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 Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:42 am
In the week following their flight from Malvren, O'thor and his half-sister Orlina had grown much closer. Her becoming a Candidate as he obtained his dragon had given them more in common, but it was the battle, the being thrown together by revolution, that had really sealed their new relationship. Orlina's fostermother and one fosterbrother had made it to Trine and their reunion had been tearful. Her fosterfather and her other brother were missing. O'thor knew Orlina hoped that wherever they were they were together and alive, but it was hard to try to remain so positive when she many had died. O'thor's wounds hadn't even healed yet, a reminder to how vicious the whers and their deranged handlers were.
Although her family was partially here, O'thor still found that Orlina made time to spend with him when she didn't have Candidacy lessons or chores. She came visiting in the Weyrling Barracks, caught up with them at the lake when he was bathing Adamanth, or any other number of run-ins. They had clearly left the indifferent "strangers" stage and O'thor found he was growing rather fond of her.
Considering he knew some of his fellow Weyrlings wouldn't be joining them and that he didn't know who had died at Malvren, O'thor took comfort in Orlina showing continued interest in rebuilding their relationship as siblings-- or at least as friends.
"What?"
O'thor refocused on his sister, whom he had been staring at as his thoughts led him. He felt the pulse of amusement and exasperation from Adamanth, and shook his head.
"Nothing," he replied to his sister before turning his attention back to their game, trying to determine what her move had been since he'd let his attention wander.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:05 am
One of the Trine Candidates had introduced this card game to Orlina and she had borrowed the set of cards to teach it to O'thor as well. It wasn't one of those gambling games, so the Candidatemaster couldn't be angry with the Candidates for having cards, so Orlina didn't worry about getting caught the way she sometimes-- a lot of times-- had to.
She laid down another card and looked up at O'thor expectantly to find him staring at her. It wasn't until she opened her mouth and spoke that she realized he was looking through her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Her brows knit in confusion, but she let it slide as he pondered his own options for the next round.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:41 am
It had only been a short time since Mercy and Aerith had arrived at Trine, in fact she had only just arrived and finished speaking with Narisa and Cepheith, that the Trine goldrider and her dragon had been so welcoming had gone a long way in soothing her fears over coming here. The dragons still had a place and it seemed that she would be allowed to continue helping the Weyrlings..so she had a place as well, even if it wasn't at the same place, even if so much had changed.
Before she could follow that thought through to its logical conclusion and begin to grieve over those who had been lost Mercy firmly pushed the thought away, while there was time to grieve over those lost she had set out right now to see if she could track down those who had lived. Narisa had said many Malvren survivors had made it to Trine - and she would in time try to find all of them, but right now she was most concerned about the younger member's the students that she had taught, such a terrible thing surely had to be harder on them then on many others.
'Adamanth is here' Aerith supplied as they went
'Did he speak to you? Have you talked to him?' Mercy asked, cheered at the news, she had been espechially worried about Adamanth and O'thor - the two of them had been the ones who allowed her and Aerith to escape and she had been fearing what had become of the pair ever since.
'No I see him' Aerith replied with an amused tone to her voice, nudging her rider with her muzzle in the right direction. Of course as soon as Aerith did so it was easy for Mercy to pick out the silver hide and if Adamanth was there then she assumed that O'thor couldn't be far and changed her path to stride in that direction.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:52 am
O'thor. Aerith arrives. She has come. Adamanth straightened from his slightly slouched position, stretching his neck to get a better glimpse of the White he was sure he had seen. Yes, there she was coming around the building.
What? O'thor looked away from the game, trying to spot Aerith or Mercy.
They come to us. Adamanth promptly ignored O'thor in favor of turning his attention to Aerith. Too many dragons here were unfamiliar and Adamanth had not yet had time to meet them all. However, old faces were known and welcome in a time of such uncertainty. Adamanth was sure it was the same for O'thor. Aerith, you did make it safely. When you were not already here when we arrived I worried that though you had escaped the battle you had not escaped with your lives.
O'thor heard his sister ask him what was wrong and only the faintly panicked tone in her voice tore his attention away from his surroundings. Of course she didn't know what was going on. O'thor could have hit himself.
However, before he could comment, he saw a large white form and turned his head again. Orlina, he could tell from her sudden movement, had seen them as well.
He rose to his feet as his sister went careening off. His leg still got stiff sometimes and he walked with a faint limp the healers had assured him would go away as he healed.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:00 am
Orlina waited patiently for O'thor to make his move, but when he abandoned his turn (again) to look around almost frantically (for him), Orlina felt the need to say something.
"O'thor, it's still your turn."
He didn't appear to hear her and she recognized the glazed look in his eyes. Adamanth was speaking to him or the other way around. His movements took on a more ominous notion in her mind and she felt her hands tremble faintly. She gripped her cards more tightly so they wouldn't fall.
