A Letter Home ((F'ren))

[Mello]

Who: R’nen and F’ren
What: Failing at writing a letter home
When: Evening
Where: Weyrling Barracks


R’nen sat out in the common area of the Weyrling barracks, staring at a blank piece of paper and willing words onto it. He hated writing. It wasn’t even just the actual physical task of it, although it was bad enough trying to make sure each letter looked right and trying to remember how to translate the sounds of speech into the individual letters. But he could put up with that, he supposed, if he really had to. It was just that even the words didn’t come to him. He couldn’t begin to write anything until he knew what he was trying to say, and he didn’t know how to even begin to put recent events in his life into words.

He wanted to tell his family about Olloth, let them know that he wasn’t just a silly dreamer or even a failure. He had succeeded, more than he had ever thought possible, and he wanted them to know too. The Weyrling reached out with his mind to the brown dragon, but he was asleep. R’nen smiled fondly, almost goofily. They had had a busy day, and the young dragon had been more than happy to curl up and go to sleep, although he had protested when he had realized that His wasn’t going to be joining him.

You need sleep too, the dragon had insisted firmly. Secretly, R’nen had agreed. He never seemed to get enough sleep these days, when every moment was filled with the wonderful tasks of caring for Olloth. But there were other things he needed to do, and he had put this one off long enough. He hadn’t written to his family for some time- since he had told them he was leaving Southern, and he wasn’t even really sure they had gotten that letter. So he forced himself to laugh. You just don’t want to be alone, he had teased the brown. There was a piece of truth in that, though- Olloth seemed to feel much more comfortable when His was in the room, and even better when R’nen was in contact with him, even if he was just placing a hand on his side. Not that R’nen minded. He would sleep next to the dragon every night if he could, but the more Olloth grew the less advisable that course of action seemed to be.

Olloth had sighed in an exaggerated, self-sacrificing manner, so R’nen just slid to the ground next to the dragon and absently rubbed his head until he fell asleep. It was so perfect, so peaceful and calm and absolutely more than he could ever have hoped for, that he nearly gave up on the letter again and stayed there next to the warm body of the perfect brown.

But he had been putting it off for too long, and so he had forced himself to stand up and make his way out to the common area. He still had a little bit before lights out, so he knew he should be able to finish before then. If he ever managed to get started… With a sigh and a groan of frustration, he leaned back in the chair, covering his face with his hands. Why was this whole writing thing so difficult?

[Kristin]

((Sorry for the short post. I‘m tiiiiiiiiiired))

F‘ren was bored. It didn‘t happen often that he had time to be bored, but now he was. Chores and lessons were finished, Eneth wasn‘t hungry, didn‘t need to be bathed and oiled and was currently sleeping. And it was too late to go to the beach so F‘ren had nothing to do. After thinking about what he could do to entertain himself he finally decided on just going to the common area of the weyrling barracks. Hopefully there would be something going on there or someone fun to talk to.

He smiled when the first thing he saw was R‘nen sitting by himself, groaning in frustration and covering his face with his hands. R‘nen looked like he could use a distraction and F‘ren hadn‘t had the chance to talk to him properly since R‘nen had impressed Olloth. He quickened his step in R‘nen‘s direction and came to stop behind the weyrling. He looped his arms around R‘nen‘s and kissed an uncovered spot on his cheek, in typical F‘ren fashion of not respecting people‘s personal space. „Hello my friend, you look like you could use some company. What are you doing?“ He let go of R‘nen and moved a chair to sit with him. „I never got around to congratulating you properly on impressing Olloth. Feels pretty amazing huh?“ F‘ren grinned from ear to ear. He didn‘t always care so much about other people‘s happiness, but R‘nen was different. F‘ren had been like R‘nen, a long time candidate, and therefore he had been truly happy for the boy when he impressed Olloth.

[Mello]

((No problem at all, I completely understand :-D ))

Lost in thought, R’nen had no idea anyone was even behind him until there were arms around him and a quick kiss on his cheek. In spite of himself, he let out a small cry of shock, covering his mouth almost as soon as he made it. Had he woken Olloth? He hadn’t been sleeping long… The weyrling reached out carefully with his mind, but the brown still seemed to be fast asleep, and R’nen let out a sigh of relief.

