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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:00 pm
T'rel was drunk. For the fourth time in his short, almost twenty one turn life, he was drunk. He had been reminded of Ky't. The new transfer, Lavi, reminded him so much of her... He missed Ky't. How could he run the Weyr without her? She was his constant. She had kept the gullible, silly man he was from drowning.
He was down in the Lower Caverns that evening. He didn't want common weyrfolk seeing him like this. Not in this state... He was supposed to be their leader. Especially in times of crisis. Especially in times when Thread could start falling at any point, and there was no way of telling when it would, or where it would fall next.
And suddenly, as he walked--there was Ky't. Ky't! She was alive? She was here! He nearly bumped into her, he was so excited to see her. He wrapped his arms around her and moved to kiss her--without realizing, the person he had actually attached himself to, was Lavi.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:33 pm
Her and T'nus were busy moving in, and Lavi had gone down to the Lower Caverns to see if there was something left for them to eat.
Lavi frequented the Lower Caverns late at night. There were less people around so it was much easier for her to deal with, and she had, once again, skipped dinner due to her social anxieties. Of course, she could always have had T'nus or someone else bring something up to her, but she hated to be a bother to anyone.
Humming sweetly to herself while she walked, Lavi was surprised to feel someone bump into the side of her.
"Sorr-!" she began to squeak, but surprise didn't even begin to cover her feeling of what happened to her next. Out of no where, arms were wrapping around her. For a moment she thought perhaps it was T'nus, but it did not take her long to identify him as the very man they had just met today: their Weyrleader!
He seemed drunk and had clearly mistaken her for someone else, unless he had an frightful idea of how to greet new transfers. Lavi had no particular phobia of being touched, but to have someone, out of nowhere..!! Sheer panic caused her mind to go blank momentarily, and she froze up at his touch. Alarm bells in her head went off so loudly that they managed to rouse the sleeping dragon from her weyr. Which, in turn, woke Azimuth.
Lavi wasn't even certain what was happening, or if this was just a bad dream, but she certainly had no idea how to respond. In a panic, she squeezed her eyes shut and called out, not even sure what she wanted, only that she needed her;
Xenith! Xenith! Help me!
What is it? What has happened, Mine?
Fortunately, just the sound of the dragon's crystal voice in her mind gave her the strength she needed to regain some of her exposure. With Xenith there, she felt like she could breath again. She no longer felt like she was frozen. Still squeezing her eyes tight -she was certain if she she met his eye, she would die from embarrassment- she put her hands up to her face to block T'rel from kissing her, and pushed him away.
As soon as he was off her, Lavi scrambled away like a frightened crawler. "W-w-w- w.w" she began to stutted.
Breath Lavi. Xenith instructed her.
"W-weyrleader, w-what are you doing?!"
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:54 pm
T'rel staggered backwards, clearly surprised at the reaction he received. "Ky't?" Why was Ky't acting this way? Wasn't she happy to see him? She'd been dead, but now she was alive! She was back--and then realization struck. Weyrleader? She'd never called him that before... And why'd she sound so frightened?
This wasn't Ky't. This was Lavi. He took a step back and stared at her for a long moment. "Sorry," he said, seeming sincerely apologetic. "I thought you were--K--someone else." Ky't was dead. How could he have tricked himself into believing she was alive? Even while drunk. "Sorry," he repeated. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked with drunken curiousity. He turned around though, without waiting for her to answer.
"I should get back to my weyr." Before he made another mistake.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:06 pm
In his weyr, T'nus unpacking some of his and Lavi's things, when he felt a stir of emotions
T'nus! T'nus! Azimuth's voice cried in his head. Xenith is in a panic. he crooned, his voice full of concern. He sounded highly distressed himself, but he continued as calmly as he could. Lavi is upset. Something about the weyrleader. he explained.
T'nus's hands tightened coldly. That weyrleader! Just what was his problem with them? Did he really hate Fort that much? Did he actually disapprove of them? T'nus could think of no other reason how they had managed to get off on such a bad foot. Well, that was fine! If the weyrleader wanted to hate him, he wouldn't complain, but the once he started including Lavi in this, he'd gone too far!
All protective instincts fired, T'nus ran all the way to the Lower Caverns, where Xenith said she thought Lavi was. Although he went in telling himself that he would be calm and carefully consider the situation, he took one look at the weyrleader, clearly drunk, and Lavi, close to tears, and decided he didn't need to hear the whole story. Instinct took over. Quickly closing the distance, he planted himself frimly between the weyrleader and his weyrmate and without a thought for the consequences, swung a punch at him (though, lucky for T'rel, his right arm was still injured, so he could only use his left)
"How dare you attack Lavi!" he hissed, livid.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:18 pm
T'rel wasn't at all expecting the attack. He had been planning on making his way to his Weyr and sleeping out his drunkenness. It took him a moment to even recognize T'nus, and once he had, he found a fist planted in his face--his cheek, to be specific. He staggered backwards and stared with wide brown eyes. He'd never been struck before.
