Don't Ask

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 4th February 2006

Characters: Renner, Zanie
Description: Renner's good day with Zanie starts to go very wrong
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 3 of Turn 3

Renner was happy that he and Zanie could finally have a chance to get away from the Hall for a day. Sometimes he just had to get away, and if he couldn't do it alone, Zanie was the one person he was happy to spend the day with. He rowed along as she sat looking out at the waves, a companionable silence stretching between them, and Renner could genuinely say that so far, this was a _good_ day.

Notes were spread across Zanie's lap, and occasionally she glanced up at the coast line, comparing it to the scribbles in front of her. "It's been a while since they surveyed this coast, I think. Some people don't realize how much sand can shift in just a few years with the tide."

Renner smiled as he scanned the coast. "What is that old saying? Turns and tides wait for no one?"

"The tides certainly don't," Zanie replied absently, making another note. She pointed to the cove they were drifting past. "There used to be a giant sandbar over there that reached out and made a lagoon."

The journeyman looked along the shoreline at the sand washed up and washed away, the wave crashing into rocks that in a few thousand years would be no more than pebbles rolling in the sand. "Yes... isn't it amazing how easily water can destroy."

"Slowly and gently over time. Or suddenly and violently." She shivered lightly. "It's a little intimidating when you think about it." Renner gave a slightly sarcastic snort. "Just a little."

Zanie reached out to nudge him with her foot. "Be nice, Renner." "To the sea?" he asked as his eyes grew harder. "You can be nice to the sea all you want. It doesn't care and it's not always nice back."

She frowned. "I meant be nice to me. The sea can take care of herself, I think." "And just when was I mean to... forget it." He stroked a little harder as he took out his frustration into the oars instead of the girl.

"I'm sorry, Renner," Zanie said hesitantly, unsure what she'd done to upset him. In the time since Renner had warmed up to her, she'd almost forgotten that he was usually moody and silent. He still was with most other people--but she'd grown used to his quiet humour and his smiles. Renner rowed on in silence. He would not notice an uncomfortable silence with anyone else, but for some reason Zanie made him uneasily aware of it. "Where did you and the bluerider go yesterday?"

"A beach. We went swimming." Zanie looked back down at her notes, carefully sketching the shape of the new coastline now that the sandbar had disappeared. "Oh," he said simply as he looked back out at the sea. I remembered what had happened the last time he found her on the beach with a boy...

She could guess easily enough what he was thinking. "Do you think I should be acting like a good little craftbred girl and finding a husband?" Renner shrugged. "I think of you more as a crafter who is risking her career for men who can never marry her."

"What about your great love," Zanie retorted without thinking. "I don't see a wife waiting at home for you! But I suppose it's okay for _you_ to have romance without marriage. Just not me." His dark eyes grew as hard as the cliff the waves crashed against. "My love is dead," he hissed through clenched teeth, "and you know nothing! _Nothing_!" "How am I supposed to know anything if you don't _tell_ me?" Zanie replied sharply, her voice rising with frustration. He shook his head slowly. "The less you know about the world the better, Zanie. Don't ask."

Zanie couldn't imagine anything she would be better off not knowing.
Even the bad things served as a warning... and as someone who had spent her life wanting to know _everything_ about anything, the concept was impossible to understand. "I'm not a child, Renner! You can't just dodge the question by pretending I'm too young or silly or _female_ to understand!" "You're right, Zanie. I can only dodge the question by saying nothing at all." His eyes, cold as the winter winds that blew over the mountains far to the south, looked through her and onto the sea ahead. There were things that _no one_ could understand. It was best to keep those things to himself.

"Fine." She ignored him and went back to sketching the coast line, but she couldn't seem to hold her hand steady enough to make a straight line. She clung to her anger, because it was the only thing that was keeping her from crying. And she wouldn't let him see that.

Last updated on the February 4th 2006

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