A Dragon Risks or Not

Writers: Len, Paula
Date Posted: 3rd October 2011

Characters: L'ris, J'nne
Description: Jayonne finds out why Layris is no longer in his classes
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 4, day 5 of Turn 6

"Hullo Jayonne," Layris greeted the harper journeyman, "Wanna klah?"
he asked with his laconic style, which often made people mistake him
for a slow-witted. His friends knew better. Layris rarely missed
anything and he was quite clever. He was working in the dining cavern
today, instead of the kitchen, where he spent most of his work-time.

"And when wouldn't I?" Jayonne teased, holding out his cup. "What are
you doing here and not in the harper rooms?" He had taught the boy on
the drum a while back.

"Haven't you heard? I'm officially an assistant cook now," Layris
replied with proud tone while he filled the cup.

"Really? Well, congratulations!" He clapped the boy on the back.
"How do you like it?"

"I got more talent for it than for harpering. S'yod-dad's pouting of
course, 'cause he wanted harper out of me, but Jedun-dad's happy,"
Layris said and slipped into to a free seat.

"Well, and it's about what you want, so S'yod will just have to
get over his bad old self, now won't he?" Jayonne smiled at the boy.
"So how long have you been doing it? I_did_sort of wonder why you
stopped coming to the drum classes."

"Few turns now, Oh boy, you really don't notice what's going on around
you, do you?" Layris asked. Of course, he was two turns younger than Jayonne, so
they weren't that close friends.

"I do!" Jayonne laughingly protested. "If you had a skirt and pretty
legs, maybe I would have noticed a bit sooner..."

Layris chuckled.

"Hey, drudge! Bring that klah here too!" someone called at Layris,with
impatient and arrogant tone. The boy's eyes flashed. He was not a
drudge.

"'S'cuse me, I'll be back, " he murmured to the harper. He got up and
walked sluggishly over to the rude rider, dragging his feet
deliberately. He even managed to spill the klah when he filled the
man's mug, keeping idiot look on his face.

Jayonne tried to protest when the boy left him to serve the idiot
rider. Looking directly at the man, he said, "manners, it's not a
bad thing y'know."

"Yeah, it's the little magic words, please and thank you," Layris said
too for the cussing rider who was wiping the klah off.

"I was more thinking 'get off your lazy arse and get it yourself',"
Jayonne added, taking in the slender stature of the rider. He was
pleased to note he was taller than the guy.

"That too," Layris said with deadpan face. He was shorted than either
one of them but probably out-weighted them. He was built sturdy and it
was all muscle.

The harper waved Layris back to him. The snotty little bluerider
didn't look like he was going to do anything more.

Layris returned to his seat. "Kind of fun, that was."

"Yeah well, I_do_wish some of these boys would realise that they are
no longer in their daddy's Hold." Jayonne sighed, well tired of
Holder attitudes.

"Or granddaddy's," Layris said, thinking of his own grandfather. He
was holder and Layris had only met him once, when he was around ten,
S'yod had taken him too see his mother-side kin. The old man didn't
want to know anything about his daughter's bastard. For him, Layris
did not exist. As far as Layris was concerned, they could keep their
hold and he didn't need them. All relatives he wanted and needed lived
in the Weyr.

Seeing the pensive look in the boy's eyes, and knowing a bit about his
history, Jayonne patted him on the shoulder. "Well, you belong here,
no doubt about that. So how are your dads doing? I haven't seen
S'yod around much lately, ever since Jaylene got her promotion." His
sister was a bit of a boy greenrider magnet, but has less time on her
hands now that she had been made K'sedel's 'third.

"Oh, they fine, as usual. Lately, they've been slobbering over each
other so much, it's almost embarrassing to watch. Like they were newly
mated instead of being weyrmates for nearly twenty Turns," Layris
replied.

"Nice..." There was a happy gleam in Jayonne's eye as he sat back
with that mental picture in hand. "It's always funny when parents out
embarrass their kids!"

"It's not," Layris muttered and poured himself a klah-cup too.

"It is! What I wouldn't give to see my da..." He glanced at the boy
and gave him a sad smile. "What I wouldn't see to see him teasing
J'lan. Any day that a parents can embarrass their child is a good
day." It meant they were both okay.

"Well, if you think of it from that point of view," Layris said with
slowly and thoughtfully. Perhaps his parents were so affectionate
because S'yod was a greenrider and every Fall could be the last one
for him.

"Yes indeed. Another good reason to have a craft and not a dragon."

"But I want to have a dragon, risks or no risks," Layris said.

"Do you?" Jayonne was surprised as the boy had never seemed all that
keen. "What colour do you have your hopes pinned on?"

"Well, that's the tough one. It probably isn't the green, I admire
your sister too much for that," Layris grinned leeringly. He was too
much a weyrbrat to be innocent anymore. "And I just can't see me as
bronzerider," he snorted self-ironically. "I mean it took me turns to
decide what craft to pick, how long it would take me to decide which
Thread Fighting pattern to use? So, it leaves brown or blue. I would
probably do well with both colours," he shrugged.

"Well there's a lot of Jaylene to admire," Jayonne teased. "And yeah
being on bronze would get old very quickly." He was thinking of the
attitude a lot of them took. Nodding thoughtfully, he added, "brown's
nice...I've always like them."

"Me too. Of course, dad's green would bit my head off he she heard me
say that," Layris grinned.

"Yeah well, she's a green. She'd forget what you said in a few days."
He grinned and winked.

"So true," Layris laughed.

Last updated on the December 16th 2011

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