Logs:The Shield
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| RL Date: 21 August, 2015 |
| Who: Hattie, E'dre, Elaruth, Wroth |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: A break between duties. |
| Where: Meadow, Ruatha River Hold |
| When: Day 8, Month 8, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: N'muir/Mentions, Dee/Mentions, Rhuvawn/Mentions, Euen/Mentions, Mimi/Mentions, Lilah/Mentions, Harriet/Mentions |
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| It's not so long since the sun was at its highest and strongest, and warmth continues to dominate the afternoon, skies clear and light breeze cool. Since arriving over the Hold and making a descent to one of the meadows edging the icy waters that spill through Ruatha River's land and to the ocean, Fort's Weyrwoman and once eldest daughter of the Hold has shucked her riding gear, hitched up her skirts, and chosen a spot along the riverbank from which to dangle her feet in the water. Elaruth has settled in the long grass, wings tilted so as to best catch the sunshine, content in the calm and quiet. "I used to come here with my sisters," Hattie murmurs, slanting a look towards her Weyrleader. E'dre's followed Hattie's idea and has removed his boots and rolled up his pants enough to protect them from getting too wet as he rests his feet into the cold water. He's got one leg pulled up against his chest, an arm tossed around it as he rests his chin on his knee. "You must've enjoyed spending time with them here," he answers, looking to the side and offering Hattie a smile. "At least I imagine you did. I'm sure none of you shoved each other in the water and tried to drown the other like brothers would've." Wroth has slunk down into the grasses, his sprawl lazy as he rests his head against a forearm. Elaruth is watched in a passive way. "No," Hattie confirms, the single syllable drawn out in a dry drawl. "Not that I can vouch for my brothers. Rhuvawn's always looked down on Euen... and the irony is that he's the one who turned out to be a massive fuck-up." She doesn't bother to censor herself there, a shrug not nearly an apology or attempt to excuse her words. The goldrider glances his way again and hazards, "...It's not going badly, is it? This... you and me... doing this." It's tentative, her assumptions not so secure there. "I mean, I don't want it to. Once... I don't know, the newness has worn off... I don't want us to be at each other's throats again." E'dre idly kicks his foot back and forth in the water, keeping his attention on the ripples his actions may create as he listens to Hattie. He grins at her lack of censorship, "Sometimes our family can turn out that way, I suppose." He releases his arm from around his leg and stretches his other foot out into the water. His hands position behind him as he eases back against them. He turns a frank look to Hattie, "Everything is going much better," he tells her, "and I greatly appreciate your help. Especially with the Holders. Ah- you know how I've been with them in the past." He lifts a shoulder in a shrug, "Do you think I've improved?" he queries before he gives her some reassurance, "I don't think we'll be at that point again. Things have changed. I've changed, certainly." "You certainly give me more cogent answers than 'I don't care' now," Hattie answers not without humour, yet not with so much as to make a mockery of him or her own response. "I think you have improved, but then I think you do care, when I wasn't sure of that at all before. Maybe that's what being the shield rather than having anyone to step behind or provide excuses does to a person." As though she must make it clear that she's not simply talking about him, she adds, "...I can't say that I cared much how people felt about me or what I asked them to do when I was a younger junior. I thought people should do as they were told and that was that; that they should do without question what I wanted them to." "I cared," E'dre replies with a shrug, his hand lifting to toss through his hair and push it off of his forehead. "I just didn't care in the way I should've." He turns a glance on her at the mention of a shield and seems thoughtful as he listens to the rest of her statement. "I don't want N'muir to feel like he has to take his knot back when I know it took a lot for him to be able to step back. I want him to be able to focus on his family and his health. I'm trying to lead by example and keep everyone on that same path, especially in Hematite." He moves to pluck a few strands of grass from the embankment and twirls them between his thumb and forefinger. "This time is different than the other times I've worn the knot. I won't be handing it back to N'muir in a month's time. I'll either be keeping it or passing it on to the next Weyrleader." The idea of 'the next' draws him to silence as he turns to stare at the river below. Hattie lets