Author's Note
I do not own the Dragonriders of Pern or anything else you recognise in this fic.
To Dragonsrule18, Jalenna definitely deserves her wine!
They were released from the infirmary (in Yariel's case, again), in the afternoon.
Just in time for chores.
Joys.
Wouldn't want to miss that.
Jurdree still made them do them and everything!
That seemed incredibly unfair and harsh, given that Yariel and Dorasa had killed two people that morning and Lily seemed ready to dissolve back into tears at any given moment.
"If I hear anything more about trouble from you two-" She glared warningly at Yariel and Dorasa. "I'm going to see you right out of this Weyr. If you kill anyone or anything else, that is it!"
"It's not our fault they keep dying!" Dorasa protested.
"And Princess Lilyen Adalicia Midnight did run right into her sword," Mia pointed out.
Lily only gave them a distrustful look.
Mia suspected she agreed with Jurdree's sentiments.
She didn't exactly blame her either.
Yariel and Dorasa could be a bit… extreme.
They weren't for everyone.
Heck, sometimes they weren't even for her, and she'd known them since she was eleven!
Mia suspected they had some sort of mental affliction from the constant quests, fights, kidnapping and trauma. It would explain a lot about them. A lot. Especially their leanings for extreme measures. And violence.
Almost certainly deliberately, Jurdree set them to work to clean up the corridor where Kingsley and Princess had died. The floor and walls were stained red by blood and charred black by flame.
Lily took one look, screamed, threw up in the bucket, and collapsed, shaking.
"Can you at least excuse her?" Mia asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Her white firelizard chirped crossly, since that was its usual perch.
"I don't think she's up for this right now."
"Very well. Kuyaran, take her back to the barracks and see to it she gets bed rest."
"Yes Jurdree."
That left the rest of them to start cleaning the mess in the corridor. Mia sighed as she scrubbed at the wall. "I still can't believe she actually burst into flame."
"They always do that when you stab them in the heart," Dorasa said unhelpfully.
"I wonder if monsters such as those even have hearts," Luna remarked.
"It wouldn't surprise me," Yariel muttered. His shoulders were shaking despite the usual strength and fitness Mia knew he had in him. "Demons don't care for anybody but themselves."
It took them two hours to clean the blood from the hall, and even then the burn marks from Princess Lilyen Adalicia Midnight remained.
They might always remain, a reminder of the evil that had once walked the halls of Sunspyre Weyr.
Arwen Raven Nightshade walked past as they were finally packing up. "Haven't you finished yet?"
"We have now," Dorasa snapped back.
Arwen snorted and shook her head. "I'm surprised they've let you stay all this time."
"What's that meant to mean?" Dorasa growled back.
"Well. People do seem to have a nasty habit of dying around you two, don't they?" She shot Mia a pointed look. "Are you sure you feel safe with them?"
"Never felt safer," Mia replied.
Arwen raised her eyebrows. "Bold choice."
"Says the girl with no friends," Dorasa snapped.
Arwen scowled. "I have friends. And at least mine aren't just my brother."
Dorasa opened her mouth. Mia kicked her in the shin. Hard. She closed her mouth again. Arwen smirked. "That's what I thought. Weirdos."
"One can fight with the ocean, but one can never beat it," Luna announced.
"And what's that meant to mean?"
"In a battle of wills with the wind, the wind will always succeed," Luna replied.
"Freak," muttered Arwen, shoving past them. She only made it a few steps before falling flat on her face. Mia sighed and looked at Yariel. He shrugged.
"Not me."
"I'm sure."
"Whatever," he muttered, striding away down the corridor. Mia huffed.
"Oh- Yariel!"
Dorasa caught her arm before she could follow and shook her head before hurrying after her brother. Mia looked at Luna.
"You want to go down to the beach for a bit?"
"In the end, nothing can stand against the power of the sea."
Why did she always end up with the bizarre ones?
Lily came to find Luna at the beach later on, taking her hand and eyeing Mia distrustfully.
"Yariel and Dorasa aren't here if that's what you're worried about."
"Oh, I know that. They're busy wrecking havoc in the girls' barracks."
Mia frowned. "They're doing what now?"
