Difference between revisions of "Logs:... but maybe home can come to you"

Someone - she could barely remember who - had provided Taikrin with suitable clothing for the post-Hatching celebration. So full of Szadath had her thoughts been that she accepted the smartly-woven brown sweater and well-cut black pants blindly, and by the time she'd thought to offer thanks the giver was long gone. Truthfully, she hadn't wanted to leave Szadath's sleeping side at all, but eventually memories of his ravenous hunger had inspired her own appetite enough to drive her after her fellow weyrling riders towards the Living Caverns and the awaiting feast.

The first few moments upon entering the festive caverns were likewise a fog: she could remember smiling dizzily at well-wishers, and smirking even more brightly at those who would scowl to see a criminal paired with such a fine, large brown. It was at the tail end of accepting congratulations from one of the former sort when ninety pounds of raw, squealing girl power slammed into her back and encircling arms near choked the breath from her lungs.

"/Taikrin Taikrin Taikrin/! We /saw/ it, we /saw/ it!" The dark-haired girl bore a strikingly resemblance to the new brownrider, one shared by the older teenager following behind her at a more sedate pace.

Taikrin turned, somehow, in a brief slackening of that grip, perhaps even more stunned now than ever. "What the bloody-- Laira? An'-- /Rinayla/?"

"You think we'd miss this?" Laira laughed, her calm, collected appearence belied by the giddy excitement in her voice as she, too, hugged her sister. "Bluerider Y'til showed up this morning to fetch us, and how could we say no? Ma would've come, but you know, the baby..." A hand briefly sketched out an arc across her own midsection. "But Riltan is here."

"But-- I didn't ask 'im t'get y'all 'r nothin', an' Ma said..." Taikrin, poleaxed, couldonly look from one girl to the other in helpless bafflement. "She said..."

"She didn't know you was sayin' the /truth/!" The younger girl piped in, arms still loosely encircling her eldest sister. "And you didn't even say /hello/ to me when you visited or bring me something from the Weyr or /anything/!" Apparently the lack of gift was the greatest offence in the littany, to judge from the downturned lips.

Laira approached, wrapping her own arms briefly around Taikrin. "She didn't. you know. She went on and on about how you were up to something, and about how Nessi's boy had come back from Crom with wild schemes and near got 'em all killed. When the rider came this morning, she..."

She pulled back, abruptly, then tugged both girls towards the nearest bench seats. "Come on, I'm sure you're /starving/ and here we are nattering away; you have to /tell/ us about it! What was it like? And-- and are you still Taikrin? It's not T'krin or something now, is it?"

Taikrin was content to be cajoled into a seat, and just as content to down a swig from the mug of klah shoved into her hand. "It was hot." That comment was enough to earn a groan from Rinayla, and a smack to the shoulder, but Taikrin pushed on with a gasping laugh.

"No, I mean it. It was hot, an' Saliqa was with me, an then-- it was cold. An' my head almost popped an' then Szadath was there an' he was so hungry, an' he was so perfect, an'... I don't know what happened t'Saliqa. He was so hungry, an' then /I/ was so hungry, an' then I was feedin' him and it was..." A faintly guilty expression quickly melted away into one of embarrasing amounts of joy. "Dunno. Right, I guess."

Neither girl spoke for a few moments afterwards: the awe in their faces communicated more clearly than words could convey. Eventually, though, Laira had the presence of mind to flag down a kind-faced kitchen worker and ask, softly, for some sort of dinner.

It was a bit of a nonsequiter, then, when Taikrin abruptly broke the silence with, "An' I don't reckon I /do/ get t'do the shortenin' 'cause I ain't a boy, which don't seem right t'me. If I'm good enough f'r a fightin' dragon I aughta be good enough f'r a fightin' name too.

Rioteous laughter, out of band with the actual magnitude of humor inherint in the statement, erupted from both younger girls.

"Oh Taikrin," Laira managed to choke out. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too! And we can we meet Szadath, and when can he bring you to visit us, and can I come and stay here with you, and can we go trundlebug hunting again?" Rinayla, hovering so close to adulthood, was for a moment the seven year old baby of the bunch again.

Taikrin slung an arm around the younger girl, pulling her tightly to her side. "He's sleepin', but I bet he really wants t'meet you, but it'll be a little bit I reckon 'til we can go flyin' around on our own." Dazed wonder shone once more from her eyes. "Not so long, though. An' maybe you can teach him how t'hunt trundlebugs. Reckon he'll like it."

A glance was shared with Laira over the head of the younger girl, bafflement and joy and disbelief all warring for dominance. "An' y'all can come see me whenever Ma'll let you. Ma too, maybe, if she flies straight.

"I ain't goin' anywhere. I won't leave you guys again. I promise."