Apprehensions

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 26th April 2017

Characters: K'ran
Description: K'ran considers the most recent month of his Weyrleadership.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 10, day 18 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lenala, Rhosyn, Genna, Lanniya

K'ran

K'ran sat in his favorite chair, turning a small carved piece of wood over
and over in his hands. It was becoming a disturbingly common habit to be
still awake at the dead of night, worrying over the way things were going
at the Weyr.

Perhaps this was something that was common to all Weyrleaders, and he just
hadn't known about it before he had the job. Or perhaps it was something
that was novel to him. All he knew was that tonight, it seemed as though
the world was in a long holding pattern of suspense.

It felt like there were so many challenges facing River Bluff. Lenala was
still in the position of acting Weyrwoman, rather than Second. He didn't
know how she was holding up outside of the front she was putting on, as he
hadn't gotten close to her yet. Hopefully she had someone she could reach
out to, like the bronzerider she was seeing. Or a mindhealer if that was
needed. Unless they could get a new gold to transfer in to be her second,
he wasn't sure what could be done to lower her workload.

Really, Lenala was in an unfair position. She was acting as Weyrwoman
because Rhosyn was still off with her recovering dragon as they waited to
see if Orlaith would fly and go /between/ again. The role of a Second was
to step in when the senior was incapacitated. But usually there was
another gold or two to pick up the work. But right now, Lenala was
shouldering all of the work that multiple golds should be doing, because
there was no other goldrider to bolster her in the tasks.

And he'd heard rumors that Vilarth would rise soon. It was about her time
because she was a fairly regular gold, so other people who had been at
River Bluff longer said. And he'd heard she was exercising more authority
over the dragons. What was going to be the consequence of her flight on
whoever won it?

K'ran knew that when a senior gold was too old to rise, whoever rose next
took the mantle of the senior, and that there seemed to be an unconscious
draconic consensus about the transfer of power. Since Orlaith had been
gone so long, was Vilarth starting to shift into the senior position of
authority? What happened in situations like this?

If he was thinking about it, he was sure other people at the Weyr were. He
resolved to check the records and look for precedent. And he thought that
Lenala might be wondering the same thing. Which might account for some of
the stress on her. There wasn't another gold around to be a rival for the
spot if Vilarth wanted it...

And he knew why Lenala was the only gold right now. It wasn't just
Rhosyn's absence. It was the topic that he was trying to avoid thinking
about, because of how much it hurt his heart.

Genna. Specifically, the reasons for her absence from River Bluff.

K'ran missed her. When the Weyr Conclave had led to the completed gold
transfer among the junior golds, and Genna had arrived, he'd hoped it
would go well. That being in the same Weyr would resolve the tensions that
had been bubbling between them ever since he - well, since Rogueth - had
unexpectedly won Orlaith's flight. Without having to run back and forth
between each other's territories every time they wanted to see each other,
surely they could repair their relationship.

He'd known when she transferred that Lissath would be rising soon - after
all, they wanted the new clutch to replace Lanniya's. He hadn't expected
it to be just a sevenday after she arrived. When it had become obvious she
was going to rise right then, he'd hoped that Lissath's unfamiliarity with
all the other bronzes and the familiarity with Rogueth would sway the
flight in his favor. Even though Lissath had been frosty with his bronze
for a bit, he'd hoped...

And then the flight had gone wrong. He didn't know what had happened, just
that suddenly Lissath seemed out of Genna's control. She'd snapped at the
bronzes and dove down towards the ground, not leading them on a free chase
to choose the worthy, but almost like she was running _away_. While at a
low height, she'd blundered into the talons of a junior bronze just out of
weyrlinghood. The fall hadn't injured either dragon, but it had been so
short that it was obvious not much of a clutch would result.

It was obvious something had gone wrong and that she needed additional
training. Given Lenala's own history with a short disastrous flight, the
decision had been made to send Genna elsewhere for training, to a Weyr
with a specialist in flight-related mindhealing who could help her
recover. And as a part of that, he'd been encouraged to not see her for a
bit. Just so she could get her feet under herself and recover from the
flight, they'd said.

It seemed almost as if someone was blaming _him_ for what had happened-
if his and Genna's complicated feelings about each other had possibly
caused this...

K'ran knew why they'd advised it. But it still hurt, and he still missed her.

Missing her was probably why he felt so bad. That and what was going on
with the uncertain leadership. There were rational reasons for him to be
worrying. And yet it wasn't just a mild worry. It felt like a more
profound sense of apprehension about the days coming up. It felt like all
of the good days that had gone before was a moment of calm. Like it was a
breath of air before an unexpected storm that would break over them and
cause significant disaster.

And yet, not everything was a disaster. The new weyrlings were integrating
into the wings. No deaths had occurred at either of the last two
Threadfalls. His wing was running smoothly, and he hadn't gotten any
complaints from any of the other wingleaders about theirs. So at least the
side of the Weyr that it was his responsibility to see was running well.

He sighed and set down the carving. It was silly to be worrying about
things not being fine when there was no evidence of it. Nothing was going
to happen to the whole Weyr. He was just letting his imagination run away
with him.

They couldn't get a new goldrider in overnight. They didn't know what
Orlaith's prognosis would be. And as for what would happen when Lenala's
gold rose... there wasn't much he could do about that. It would all be on
Rogueth. And he was borrowing trouble by thinking about it now.

Last updated on the June 10th 2017

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