her gaze drift to and focus on the rushing water, her silence long enough that it could seem that she's not going to reply at all. However, eventually, she admits, "...I didn't want to be Weyrwoman without him," in a murmur. "After Elaruth's last flight... he was mentioning his age and wondering how long he could hold the knot for... and I didn't want to believe it and think of the decades between us, but I didn't want him to be Weyrleader for my sake either. Then... suddenly there was Harriet and... I think she decided both of us, one way or another." Her tiny smile is sad-edged. "But things don't always work out how you plan." She lapses into silence again before suggesting, "Maybe you should get to know the likely potentials, before they get into Dee's bleeding heart. As we know I don't have one, they won't work on me." E'dre continues to pluck and twirl grass, looking for the right type of blade. Once he's located it, he places the blade between his two thumbs and sets it against his mouth. An ear-splitting whistle is emitted. Wroth rumbles his disapproval from a distance and E'dre tosses Hattie a boyish smile that doesn't seem to fit with their current conversation. He flicks the grass into the river and returns to leaning on his hands. "It isn't quite the same without N'muir," he admits, looking almost sad as that boyish tilt to his features dissolves into seriousness. "He demanded respect. He earned it. His boots are very hard to fill." He looks to Hattie once more, something almost like anger in his gaze at her mention of 'likely potentials'. "The fact that grown men would think it wise to begin to manipulate a young girl like Dee for a knot they have no concept of.. makes me so angry. I was angry when I saw who was hanging around Lilah with thoughts of the same. It seems, somehow, so false. I don't know how I could sway Dee though, Hattie. Not in the way that she likely will want. I'm old, I'm short," he grins, trying to lighten the mood, "and I'm a brownrider. She'll want young and handsome - I'm handsome, but still - and a bronzerider." Hattie has a smirk in answer to E'dre's grin, though Elaruth has ducked away from the noise without voicing her own displeasure. "...As long as they get what they want for themselves, they won't care," she says softly. "Her youth makes it all the more abhorrent. I was older than she is when I Impressed, and I soon established a reputation that kept bronzeriders from trying to flatter and charm me. She doesn't have that, and she doesn't yet have the skill to understand the depths of manipulation these men will try. I don't think it's about swaying her... She needs educating, and fast, even if it hurts her." She lifts the very tips of her toes out of the water and absently watches them. "Be the best Weyrleader you can be, for as long as you can be. And if you go down the 'I'm a brownrider' path one more time, I am going to smack you silly." That she says as she lifts a mock glare his way. "Help me train her. If she only has a few months before they well and truly get their claws in, then it's all she has." E'dre pulls his feet out of the water and slides them up into the grass to allow them to dry. "I am only a brownrider and to not admit that may be folly. Some of the Holders may decide against me simply because of that fact. They don't really grasp the intricacies of our own politics, do they?" He brushes his hands off on his pants and sighs. "I don't know what I could do to help with Dee. I will do my best with whatever you may suggest. I will have patience I may not have allowed myself to have otherwise. Maybe the patience will be enough? One can hope." He stands then, stretching his arms overhead until he hears a satisfying pop from his shoulder. "Should we be moving on? I imagine you don't want to be away from Harriet that much longer." Wroth stirs in the distance and looks to Elaruth. « Are you ready to go on? » A polite query that is masked in the slightest thrum of a distant storm. Hattie slowly - reluctantly - draws her feet back from the water and immediately stands, to advance on E'dre like she really is going to smack some sense into him, yet the arm she swings towards him slows at the very last instant and becomes the innocence of a palm offered to clasp one of his and help him to his feet. "All right, then," she agrees. "But let's stop in on my sister and beg something to drink to take with us, or I might end up making pleas of relative strangers. I should have a few words with Mimi too, before we go." Her queen rolls over in the grass in a very unqueenly fashion, sprawling for a moment to let sunshine soak into as much hide as possible. « As we must, » Elaruth confirms with some borrowed wryness of her rider's. It's not so long before flasks are filled and familial duties are over, and Fort's Acting Weyrleaders are on their way. |
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