"Attack Lavi? ...No," he managed, putting a hand to his cheek. There was no anger there. No attempt to fight back. Merely surprise. "I thought she was someone else," he muttered. "Didn't attack her..." He hadn't. At least, he hadn't meant to. She was so quiet and sweet--like his Ky't--he'd seen her and assumed Ky't was alive. It had been an honest mistake.
Still, he couldn't blame T'nus for being upset. "I'm going to my weyr," he added.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:37 am
T'nus stood panting, both from the run and from the adrenaline. He blinked, surprised. He didn't think it would be that easy. He had expected some kind of danger. His mind was in defense mode, but since he was reginstering no immediate threats, it jumped straight to Lavi and he wheeled around,
"Lavi! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine! I'm fine." she kept saying. He looked her over. She didn't seem to have come to any physical harm, although she was clearly rattled.
"What happened?" he asked. Lavi was in no state to answer, but Xenith, who had calmed down considerably, filled him in. He wheeled back on the the weyrleader and folded his arms, glaring. And was annoyed to find him trying to slink off again. He took a few steps forward, but didn't make any other move to stop him. As his head cleared, the usual, honorable and reasonable T'nus came back. He knew it was wrong to fight another dragonrider, and ten times worse to strike your superior. But that didn't mean the weyrleader was off the hook!
"Hey! Just where do you think you're going? Look, I'm sorry I hit you, but I don't care how drunk you are, or what rank. You should have to answer for you actions." T'nus said, annoyed and defensive, and a little bit apologetic. But mostly just confused. He still didn't have a straight story out of anyone.
"What exactly happened here?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:52 am
Tarel grimaced. "I told you," he said, frowning slightly. He wanted to go to bed. He didn't want to be seen--not like this. Not by his new transfers. They didn't seem to trust him, as it was. "I thought she was someone else. She reminded me of someone I used to know. Shards, I don't know..."
Why was it so hard for him to admit he hadn't known it was Lavi? That he'd thought she was someone else? Someone who had been dead a long time? Someone he saw in dreams; he still blamed himself for her death. "Shells, if I'd realized," he muttered aloud. "I'm sorry, Lavi," he added, vaguely glancing in her direction. He was a terrible Weyrleader. What they must think of him! Attacking women in the middle of the night...
"I saw Ky't," he explained with some finality. "I reacted. Was a mistake."
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 3:57 pm
Lavi was still out of it. Leaning on a table for support, her hands were shaking and her breath was still coming heavily, but her head began to clear. As before, the weyrleader's words washed over her, and she had heard them, but only now were they registering. "I thought you were K- someone else"
Didn't Ista's old weyrwoman's name begin with a K? Putting two and two together, she put a hand to her mouth and gasped.
"It was a mistake, T'nus, really!" she suddenly cried. "It was a mistake, he thought I was the weyrwoman."
T'nus didn't looked so sure, but at Lavi's insistence, he backed down. Lavi came over and put her hand on his arm.
When the weyrleader apologized, Lavi shook her head tearfully."I'm sorry!" she insisted. If only she'd explained things better earlier on, it never would have escalated this far. Why couldn't she just say the things she meant to? Why couldn't she ever be just a little bit brave.
Lavi leaned against T'nus and tightened her grip on his arm. T'nus put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.
"Are you alright?" he asked her again.
Lavi nodded. "T'nus, it was a mistake." she whispered into his chest. "He thought I was the weyrwoman, his weyrmate. He just misses her, it's not his fault, so please don't be mad at him."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:36 pm
T'rel waved Lavi's apology aside. "Don't be," he said. "It was my mistake." He glanced at T'nus apologetically before turning around, and heading towards the upper weyrs. He needed some klah--that'd help settle his mind, and prevent the headache he knew he'd be having in the morning. He had a wing to train.
He put a hand to his cheek and rubbed at the spot gently. Shards, T'nus could really pack a punch, couldn't he? He'd have a bruise in the morning. "Wing meeting's at sunhigh," he called over his shoulder. "Come early."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:52 pm
Lavi bit her lip. Her head was buzzing with all the things she wanted to say. She wanted to explain why she had over-reacted, she wanted to make sure T'rel knew she wasn't upset at him, she wanted to tell him not to be mad at T'nus, if she could just explain! Even so, she breathed a sigh of releif when the weyrleader finally turned his back. Every socially anxious fibre of her was crying just to go back to bed and erase the entire thing from her memory, but eventually her motherly instincts took over.