It was only then that he managed to turn his attention back to his companion- F’ren. He knew his cheeks were a little red from embarrassment at being so startled by his friend, but he still smiled genuinely to see him. With all his time devoted to the tasks needed to care for Olloth, it felt like it had been a long time since he had seen the bronze rider.

“I’m…” He glanced down at the still blank paper, sighing helplessly. “Trying to write a letter home. I thought I should explain…. about Olloth and everything.” With a slight laugh he showed the empty sheet to F’ren. “You can see how that is going though.” He put the paper back down. “I hate writing,” he added under his breath before deciding to put that particular problem aside for the moment.

“Thank you,” he said in response to F’ren’s congratulations. “Yeah, it feels…” And he was back to words. Why was it so difficult to describe this whole experience? Maybe if words came to him, instead of him having to drag each one out of his mind, he would have put more work into learning his letters. But what was the point? He would never be someone to write the stories and tales, even if he did enjoy hearing them so much. “It’s beyond words,” he finally concluded with a wide grin. “I never really thought all that time I spent hoping would be so worth it, but…” He laughed. “Well, Olloth is worth a lot more than a few turns of my life.”

[Kristin]

F‘ren smiled and shook his head at R‘nen‘s explanation. „Sorry, can‘t help you there. Never written a letter in my whole life, never had anyone to write to. Besides I don‘t know how to deal with family.“ Maybe he should consider this writing thing though. Let everyone back in Southern now that he had finally impressed a dragon and a bronze one at that! T‘rar who had so often rubbed it in F‘ren‘s face that he rode a blue, what would he say if he knew that F‘ren would outrank him in less than three months. He smirked, a letter wouldn‘t suffice. He would go with Eneth to Southern as soon as they were old enough to travel on their own, and let everyone see that he was no longer Faleren, but F‘ren of bronze Eneth.

He snapped back to reality, he hoped that it hadn‘t been obvious that his head had been somewhere else for a while. He didn‘t think that he‘d missed much of what R’nen said anyway. R‘nen was saying that something was beyond words so he was probably talking about being bonded to Olloth. „Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. No need to try to put it in words, except of course if you‘re going to try to explain it to your family. When did you last write to them by the way?“ F‘ren‘s attention was momentarily taken off R‘nen as he saw one of the more handsome male weyrlings walk by and he realized that he had forgotten his promise that he was going to help R‘nen lose his man-virginity.

„Shards, R‘nen! There‘s one bad thing about you being a weyrling now, we were going to find you a man! And now we can‘t because of those stupid rules about sex.“ F’ren’s face settled into a pout. Faranth! Those rules were stupid. F‘ren was near explosion point, it had been almost a year. A year! Besides, he‘d been really looking forward to going on a manhunt with R‘nen.

[Mello]

((Sorry if it seems a little off.... Been a bit of a long day))

R’nen could easily forget that the other boy had had such a different upbringing than him sometimes, but other times it was all too apparent. Not knowing how to deal with family? He could hardly imagine a life where that was even possible. He didn’t have a single memory of childhood without at least one other family member there. There were times when he hadn’t gotten along with his brothers and he had had his fair share of arguments with the girls, too, but he never would have lasted through his time there if he hadn’t been able to deal with them.

“Exactly,” he confirmed. “I’m beginning to think words aren’t even worth explaining it to them, though.” It would be easier to show them, but he was still a Weyrling, and he wanted them to know… somehow. He just didn’t want to have to write the letter. “I wrote to them before I left Southern,” he said slowly. “Not sure if they got it though. Before that… I don’t remember, really. I didn’t write all that often.” They hadn’t expected him to write all that often, luckily. None of them were all that good with reading or writing anyways- his father was great with numbers but equally terrible with letters and his brothers seemed to take after him. His mother was the one who had done all the letters, and after she was gone they just seemed to not be very important.

And then F’ren was distracted by something, and when R’nen turned to see what had caught his eye he realized it was another weyrling- a male weyrling, and a rather attractive one at that, if he was being honest. His face quickly turned red. Of course F’ren would turn back to that subject. When he turned back F’ren was pouting. For a moment R’nen just stared at him, then he found himself suddenly bursting out laughing. “Sorry,” he managed to say after a few moments. “It’s just… The best thing that’s ever happened to me and you’re thinking about the guys I can’t sleep with?” He paused with a grin on his face. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll find some way to keep reminding me about it the whole time anyways.”

