like such as harding coward. If there were anyone on Pern that would listen to his story and his history and then not judge him for his foolish actions, for his pain and mistakes and for all the scars that he hid both physically and mentally, Shar was the one. She had always been the one, ever since the first day they met all those months ago in the Bowl and she hadn’t immediately taken him back to the Healers. This was the one person that had treated him like a person and not a broken person after all, acknowledged that he wasn’t completely broken at least, for he was a little broken.

It had gotten a bit better.

“Maybe... someday I can tell you. It would help at least, since you’d know I’m not just crazy for no reason.” Rizdax’s voice cracked and he laughed to cover it, ghostly memory-like pain flashing through the scars on his body as if he were receiving them all over again for simply remembering how they’d been traced onto him. The inner ones stayed silent mercifully. “Those are all the reasons I want to fight it, because it doesn’t care if it takes your entire world away, it’s just mindless and falls everywhere. No one deserves to have their everything taken away, if I can help, if there’s a way I can impress to a dragon and save someone else from being left all alone...”

Trailing off and looking away so he could swallow past the pain that had risen up inside of him, Riz realized how she’d worded that. Shar seemed completely sure of herself as she said that he would be a dragon rider, as if there wasn’t even a question of him not finding a partner or of his possible failure, something he always thought about. Since his childhood he’d always made what he needed to do, what he wanted to achieve, happen with hard and tireless work, but impressing to a dragon wasn’t something he could work hard towards and expect it to just happen. For once hard work couldn’t pay off, it could fail and he needed to learn how to accept that eventuality since he’d even watched Candidates age out since he’d come to High Reaches. Sure he had nine turns to fail, sure there was hard work to do in the meantime, ways he could pay the Weyr back without fighting thread, but he needed a plan for when he failed and was left dragonless but somehow alive after all the hatchlings. At least he had time.

Jumping when he noticed how she’d used his silence as an excuse to bundle up the rest of he brooms, Riz jerked to follow her always brisk pace with the few implements in his own arms. Thoughts of failure and his own likely stupid aspirations dashed from his mind at least for a moment. “Hey! How are you always that fast!” Rizdax yelled after his best friend.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Shar glanced over her shoulder as Rizdax called after her, a smirk still on her lips. She might not be the best shoulder to cry on in a time of need but she was good at offering distractions. She felt like this was a bit reminiscent of their first meeting when she had been lugging cleaning supplies off to some slackers although now it was a bit swapped as she was taking supplies away from a hard worker.

"So what did you think of your first Hatching?" she asked, changing the subject to something a bit lighter. They both hadn't found their dragon yet but she wasn't worried. They had some time yet left to Impress. She wanted to know what Riz had thought considering he was much older than the average Candidate to have their first Standing.

"It was actually pretty calm," she added, hopeful that he wasn't expecting others to be like that. "The scar on my forehead is from a Hatching a few Turns ago when one dragon went on a slashing spree. He was tearing up some poor girl who was barely old enough to Stand and I tried to get him off, but he turned on me instead."

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Setting his face into the grump set that it normally held he followed after her as if he could possibly stop her or grab any of them back. There was not a chance in all of Pern that he was going to get those cleaning supplies away from her though, he'd learned that the very first day that he'd met her. A warm feeling spread through him remembering that day, the first time he'd met her and the way she'd taken him around and shown him everything when she should have just grabbed his ear and drug him back. Any normal person would have, but Shar was no normal person and that was his favorite part about her, that she was cared for people but showed it in a different way than most would accept.

Stepping quickly to catch up to her, Riz let a smile drift across his face a bit in the memory of his first hatching, the feelings that he'd gotten and the joys that had been there. "It was great, really. I never expected it to be like that, I was expecting it to be like the hatching that had scarred your face really. Not exactly chaotic but not really that calm either. I got a decent amount of sunburn for spring too thanks to that beach, so hopefully this next one is in the evening." He winked cheekily. "I'm just really glad that no one got hurt this last time, I can't imagine what I'd do if there had been a violent hatchling. Probably tried to stop it and gotten kicked out for my efforts."

In no way did he think that Master Gr'del would kick him out for good just because he tried to save another person, but after that lecture and the whole knot thing he wasn't thrilled about the prospect either. So Shar had either gotten really lucky or it had been understood that she was helping and not hindering. Shar was a good person after all, far better than he ever expected to have in a friend, far more than he deserved.

Reaching out a hand to put on her shoulder but then thinking better of it just inches from it, Riz swallowed a bit, "That won't happen again, those scars on your face. I won't let them if I can help it." Rizdax's face was set sternly, he wouldn't accept her arguing though he knew full well that she wouldn't like that sort of response or any of those kind of actions on her behalf. But her feelings really didn't matter in this respect.

No one else was going to die in front of Rizdax if he could help it in any way at all and at least with Shar he stood close by her at the last Hatching, so he wasn't going anywhere during the next one. "There should be a Touching with this one, since it's at the Weyr though... right? I thought it was a little odd that it didn't happen last time but obviously that was a little weird and different than normal clutches I think. Looking forward to the entire experience this time!"

SilverLutz