She grabbed T'nus by the arm and looked up. "T'nus, please! You have to go after him. He's upset and he's drunk. Someone has to make sure he makes it back to his weyr alright."
As always, her beseeching eyes cut right through him. Yeah, he did feel a little bad for the weyrleader. Besides, the way she said 'someone', he knew that if he refused, she would go by herself. "Will you be alright?"
"I'm fine. Xenith's coming to pick me up. Really, I'm fine." she insisted. Her face was burning red. "I just- I wish this wasn't so hard for me!" she whispered.
T'nus sighed. He could tell Lavi was already going to blame with whole thing on herself, the only thing he could do now was try to lessen her burden, and that meant... "Alright. I'll go check on him. I'll see you back at the weyr." He hugged her quickly, then turned and took off in the direction where T'rel was leaving. "Hey, weyrleader. Wait up!"
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 1:36 pm
T'rel paused, puzzled. T'nus was following him? Why? What had he done now? He knew he and the wingrider had gotten off on the wrong foot, but he wasn't sure how to repair that. Especially after that. Perhaps the weyrfolk of Fort had a bad opinion of Istans, he didn't know. He decided to ignore the man's call, and instead of stopping, quickened his pace.
He stumbled slightly and sighed. Maybe it would be better if he waited for T'nus. He crossed his arms and waited for the older man. For a moment, he seemed frightened, but quickly composed himself. "Yes? What is it?" He ran a hand through his blonde curls nervously. "Do you want directions to your weyr?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 1:42 pm
At first, it seemed like the weyrleader had no intention of waiting for him. T'nus had just started running to catch up, when T'rel stopped abruptly, T'nus almost ran into him. He stopped and backed up quickly. He caught the brief look of fear that crossed T'rel's face. Now he really felt bad. He seemed taken aback by the weyrleader's short words. "N-no, it's not that.."
He frowned, although it seemed more like a pout. "I already said I was sorry.. Look, I just wanted to make sure you made it back to your weyr alright."
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:34 am
"Why?" T'rel seemed to open up, his arms falling to his sides. He nodded after studying T'nus. He seemed to have decided he wouldn't be hit again, and so the older man's company was welcome. "Alright then. Zelith's waiting for me just outside."
He will not come. I do not like him.
"if you are coming, I suggest you take Azimuth. Zelith's not in a very good mood."
Mine, tell him I do not like him!
"Actually, maybe you should just stay away from him. Think he might have sat on some thistles or something. Or ate a bad wherry."
Zelith gave a rumble of displeasure. He hurt you, mine. Why do you trust him? Send Azimuth's away!
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:27 pm
Why? Did he really have to ask? T'nus opened his mouth to say it was to make sure he didn't assault any more girls on the way home, but at the last minute, he decided perhaps now wasn't the best time to be teasing him. He closed his mouth and nodded.
Did you catch all that, Azimuth? he asked, after he had relayed the conversation.
Azimuth grunted affirmative, but gave an indignant snort. I do not like Zelith's either, Mine. He is the one who upset Lavi. He is the one who caused Xenith to get in a fuss. He is the one who woke me in the middle of the night.
I'm sorry you were woken, Azimuth. T'nus said, through laugher. It sounded like that was what he was most upset about!
It is not your fault, Mine. Of course. I will come and pick you up, gladly.
Azimuth landed outside next to Zelith. And stooped when they came out, to give T'nus a leg up.
How's Lavi? he asked at once.
Xenith took her back to the weyr. She will be fine. She is sleeping, I hear.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:08 am
T'rel clambered onto his bronze with little difficulty. He was drunk, but Zelith's voice still sounded strong and clear in his mind. The bronze was instructing him what to do. "You shouldn't say things like that, Zellie," T'rel told him affectionately. "Your opinions of someone should stay private."
He hurt you. I do not like him. The entire Weyr must know this. I will tell them, if you ask me to, Mine. Yes, that is right, Mine. Tighten your grip. You cannot hurt me. I will not let you fall. Once satsified that his was safe, the bronze took off. He circled twice, seeming to want to show off his wingspan and skill to the older bronze, before making his way to their weyr.
You are safe, Mine. I would not let something happen to you. You are Mine, you are safe. The bronze only paused in his reassurances to his rider to glance at Azimuth. I am sorry for Mine's behavior. I am Zelith, and we will fight together. There is a good sunning place when the sun comes up. I will show you.
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