"O'thor? What's wrong? What is it?"
Faranth, it could be anything. Orlina didn't even begin to hazard a guess. He looked at her then, as if he had forgotten she was there, but Orlina didn't have a chance to ask again or get grumpy about it. A dragon came into view. At first Orlina thought it was another one of the Weyrling Silvers, since it was so small and bright, but as O'thor turned to look and Orlina followed his gaze, she realized that the dragon was actually White. And there was only one White on Pern.
"Mercy!" Orlina cried out and scrambled to her feet, dropping her cards on the ground and running to greet the familiar rider. "Mercy!"
For a moment, Orlina thought she was going to cry. She was so pleased to see someone else she knew! The missing in her mind had all formed into one large ball of "Missing in Action" and she refused to think about them further. It was only now that Mercy had appeared that Orlina realized that she was really trying to keep herself from thinking about the possibility that they had died.
She threw her arms around Mercy in a hug when her feet finally carried her to the White rider.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:36 am
Mercy had barely made it around the building when someone was shouting her name and then Orlina was flinging herself forward in a hug that Mercy happily returned. "Orlina! I'm so glad to see you." She told the younger girl, hugging her tightly, indeed while Orlina wasn't one of her students quite yet - though she was sure she would be some day - she was none the less someone she had known and was glad to see. Looking up she saw O'thor limping towards her as well - the limp was worrying but she would take a limp over the other possibilities any day.
"O'thor, I was elated when Aerith told me Adamanth was here, I was so worried when we left the fight." Seeing the limp made her own gut gnaw with guilt, but in the back of her mind she knew that Aerith would have been killed if they had stayed - especially in light of Fick's words.
'Mine was afraid to come here - we did not know if it was safe so we healed elsewhere' Aerith responded to the silver 'I am glad that her fears were unfounded, the gold here has welcomed us and promised to find us suitable quarters..although by the looks of things it is quite crowded."
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:28 am
Adamanth rumbled quietly at Aerith's revelation. This is good. I am glad you are healed now. Trine has accepted us with open arms, the dragons share their space and their food. We must all stick together now that enemies have targeted us. They have made the right decision by allowing all of us to stay. We will make the Weyr strong.
"Adamanth told me that while I was unconscious he went to help you. We were waiting. I am sorry that not everyone chose the right side," O'thor said, remembering that Adamanth had thought he saw at least one of the Greens from their Clutch siding with the Revolutionaries, "But a lot of us made it here. We've been bunking with the Junior Weyrlings Trine has. Are you... going to be allowed to keep teaching us?"
They hadn't had a chance yet to meet Trine's Weyrlingmaster as a teacher rather than just their keeper, but Mercy had been good, in O'thor's opinion. It didn't seem fair that they had all been thrown from their homes and now she was going to lose her position. After all, Eirlyn hadn't let Aerith Fly Thread, because Whites were too small. O'thor didn't like to feel useless and he doubted anyone else felt differently.
Quite right, mine.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:33 am
It was a relief to feel Mercy hugging her back as tightly as Orlina was hugging. Mercy was a staple of Malvren. To not have her here hadn't born thinking on, but now Orlina didn't have to avoid thinking about it anymore! She kept her hold on Mercy as her brother came up and began conversing with her, turning to look at him with her arms still around Mercy's waist.
It was true that a good majority of riders and Weyrlings had made it to Trine, but there were some that hadn't. Orlina had noticed Candidates missing and wondered if they had stayed because they were sympathizers, or because they had been unable to make it to the Weyr. She disliked all of this negative thought. She wanted to put the revolution behind them, work hard, get a dragon, and when they were ready... take back their home.
"Oh! Mercy, you are going to still teach the Weyrlings, aren't you?" Orlina hadn't thought of that! When she became a Weyrling, she would love to learn from Mercy. Mercy would never be mean to them. She didn't know anything about this new Trine Weyrlingmaster, though she'd met the Candidatemaster a time or two already. They just had to let the Malvren assistant 'Masters still teach!
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:04 am
"He did" Mercy confirmed "If it wasn't for Adamanth I don't know if Aerith and I would have made it out." It had been a terrifying moment and not one that she ever wanted to relive again. "Ralla and Firith choose to fight on the Handlers side..I don't know what they were thinking but I'm not entirely surprised either, they were always trouble during lessons. Still I don't know what they hope to achieve, I doubt the Handlers are going to offer them any sort of respect, most of them hate Riders." Thankfully the subject then turned to something a bit more optimistic and She smiled. "Actually yes, Narisa the Jr. Weyrwomen here asked me to oversee the Weyrlings..make sure that they and their dragons were doing alright and continue on with lessons as much as we can. So I guess I'll be teaching you and the Jr Weyrlings from Trine as well."