[Kristin]

((Your post was fine, mine is a little off though :/ ))

F‘ren kept on pouting. „I know, I know. I guess a year of abstinence isn‘t that bad concerning the reward is a dragon. But just you wait, in six months you‘ll be just as anxious as I am.“ He looked at R‘nen gravely. „You‘re right, I won‘t, no, can‘t, just let this urgent matter rest for the next nine months. Trust me, I‘ll think of something to make the wait easier.“ He nodded seriously before winking at R‘nen and then laughing. „Aww, you know I‘m not being serious about this, I just like making you blush. That and it would have been fun to go man hunting with you, but I‘m not losing any sleep over this so don‘t worry. I‘m not going to do anything to get us on M’ma’s bad side.”

All right, back to more pressing matters. If F‘ren couldn‘t be of any use in R‘nen‘s love life, the least he could do was help him with his letter home. Even though he had no experience with this sort of stuff. „
All right, you‘ve postponed this letter stuff for three months. It‘s time you wrote something down. Just tell them that you‘ve impressed brown Olloth and it is super amazing and you love it here, especially because you have the most awesome friend in the Weyr.“ He clapped his hands together. „Get to work R‘nen dearest. And don‘t try too hard, you can tell them in person how it feels when Olloth is old enough.“ F‘ren really couldn‘t see why R‘nen hadn‘t managed to finish his letter before. To F‘ren, the task seemed simple enough. Write a few facts, send the letter on its way and forget about it.

[Mello]

R’nen laughed along with the other weyrling. “That’s good to know,” he replied with a grin. Part of him had been convinced F’ren wasn’t joking- sometimes he couldn’t tell when the other boy was just trying to ‘make him blush’ and when he was being serious. He didn’t think he would try to get him to do anything that would endanger Olloth, though, so he trusted that F’ren would leave that particular topic well enough alone for a while at least. Although once he graduated…. That was probably the one part of becoming a full rider that R’nen didn’t really want to experience. He had time, though, to enjoy Olloth growing up, and was determined to take full advantage of that.

F’ren had a way of making things seem much simpler than they really were. R’nen wished it was that easy to write the letter, but it never was. “I know I can just tell them the facts,” he said. “I’ve just… well, I hate writing letters. He sighed. “I was never all that good with my letters,” he admitted after a moment. “I guess I could just write down those things, but just thinking about trying to remember all those little letters makes me tired….” Part of R’nen knew that he would have to work on his reading and writing- after all, it was an important skill for a writer. But it had always been so difficult, and at home it had never been important. After a moment he laughed at himself. “Sorry,” he said, “I know I’m complaining a lot. I guess it’s just hard to prioritize writing a letter when it takes so much time and effort I could be putting towards Olloth.”

[Kristin]

Ah, so it seemed a big part of R‘nen‘s problem was the actual writing. Well F‘ren could easily help with that. He had known since he was six Turns old that he was going to be a bronze rider like his father. He had also decided when he was ten that he was going to be a Weyrleader. Bronze riders, and especially bronze riders of rank needed to be able to read and write well. Therefore it had been in F‘ren‘s best interest to master reading and writing. He was quite good at putting his thoughts down on paper, the skill hadn‘t come easily to him but F‘ren had practiced and practiced until he decided he had sufficient skill.

„Well fear not my darling! F‘ren is here, as always, to save the day!“ F‘ren puffed out his chest and grinned at R‘nen before going back to normal. „I‘m actually really good at writing, I can write for you if you like and you can just tell me what you want to say. Plus, my handwriting is beautiful if I do say so myself. I‘ve always been good with my hands.“ F‘ren took a moment to admire his hands, tanned and smooth, just the way he liked them. He frowned when he saw a little dirt under one of his nails and quickly removed it before looking up at R‘nen. „So what do you say? Want to enlist my hands?“ It didn‘t even occur to F‘ren that R‘nen would maybe prefer writing the letter himself. F‘ren always accepted help if it was offered, no sense in trying to do something yourself when it could be much easier with help.