Fast Friends

Writers: AL, Heather
Date Posted: 12th June 2025

Characters: Meledei, Lyani
Description: Lyani invites herself to a spot on the beach beside Meledei
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 23 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Vandor

Lyani

Lyani couldn’t resist meeting a new person. She liked knowing people.
It fed the extrovert part of her that recharged its battery by being
out and about. Normally, she ambushed people in the Dining Cavern, but
this new goldrider was different. Lyani spotted her on the beach.

Throwing on a swimsuit and grabbing a towel, Lyani arrived beside of
Meledei on the beach with a bright smile.

“Mind if I sit?” she asked, holding her towel up.

“Of course not.” Meledei motioned to a spot beside her, turning her
face toward the woman. A smile was quick to appear and she nodded
politely. The face looked didn’t look at all familiar, and she was
among many things that was new and different at the Weyr she once
again called home. “I’m Meledei.”

Lyani unfurled her towel with a snap and a smile. “I’m Lyani.
Phyllameth is mine, although she’ll probably say it in reverse.” She
sat on the towel, her face shaded by a broad-brimmed sun hat. “Gossip
says you used to live here?”

“I did.” She nodded. When an earthquake destroyed Thayan Peak, she
and her father joined the others who migrated to Dolphin Cove. There,
they found sanctuary, a place to nurse the pain, both physical and
emotional, from the trauma. That had been a long time ago, and since
then, Dolphin Cove was wedged securely in her heart as her home. “I
served in the North for a while, but that term ended, so I came back.”

“Oh, the North,” Lyani said. “How was that? Are the dragonriders there
as stoically handsome as all the harper novels claim?”

“They’re about as handsome as the ones down here.” Meledei shrugged.
Men were men, no matter where one went. She had plenty who catered to
her, but she was under no illusion that it was because of any beauty
she possessed - the young woman knew better than that. Elleth was the
one who sparked the ambitions of those surrounding her, and thus far,
any attempts at romance fell flat. She had come to the conclusion
that she was simply an anomaly in the Dragonrider world and would
never have a romantic life partner. She, at least, had her dragon
life partner.

}:You don’t need anyone else.:{ The little gold crooned in her mind.

Meledei knew she was right. She didn’t need anyone else. It
just…would have been nice. “Are you originally from Dolphin Cove?”
Meledei had been gone long enough that many strange faces mingled with
the familiar ones. Lyani was only one among them.

“Oh no, I’m newish myself. I grew up at Far Island.” Lyani turned her
legs this way and that, trying to determine how much sun she was
getting before she would need to rotate. “I traded one beach for
another, but the nearby dolphins are a nice addition.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been to Far Island.” The goldrider had
travelled around, but never out there. “What’s it like? And how does
one beach differ from the other?”

“The sand is different,” Lyani said. “Far Island has a pink-ish hue to
its sand.” She reached out and ran her fingers through the Dolphin
Cove sand. “The powdery white is nice, though.” She thought about the
other questions. How did they differ? “Far Island certainly has a
safer reputation than Dolphin Cove. A lot of strange things have
happened here in the last Turn, haven’t they?”

That wiped any hint of a smile off Meledei’s face. Although
everything happened while she was gone, she couldn’t help but feel
concern for the Weyr that was truly her home. “Yeah, so I’ve heard.
I actually returned to hear about everything that happened. I wasn’t
here when they all happened.” And she wasn’t sure if she should count
herself lucky or not. Had she been there, could she have made a
difference?

“Do you feel… you know, _safe_, here?” Lyani asked genuinely.

“I do.” Maybe it was because Meledei hadn’t been physically present
when the attack happened. Maybe it was because she had returned after
the fact, a familiar face, and yet completely distanced from
everything.

The thought settled heavily in her stomach. Meledei had left several
years prior, and so much had changed. Her first days were spent in
exaltation at being back at her former Weyr, her original home as a
Dragonrider. However, every day, something reminded her that she’d
been gone for a long while, and even though some things remained the
same, so many other things had changed. “What about you?”

“I guess so,” Lyani shrugged. “Everyone I’ve met personally has been
great. No complaints. Like that healer, Vandor, have you _seen_ him.”
She speared Meledei with a sharp look. “There’s no way you haven’t.”

“I know Vandor. He transferred up North about the same time I did.
And we’ve returned within sevendays of each other.” Meledei laughed
softly and shook her head at the woman’s obviously smitten attitude.
Leaning back, she cupped her hands behind her and cradled her head in
them. “I take it you’ve _seen_ him too, hm?”

“Oh, yes. I’d like to see _more_ of him, but he’s a hard man to read.”
And that wasn’t something that Lyani normally struggled with -
understanding a man.

Meledei shrugged her shoulders. How many harper tales talked about
how difficult it was to understand women? She would beg to differ!
How difficult it was to understand men! “I’m not sure what you mean.
How is he hard to read?”

“He’s just default polite, but what’s _underneath_ that politeness?
That’s what I would like to know.” Lyani waggled her eyebrows.

Unable to hold back, Meledei giggled at Lyani’s suggestive expression.
Turning over, she lay upon her side and propped her head up with her
hand. Lyani was just like most weyrbred girls, and with a face that
was born to invite trouble. Meledei liked her, and she wasn’t about
to interfere with any object of the greenrider’s desire. Not that the
goldrider had any intentions to begin with. “So…does that mean you’re
going to try and find out?”

Lyani sighed dreamily. “I think I will.”

Last updated on the June 23rd 2025

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Fast Friends