Lothyna
Weyrling
Shadow Dancer
Posts: 194
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Post by Lothyna on Oct 4, 2010 20:55:18 GMT -5
Who: Selene, V’taph, and Veneth What: Finding a ‘Family’ and not letting go Where: Weyrbowl When: Mid-morning Warnings: Tear-jerkers?
Watching the golden globe of Ruhkbat rise above Pern, sparkling light off of mica flecks in the face of the Weyr and glint off of the ocean, a young girl sighed, eyes distant and somewhat spacey, blond hair curling in wisps at her side in the breeze off the water. Brown eyes trailing over the various ledges, weyrs, and facets of life to their new home, the young girl blinked, and then turned her attention to the bowl. She loved it, early in the day, when the dragons were waking alongside their riders and preparing for various tasks, hunts, or visits to other Weyrs and Holds. Her favorites were the big browns, reminding her of the two most important men in her life, and so varied, yet so very earthy.
She smiled faintly at the sight of a green preening her wings in the water, before glancing towards the infirmary area, where she knew several dragons were yet to recover from the Weyr Queen’s flight, and the sudden attack via a strange bronze. Clutching a stuffed brown fur dragon, modeled after her memories of the one brown she always looked for, Selene sighed, and turned back to looking about her new home. She’d only been here a year, nearly two, since she came with her creche-nanny, and while she loved it, every day showed her something new, and changes were still occurring as the Weyr grew.
While too young to stand as a candidate, she knew she was slotted for a chance when older, part of the reason they’d allowed the transfer, since Cerulean was still not at full strength, and she was grateful. Being at Silver Cove was too painful, and held too many bad memories. Here, though, she had fallen in love with the ocean and jungle, though she heard many lectures on the dangers. And the dolphins! She loved them, with their funny laughs, and playful nature. In fact, she was hoping to find a rider to take her there, since she had a day off from chores, and wanted a swim.
Skipping lightly to a brown that reminded her of the one she held in her hands, Selene made her way about it in a wide arc, looking hopefully about for it’s rider/partner. She’d been with a greenrider the last few times, and while the greens were darling, she couldn’t help her love of the great brown ones. Seeing an older man who looked familiar-all riders generally had the same build of sorts, from riding-Selene skipped closer, eyes bright and cheery. “Hello!” She chirped, voice high and sweet, before she froze, dropping her stuffed brown as the man turned.
She –knew- him, he was the one she’d cried on in childish fear before, the one who looked over the children and played with them, who had taught them their songs and lessons-the one she’d missed more than any. Toy forgotten in the dust, the tiny girl threw herself into the air straight at him, a word she’d never before dared say out loud tumbling from her lips. “Daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
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Kira
Cerulean Weyr Staff
Evil Mod of DOOM!!!!!
Posts: 266
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Post by Kira on Oct 4, 2010 22:35:20 GMT -5
V'taph had risen early, as was somewhat usual these days. Veneth had finally been released by the Healers the day before, gratefulness on both sides. Gratefulness to get him out of there, at least. He was not a very happy dragon when he was told he had to remain almost still for most of the day. The first few days it had been a game - a boring one, but hey. After that, he'd gotten cranky. Even V'taph's prodding that he was becoming a crotchety old man hadn't phased the small brown toward the end.
They still had to take it easy, though. The stitches had all come out, but the healed hide was still a bit fragile. Stretching it too much or going between was definitely out, so V'taph had planned some stuff to keep them on ground or in the water as much as possible. After getting him suitably fed, they'd decided to walk back to the Weyrbowl to get to the beachfront. Paddling out to one of those sandy not-quite-islands a little offshore was looking like a good idea.
"You, my friend, are in need of a bath." Urgh, don't remind me. I've been covered in mud and felt less unclean, was the grumbled response. V'taph just laughed heartily. Yes, his dragon and infirmaries did not mix.
Dodging their way amidst the few people running about between the morning and noon rushes, they were about halfway across the bowl when they heard a happy little voice behind them. One of the Weyrbrats? V'taph stopped and turned, plastering a polite little smile on his face. Veneth turned his head too, careful not to move anywhere else lest he accidentally bump the tiny youngling.
First, he caught her expression, which looked a bit like a runner spooked by flood-lanterns, and that she'd dropped her stuffed toy. The slightest of creases to his forehead was the only indication of the slight frown he wore mentally, not wanting to seem any more off-putting. But then...he vaguely recognized this one. Not from here. From...Benden? He was still solidifying that fact when the little waif threw herself at his legs and called him- WHAT?!