"See for yourself." Lily shook her head. "I never asked for this. I never asked for any of this!"
Luna smiled up at her. "Sometimes the universe gives us not what we want but what we need."
Lily smiled back. "Yeah, I guess it does. Comon."
Mia watched them leave and then decided she better check up on what was going on with Yariel and Dorasa.
There were several dents in the walls and furniture of the girls' barracks that certainly hadn't been there before, along with a large scorch mark in the centre of one wall.
Mia found Yariel and Dorasa in the centre of what had been their room.
Had been.
The furniture had been blown to pieces, as had almost everything else. One of the wooden separation walls was falling apart and the other had been blasted outwards, cracked and splintered. Ric, Sal, Glimmer and Marvel were fluttering around the devastation, their eyes whirling orange and yellow with anxiety and fear. The door refused to completely close behind her, the frame and hinges bent and cracked of shape. Yariel was huddled against Dorasa, his sword in one hand and hers laid across her lap.
"Do I want to ask?"
"Get out," Yariel growled.
"Yariel-"
"I said get out!"
"You know I'm here for you, right? You can talk to me."
He lifted his head. "You want me to talk? Fine then! Why is it always us two?"
Mia blinked. "What?"
"Why is it always us? Why are we always the ones that end up in the middle of stuff; why do we have to solve the problems? Why can't we just be normal?" His voice rose as he went on, his aura flaring up and glowing brilliant gold around him. "Why is it always 'Yariel save us, Yariel you are the Chosen One?' Why is it always us?"
"But there must-"
"Can't we just stop? Can't we live in peace? No; because we have to be some grand joke at fate's hand!"
Dorasa's silver aura flashed around them both, fluttering against the edges of Yariel's gold.
"I have to constantly worry if the next person I meet's going to stab me in the back or whether Dorasa's safe! I thought coming here was a good idea; I thought it would be different; I thought we'd be safe! But it's just more of the same!"
She'd never known he felt like that. Yariel had always been so strong, she'd never had reason to question his abilities or lifestyle.
"It'll get better," she said, but the words felt like lying.
"When?" Dorasa half-shouted, half-screamed.
"When one of us is dead? When the other's lost everything?" Yariel shouted.
"Why does it always have to be us?"
"I- I don't know," Mia admitted.
"Then what are you doing here?" Dorasa whispered.
"Because- Because you don't have to do it alone. You have me. You have people who care for you."
"More people to use against us," Yariel muttered bitterly.
"That's not true." Mia edged forward and knelt down, joining them on the floor. "That's not true. There are people who love you. It doesn't have to always be you. We're here for you; I'm here for you."
Somehow, the two of them fell asleep amidst the devastation. Glimmer and Sal landed on their shoulders, while Ric and Marvel took Mia as their perch as she cleared up as much of the damage as she could. Some of it, like the walls and beds, were irrepairable, but other stuff, largely the clothing and toiletries that had been secured at the bottom of their storage trunks, had avoided the destruction.
Sirena appeared as she was sorting the wreckage into two piles. "Do I want to ask?"
"See, that's what I said!"
Sirena glanced up and down the structural damage. "Jurdree's going to be peeved."
"Yeah, I get that impression too. But hey, they haven't killed anyone this time!"
"Yet."
"True."
Sirena gathered a selection of the wreckage in her arms to dump outside the room. "Are they- You've known them longer than I have. Have they always been like this?"
"It's gotten more intense as they've got older. And I've never seen them like this." Mia added an armful of wooden splinters to Sirena's pile. "I think it's just the pressure."
Sirena shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "I've never known a batch of candidate training like this time round."
Mia grinned. "Yeah, they do tend to have that effect. Life's never boring with them around at least."
"I wish it would be!"
As predicted, Jurdree was not happy. Nor was R'ton. Still, Mia had managed to clear most of the devastation before they saw it, and they set up furs and blankets on the floor to sleep amongst since they'd smashed up the beds.
Jurdree only shook her head. "Those two are more trouble than they're worth."
Mia wondered if she was the only one to see the look Luna gave the Headwoman a sharp look as she left the common room.
Jurdree fell down the stairs into the lower caverns five minutes after leaving the barracks.