Hopefully the weyrlings from Trine would take well enough to her methods - they should, she didn't think they were to drastically different from most and they were used to Atypicals..it was the eventual Benden descended Weyrlings she might have that worried her a little bit. Oh well..no point in worrying about those until she had to.
'Yes they have been very accommodating, mine is worried that the crowded conditions will cause problems...but what are those problems compared to what we have already gone through, surely we will all pull together now.' Aerith commented 'We will simply have to be patient with one another.'
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:06 am
Hopefully other dragons will be as clear-thinking as you, Aerith. Not everyone thinks in the proper way about this matter, but I will assist you with that goal as much as I can.
O'thor had spent a great deal of whatever free time he had considering why riders would side with handlers. Adamanth had told him of the Silver he had fought on Aerith's behalf, though the fight had now faded somewhat in his dragon's memory. "I'm glad she's let you keep your position. The other Weyrlings from Malvren will be glad to see you're back, too."
O'thor looked down at Orlina as she suddenly added, "The Trine Weyrlings are all right. There are a lot of atypicals here, though!"
"There are a lot of atypicals," O'thor agreed. "There's really only a few Greens and Blues from that Clutch and the rest ended up being atyps. One Silver, a few blacks and a few Crimsons. The Trine riders say it was because of the stress from Abigail not being conscious when Brakiath Rose. They're still small, so they're probably going to need extra help or time." O'thor remembered when Adamanth was small. He always managed his tasks, but sometimes it took a few tries for certain exercises. Having almost an entire class of that... well. It would require some extra planning on Mercy's part, he was sure. "I didn't know if anyone had told you yet, since you just landed."
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:25 am
Orlina just beamed as O'thor expressed his own relief at Mercy being allowed to keep teaching. It wouldn't be right to take that away from her. Mercy was nice to everyone. Trine was just going to love her.
When O'thor mentioned Malvren's Weyrlings being glad to see her, Orlina decided to contribute her own piece to the conversation.
"The Trine Weyrlings are all right. There are a lot of atypicals though!"
Orlina had noticed that when she befriended one of the Trine Weyrlings and she had taken Orlina and some of the other young Candidates around the Weyr to meet people and see where things were. Who knew how long those locations would remain as they were, but it was good to know for now. When they had met two or three Weyrligns and Orlina had noticed they were all atypicals, she had asked about it and been told that they would most likely be running into atypical Weyrlings because of the last Clutch.
"Trine's been nice to us, though. And not all of the people from Benden are bad. Some of the Candidates have been okay." And some of them.. weren't. Orlina didn't understand prejudice. Not liking atypicals, not liking people from Malvren despite their names being cleared from the murder... It didn't make sense to her. If everyone was just friendly and tried to be nice to one another things wouldn't have to be so complicated and the bad things that had been going on recently wouldn't happen.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:28 am
"Yes I somewhat recall that rumor going around about the last clutch, I imagine my first will just be something simple - so I can get to know them and see where they stand in terms of lessons." She mused, considering the information that they had shared with her. It was going to be double the work with the Weyrlings of two Weyr's to handle, and different age groups to boot.
'We will do fine mine' Aerith assured her rider before turning her attention back to her silver companion. 'I am sure they will come around in time, they have no choice - I don't foresee us returning to Malvren anytime soon, there are to few of us and to many of them...and Benden I'm sure is even worse.'
"Everyone will come around in time" She voiced, almost echoing Aerith's thoughts. "Maybe when they see the Atypical's fly thread some of them will come around more. In any case I haven't had much ofa chance to learn where anything is around here..I don't suppose the two of you would be up for giving me a tour?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:31 am
O'thor knew without looking at Orlina that she would want to, so he nodded. "Sure, we can give you a tour. We've been around enough to know where the most important buildings are."
O'thor looked pointedly at Orlina. "Right after we clean up our card game. Come on. I'll help to make it quick, but it's your deck."
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:34 am
A tour sounded like a great idea to Orlina. She was happy to help Mercy now that she was here, and she didn't want to let the White rider go just yet. She wanted to share what it had been like in the sevendays since she and O'thor had arrived, find out what had happened to Mercy at Malvren and let her know what had happened to Orlina and her brother in turn. Unlike O'thor, Orlina hadn't heard Adamanth's story except the brief version her brother had given her when she had asked if he knew if anyone else had made it out.
Before she had a chance to agree, O'thor took the opportunity from her (not that that mattered). His pointed look at her caused her to look sheepish and release Mercy.
"Right. Well, come on then!" she said to him. She smiled at Mercy and then jogged back to the cards, dropping to her knees and beginning to gather them up in handfuls. The more quickly she got them all, the less time they kept Mercy waiting.
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