Thought process completely derailed, he just so of stood there for a moment. The child was, obviously, confused. He'd sired no children - of that he was certain. He wouldn't have minded, actually, but none of the women who had shared his furs in the past had ever become gravid. He'd made certain. Thankfully, the other half of his mind recovered a bit more easily than he did.
Hello again, little one, Veneth said pleasantly. He remember this child! She had...liked using him as a jungle-gym...right? He was fairly certain that was her, at least. But she was a nice one, he was sure of that. He expertly flicked his tail just slightly and nicked his silly rider upside the head. It wasn't hard, and would feel more like a hard flick or a gentle slap done by a human hand.
"Hey- ow!" V'taph glared at his highly-amused dragon for a moment before returning his attention to the child. "Ah...sweetheart, um...I'm not your daddy...you seem to be mistaken." He reached down and started trying to disentangle her from his legs. This was going to be a bit...awkward.
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Lothyna
Weyrling
Shadow Dancer
Posts: 194
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Post by Lothyna on Oct 5, 2010 13:18:08 GMT -5
As she clung with surprising strength to V’taphs legs in that brief moment before his dragon thwacked him which earned a bright giggle, Selene remembered the scent that lingered on his clothing, and cuddling on Veneth to listen to stories from the man she had, at least until today, quietly considered her father, even though he hadn’t sired her. But they both were brown riders, and Veneth she had adored-evidenced by the small plush toy in the ground behind her. Turning her head to look at the brown, she offered a bright smile to the dragon, eyes shining happily.
She could see, though, the marks on his hide where he’d been injured-she was guessing in the flight that Trith had led, which was not a happy memory, since they didn’t look like Thread-score. “Hi Veneth!” The bright voice was filled with happiness at the dragon actually speaking to her, and seconds after V’taph had started to lean down, she’d thrown herself to the dragon, hugging his foreleg, her face pressed against the soft skin she remembered well. He smelled the same to her too.
But V’taphs words made her tremble, and she turned her head against Veneth’s leg to look back at him, brown eyes determined but trembling, tiny hands gripping tightly (not that it would matter to the dragon) about the brown, much better than her plush toy she’d kept since Benden. “I know you’re not my sire.” She returned, still hoping. She hadn’t meant to say it, really, but it was how she thought of the man, “but…” She paused, and looked up at Veneth again, scrubbing her cheek as a tear fell at the thought that he might reject that, that maybe she should have kept quiet.
But it was so hard! She’d missed him so much! And for a child as sensitive as she was, and uprooted to Silver Cove, then here at Cerulean, she’d needed something stable, and when she saw him, again, well… Scrubbing another tear fiercely into Veneth’s soft hide, she bit a trembling lower lip, voice wavering with the fear that he would turn her away, despite the brown-she-adoreds recognition and welcome. “But.. that doesn’t mean.. that you can’t be.. aren’t… -my- -daddy-.” She whispered, mostly to Veneth’s leg.
“I thought of you as him…” She murmured, voice sad, and scrubbed a third tear away into the brown hide, before peering up with steady eyes, trying not to ry, at the big brown dragon. “M’sorry for crying on you Veneth. I missed you too.” And missed climbing on him, and curling under his wings for a nap on a warm ledge in the sun, and smelling his hide when she was allowed to clamber all over the rather patient brown.
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Kira
Cerulean Weyr Staff
Evil Mod of DOOM!!!!!
Posts: 266
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Post by Kira on Oct 14, 2010 1:29:42 GMT -5
((Physical manipulation of Selene approved by Lothy.))
Rather suddenly, the little one detached herself from him and took to clinging to Veneth instead. Well, that worked, he supposed. She seemed so happy to see them both, but that was just the way happy children worked, right?
...But then she started to tremble and grip at Veneth's foreleg. After the first sentence, she even began to cry! Oh shards, how- who- what- this was not good. He did register her words, but they were overlaid with a mild panic in his mind. Men begging for their lives he could handle; children crying because he'd hurt them he could not. Fix. It, was the angry response from his brown, eyes narrowed and glaring at him.
He just couldn't win, could he?
