Distractions

Writers: Devin, Len
Date Posted: 1st April 2011

Characters: Talryne, Ajina
Description: Talryne wants a quiet moment weaving but has to deal with an overemotional girl and her fire lizard
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 1, day 4 of Turn 6

Talryne

Talryne focused on her tapestry. The workroom was mostly empty, which
was the way she liked it. Even if her fellow weavers weren't chatting
(and when weren't they?), if there were lots of people around it
distracted her.

Just at that moment, distraction by the name of Ajina flew through the
door and all but ran up to the girl. "Oh, Talryne! Am I glad to see
you!" The small girl slid into the seat beside Talryne, throwing her
chestnut hair over her shoulder from where the mass had obscured her
vision. Overhead her green flit swacked and dived down to land on
Talryne's loom.

"Hi Ajina." Talryne watched the flit to make sure it wasn't going to
do any damage.

"So, I know you live with the Weyrleader and all." The young woman
leaned in to lower her voice. "Is this all true? Did the Weyrwoman
try to kill herself and her dragon?" Overhead the green flit
screeched, clearly upset at just the thought, and preceded to chew at
the warp on Talryne's loom.

Talryne reached up to shoo the firelizard away. "Yes, it's true."

"Why?" Ajina whispered. "Why would she do such a horrible thing?"

"I don't know, and N'vanik doesn't know either." She remembered waking
up in the middle of the night to the sound of him crying, holding him
while he asked questions she didn't have the answer to.

"How terrible! Nareen had said it was so but you know the way she
gossips...I had hoped this time she was just telling horrible lies."
The girl blinked back some tears, and her flit landed on her shoulder
to crooned at her and rub her head along the girl's cheek.

"She's getting help. From the mindhealers," Talryne said, trying to
focus on the tapestry. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about
Traelyn leaving. She felt sorry for N'vanik, and sorry for Traelyn,
but she also felt ... kind of relieved.

"Any word on her queen?" Ajina watched as her flit flew back to
Talryne's loom and began nibbling on the warp once more.

"Make her stop!" Talryne snapped. The last several days had been
stressful and the _last_ thing she needed was a firelizard ruining her
work.

All that did was make Ajina cry. She wasn't used to being spoken to
like that, and with the stress of the Weyr in the last few sevendays,
this was just the last straw for her.

"Don't ... don't cry." Talryne's tone was more alarmed than comforting.

She couldn't help it, she couldn't stop. It was if all the tension
she had been holding in came spilling out now. At least the girl did
try to shoo her flit away from the loom.

Talryne stood up. "I think maybe I should go."

"No, we're bothering you," the younger girl blubbered out. "Maybe I should go."

"I didn't mean to make you cry." Talryne backed away. There was no way
she was going to be able to concentrate on her tapestry now.

"It's okay, it's not you, it's this place and all the tension." The
girl did manage to get herself and her flit under control. "But look
at me, crying on you and making you run off when you've got way more
stress in your life than I could ever have."

Talryne stood where she was, not quite sure what to do. "Um ... I guess so."

"Your weaving looks nice," the girl said, trying awkwardly to change
the subject. At least, it had looked nice before her little green had
chewed the edge.

"It's got chew marks on it." Talryne felt herself tilting toward the
edge, ready to cry or scream. She'd worked for candlemarks on the
tapestry, and now it might be ruined.

"I'm sorry!" At that the girl sniffled even more.

Talryne needed to be somewhere quiet, where there weren't crying girls
or firelizards trying to eat her work. "I have to go." She turned
toward the door.

"Talryne? I'm sorry, I really am. What I wanted to ask you is if
you'd help me with this assignment I have with the Master. The one
about doing the complex design on the hand loom. I just can't get it
to do right without warping along the edges." The girl held up her
half finished loom, which was bending in along the edges.

Her nerves were frayed, but she _did_ like to feel useful. Talryne
stopped halfway to the door and turned back. She looked between her
chewed on tapestry and Ajina's hand loom. "Are you going to cry again?
I can't stand any more crying."

"No, no more crying." The small girl even managed a grin. If she
could keep her mind on her work, then she wouldn't have to dwell on
what had happened in the Weyr.

Talryne took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I can help you,
but you have to make sure your firelizard doesn't ruin any more of my
projects."

"Okay, I promise." To mak good that, she directed her flit out the
window to go sun herself.

"Let me take a closer look." Talryne held her hand out for the
project. Working on someone else's project might calm her down enough
to get back to her own.

Last updated on the April 27th 2011

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Distractions