Thankfully Veneth was still partially on his side and draped a wing around them to shield them from any curious onlookers. Kneeling quickly, he made a few swift shushing noises, awkwardly reaching out for the girl. Carefully grabbing her around the waist, he gently pulled her back into his arms, turning her slightly so he could look at her. So that was it, then? She'd...thought of him that way? Staring down into those wide, dark eyes, he remembered her fully now. She'd only grown a little in the intervening years, the little sprite. "I know you. Selene..." he said softly, tapping her little nose. He knew her face well. She had always been around, begging for stories and rides, curling up next to Veneth for conversations V'taph couldn't hear - but he'd just figured she did that with most people. She was well-loved, as far as he knew, and quite missed when she had traveled with one of the nannies to- ...Silver Cove Weyr.
His grip on her tightened just a little. So this child had survived the horror of that place, and still been able to run to him smiling? How strong must she be, and how scared must she have been. Remembering the harsh trials of his own childhood, he closed his eyes tightly and leaned to place a tiny kiss on her forehead. "Don't worry, sweetling. I misunderstood you." He knew what it was like to be abandoned, to be unwanted. The reason he had always checked in on the women he'd bedded was so that no child of his own would ever have to feel that way. And now this little one, though not his, thought of him that way, and he'd almost turned her down in haste. Tucking her under his chin, he hugged her closer. "I'm sorry," he stated simply, no further explanation of the thoughts behind it.
Well, if she wanted to think of him that way...why not? He had found his own surrogate father in MasterHarper Cyril, and a surrogate mother in the Harper Hall Headwoman, Yanira. He could be that for this little one, right? ...Well, hopefully. He would try, at least. And hopefully he wouldn't screw it up. Apparently he'd unintentionally done a good job already? ...Well, barring this episode here, he supposed.
"You can...call me that...if you wish, then," he said slowly, and not a bit without awkwardness. "I am honored. I was just a bit confused, and thought that you were too." Backing out of the embrace, he angled at her one of his very rare genuine smiles. "Is that good for you?" Please let her have stopped crying, he thought quickly as his eyes refocused on her face.
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Lothyna
Weyrling
Shadow Dancer
Posts: 194
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Post by Lothyna on Oct 15, 2010 19:33:48 GMT -5
Waiting for a response was one of the most painful moments of her life so far, even comparable to being at Silver Cove, depending on the time. Her misery, though, at least seemed to not have to be prolonged, this time, though she could not hear Veneth speaking, she saw the wing start to move even as she found herself carefully pulled away from the brown. At first, she feared she was in trouble, seeing Veneth’s narrowed eyes, before she heard him trying to shush her. A brief memory tickled into her brain from before, times when she’d seen him almost panic over a child who was upset-though she never had before had cause to be around him, and a brief sniffle got her under control.
Then, though, Selene found her world shifting, bringing something new into focus, and it took her a few good moments to understand the words from his lips. Taking the opportunity, though, since she never passed up a chance to cuddle, the little nymph snuggled her way further into his arms, peering with one brown eye from behind her hair at him, briefly. Tucking her face back into his chest as she felt him thinking, Selene let the scent wash over her, and bring up memories again from before her moves, feeling some tension ease. Even if he said no, or left, she could remember right now.
As V’taph looked at her, though, Selene stared back, hope dawning in those warm, brown eyes, even as a tiny smile lit her face at his words. He remembered her! That was something, something to hold tight to her chest. Very few did in that manner, and she couldn’t help a small giggle, as he tapped her nose lightly. Happy turns at the corners of her mouth paused, though, when his grip tightened. “V’taph... what’s wrong…?” she whispered, afraid to break his concentration, or not gain an answer to her earlier statement. Why would he react so to seeing her?
Feeling the brush of his lips, though, Selene knew, instantly, that things would be ok, somehow, and melted happily from her tense stance to a loose, light hold on the brown-riders sleeve as she snuggled against him. He hadn’t understood? A tiny frown crinkled her forehead as she tried to work out what wasn’t to understand, though at his apology she gave it up, deciding it wasn’t important, since he seemed to regret scaring her so, though she still didn’t understand all his motives. That, though, was nothing compared to the brilliant glow a few seconds later as she threw her arms about V’taphs neck in a tight hug, eyes glowing happily at his admissions. She had a father! And his brown! And.. oh wait.
Blinking, Selene quickly loosened her grip to peer up at Veneth, eyes hopeful now, and tears dry. “Veneth…?” She asked, softly, one foot scuffing the earth in her simple brown boots, “Can he be my daddy?” She knew it meant the dragon would have to share, and she knew how close dragon and rider were. But that meant she had to know if the brown wanted her too, or at least was ok with her being around so often. Hands behind her back, she stared up at him, chewing on her lower lip as she waited.
Fortunately, with her mercurial mood change now that a dream, a wish, had been granted, Selene was once more tear-free, at least.
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